Israel, Batman, and the Agents of Chaos

The following was originally written for a Moishe House Blog when I was resident of Moishe House Hoboken in 2009 with the title "I Am Batjew!". A subsequent, edited down version was later published in the New Jersey Jewish News on January 16, 2009 with the title "Israel, Batman, and the Agents of Chaos", but is no longer available online. I saved it here for posterity. 

Monday, January 5, 2009
I am Batjew!
By David Rosen

Anyone who knows me well enough, knows that I have an unusual, perhaps bordering on unhealthy, obsession with Batman. Being that 2008 was the year of The Dark Knight, you can probably guess that I had a pretty good time this summer. Ever since I was a kid, there has been something about Batman that has kept me hooked; toys, costumes, comics, movies, I did it all. As an adult now, I continue to immerse myself in the world of Batman; though for different reasons and in different ways. For example, how many of you have had your mother go to Israel and come home with a Batman mezuzah for you? (A mezuzah is a small piece of parchment inscribed with biblical passages that is put into a small box or container and affixed to door frames in Jewish homes). It’s still sitting in its package on my desk, but that’s beside the point. I mention all this, because as with most things that we carry with us from our childhood, the meaning and understanding of these things change as we grow and learn more about the world around us. When I was a child, Batman was a super-cool crime fighter, but not much else. As an adult, I still think he is the coolest crime fighter around, and I challenge anyone who disagrees with me. But in today's world, what he stands for has taken on a whole new meaning.

So why do I talk about Batman when I should be talking about my experience as an American Jew? It's because I've come to the realization recently that Israel and Batman have a lot in common. And in order to make sense of one, we can look to the other. Aside from both being created by Jews, which I’ll get back to in a second, they are both a single entity situated in an area surrounded by people with ambitions for power who will willingly and aggressively destroy those that seek to get in their way. It sounds like the typical plot to any superhero story. But in fact it's a reality...Israel's reality.

If you've seen this summer's hottest blockbuster, The Dark Knight, you'll understand what I'm about to talk about. If you haven't, then I will do my best to explain and hope you at least know a little about Batman. If you don't know who Batman is or think he's some guy with a nature show on the Discovery Channel, then I've probably lost you at this point anyway.

We start with Batman, the creation of a young, Jewish comic book writer and artist named Bob Kane, originally born Robert Kahn. Having witnessed his parents' murder as a child, Batman is a person with the drive and dedication to devote his life, body, and mind, to achieving a goal that he believes is just, protecting the people of Gotham city from dangerous people. He is someone with a strong and unyielding sense of moral obligation and direction, with enough fortitude to enable him to take on the challenge of ridding his city of evil - even though it will sometimes push him to the breaking point.

In it's short existence, Israel has had no choice but to devote itself to surviving in a hostile area surrounded by enemies. From just a day old, it's had to endure numerous wars and attacks all while trying to provide a safe place for Jews to live free from persecution. Through physical, political, and religious attacks, Israel has been bent. But it has never broken.

And then we have Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker. He is a man with no morals, no regard for human life, who performs horrific acts without reason or provocation. He is a man who kills people for his own amusement, who represents evil in all its aspects, who brings anarchy and terror to an entire population. He is a cold-blooded, mass-murdering sociopath, a sadist, and a self-described "agent of chaos."

I can probably compare the Joker to any one of Israel's numerous enemies. Take your pick: Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaida, Islamic Jihad...the list goes on and on. They all believe that there's nothing wrong with spilling innocent blood, be it Jewish, Christian, even Muslim, and will stop at nothing in order to accomplish their goals. They are ruthless, and have all used methods of terror and fear to try to achieve their ultimate objective of wiping Israel off the map.

Then we have the Joker's plan - to return Gotham back to the way it used to be before Batman arrived; a place where crime, corruption, and fear run rampant and unpunished. His solution - destroy the one thing that has given the citizens of Gotham hope, Batman. Sound familiar? That's because it’s the same goal as all the Arab governments and extremist organizations that want to destroy Israel. Their motives are solely based on senseless hatred and longing. They want to go back to the way the Middle East used to be before Israel become a country in 1948; an Arab controlled region, where theocracy and fundamentalism rule, instead of democracy and religious freedom. They loathe Israel and resent the fact that Jews have a place where they can be free.

To accomplish his plan, the Joker will not just simply attempt to kill Batman. He will use the media, press, fear, murder, and any other means necessary, to demonize Batman and convince the very city that Batman tries to protect to turn against him. The Joker's tactics involve killing innocent civilians and blaming their deaths on Batman. His plan ends up working and the public calls on Batman to give himself up because they believe it will stop the violence and threats of this terrorist, when in fact we all know that it won't.

Along the way, even Batman himself contemplates giving up his fight precisely because his actions are causing the deaths of Gotham citizens. But he is reminded that his existence must stand for something more than what can be brought down by the whims of a mad-man. He is reminded that when going up against evil, there will always be casualties and people will hate him for it. But it’s a sacrifice he must make to endure. For his very being is a symbol that the citizens of his city don't haven to be afraid of the people that make the world they live in a dangerous place.

In the end, you can say Batman emerges victorious, but all does not necessarily end well for him. Yes, he stops the Joker but he has no glory. In order to truly win, he has to sacrifice his image for the greater good of the people he seeks to protect because it's not about him. It's about the people of Gotham and being able to live in a city that is safe.

So why was it just necessary for me to rehash the entire movie to you? If it's not clear already, Israel is in the same predicament now as Batman was in The Dark Knight. Israel is trying to do what it thinks is right - fight for its people and survival in a time of extreme chaos. Lives will be lost. Lives will always be lost, both soldier and civilian, on both sides. But it must not waiver from what remains its ultimate goal - to bring peace and stability to the region and provide a safe environment in which its citizens can exist without fear.

While a large portion of the international community will attack Israel and urge them to stop its attacks, partly from only seeing innocent dead and injured Palestinians on TV, it continues on because it knows that it fights for the freedom of its people. It's not that Israel doesn't care about who is dying, it most certainly does. But Israel is fighting an unusual enemy - one with little regard for human life. One who will use any means necessary to turn the larger community against it, including using their own people as human shields. It leaves Israel with an agonizing moral dilemma: give up its fight for freedom so innocent people will stop dying, or continue on knowing that people will die, but only because its enemies have put it in that position.

In turn, Israel and its supporters must remember that this is a battle over morals and ideals, not just land. If Israel truly believes that what it fights for is right, then it must endure through the attacks of not just rifles and rockets, but also from the media and press, from outsiders who don’t understand what’s truly going on, and from a hostile world that generally resents its existence.

To some, Batman is just a comic book superhero. But he represents the difficult and unpopular choices that some must make when fighting against those who wish to destroy you. In times that are as difficult and complex as this, we can sometimes lose ourselves and our direction when trying to make sense of it all. All the moral questions that arise can sometimes lead us off course. Doesn’t Israel have a right to exist? If so, at what cost to its people and its image? And what about the collateral damage? What are we supposed to do when our enemies use human shields? Do we stay the course, or decide to abandon it because the expense of life is too great? These are all very difficult moral and ethical questions we must ask and deal with, and the answers are not clear cut.

But like all ancient myths and morality tales, we have our own versions of allegory that we may turn to figure out our moral dilemmas. That is what Batman and all superheroes exist as in today's world. They're not just drawings on a page anymore like the way they used to be. They exist to show us the way to combat the evil people in this world who will stop at nothing to accomplish their selfish goals. In this world, there are "some men who aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." They are the men who Batman has continued to fight against all these years. That is why Batman is and will remain such a powerful symbol. He shows us that sometimes there's nothing left we can do in the face of adversity except make the unpopular choice to do what we think is right; including making choices that no one else will face. Both Batman... and Israel.

I think I’ll go put up that mezuzah now. I'm Batjew!!!

The Destruction of My Temple

It has become well known around camp this summer that I go by the moniker “ShabBatman,” as a result of being the Jewish Program Director at Camp Chi and an avid Batman fan. What can I say? I love Batman. I also love going to movies, and I love going to the movies to see Batman. The movie theater is my personal temple; a place of innocence where I can go for a couple hours to get lost in a fantasy world brought to life. For me, and I'm sure many others this week, that temple was destroyed. As you can imagine, I was particularly disturbed by the news last week to hear about the terrible tragedy that occurred in Aurora, Colorado when an armed gunman walked into a crowded, midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” and opened fire on an innocent and unsuspecting crowd, killing 12 people – the youngest of which was a 6 year old girl - and injuring 59 others. I was at a midnight screening of the movie myself that night and I couldn’t help but think about what I would I have done had I been in that theater. Would I have been frozen in place by fear? Would I have tried to escape the theater as fast as possible? Would I have done the unselfish thing and tried to protect those around me from flying bullets? Would I have tried to be a hero and attempted to stop the gunman myself? Who knows? It’s impossible to say and I hope I never have the chance to find out. In the wake of such senseless violence it’s hard to get an even grip on reality and really know much of anything. 

This coming weekend, the Jewish people are going to be celebrating the holiday of Tisha B’av, which commemorates the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. Over the years, Tisha B’av - which gets its name from the date on which the event it remembers happened, the 9^th day of the month of Av -has also become a day that remembers many other terrible events that have befallen the Jewish people throughout our history. There is 3 week period leading up to the holiday that starts on the 17^th day of Tammuz that begins a sad and solemn time when more observant Jews refrain from public celebrations, weddings, and even eating meat. The actual day itself is a day of deep and intense mourning, practiced by observing a full 24 hour fast, reading from the Book of Lamentations - or Megilat Eichah - refraining from washing one’s body, and wearing leather; mirroring many of the practices observed on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.  

So what does Tisha B’av have to do with the so called, “Dark Knight Massacre?” One of the themes we discuss on Tisha B’av is the idea of Sin’at Chinam, or baseless hatred. It is one of the rabbinic explanations as to why the Temple was destroyed, that there was so much senseless hatred that Jews had towards each other at the time, that God punished the Jews by destroying the Temple. One of the more sickening parts of the shooting story I’ve seen this week have included various individuals who have tried to explain away the shooting for extraneous reasons, such as there must have been something that the victims did that made them deserve to die. I do not accept this. In fact, I flat out reject it. I reject any notion that says innocent people deserve to die or terrible events happen for a reason. I believe that these people died for the same reason that the Temple was destroyed over 2000 years ago - there are evil people in this world who do terrible things and commit senseless acts of violence. We will never understand it and cannot begin to try.

But all hope is not lost. If there is one thing I take away from this, and other terrible events that have occurred throughout history, is that in times of extreme situations and terrible circumstance, there is something in the human spirit that never loses hope. In the face of evil, good people will always pull together through acts of kindness and help each other get through difficult situations. Tikvah and chesed, or hope and kindness, are two central ideas in Judaism. Judaism says that G’milut Chasadim, or acts of kindness, are one of the three pillars on which the world stands and a mitzvah we are obligated to do as Jews. Judaism also teaches that hope is an important piece of the Jewish soul and anyone, for that matter, who experiences suffering. Hope is a theme that weaves itself throughout our history and has kept Jews alive through all sorts of trying times. The hope for freedom delivered us from slavery and sustained us in the desert until we reached the Promised Land; it kept us alive while we were in exile in Babylon and other foreign lands and yearned to return to our home; when all seemed lost for some in Nazi occupied Europe, hope and some small - but incredible - acts of kindness kept some people alive during the Holocaust. The 2000 year-old hope for a Jewish State inspired Theodore Herzl to start the Zionist Movement that eventually gave us the land of Israel and became the title (Hatikvah, The Hope) and overall theme of the Israeli national anthem.

In the immediate aftermath of the recent Batman shooting, one of my first thoughts was, “How could someone ever do something like this? How could this happen? What hope does humanity have when someone decides to shoot up a movie theatre for no reason?” But alas, hope is never lost. I’ve loved Batman my whole life. He is a reminder that a man who witnessed his parent’s senseless murder right in front of him didn’t give up on life. Instead, through extreme acts of kindness and selflessness, he set off on a life-long mission to rid his city of crime and inspire hope and good in the people of Gotham City. However, it’s hard for me to accept Batman as a hero in the wake of some of the stories that have come out about acts of real heroism; stories such as the 3 men who died shielding their girlfriends from gunfire or the young woman who in all the craziness threw herself on top of her friend and plugged a bullet hole in her neck with her finger which saved her friend’s life. I’m sure there are more stories of other heroic acts we have also yet to hear. It’s given me hope to see the outpouring of support from people all over the country who have sent their thoughts and prayers to the people of Aurora and to the victims and their families. But just when I thought there was no need to love Batman anymore in face of real heroes, in one extraordinary act of kindness, Batman himself, Christian Bale, made a surprise and unpublicized visit to Aurora to spend some private time with the recovering victims. After everything, this is what brought a tear to my eye. The actor who played Batman, without any obligation to do so, showed up to do his part. I can’t imagine the tremendous effect this had on the people he visited. If you have ever wondered what the value is in the mitzvah of Bikkur Cholim, or visiting the sick, this might forever be my prime example.

I’ve always believed in the power of superheroes to show us the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. It‘s the core element that has kept me attached to Batman, even in my adult years. In times of uncertainty, some people look to superheroes for help with working out our complex moral dealings. Likewise, in times of sadness, we look to Judaism for help with sorting out our sometimes complex feelings about humanity and human nature. In all, it’s a religion that values the sanctity of life above all other things, teaches us to always choose good over evil, and to always help out a fellow man in need. In times of tragedy, we have a choice of whether we want to focus on the good or the bad. Too often, as a society we focus on the bad. But no matter what, if you look hard enough, you will always find the good in people, the kindness that exists in the human heart, and the ever-present desire to never lose hope.

When we think about the events we will commemorate this Tisha B’av and of the past week, and the senseless hatred that does exist in the world, it can be hard to not lose hope sometimes. But whether it comes from fictional superheroes or real life ones, from the words of Anne Frank (of all people) who said, “in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart,” or per The Dark Knight which says “please keep your faith in people,” don’t ever lose hope in humanity. Shabbat Shalom!