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Javeed
8/28/2002
00:54:04
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 Subject: Ending (spoiler dont read if you haven't seen)
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Message:
Hi everyone,
I just saw the movie and thought it was great. It tapped into a alot of universal emotions about belief, faith, hatred and much more. I saw it with a friend of mine who's Jewish and he walked away with more of an experience than I did. I just wanted to ask someone if they could explain to me more of the ending of the movie.
From what I see, Danny went into the "nothingness" that lies at the heart of the Jewish belief system, but I could be totally wrong. Could anyone reply and explain what Jacob's ladder is and how the end scene relates to the entire movie.
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shai
8/28/2002
10:14:16
| RE: Ending (spoiler dont read if you haven't seen)
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Message:
No easy answer here! I'm pissed at Henry for setting up a serious misunderstanding. There is no "nothingness" at the heart of "the Jewish belief system" - a bad term as well. Here's a story: Rabbi Hillel, an older contemporary of Jesus, was asked by a mocking Roman soldier (they were prone to this) to explain the Torah while standing on one foot. The gentle Hillel answered, "What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That's the law, the rest is commentary. Go and study" I say the same to you. Jacob's ladder is in Genesis Chapter 28.
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xandra
9/03/2002
01:19:27
| RE: Ending (spoiler dont read if you haven't seen)
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Message:
I really took alot away from The Believer, but I also was a little confused by the ending. I too wondered if I was "missing" something because I am not Jewish. The description Javeed gave of Danny going into "nothingness" is exactly how I would have described my interpretation of the ending.
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shai
9/03/2002
10:30:34
| RE: Ending (spoiler dont read if you haven't seen)
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Message:
It might be helpful to you to read some of Henry Bean's remarks in the materials on this website. I'd caution you not to accept them as definitive statements of the Jewish position on anything.
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dboy
10/09/2002
18:11:04
| RE: Ending (spoiler dont read if you haven't seen)
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Message:
did danny wished to have an evidence that god exists?
when he was young, in the classroom, he provoked god (see flashback before the bomb explodes).
in the ending he can't reack the top of the ladder (where god is?) but he can't.
it could mean that even after his death he can get no answer.
[to shai: i'll go and read about jacob's ladder in chapter 28 of Genesis. i hope i'll understand something more).
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shai
10/10/2002
08:37:11
| RE: Ending (spoiler dont read if you haven't seen)
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Message:
Good boy, dboy. Once you've read Genesis, you will have even more questions. If you want to pursue your studies, contact me by email and I will steer you to additional sources. My reading of the end of the film -- Rav Zingesser says: There's nothing up there. But Danny knows better. Goethe says in Faust: "Wer immer strebend sich bemueht, den kannen wir erloesen. Whoever strives with all his might, him we can saved."
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