Being Jewish is wonderful . . . until you encounter folks who think otherwise or the Christmas lights are too blinding. OK, perhaps that is a bit enigmatic. But I cannot understand any other reason that Frank Capra would have hidden the Jewishness of Uncle Billy (and therefore also George Bailey).
Did you ever wonder why Uncle Billy always had a string tied to his finger? Seriously, who else will ask you this sort of probing question? And where else but CrossTalk will you find such profound answers? Uncle Billy was Jewish! Think about it, all the signs were there. They were bankers–everyone knows the Jews control the banks. Nephew George was willing to kill himself for money. But it was Uncle Billy’s idiosyncratic string tying that finally alerted me to our shared heritage.
Actually, the light bulb moment came to me this morning reading my Bible. The coffee cleared the cobwebs and Moses brought the clue to Capra’s hidden message. It’s all about keeping the Sabbath. Please read on for a brief caffeine-induced Weissmonization of the story as will soon be reported on Law & Order SVU:
- God brought the Children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. God parted the Red Sea & destroyed their enemies (read the 1st 15 chapters of Exodus or until you fall asleep).
- God led them to the Promised Land. Then God gave Moses a bunch of rules for the Children of Israel to follow immediately after they chickened out of entering the Promised Land because the inhabitants were very tall . . . and something about grasshoppers (read Exodus 16:1 to Numbers 13:33. Call me [BR-549] for CPR or more coffee midway through Leviticus).
- God hired Shakespeare’s lawyer to explain the punishment due anyone who intentionally broke His Law because God wanted to make sure that everyone understood the severity of ticking Him off on purpose. The lawyer crafted the penalty as follows: “Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him” (Numbers 15:31).
- Then I think God fired the lawyer and cleared it up Himself by explaining that if anybody broke the rules on purpose they would be killed till they were dead so it was understood to not break the rules on purpose.
- In the very next verse, some blunderbuss went out and gathered wood for a fire to heat up his Saturday morning coffee. The SVU (Sabbath Violator Unit) caught him dead-to-rights. The Sabbath police hauled the perp to Moses because they did not know what to do. The lawyer wrote up the report, “They found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day . . . and brought him unto Moses . . . they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him” (Numbers 15:32b-34).
- The ruling had been issued by the judge before the Sabbath-breaker ever had a chance to hire a good Jewish lawyer (by the way, my nephew David Lipschutz graduated from Law School–Mazel Tov David!).
- According to the report left by Moses, justice was swift. If the punishment fit the crime, let me just say we are all toast. “The Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones ” (Numbers 15:35). Legend has it that one bleeding-heart liberal, anti-death penalty, Hollywood-type was caught carrying signs and passing out nerf stones. We are not sure what happened to him, but we know the other guy died without his morning coffee next to a pile of bloody rocks and a cheering crowd of SVU fans (see verses 36b-39a).
Well there you have it. Uncle Billy was Jewish! Shalom. My coffee is cold. Got to go.
But alas, someone may have a defective Bible; my BR-549 cell might be busy; your dog ate verses 36b-39a; or just in case you didn’t have a Bible handy (or went comatose in Leviticus) I will post it: “(they) stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them” (Numbers 15:36b-39a).
Of course that text is the basis for wearing a Jewish prayer shawl (tallit). For my non-Jewish friends, it also clarifies what the woman with the issue of blood touched in Matthew 9:20. As we know, she was miraculously healed when she touched “the hem of his garment.” Jesus wore out a few Pharisees but He did not wear any Levis or have a hem in His trousers. The desperate woman touched His tzitzit—the fringes in the corners of the garment worn by observant Jews like Jesus. Shakespeare’s lunkhead lawyer was obviously hired to draft the sequel—THE BIBLE II.
Now you have the rest of the story. Uncle Billy was neither a Reform Jew nor was he an ultra-Orthodox Jew. The former might ignore the tallis entirely, while the latter would proudly let his tzitiz blow in the wind for all to see. Uncle Billy was a responsible Jewish banker. He was unwilling to offend the goyim of Bedford Falls. But he was also cognizant of his duty as a Jew. I would suggest he was a creative Conservative Jew trying to avoid driving any anti-Semitic customers over to Mr. Potter’s bank. He merely replaced the specific rule to wear fringes in the corners of his garment with a string tied to his finger to remember God’s Laws. It was quite obvious by my 3rd cup of coffee.
FYI—Jewish tradition suggests by wearing the prayer shawl, we “enwrap” ourselves in the 613 do’s and don’ts of Judaism. The physical construction of the fringes and knots on a tallis equate to 613. Therefore it is believed that by wearing our prayer shawl we are symbolically covering ourselves in the laws we were to obey. The Hebrew verb form of the word tallis, literally means “to enwrap” (l’tallel). Of course God’s command was not just to remember. It was also “to do all my commandments” (Numbers 15:40b).
In conclusion, permit me to close with a very brief poem to answer the 2 remaining questions on everyone’s mind.
- What happened to the firewood in the evidence tent?
- What happens if we break a rule like the caffeine-starved dead guy?
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Jesus offers for forgiveness.
I didn’t say it would rhyme. I said it was very brief.
Shalom for real.
Randy Weiss www.crosstalk.org
2 responses so far ↓
1 Dee Bratcher // Feb 25, 2010 at 10:06 am
Love today’s humor…and enjoyed the poem except the word FOR is repeated as a typo I think…. (sorry). I LOVE that movie – and for some reason, I’ve always thought Uncle Billy and his brother (George’s father) were Jewish, too! {And, so, of course, George would be 2}
I want to know this – how does a modern-day Jew deal with obeying those 632 (?) “laws” today, when no one has ever been able to keep even the Big 10???? What are they looking for when they look for their Messiah?
Thanks & hold the caffeine, you’ve had enough for us all….. haha
2 admin // Mar 5, 2010 at 11:22 am
The old saying is true, “It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.” The way we deal with it is to break the law. Then we fast and pray in the hopes of securing forgiveness.
The traditional view of the Messiah is usually that of a human deliverer.
Of course Christianity presumes forgiveness is certain through the atonement found in Jesus. Likewise, the divinity of Jesus is a fundamental belief of the Church and we look for the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah.
Jews and Christians read much of the same literature but reach different conclusions. However, got to love us.
Randy
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