 |
| Image: http://static.guim.co.uk/ |
Cast:
Rabbi of Keniss (Sephardic congregation)
David Congregant
King
Prince 1
Prince 2
Narrator
Background: Keniss setting on Friday Eve (Shabbat or right before). One can hear the last Kaddish chanted. Men are congregating after Friday night services, the Mechitza is visible in the background. David (a man in his middle ages) puts his Siddur away after completing the prayers. Before heading out, he approaches the Rabbi at the front of the Shul and kisses his hand.
David: Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi [slaps him on the cheek]: Blessings my son, Shabbat Shalom. How are you?
David: Baruch Hashem, Yom Yom, life is good. My business is better than ever.
Rabbi: Your wife, your kids?
David: My wife is good... [David slows down... coughs, opens his mouth as if to say something, then changes his mind]
Rabbi: Your kids, how are they?
Silence
Rabbi: David, you have prayed here for twenty years, and I haven't seen you looking so concerned in a while.
David: Rabbi, It's my twenty-four year old, Joe.
Rabbi: Yes...
David: He is dating someone unfitting for him.
Rabbi: David, walk me home. I will tell you something.
David steps aside to allow other congregants to converse with the Rabbi.
Next Scene is Rabbi and David wearing coats walking out of the Keniss and down an empty, quiet, snowy, evening road.
They are seen talking from afar and camera zooms in in the middle of the conversation.
David: Joe met her at a communal evening event. He brought her home last week to visit the parents... [sigh] It's not that she's a bad girl. She isn't. She is sweet. She is smart. But she is different. She comes from an Ashkenazim family. I am nervous that the cultural differences will end up being too much of a barrier to cross. Joe is so in love, it is clear to anyone that he is not thinking with his head.
Rabbi: Do you have anything concrete you are basing this on.
David: Joe comes from a family where his father provided and his mother was a housewife. We raised him with certain values, with expectations. It is not respectful by us for a woman to go out and work if she does not have to. Talia, his girl, does not know of such things. She is in graduate school and is going to be a lawyer. She doesn't understand the importance of being at home to raise the kids like we do. She comes from a different world.
I keep on repeating this to Joe, but he does not listen. He says that he is more open, more modern.He says she will change. Once she has kids, he says, she will want to stay at home. Doesn't he understand that sons end up like their parents? That people do not change? Doesn't he understand that it will bother him when she will not accept her role as a traditional wife? Doesn't he!?
Rabbi strokes his beard in thought as they turn a corner.
Rabbi: Let me tell you a story. [flashback to a different time]
Once upon a time there was a king. The king had two sons. The king said to his sons.
[Imagery changes to a palace and king speaking to two sons]
King: My sons, you have grown to be wise men. It is time that you conquer the world. One of you shall go to the west, and one of you shall travel East.
Narrator (Rabbis voice) while imagery of ships and travels and different lands: The sons parted their ways and traveled and conquered different parts of the world.
When they returned back to the palace many years later they had been affected by their experiences. Despite the fact that they were of the same royal blood, there was the history of their lives that came between them.
Image of Rabbi and David walking again, approaching Rabbi's home.
Rabbi [opening the door to his house]: They are from one family, yet the cultural gap of many centuries comes between them.
