MY MEXICAN SHIVAH (MORIRSE ESTA EN HEBREO)
Chale Nafus
Director of Programming, Austin Film Society
Moishe’s life is so meshugge [crazy] it’s impossible to tell which angels will accompany him. – Aleph & Bet
One of the major transitions that every religion has to deal with is death, as much to help the living family and friends as to guide the deceased onward into another realm of being. Some religions bury the dead as quickly as possible, others allow a period of mourning and memorializing before the actual funeral. Catholicism and some other forms of Christianity permit a wake (velorio), an informal ritual which allows the mourners to think about the deceased and even to sit with them in a funeral chapel (or, in some cultures, at home). Those hours can help each person begin the process of accepting the death and painful separation.
Jewish Shivah is a much more complex ritual lasting seven days after the funeral and burial, but it exists for the same reason – furthering the healing process. The online Judaica Guide describes this ritual as follows:
“The term ‘Sitting Shivah’ refers to a seven-day period of mourning after a close relative of a Jewish person has passed away. A person sits Shivah after the death of one of his parents, brothers/sisters, children, husband or wife. There are many rules concerning the Shivah, which create a great interruption to one's normal routine. However, sitting Shivah has two important purposes: honoring the dead and helping the mourner deal with his or her loss.
“Once they have returned from the funeral, the mourners are considered ‘Avelim’ and are not allowed to do any of the following for seven days:
• They mustn't do any form of work, apart from cooking and cleaning the house.
• They mustn't wear leather shoes.
• They mustn't have intercourse during the Shivah.
• They are not allowed to learn Torah, apart from learning mourning rules, reciting psalms or reading the books of Job and Lamentations.
• They mustn't greet anyone ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye,’ but after the first three days they may answer if someone else has asked them for their well-being.
• They may not wash their clothes, iron them, or wear clean clothes.
• They may only sit on cushions and mattresses, or on stools that are less than 30 cm high.
• They mustn't leave the house, apart from going to the synagogue on Sabbath and going to their homes late at night (if they have trouble sleeping where the Shivah is held).
• They aren't allowed to shave, have their hair cut, or cut their nails for 30 days (including the 7 days of the Shivah).
• They are not allowed to attend joyful events for 30 days, and if they are mourning one of their parents, they are not allowed to do so for 12 months. However, they are allowed to attend a wedding or a Brit Milah of their own child even during the Shivah itself.
“In addition, after the funeral, it is customary for friends or neighbors to arrange a ‘Seudat Havra'ah’ for the Avelim. This is the first meal they eat during the Shivah, usually consisting of bread, hard-boiled eggs, etc. In some communities it is customary to cover the mirrors in the house at the time of the Shivah. Throughout the next seven days, it is a Mitzvah to visit the mourners – known as the Shivah Call. On the seventh day of the Shivah, after a short time of mourning someone tells the Avelim ‘Get up,’ and that is a sign for them that the Shivah is over. The mourners can now wash, change clothes, etc, and must start returning to their normal life. It is a tradition to visit the grave on the seventh day of the Shivah, as well as on the 30th day after the death. On the 30th day eulogies are usually said, and a tombstone is positioned on the grave.”
Mexican director Alejandro Springall, whose father and paternal grandmother are Jewish, decided to use the elements of the Shivah, as observed by a Jewish community in Mexico City, to observe an extended family and their complex relationship with one another and with their religion and bicultural lives. He approached the subject with Chekhov in mind – combining comedy and drama.
Springall starts the movie with a joyful moment in the lives of many of the older characters – a reunion of their theatrical troupe. Dining on the stage of a theater where they played many roles in their younger years, they eat and celebrate their lives. Moises Szelewiansky, lovingly known as Moishe, dances to a rousing version of “Hava Nagila” – the famous song of celebration – played by an excellent mariachi band. Then he drops dead before their eyes. That is the moment that the Jewish religious rituals and observations come into the foreground and assist in the process of guiding these people through their grief. However, that doesn’t really sound like a good start for a comedy.
The comic elements come through the characters and their various conflicts, which have had decades to build. Even while they are supposed to be remembering Moishe and his life, they focus on their own slights and pains. Since this is an extended family with many friends, the cast is large and the film becomes a magnificent ensemble piece.
Even though we see him for only a moment, Moishe [legal name: Moises Szelewiansky] is the center of the film and of many of the characters’ lives. He is in his 70s and came to Mexico as a child in 1936, three years before the German air force destroyed 80% of his Polish hometown, the predominately Jewish Wielún, and began World War II. Ricardo is Moishe’s middle-aged son, who is divorced from Ruth, with whom he had one child, Nicolas. Ruth lives in the US in some kind of alternative New Age community and had her own complex relationship with Moishe. Nicolas lives in Israel and has become Hasidim.
Ricardo’s sister Esther is Moishe’s middle-aged daughter and is married to Ruben with whom she has two grown children, Galia and Ari. Galia has been living in New York City, where she may or may not have a boyfriend, an uncertainty which drives her mother insane. Ari is married, with children, and becomes increasingly angry as the Shivah progresses.
Complicating Esther’s attempts to find peace is her hatred of Julia Palafox, Moishe’s mistress. Rosa Schapochnik de Shein, though married, prides herself on being an early lover of Moishe and tries to read one of his loves poems (courtesy of Ruben Dario) to anyone who will listen. Zury was Moishe’s lawyer with power of attorney and is well aware of Moishe’s various lives and lies. Dr Isaac Fisher also knows various truths about Moishe.
On the sidelines and unseen except by us and occasionally by Galia, after she has been smoking some mota, are two long-bearded old men, Aleph and Bet, seemingly Talmudic rabbi spirits who still watch human beings. They keep a book and write “bright” and “dark” in separate columns as they eavesdrop and watch Moishe’s people. With what they hear and see, they will guess which angels will accompany Moishe’s spirit – the dark or the light. Calling them by the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Springall considers Aleph and Bet a “metaphor for the tradition.” They also serve the same function as a Greek chorus, commenting on the characters and their actions.
Running throughout the entire film is the major character of the unnamed chevreman, not a rabbi, but a religious prompter and coach who guides (tries to guide) the family and friends through the complex ritual, which only a few of them seem to really know very well. Not only is he working with the family and friends, but he must enlist the help of Esther’s maids, who are Catholic, but the older one has worked in the family for some time and knows the various requirements. First, it should be noted that the Shivah should be conducted at the home of the deceased, but since Moishe was last known to be living with his mistress Julia, that became impossible, so Esther’s home was the next best location. At Esther’s house, all the photos and mirrors must be covered. The flowers have to be removed, which saddens the younger maid. Much like the Shivah described above, for seven days the participants cannot work, bathe, wear leather shoes, have sex, study the Torah, greet people, wear clothing with starch, sit in normal chairs, shave, use the phone, or express joy in any way.
To be continued….
Chale Nafus
Director of Programming, Austin Film Society
Moishe’s life is so meshugge [crazy] it’s impossible to tell which angels will accompany him. – Aleph & Bet
One of the major transitions that every religion has to deal with is death, as much to help the living family and friends as to guide the deceased onward into another realm of being. Some religions bury the dead as quickly as possible, others allow a period of mourning and memorializing before the actual funeral. Catholicism and some other forms of Christianity permit a wake (velorio), an informal ritual which allows the mourners to think about the deceased and even to sit with them in a funeral chapel (or, in some cultures, at home). Those hours can help each person begin the process of accepting the death and painful separation.
Jewish Shivah is a much more complex ritual lasting seven days after the funeral and burial, but it exists for the same reason – furthering the healing process. The online Judaica Guide describes this ritual as follows:
“The term ‘Sitting Shivah’ refers to a seven-day period of mourning after a close relative of a Jewish person has passed away. A person sits Shivah after the death of one of his parents, brothers/sisters, children, husband or wife. There are many rules concerning the Shivah, which create a great interruption to one's normal routine. However, sitting Shivah has two important purposes: honoring the dead and helping the mourner deal with his or her loss.
“Once they have returned from the funeral, the mourners are considered ‘Avelim’ and are not allowed to do any of the following for seven days:
• They mustn't do any form of work, apart from cooking and cleaning the house.
• They mustn't wear leather shoes.
• They mustn't have intercourse during the Shivah.
• They are not allowed to learn Torah, apart from learning mourning rules, reciting psalms or reading the books of Job and Lamentations.
• They mustn't greet anyone ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye,’ but after the first three days they may answer if someone else has asked them for their well-being.
• They may not wash their clothes, iron them, or wear clean clothes.
• They may only sit on cushions and mattresses, or on stools that are less than 30 cm high.
• They mustn't leave the house, apart from going to the synagogue on Sabbath and going to their homes late at night (if they have trouble sleeping where the Shivah is held).
• They aren't allowed to shave, have their hair cut, or cut their nails for 30 days (including the 7 days of the Shivah).
• They are not allowed to attend joyful events for 30 days, and if they are mourning one of their parents, they are not allowed to do so for 12 months. However, they are allowed to attend a wedding or a Brit Milah of their own child even during the Shivah itself.
“In addition, after the funeral, it is customary for friends or neighbors to arrange a ‘Seudat Havra'ah’ for the Avelim. This is the first meal they eat during the Shivah, usually consisting of bread, hard-boiled eggs, etc. In some communities it is customary to cover the mirrors in the house at the time of the Shivah. Throughout the next seven days, it is a Mitzvah to visit the mourners – known as the Shivah Call. On the seventh day of the Shivah, after a short time of mourning someone tells the Avelim ‘Get up,’ and that is a sign for them that the Shivah is over. The mourners can now wash, change clothes, etc, and must start returning to their normal life. It is a tradition to visit the grave on the seventh day of the Shivah, as well as on the 30th day after the death. On the 30th day eulogies are usually said, and a tombstone is positioned on the grave.”
Mexican director Alejandro Springall, whose father and paternal grandmother are Jewish, decided to use the elements of the Shivah, as observed by a Jewish community in Mexico City, to observe an extended family and their complex relationship with one another and with their religion and bicultural lives. He approached the subject with Chekhov in mind – combining comedy and drama.
Springall starts the movie with a joyful moment in the lives of many of the older characters – a reunion of their theatrical troupe. Dining on the stage of a theater where they played many roles in their younger years, they eat and celebrate their lives. Moises Szelewiansky, lovingly known as Moishe, dances to a rousing version of “Hava Nagila” – the famous song of celebration – played by an excellent mariachi band. Then he drops dead before their eyes. That is the moment that the Jewish religious rituals and observations come into the foreground and assist in the process of guiding these people through their grief. However, that doesn’t really sound like a good start for a comedy.
The comic elements come through the characters and their various conflicts, which have had decades to build. Even while they are supposed to be remembering Moishe and his life, they focus on their own slights and pains. Since this is an extended family with many friends, the cast is large and the film becomes a magnificent ensemble piece.
Even though we see him for only a moment, Moishe [legal name: Moises Szelewiansky] is the center of the film and of many of the characters’ lives. He is in his 70s and came to Mexico as a child in 1936, three years before the German air force destroyed 80% of his Polish hometown, the predominately Jewish Wielún, and began World War II. Ricardo is Moishe’s middle-aged son, who is divorced from Ruth, with whom he had one child, Nicolas. Ruth lives in the US in some kind of alternative New Age community and had her own complex relationship with Moishe. Nicolas lives in Israel and has become Hasidim.
Ricardo’s sister Esther is Moishe’s middle-aged daughter and is married to Ruben with whom she has two grown children, Galia and Ari. Galia has been living in New York City, where she may or may not have a boyfriend, an uncertainty which drives her mother insane. Ari is married, with children, and becomes increasingly angry as the Shivah progresses.
Complicating Esther’s attempts to find peace is her hatred of Julia Palafox, Moishe’s mistress. Rosa Schapochnik de Shein, though married, prides herself on being an early lover of Moishe and tries to read one of his loves poems (courtesy of Ruben Dario) to anyone who will listen. Zury was Moishe’s lawyer with power of attorney and is well aware of Moishe’s various lives and lies. Dr Isaac Fisher also knows various truths about Moishe.
On the sidelines and unseen except by us and occasionally by Galia, after she has been smoking some mota, are two long-bearded old men, Aleph and Bet, seemingly Talmudic rabbi spirits who still watch human beings. They keep a book and write “bright” and “dark” in separate columns as they eavesdrop and watch Moishe’s people. With what they hear and see, they will guess which angels will accompany Moishe’s spirit – the dark or the light. Calling them by the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Springall considers Aleph and Bet a “metaphor for the tradition.” They also serve the same function as a Greek chorus, commenting on the characters and their actions.
Running throughout the entire film is the major character of the unnamed chevreman, not a rabbi, but a religious prompter and coach who guides (tries to guide) the family and friends through the complex ritual, which only a few of them seem to really know very well. Not only is he working with the family and friends, but he must enlist the help of Esther’s maids, who are Catholic, but the older one has worked in the family for some time and knows the various requirements. First, it should be noted that the Shivah should be conducted at the home of the deceased, but since Moishe was last known to be living with his mistress Julia, that became impossible, so Esther’s home was the next best location. At Esther’s house, all the photos and mirrors must be covered. The flowers have to be removed, which saddens the younger maid. Much like the Shivah described above, for seven days the participants cannot work, bathe, wear leather shoes, have sex, study the Torah, greet people, wear clothing with starch, sit in normal chairs, shave, use the phone, or express joy in any way.
To be continued….
