Torah, Batman, and You
You may be surprised to discover that if it weren’t for Rabbi Cari Friedman’s childhood obsession with all things Batman...
Last week at Breslev Israel we introduced you to Rabbi Cary Friedman author of Spiritual Survival for Law Enforcement, a health manual for the soul that is being used across the US by police departments, the FBI, and the Border Patrol. You may be surprised to discover that if it weren’t for Rabbi Friedman’s childhood obsession with all things Batman, that book would never have been written. In fact, that cartoon that seems so silly to some was really a bridge for Rabbi Friedman that connected him to Torah, and to becoming a rabbi, teacher, author, and lecturer who helps us all find our own unique paths to Torah and Hashem. His book Wisdom from the Batcave charmingly illustrates how we can each find a gateway to Hashem in our own lives – sometimes in surprising places. It’s a fantastic, high energy message. Hashem has given each man and woman our own unique mission along with specific life experiences and proclivities to energize it!
Rabbi Friedman explains, “To be religious doesn’t mean that you have to become some kind of cookie-cutter mold clone where you jettison your personality and you’re just like a good soldier. There are many, many Torah sources that reject that, vehemently they reject it. There’s something you have, God gave you some unique skill or talent or obsession or hobby or whatever it was, you can use this to make the world a better place. You can use it, you combine it with Torah, and the combination of those, the synergy, is phenomenal.”
Rabbi Friedman was drawn to Batman. It sparked something inside of him. The lessons he internalized from those tales of the Caped Crusader and his coterie of best buddies primed him for his religious education. The two worlds merged in a sense; they became actualized in his own life. As an adult he uses his love of Batman to explain deep ethical and moral principles to his students, making those profound concepts more relatable by showing that Torah is not disconnected from our lives; it is the stuff of our lives. Now it just so happens that the Batman story is actually quite deep, even though it’s aimed at kids, which makes connecting it to Torah ideals not such a stretch. Here are just a few of the recurring themes: love of family and friends; working together to triumph over evil; focusing willpower; the importance of developing the mind as well as body; and doing good works just for the sake of it, not to gain adulation.
Batman isn’t your cup of tea? For me it’s a passion for visual arts and finding Hashem in each glorious painting or sculpture. For someone else it might be composing songs about your spiritual struggles on the electric guitar, learning a kosher martial art like Abir, or turning a love of organic gardening into a way to feed the hungry. Rabbi Friedman explains, “I can’t think of anything you couldn’t use in the service of the Torah and of God and of humanity, I can’t think of anything that is outside the pale. If you use it, you put it into that, you express it in a Torah way, it’s phenomenal.”
Bnei Noach can gain a great deal from this approach. It’s about embracing uniqueness. Instead of having the grass-is-greener attitude that tells you there’s something not quite right about your situation, you turn it on its head. You thank Hashem for your unique place. You aren’t like everyone else and there’s immense potential in your situation, so you don’t need to be that person over there. You are you! And there may be something fantastic and important that only you can accomplish. Rabbi Friedman- “In the Batman I found this character is self-assured – confident in his own skills and abilities and his power over the world to make a difference. What can one person do? Well, he can do a lot…it’s amazing what he’s able to accomplish, this one moral, frail human being. I find that a really powerful image for what the Torah expects of us. We’re not passive recipients, that we’re not just kind of bystanders in the whole work of creation. We’re active partners with God.”
Rabbi Friedman thinks that Bnei Noach are terrific because we know that even a few Gentiles living righteously can make a giant difference. “I was the rabbi at Duke for four years, and we had interactions a few times with groups of Bnei Noach or individuals, and I was always amazed by the strength of character, by their ability to say, ‘I’m going to totally turn my back and reject all of the expectations others have for me. People think all kinds of things about me, yet I’m on my own path.’ The Bnei Noach that I met were so passionately devoted to the truth. I remember one guy in particular. He said, ‘I feel that I don’t belong in this world, I don’t belong in that world, and I’m struggling to figure out where I am.’ And I said to him, ‘Well, if that’s the case, why are you subjecting yourself to this?’ And he said, ‘I recognize the truth, and this is what’s expected of me, this is what God wants of me. My destiny isn’t to be a Jew and there’s something unique that I can bring into the world from my place and my role. Other things- they’re not my destiny. This is mine.’ ”
He continues, “That’s what the Batman is all about – his strength and his resolve! He knows what the truth is. Even if he’s the only one who’s acting on it -if it’s what truth demands, that’s what he follows. The Bnei Noach I’ve come in contact with, for them it’s not a question of numbers, it’s a question of what my neshama– my soul- tells me is right. That’s awesome. People who are like that have my admiration, my awe. And I think they’re just fantastic.”
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