The film Der Kish (The Kiss) is about a young girl, daughter of a rabbi, who pines for a kiss from him. The rabbi, his wife and his daughter rise early in the morning and get ready to go to the synagogue. The girl watches with envy as her father kisses his tallit, his tefillin, his tzitzit, and even tries to kiss his wife as she is getting dressed, but is rebuffed when his wife notices the girl looking on and pushes him away.
They walk to shul where the rabbi leads the service and the rebbetzin and her daughter climb the stairs to the balcony. The girl watches as her father takes the Torah from the ark and she fantasizes that he is holding her instead. Her siddur falls from the balcony and lands near the bimah. Her father picks it up and kisses it. When the service is over, the little girl decides to take matters into her own hands and brings the mini-story to a climax.
Does she get the kiss that she pines for? Watch the film and see.
Der Kish was directed by Paul Fischer and won awards in film festivals worldwide but has not been widely distributed. All of the dialogue (what little there is of it) is in Yiddish with English subtitles.
It stars Modi Rosenfeld as the rabbi. We have followed Modi's career as an actor and stand-up comedian over the last three years. Professionally known as just Modi, his portrayals of chassidim are believable and his stand-up routines can be very funny.
Enjoy!
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this makes the religous look so sad..
ReplyDeleteSometimes it takes while to see the world through a child's eye... Thanks Al.
ReplyDeleteThe film is lovely, but I don't understand why, in the morning before they leave for shul, when the mother looks at the child, she has no smile or affection in her eyes, only anger.
ReplyDeleteI too do not understand why the mother showed no affection for the little girl. The child looked so pitiful.
DeleteJewish humor? This is Jewish tragedy. Why did the father daven at home if he was going to conduct services probably on Shabbos ( in which case tefellin isn't used at all at home or synagogue.
ReplyDeleteThe rigidity of the super orthodox is stifling. Two weeks after my Bar Mitzvah 63 years ago, i attended services at the orthodox synagogue where we were members in Boro Park, Brooklyn. When I spoke softly to my cousin, one of the ushers, (who we called siddur clappers) came over and said to me "You should go down and daven in the cellar. I never went back there on my own free will except on the major Holy Days with my Dad. That man did a serious disservice to Orthodox Judaism as far as I am concerned.
Today the more progressive Rabbi's encourage children and never complain about noise (even when baby's cry or kvetch) which is sometimes too disturbing.
I agree with you about the tefillin....I also found that very confusing. Someone didn't do their research.
DeleteIt's very sad the lenghts this little girl had to go to in order to get some affection from her parents. What kind of yiddishkeit is this?
It certainly is a tragedy.
It is sad and sweet. Religion is all well and good but human beings have feelings and love and kindness should start at home. To kiss your children when you bless them is lovely, but they need to feel love and wanted not just when you have said the Shabbat pray. Children are full of innocence and love naturally. We should do our very best to encourage they young to feel welcome when they come to Shul. They are our future.
ReplyDeleteThis movie is full of contradictions: If it was a Shabbat, why did the father put on Tefillin ? It is was a Monday or Thursday, when the Torah would be taken out, why did he davven at home when he should have done all that in the shul's minyan ? If indeed it was during the week, why would the wife and child get uo so early to go to shul? No Rebetzin and certainly no little girl would go to an early morning minyan. The Rav's Hebrew accent fluctuated between Ashkenazit and Sefardit which is against Halacha as it can change the meaning of the words. Granted it only lasted 7 minutes, but the "fast-forwarding" from the bracha before "Bar'chu" to "Va'yehi Binsoah Ha'Aron" made the proceedings rather farcical. The moral was a good: it took a sweet innocent child to teach parents how to love. Cantor Shlomo Goldberg. Ra'anana, Israel.
ReplyDeleteCould someone explain why an Askenazi man would wear Tfillin the Sfaradi way?
ReplyDelete