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this page With its seeming worship of nature in general and trees in particular, one must ask whether or not James Cameron’s blockbuster new film, Avatar, is idolatrous.
Nonetheless,
given the many possibilities and multiple
interpretations, can one really claim that Cameron’s
epic promotes idolatry? Or, perhaps, can we even find
some Jewishness in Avatar?
At first
glance, with its suggestion of nature and tree worship,
the story appears to be wholly contrary to Judaism.
Cameron’s alien world, Pandora, is one where all
life-forms are intimately connected with each other, both
in a general sense and with a novel invention, the
ability of beings, humanoid, animal, and plant to bond
physically by means of tendrils extending from the hair
or branches. A humanoid rider and her steed (often, a
large bird) function as one; the guidance is accomplished
by unvoiced thoughts. What, then,
in this ostensibly pantheistic world could possibly speak
to Judaism? To begin,
the notion that all life is connected is not necessarily
a pantheistic idea, but can be understood in monotheistic
terms as well. Okay, we do not believe that nature itself
is God, but we do recognize the source of all life in one
God, and God’s perhaps paradoxical transcendence and
immanence. That is, God is beyond this world, outside of
time and space, and yet, God is here, there, and
everywhere, as the children’s song goes. This is a
paradox beyond our understanding—and yet arguably
central to Judaism.
Furthermore,
the respect for life displayed in the film in the form of
hunters offering a prayer for and an apology to the
animals they kill is echoed by the Torah’s profound
respect for animal life and all life, the prohibition of
consuming the life-force of blood, the laws of kashrut
and shechitah, which constrain the slaughter and
eating of animals within a context of respect for life,
and the requirement of reciting blessings before and
after eating, lest we take it for granted.
Second,
inasmuch as the story is one of the oppressed rising in
revolt, Avatar is also a Jewish story. If the
movie points to the repression of Native Americans by
European settlers, the triumph of the underdog over
adversity is, nonetheless, a repeated Jewish theme, from
the Exodus out of A third
point, of great importance, is the central conceit of the
movie, proclaimed in its very title: the avatar. An
avatar is, basically, a body controlled remotely by a
person in an entirely different place. It is a term used
on the internet for such fantasy worlds as Second Life,
where participants can create and then act and speak as
characters in that world, where a person can play at
being someone else. In the movie, the “drivers”
in some sense inhabit the bodies of the avatars. That is,
the neural connection functions as a sort of virtual
reality, where the user can experience the full range of
the senses of the avatar. This idea
of the avatar resonates with Judaism, and no doubt with
some other religions, in working as a metaphor for the
soul inhabiting the body. If we believe that our
essential beings are Nishamot, or souls, we might
justifiably conceive of our bodies as vessels, or
avatars, on loan from God. We do not truly own our own
bodies. This movie, therefore, provides us with the
opportunity to contemplate what it means for our souls to
dwell in our bodies. Finally,
and perhaps most strikingly in terms of Judaism, Avatar
is at heart a conversion narrative. It is reminiscent of
the story of Ruth and her embrace of a people and nation.
Without giving away too much, let me just say that the
movie says something about being caught between two
worlds and suggests how completely a conversion
experience can transform a person, body and soul.
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