This morning I wandered over to my Talmud teacher. Between the warmish weather we had today and the burnoutish feeling that one has a couple of weeks before finals (especially when one’s assignment for the day is to slog through an academic article in Hebrew), I was feeling a little cheeky.

“David, I know we’re like, adults in a serious program and all, but does that mean we never get to have Movie Day?”

I was just expecting a snarky response back. Instead, he said,
“Yeah, OK. Find something connected to avodah zarah (idolotry, our topic this semester) and we’ll pick a day next week to do it.”

Huh? Really. He said that as long as it was of the relevant Greco-Roman era (so, sadly, no teen-witch movies), it was fair game. We could do it as the last class, have some bagels and kick back. Right on.

So far the candidates that have been suggested for viewing are:

Troy
Jesus Christ Superstar*
The Passion of the Christ*
Sparticus
The Life of Brian*
History of the World Part I
Clash of the Titans
Ben Hur
Gladiator
Caligula**

and maybe one or two more, don’t remember. I think Troy is in the lead right now–I was very big on JC Superstar, lots of other people expressed interest in the Passion (which, you might imagine, is not what I’m personally terribly into–nor of course Gladiator), as much because it’s important for us baby rabbis to have seen it as because it’s in poorly pronounced Aramaic. (I’ve seen a few excerpts, it’s really awful on the pronunciation tip.) Instructor thought the Passion might be a leetle on the heavy side for an end-of-semester party. So we’ll see. If anyone out there has any other brilliant suggestions, please, let me know.

Of course, some people are saying that given the choice between an extra day of in-class review or a movie, they pick the former (though given a choice between another class of these academic articles or a movie, they pick the latter, DUH.) So whether or not it actually happens is TBD, but it’s excellent reinforcement for me re: being more cheeky more often. Bring on the cheek! Heck, bring on JC Superstar!!!!

(My classmates just don’t understand the power of profound kitch. Philistines. I may have to go rent the thing sometime soon just for my own enjoyment, dangit.)

*No, no, this isn’t to imply that Christians are being conflated with the pagany stuff in our gemara. The Rabbinic era Christian/Jewish thing is wayyy more complicated than that. But there are Romans in both movies.

**Suggested and then rejected by the instructor on the grounds that it is, really, soft porn.