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Spirituality in spandex: the Bible and Spider-Man
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BY: SIMCHA WEINSTEIN Special to the CJN
One very popular, web-slinging superhero is now swinging back into your friendly neighborhood multiplex.
In the third and latest installment of the Spider-Man movie franchise, everyone’s favorite arachnid hero is seduced by his shadow side.
Spidey’s costume has mysteriously changed from familiar blue and red to pitch black; in fact, the costume is actually an alien, shape-shifting symbiote that feeds on Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man), making him more aggressive and less inhibited. Intoxicated with ego, power and celebrity, not even a superhero like Spider-Man is able to resist the forces of darkness.
Things have come a long way since Bronx-born, Jewish comic-book pioneer Stan Lee conceived of the character of Spider-Man in 1962. Many believe that Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) gave his creation a somewhat Jewish world-view. After all, Peter Parker is a dark-haired, bespectacled, Woody Allen-esque nebbish burdened with stereotypical Jewish neuroses.
Peter Parker’s guilty feelings over his accidental role in the death of Uncle Ben (which we now find out may not even be true) has led to further talk of the character’s Jewishness.
Jewish author Michael Chabon (who co-scripted “Spider-Man 2”) claims that Spider-Man is “crypto Jewish: You know, living with Uncle Ben and Aunt May in Queens.” Sam Raimi, director of all three films, quips, “The only difference is that (Peter’s guilt) is caused by his uncle, not his mother.”
The great 13th-century Jewish scholar Nachmonides famously taught that “the actions of the fathers are a sign for the children.” Learning from the past is the secret to making the right decisions about the future.
According to the Talmud, people are born with two opposing impulses: the yetzer hatov, the impulse to do good, and the yetzer harah, the impulse to do evil. Jewish sages have noted that the yetzer harah is not completely evil, but more like a selfish impulse, which needs to be balanced with the yetzer hatov. Spider-Man’s strange new black suit and the feelings of unhealthy empowerment that come with it are clearly part of the yetzer harah.
Fortunately, Spidey’s Uncle Ben helped form our young superhero’s conscience from an early age. Sadly, villains Harry Osborn, Flint Marko and Eddie Brock were not blessed with such a role model. With all his incredible powers, it is only that innate, very human sense of decency that helps our hero ultimately resist the temptations of the dark side.
The Hebrew word teshuvah means “return.” Although often mistranslated as “repentance,” the word really means returning to the proper path of infinite potential. By letting go of our demons, we can embrace the greatest power of all, the power to forgive. Will Spider-Man display true heroism and banish his own demons in a spirit of forgiveness? The answer is at a cineplex near you.
Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is founder of the downtown Brooklyn Jewish Student Foundation and the author of Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero.
In the third and latest installment of the Spider-Man movie franchise, everyone’s favorite arachnid hero is seduced by his shadow side.
Spidey’s costume has mysteriously changed from familiar blue and red to pitch black; in fact, the costume is actually an alien, shape-shifting symbiote that feeds on Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man), making him more aggressive and less inhibited. Intoxicated with ego, power and celebrity, not even a superhero like Spider-Man is able to resist the forces of darkness.
Things have come a long way since Bronx-born, Jewish comic-book pioneer Stan Lee conceived of the character of Spider-Man in 1962. Many believe that Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) gave his creation a somewhat Jewish world-view. After all, Peter Parker is a dark-haired, bespectacled, Woody Allen-esque nebbish burdened with stereotypical Jewish neuroses.
Peter Parker’s guilty feelings over his accidental role in the death of Uncle Ben (which we now find out may not even be true) has led to further talk of the character’s Jewishness.
Jewish author Michael Chabon (who co-scripted “Spider-Man 2”) claims that Spider-Man is “crypto Jewish: You know, living with Uncle Ben and Aunt May in Queens.” Sam Raimi, director of all three films, quips, “The only difference is that (Peter’s guilt) is caused by his uncle, not his mother.”
The great 13th-century Jewish scholar Nachmonides famously taught that “the actions of the fathers are a sign for the children.” Learning from the past is the secret to making the right decisions about the future.
According to the Talmud, people are born with two opposing impulses: the yetzer hatov, the impulse to do good, and the yetzer harah, the impulse to do evil. Jewish sages have noted that the yetzer harah is not completely evil, but more like a selfish impulse, which needs to be balanced with the yetzer hatov. Spider-Man’s strange new black suit and the feelings of unhealthy empowerment that come with it are clearly part of the yetzer harah.
Fortunately, Spidey’s Uncle Ben helped form our young superhero’s conscience from an early age. Sadly, villains Harry Osborn, Flint Marko and Eddie Brock were not blessed with such a role model. With all his incredible powers, it is only that innate, very human sense of decency that helps our hero ultimately resist the temptations of the dark side.
The Hebrew word teshuvah means “return.” Although often mistranslated as “repentance,” the word really means returning to the proper path of infinite potential. By letting go of our demons, we can embrace the greatest power of all, the power to forgive. Will Spider-Man display true heroism and banish his own demons in a spirit of forgiveness? The answer is at a cineplex near you.
Rabbi Simcha Weinstein is founder of the downtown Brooklyn Jewish Student Foundation and the author of Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero.
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