{"product_id":"the-wicked-son-isbn-9780805211573","title":"The Wicked Son","description":"David Mamet's interest in anti-Semitism is not limited to the modern face of an ancient hatred but encompasses as well the ways in which many Jews have internalized that hatred.  Using the metaphor of the Wicked Son at the Passover seder (the child who asks, \"What does this story mean to \u003ci\u003eyou?\") \u003c\/i\u003eMamet confronts what he sees as an insidious predilection among some Jews to exclude themselves from the equation and to seek truth and meaning anywhere--in other religions, political movements, mindless entertainment--but in Judaism itself. He also explores the ways in which the Jewish tradition has long been and still remains the Wicked Son in the eyes of the world.  Written with the searing honesty and verbal brilliance that is the hallmark of Mamet's work, \u003ci\u003eThe Wicked Son \u003c\/i\u003eis a powerfully thought-provoking look at one of the most destructive and tenacious forces in contemporary life.\"A bold and blistering attack on all aspects of this enduring phenomenon, and a probing analysis of its root causes and some of its more insidious manifestations.\"\u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eChicago Sun-Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Like everything Mamet does, [\u003ci\u003eThe Wicked Son\u003c\/i\u003e] is blunt and bracing, honest and provocative, original and gutsy.” \u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rare among the defenders of the Jews–and of Judaism– Mamet recognizes the romance in the story of his ancient religion and race, and finds the words beautiful enough to describe it.” \u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eThe International Jerusalem Post \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Mamet’s] clarity, insight, and passion . . . can be both devastatingly witty and scathingly angry.” \u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eThe New York Post \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Incendiary.” \u003cbr\u003e–\u003ci\u003eThe Jewish Observer \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Mamet \u003c\/b\u003eis an award-winning screenwriter and playwright, as well as a director, a novelist, a poet, and an essayist. He has written the screenplays for more than twenty films, including \u003ci\u003eHomicide\u003c\/i\u003e (which he also directed), \u003ci\u003eWag the Dog, \u003c\/i\u003eand the Oscar-nominated \u003ci\u003eThe Verdict. \u003c\/i\u003eHis more than twenty plays include \u003ci\u003eSpeed-the-Plow, American Buffalo, \u003c\/i\u003eand the Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003ci\u003eGlengarry Glen Ross. \u003c\/i\u003eHis work on Jewish subjects includes \u003ci\u003eThat Old Religion, Bar Mitzvah, Passover \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eFive Cities of Refuge, \u003c\/i\u003ea Torah commentary written with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. He lives in California.\u003cb\u003eThe Four Sons of the Haggadah \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe rebbe was plagued by mice. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe mice were eating his books, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eand nothing could dissuade them. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHe searched in vain for a deterrent. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eUntil, reading the Shulkhan Arukh, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ehe came across the statutes governing Passover. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Shulkhan Arukh unequivocally states \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ethat nothing may be eaten after the afikomen. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSo the rebbe crumpled the afikomen \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eand sprinkled the crumbs over his books. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBut the mice were smarter than the rebbe; \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003efirst they ate the Shulkhan Arukh, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ethen they ate the afikomen, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eand then they ate his books. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—As told by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn the section of the Passover Haggadah called “The Four Sons,” we find “What are the laws, the ordinances and the rulings which Hashem has commanded us?”   \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe answer being, “You should inform this child of all the laws of Pesach, including the ruling that nothing should be eaten after the \u003ci\u003eafikomen.\u003c\/i\u003e”   \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePassover Haggadah, the Feast of Freedom, the Rabbinical Assembly.  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe wise child asks for information, and, in my Haggadah, he receives information, humor, which is to say, welcome to his tradition. His desire to learn and participate is rewarded with love—the other sons present their requests as if information were going to cure them of their anomie. Estrangement, hurt, rancor, alienation from the world, can, in the other-than-wise, be misinterpreted as, and assigned to, a failure of their tradition. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe second of the four sons, the wicked child, asks “What does this ritual mean to \u003ci\u003eyou\u003c\/i\u003e?” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe is wicked in that his question is rhetorical—it is not even a request for information; it is an assault. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe wicked Jewish child removes himself from his tradition, and sets up as a rationalist and judge of those who would study, learn, and belong. Here is a joke for him. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe Minsker apikoros met the Pinsker apikoros. “I challenge your claim to preeminence,” said the Minsker; “defend your excellence as an apikoros. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I’m not sure I believe in God,” said the Pinkser.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eI’m \u003c\/i\u003enot sure \u003ci\u003eI \u003c\/i\u003ebelieve in God,” replied the Minsker. “\u003ci\u003eAnd \u003c\/i\u003eI eat pork, I work on Shabbos, and I never go to shul.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“You aren’t an apikoros,” said the Pinsker. “You’re a goy.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe third son is the simple son, who asks simply, “Ma Hu?” or “What \u003ci\u003eis \u003c\/i\u003ethis?” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWe are told to tell him, “It is with a mighty hand that Hashem took us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA borscht belt joke: Why did the Jews wander forty years in the desert? Because they wouldn’t ask directions. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis is good, accurate ethnic humor; but it is not true that the Jews wandered forty years. They spent five weeks journeying between the Sea of Reeds and the Jordan River. Where Moses sent out the scouts. The scouts returned and said that the giants inhabited the land, that the scouts looked to themselves as grasshoppers and that they felt that so they must seem in the eyes of the giants. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eRabbi Finley teaches that this sin, of lack of faith, this inability to change, kept the Israelites in the desert, until God saw that the generation of the desert had died off, that time had killed the sin of acceptance of Slavery. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA new generation had been born that had never seen Egypt, and these people were educable and simple enough to ask, “What is this?” \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe fourth child is he who does not know how to ask. For him, one is supposed to open the discussion. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTo the wicked son, who asks, “What does all this mean to \u003ci\u003eyou\u003c\/i\u003e?” To the Jews who, in the sixties, envied the Black Power Movement; who, in the nineties, envied the Palestinians; who weep at \u003ci\u003eExodus \u003c\/i\u003ebut jeer at the Israel Defense Forces; who nod when Tevye praises tradition but fidget through the seder; who might take their curiosity to a dogfight, to a bordello or an opium den but find ludicrous the notion of a visit to the synagogue; whose favorite Jew is Anne Frank and whose second-favorite does not exist; who are humble in their desire to learn about Kwanzaa and proud of their ignorance of Tu Bi’Shvat; who dread endogamy more than incest; who bow the head reverently at a baptism and have never attended a bris—to you, who find your religion and race repulsive, your ignorance of your history a satisfaction, here is a book from your brother.Jewish Encounters","brand":"Schocken","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299880423653,"sku":"NP9780805211573","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780805211573.jpg?v=1767742206","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-wicked-son-isbn-9780805211573","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}