(From https://screenrant.com/superman-rebirth-clark-kent/)
Who Are We: Clark Kent or Superman? The Struggles of Jewish Identity Today©
Parsahat Vayishlach (December 14, 2019)
There was an under reported “Jewish” story this week that I want to share with you:
This week, Clark Kent came out of the closet…as Superman.
I know, you may think, how is this a Jewish story?
For those who don’t know, Superman has a surprisingly Jewish story.
Think about it - an alien comes to a foreign land, and he holds a secret that he can’t share with the world because it will scare them- his true identity.
Let me ask you something you may never have wondered: which one is the costume? The glasses of Clark Kent, or the cape of Superman? It’s not so clear is it.
The creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were the children of Jewish immigrants. The comic book industry, where they spent a significant portion of their young careers, was created in New York by Jews like Max Ginsburg, Bob Kahn, and Jacob Kurtzberg, who hid their ethnicity behind names like Gaines, Kane, and Kirby.
They were the children of immigrants in 1930’s New York - partially assimilated, speaking the language without an accent, but fully having that Jewish identity.
This story is a continuation that began during the European Haskalah, or Enlightenment movement after Jews were emancipated by Napoleon and allowed to enter into civil society. At that time, a phrase became popular, first coined by mid-nineteenth century the Russian maskil, Judah Leib Gordon: “Be a Jew in your home and a man in the street.” In short, it said that a Jew could only make his way as a “man” by concealing his Jewish identity when associating with his non‑Jewish neighbors.
How many of our ancestors changed our last names to sound less ethnic, and thank God they did, because where would the world be without the song White Christmas by Irving Berlin, who changed his name from Isidore Beilin.
But have things changed? Do we have to change our names to be accepted?
I will never forget a time when I had my Clark Kent glasses on, and no one knew my true identity. I was a 22 year old recent college graduate working at a non-Kosher steak house, and I was keeping kosher so I couldn’t eat any of the food. I was a server at a restaurant, not exactly what someone would say would be a job for a nice Jewish boy. I was waiting on a table, and the guy was really nice to me. He took out his credit card which was a Gator credit card, from the University of Florida. I said, “Hey, I went there too!” He said, with a thick Southern accent, “You’re a Gator, that’s great. I’m going to give you an extra tip for that! You know what I majored in? (long pause) Jewish engineering.” I did not understand what he was saying, I had a blank look on my face, and then he said, “you know, accounting!” and he let out a big guffaw. I chuckled uncomfortably not quite knowing what to do. But I realized, my mask was on, and he shared how he truly felt. I wasn’t a Jew to him, I was a good old boy just like him. I thought to myself, it is tempting to leave the mask on all the time, to be like everyone else.
Can we, like Superman and Clark Kent, merge our identities and be fully embraced? Can we be a Jew in the home and in the street?
Superman is often compared to Moses - both were placed in a basket of sorts and sent away, raised by strangers, not knowing their identity until they were older, and then becoming messianic figures. But now that the glasses are off, we have another person who is our Superman:
Yaakov, Jacob.
Both go through name changes - Clark to Superman, and back; Yakov to Israel.
Both share the final letters El, Kal El is Clark Kent, Isra-El is Jacob.
And both, as we see, wrestle with themselves to find out what their identity is.
Every super hero has an origin story, and this week, we read about Israel’s origin story.
I want us to read this short section together, about 10 verses: Chapter 32:23 - 33
In this portion, Jacob is about to be reunited with his brother Esau who twenty years early had threatened to kill him. He stays up all night wrestling with … a man, an angel, God, or perhaps his own conscience. In the end the man blesses Jacob and changes his name to Israel. The name literally means “wrestles with God.”
Interesting points - he separates his family - it's a way to show his identity being split into two.
He wrestles with a man - the man turns out to be divine, but think about this, aren’t we created in God’s image? The line between divine and human is often blurred in the Torah. Perhaps Jacob is wrestling with himself - within the word Yaakov is the word Ekev (עקב) which means one who deceives. Yaakov deceives his brother and father, but he has another side, his destiny to become the father of a people. Jacob is constantly caught in dualities. When he flees from Lavan and finally breaks from him, he encounters an angel and he names that place, Mahanaim, meaning, two camps. As we saw before, he splits his family into two camps before he meets with Eisav.
Is he the hero, or is he the trickster? Is he the man of the tents, the person who studies all day, or the person who confronts his demons and literally wrestles with them?
This struggle, the struggle between two identities, has always been our struggle as Jews, the descendants of Jacob. I will never forget going into an old poster store in Jerusalem. On the wall were posters used by the early Halutzim to recruit young Jews from Europe to join them in the holy land. The pictures were of muscled blond men and women with blue eyes, wearing white kibbutz hats, holding plowshares. This was not the shtetl Jew, but a new Jew who takes action, a Jew who will take his and her rightful place as equals amongst the parade of nations. The poster exuded the message, “No longer will we be stateless and powerless. Join us and leave your world of sitting in the cold tents of the yeshiva behind!” It is even in our choice of Jewish language - it used to be Yiddish, and now, it is Hebrew.
But interestingly enough, there are young secular Jews who are embracing Yiddish instead of Hebrew. Jews on the right who value extreme particularism wrestle with Jews on the left who see the world through the lens of universalism. Secular Jews struggle with Ultra-Orthodox Jews. Zionist Jews with ultra-liberal Jews. And so on.
I’m here to say that perhaps this is our destiny, not to be at peace, but to be in constant tension between the two worlds. Perhaps we are meant to constantly struggle between being a Jew in the home and a man in the street.
This week, Jews argued over whether we are a nation or a religion, and Jews argued emphatically on both sides, but perhaps the answer is both.
We are about to celebrate the holiday of Hanukah. The true story of Hanukah isn’t about the oil of the Temple, that’s the feel good easy part, who can disagree about doughnuts and fried foods? The true story of Hanukah was a struggle between Hellenistic Jews who wanted the Holy Temple to be like every other pagan Temple, and extremist rural Jews who wanted to Hellenism in Israel whatsoever. But the war was one when the center was created, and room was made for those who could temper their side through struggle, and embrace other Jews who thought differently than they thought.
How will we be fully embraced in society? We are living in interesting times. We are trying to figure out why there is so much anti-Semitism and at the same time, how we are the most admired religious group in the country. Some blame the Ultra-Orthodox who hide behind a different language, in a self-imposed ghetto. It’s because we are too secretive that makes people hate us. A new theory I saw this week relates to politics - there are too many Jews in politics. There are Jews who are too supportive of this administration, and Jews who are outwardly fighting this administration. If we would only just be quiet, it will all go away.
I believe both are wrong. We may never be fully embraced in society, but then again, who really is? The answer is finding a balance between the two.
Clark Kent revealing his secret identity, or Superman revealing his secret identity, will not solve his problems, but it is a statement that says, I will embrace the inner struggle of what it means to be who I am.
We are bound as Jews to struggle internally with who we are as individual Jews, and as a people. Let us embrace the struggle with beings divine and human, and may we all prevail.
Comments