Doorposts as a Place of Decision

I've become very intrigued by the symbol of the DOORPOST in the Torah, for it appears to be a symbol of both freedom and servitude. At the doorpost (during the Ten Plagues), we mark our doorpost so that the angel of death will pass over us. At the doorpost (both outside and inside a dwelling) we are to fix a mezzuzah, which contains a passage of Torah scroll which contains a promise to God. And now, in this week's Torah portion, (Mishpatim; Exodus 21:9-24:15) we learn that this is where a slave who doesn't want to be free must proclaim his loyalty and servitude to his master while standing under a doorpost.

From the second paragraph of Exodus 21:5-6, we read that:

"If a slave declares, 'I love my master, and my wife, and my children: I do not wish to go free', his master shall take him before God. He shall be brought to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall remain a slave for life"

At first I took a modern look at this, envisioning the door as a portal to another world: an entry to a different place. Images of Doctor Strange come to mind! Walking through doorways is a potent symbol; you pass though a doorway, and you are changed; it's a transition. Give that interpretation, it makes sense that a doorway or a doorpost would be a good place to take an oath, with the location adding meaning to the oath.

I was just struck by the fact that doorways have a very serious quality about them: they can lead to good places or bad places; they they symbolize change and transition. So of course, what does this tell us about comics? That the use of the doorway and the doorpost is very potent imagery.

We tend to laugh when we read of another form of Biblical oath-taking: holding the cajones of the oath-taker while uttering a promise (that will make any man suddenly serious), but doorway imagery is very potent. In fact, if you ever want to represent change, or moving to a different place (in all its possibilities and variations) think about doorways and doorposts.

Ya got that...y'awl?

Yitro: the Super-Inlaw

It's interesting how the actions of a person in a text influence how you visualize that person in your mind's eye. If a person is a magnanimous soul, I picture them as being physically big, strong, and robust! If they take a more subordinate role, I picture them as physically smaller. This is how artists in an earlier time, in the mists of history, pictured groups of people: the more important they were, the bigger they were. The less significant they were, the smaller they appeared. Just imagine the pictures of people swelling, larger or smaller, depending on their importance at any particular moment. If someone is important, they physically grow larger and taller. If they they take a subordinate role, they physically shrink. Form follows function, as they say.

That habit of mind persists in my own visualization of characters when reading the Torah, and this sort of visceral visualization impulse is what I used when creating characters for the Comic Book Siddur.

In the torah portion "Yitro", where Moses' father-in-law gives practical advice to Moses, I had a vision of Yitro being a very strong figure, towering over Moses. Here are some notes I'd written to myself while reading parsha Yitro: "Moses' father-in-law: note the influence of Yitro on Moses' interaction with God. Moses really doesn't interact directly with God alone. He has help from the counsel of Yitro. For example, in line 12 (refer to your Chumash!) Yitro shows Moses about protocol and decorum. It's Yitro who brings the burnt offering and the sacrifices to God. Yitro advices Moses to delegate. Lines 17-27 are amazing. They do away with the "Great Man" theory. God may have chosen Moses, but Yitro helped Moses in an incalculable way by coaching him."

After considering this passage, it becomes clear to me that Moses's talk with God is actually triangulated, for Yitro is in Moses' corner, giving Moses advice on leadership and decorum. Yitro really shines here as a magnanimous soul, for without Yitro at this juncture, Moses could have committed a faux pas. He could have done or said something inappropriate or ridiculous. Yitro explained to Moses how he must interact with God (with appropriate sacrifices), and how to lead the Israelite people (by delegating leadership). It's a testament to the father's-in-law, and it's an acknowlegement that our elders are a repository of wisdom.

It makes you wonder if God chose Moses for Yitro. In my mind's eye, I picture Yitro as tall, muscular, and strong, whereas Moses is less so, only because Moses (at this particular point in Exodus) lacked knowledge and insight in how to be most effective with God, and with the People -- until the appearance of Yitro. It also shows you how the generations really are bound together and are dependent on each other: Moses depends on Yitro for advice, and Yitro depends on Moses to listen to it: yet both are concerned with doing well for those outside of themselves: God and the People of Israel. I find Yitro a fascinating character, and I wish I knew more about him. (But at least you know how I think of him: as a guy who's generosity of spirit causes him to physically grow bigger, as if being inflated with a sort of spiritual gas!)

God's costume? You fool!

In my last post, I had fun imaging what God's "costume" might be like, if God were a "superhero". I now realize that I have misspoken--it was a fool's quest. If I must represent God as a comic book character, it would be best if God were OUT of the panel. His presence might be implied, or we might even see a speech balloon pointing to the "voice" of God, but there's no need to have that word balloon actually point at a particular form; pointing to place outside of borders of the comic book box goes a long way to preserving the mystery of God. With this convention, we can include God in comics, and not worry about violating the prohibition of creating graven images. In fact, once you contemplate what God is supposed to respresent (as I read this morning in Parsh Yitro), it's a no-brainer; how do you represent pure and total awesomeness? Answer: don't even try. Just as God advised Moses when they communicated on Mount Sinai, don't look directly at God or you'll be destroyed. Look away, that is, outside the panel.So what's to make of my previous discussion, where I went though the steps of designing a costume for God? Well, whoever puts on that costume is obviously a charlatan and a fool! We need to direct our awareness to the very power of creation itself, not to some "puny human"(or humanoid form), as the Hulk might say.

God's Superhero Costume Design

As I was reading our rabbi's weekly online torah commentary this morning, where he pondered the meaning of the word "commandment", I got to thinking what God might look like if he actually appeared in a comic book, uttering a commandment. I began to feel very uncomfortable with the stereotypical image of God as looking like a shaggy old man in white robes. Now, I know all about the prohibition about portraying creatures and God in a visual sense, but that hasn't prevented people from doing it anyway.

Visualizing is a powerful way of learning. If a subject seems vague or unclear, draw a diagram: a picture, and then suddenly, the sweet light of understanding graces your brain! Even though the diagram may be wrong, it still has explanatory value: it takes a stand, and makes a claim on reality.

So, why can't we play a game and imagine what God would look like if he had a superhero costume? God's been playing with us for thousands of years. It's a popular observation in our Torah study class at our local Temple: if God is all-knowing, why does he test us? Presumably He's complete knowlege of our lives, our actions, their causes, and their eventual results. (If that were really be the case, then His anger would be revealed as cruel. Does an all-knowing being feel shock or surprise? There's the paradox) But still, He tests us just to see how we'll choose (even though he presumably knows what the outcome will be in advance) So though God is Fierce, Awesome, and All-Powerful, He still has an impish quality: he like to test us, just to watch our reaction to our actions.

Well, what I'm suggesting is not too radical. From the murals on the walls to at the synagogue at Dura Europos, to the archetypal image of God as being a big guy with a white beard in flowing white robes, we've always had (I'll wager) SOME hidden image in our minds that stood for God. It may have been a burning bush, it may have been a sentient cloud, it may have been beautiful woman doing a fan dance,it may have been a sunset, or it may have been the image of the hard cover edition of the Plaut Torah Commentary -- but still, we use images as stand-ins for concepts.

Simplification helps you get a glimpse of the "Big Picture", and the Big Picture can give you the qualities of a visionary. So imagining a what God's costume would look like in a superhero comic book isn't too far-fetched. So right now, we're saddled with the image of God as an old guy with a long white beard in a flowing gown. Well, I say He's due for a costume change. I say that instead of representing God in human form, that we just make Him a floating undulating pulsating infinity symbol. That would capture the idea that God is boundless in an infinite number of ways, but maybe we could add the quality of God not being where you think He is, like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: so make the infinity symbol flickers, to mess with you! This is to capture the idea that God cannot be bound by time or space either.

There. I've come up with a start for creating a superhero repesentation for the idea of God Himself: a flickering Infinity symbol. This could be emblazoned on the chest of a Man (we'll call the man "Mo"-- as in "Moses") and the flickering infinity symbol with hover in a space right square in the Man's chest. The man (Mo) and the "logo" (Infinity) are One; they act with telepathic knowledge of each other. Sometimes the logo disappears...and then it reappears again, depending whether God is connecting with someone at that particular moment, because we know that God is only present when Man/Woman looks for Him, and tries to see Him. Oh, and our character will also look something like the Silver Surfer, but there will probably be a blue face mask with some blue trim elsewere.

God really only exists if we acknowledge His existence. This gets back to the point I was making earlier about Reality. Our world is populated with things that we allow to exist. If we don't acknowlege their presence, or better, if we aren't AWARE of their presence, then they're invisible to us.

These are awesome concepts, hard to get one's "mind around", so I don't see anything wrong with creating a superhero design for God that helps remind us of the properties of God. The gruff shaggy old man in a throne just aint cuttin' it, because that image only gets across the ideas of old, angry, vindictive men. It doesn't represent anything about Eternity, or Infinity, or us being in a sort of partnership. Thus a costume redesign, with accompanying undulating flittering logo is a good move. I have spoken!