So am I the only loser who watched Loving Leah? It was the TV movie version of the play 'Unorthodox'. Has anyone else seen either the play or the movie?
They start the halitza ceremony in front of a beit din and then both of them decide they don't want to go through with the halitza ceremony and instead want to go through with a marriage ceremony. Conveniently there were tons of men there watching, so they had a marriage ceremony.
This movie was actually put on as a play so all of the halachic details had been already ironed out.
The play is not really about the fact that she marries her exBIL, it is about the fact that she no longer wants to be orthodox. All in all I thought the Orthodox community was rationally portrayed given the anti-Orthodox theme.
1. In that case, the rabbis would have told them to go through with the chalitza, and then get married in three months. The idea is that the widow and her brother-in-law get married ONLY for the mitzvah. The only way they would allow them to just get married would be if the brothers were kohanim - were they?
2. All in all I thought the Orthodox community was rationally portrayed given the anti-Orthodox theme.
I have to admit, that sounds weird to me. "Given the racist theme, the black community was portrayed rationally."
ANOTHER movie about someone who no longer wants to be frum? It's interesting how you see so many of these story lines and so little of the reverse right? I mean that doesn't mean we have a serious problem with kids at risk but it's interesting how Hollywood just loves to show these scenarios because it validates them while BTs do the opposite.
I don't understand how they could have ironed out halachic issues and still present yibum as something people do. Now I haven't seen the play so maybe I'm wrong but why bring up a topic which is one of the more obscure topics in frum life if you don't want to show people how silly we are? (or am I paranoid?)
The concept of yibum is just the plot device that explains why an ultraorthodox woman was able to escape ultraorthodoxy through marriage to a reform Jew. A man can marry his dead husband's widow whether or not she had children, it's not halachically prohibited. It used to be common for a widower with children to marry his dead wife's sister.
Yes it would have been great if they had explored why the dead man had become BT and then a chasidic pulpit rabbi (!), who was able to find an 18 year old girl who didn't love him to marry.
At the end of the movie, she stays with her reform Jew husband with her family's blessing. So in that respect the Orthodox are not presented in a negative light. And all of the costuming etc is fairly accurate. It would have been much worse if the dead husband had been FFB and it was his good for nothing brother who marries the widow.
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We don't do that anymore (there's a ceremony we do instead.) and haven't for several centuries.
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This movie was actually put on as a play so all of the halachic details had been already ironed out.
The play is not really about the fact that she marries her exBIL, it is about the fact that she no longer wants to be orthodox. All in all I thought the Orthodox community was rationally portrayed given the anti-Orthodox theme.
Reply
1. In that case, the rabbis would have told them to go through with the chalitza, and then get married in three months. The idea is that the widow and her brother-in-law get married ONLY for the mitzvah. The only way they would allow them to just get married would be if the brothers were kohanim - were they?
2. All in all I thought the Orthodox community was rationally portrayed given the anti-Orthodox theme.
I have to admit, that sounds weird to me. "Given the racist theme, the black community was portrayed rationally."
And now I'm very glad I haven't seen it.
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:fail:
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I don't understand how they could have ironed out halachic issues and still present yibum as something people do. Now I haven't seen the play so maybe I'm wrong but why bring up a topic which is one of the more obscure topics in frum life if you don't want to show people how silly we are? (or am I paranoid?)
Reply
Yes it would have been great if they had explored why the dead man had become BT and then a chasidic pulpit rabbi (!), who was able to find an 18 year old girl who didn't love him to marry.
At the end of the movie, she stays with her reform Jew husband with her family's blessing. So in that respect the Orthodox are not presented in a negative light. And all of the costuming etc is fairly accurate. It would have been much worse if the dead husband had been FFB and it was his good for nothing brother who marries the widow.
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