rabbijaffe

Have you seen ABC’s hit new series Flash Forward?

Well, if not, this is the super exciting plot:

The entire world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During that brief moment earth is filled with massive destruction, everything from car and helicopter crashes, to people falling and hitting their heads, to buses driving into the river.

Also during those 2 minutes and 17 seconds every human being experiences a glimpse of the exact same moment of the future six months later. (Hence: “flash forward“, instead of flashback–witty, huh?)

Pretty decent plot. A solid attempt to capitalize on the incredible success of other shows which tell crazy stories over the course of tons of episodes, like Lost, 24, and Prison Break.

Now, in episode three they decided to reveal to the world the reason behind this mysterious 2 minutes and 17 seconds. An imprisoned Nazi War criminal explained how this amount of time, which is 137 seconds, is… the numerical equivalent (a system called “Gematria“) of the Hebrew word “Kabbalah”, which very loosely translates to Jewish mysticism.

Let’s check it out:

 Kuf = 100

 Bet = 2

 Lamed = 30

 Hay = 5

Voila! We have 137!!

Neat, ay?

Three thoughts (in no particular order) immediately came to mind when I watched this very awkward development unfold before my very eyes.

#1: What the heck!? Could someone in our generation really be this irresponsible? After thousands of years of people attacking Jewish people after someone very falsely accuses us of using devilish Kabbalistic black magic to harm or kill non-Jewish people, do we really need ABC to come along and express the possibility that this very same mysticism caused a fictional world-wide disaster? 

#2: What’s with the Jewish people? On occasion I kick back and watch some TV or movies. We represent approximately 1% of the American society, and somehow or other Jews or Judaism get mentioned every time I turn around. Whether it’s the tasteless ‘Family GOY’ episode of Family Guy, or a dishonest diamond dealer in the Sarah Connors Chronicles, or a religiously confused and curious Jewish FBI agent with a math genius brother (Numbers), I cannot pop my head into modern multi-media without seeing reflections of my own culture staring right at me. I can’t help but be mezmerized by this seemingly incomprehensible phenomenon. Why us?

#3: After the billionth time of noticing this, I’ve decided to start a new series of posts discussing how I feel each of the individual episodes are meant to make the Jewish people appear, and anything else that comes to mind about each episode. (I’m very open to suggestions and other people’s commentaries as well, by the way.)

So, back to Flash Forward:

My take is that a history savvy person recognizes that Nazis were tremendously knowledgable about Judaism. They gained this knowledge for the express purpose of being more formidable enemies of the Jewish people. Knowledge is power. The Nazis were also experts in manipulation and propoganda. They managed to stir up an entire society against a very innocent people, so successfully that the masses just ignored the fact that their Jewish neighbors were disappearing by the thousands.

So, immediately upon discovering that there was a worldwide tragedy, this unrepentant Nazi’s sick mind conjured up how this new information could be used to make more and more people despise the Jews.

The officer recognized this instantly and instead of asking further questions screamed at the Nazi for wasting their time with information that was clearly just useless blah-blah.

Everyone knows the Jews are imperfect (like everyone else). Everyone simultaneoulsy recognizes that with the faults that many of us might manifest, violent terrorism is just not a Jewish thing. A vague, silly Gematria shouldn’t change that.

* * *

And by the way, if I knew that on March 15th I was going to be murdered with three bullet shots to the chest that day… I’d probably wear a bullet proof vest.

I’m just saying…    

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