The temptation to read Judaism into pop culture is great. There is a popular Hebrew High School curiculum based on
South Park
, while our on site features the Torah from the Simpsons. And who can forget Harry Potter and the Torah?
But can the same be said for the Narnia series? It’s widely accepted that in
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
, Aslan the Lion is Christ (That whole sacrificing himself for the good of others, being killed, and then rising from the dead thing).
But MJL contributor Jay Michaelson recently wrote that perhaps the latest film in the series, Prince Caspian, has Jewish aspects to it, mostly in the form of interpretation
If belief is the Christian mode of myth-making, then interpretation is the dominant Jewish one. Kabbalah (the real, not the marketed, one) is largely about learning how to read texts and the text of the world. Allegory is central, as is allusion, symbol, and multivocality. They believe, but we read deeply.
If so, then perhaps Prince Caspian is a Jewish film, as well as a pagan-Catholic-Christian one. (MORE)
Kabbalah
Pronounced: kah-bah-LAH, sometimes kuh-BAHL-uh, Origin: Hebrew, Jewish mysticism.
