Directed by the famous Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai, whose films have entered the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival numerous times, Kadosh is a 1999 feature fiction film depicting the Haredi society lifestyle and its traditions, as well as the tragedies its members may sometimes face in their observant lives. Kadosh takes it to the extremes, submerging the viewer into the vital problems of men and women, who live in the Mea Shearim district of Jerusalem and choose or are forced to choose the path of the ultra-Orthodox Judaism. The plot develops around the lives of two sisters, Malka and Rivka. Rivka is a happily married woman, who is lucky to be in the relationship with a loving husband Meir, a strictly observant ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, whose main daily activity involves praying and the religious studies of Torah and Talmud. The couple is married for already ten years, but has yet failed to produce an offspring and is now forced to separate, so that Meir can have another shot at having children with a different woman according to the Jewish law. In the eyes of the society and Meir’s father, who is a rabbi, Rivka is seen purely as a vessel, an instrument that serves her man and whose only duties are to clean the house, to prepare meal and to produce as many children as possible, so that in future they can strengthen the Haredi forces, fight the enemies and ensure a strictly observant society and righteous Jewry. This misogynistic perception of women as second-class citizens is vividly shown in the very first scene of the movie, when Meir thanks God for not creating him as a woman. Childless Rivka is considered a dead woman with no use for this world. Interesting detail at this point is that Haredi men and women are forbidden to attend secular hospitals and be treated according to the modern medicine. Not only this feature is portrayed in the scene, where Rivka secretly attends the doctor to find out that she is fertile, which in turn means her husband is sterile and cannot have children with any woman at all. But also throughout the movie the women discuss the traditional non-medical ways to find out whether they can or cannot conceive a child at any particular period of month. Unfortunately Rivka can neither tell her husband about her findings, nor ask him to get examined at the hospital, as both actions are considered a flagrant violation of the Jewish law.
On the other hand there is the second sister Malka, who is unmarried and has long been in love with Yaakov, an observant Jewish man, who was once a member of the community, but then left to serve in the Israeli Army in Lebanon, and after returning home could not be accepted back due to the violation of the religious laws and beliefs of the Haredim. This episode reveals an interesting and a very important feature about the Haredi notion of military service and of the State of Israel in general. The point is that although the members of this group live on the territory of Israel, most of them being anti-Zionists, they neither acknowledge, nor support the existence of the country. This belief seems rather controversial, as the Israeli army protects the country and its inhabitants and in reality serves the Haredim as well. Moreover, not only Yaakov is deemed as a traitor and defiant, but all other Jews, who do not strictly observe Jewish laws, are considered enemies equally with the non-Jewish people. Yaakov decides to choose life outside the community and be faithful to his beliefs, while still remaining observant. Malka, who struggles with her feelings towards the traditional Haredi view on the role of women in the community, the role of love in the marriage and the role of progress in the closed religious society, tragically succumbs to her family’s will and marries Yossef, a zealot, whose only positive feature is his fierce commitment and dedication to praising God. Malka and Rivka both agree that the Haredi women are forbidden to study holy texts to prevent the possible negative consequences for the chauvinistic world of Mea Shearim. Malka, who visits the neighboring districts of Jerusalem, questions the prescription to stay away from progress and such products of the modern world as TV and radio. However, born and raised in this community, she at first tries to be optimistic and loyal to her upbringing and family, agreeing to marry Yossef despite her will. One of the most significant scenes in Kadosh is her monologue, where Malka says that she doesn’t like to cook and clean, but she will be studying to be able to earn money to make a living for her family, while her husband will be able to study Jewish laws his whole life. Then she will shave her head and spend her whole life pregnant. This is an important detail in comprehending the Haredi lifestyle, where women make a living for the family, do chores and raise children, while men are committed to their insular studies. Amos Gitai exaggerates the pseudo-righteousness of the men by showing an episode in the Yeshiva, where Meir and Yossef seriously discuss the only true way to make tea during Shabbat without breaching the Jewish law that forbids brewing at the holiday. This scene is obviously aimed at revealing the sometimes useless to the point of being ridiculous activities of the zealots. Thus, the three main themes featured in Kadosh include the tragic conflict between the feelings and the obligations of the members of the ultra-Orthodox religious society; the struggle between the modern and progressive and the obsolete and conservative; and most importantly the role of women in the traditional conservative and religious societies.
The Kadosh movie has been created as a somewhat exaggerated outward glance at the outdated lifestyle of the strictly conservative minority group of people. When the world community is headed in the direction of asserting, maintaining and strengthening of human rights and women’s rights in particular, the existence of such a secluded conservative group in the very heart of a young democratic Middle-Eastern country is largely seen as not only a threat to the social and political stability, but also as a hardly understandable phenomenon. This being said, the religious traditions have always remained in force, disregarding the name of the religion. The specific role of women in the religious communities has been forming throughout the centuries and in case of Judaism throughout the millennia. Taking into account that the power of men in these societies is ultimately high, the rights of women are naturally diminished, and the Haredi society is just another example. It is a known fact that strong legal women’s rights, including women’s suffrage, are quite a recent development of our modern society. Another natural development is the interference of the human rights organizations in the state of affairs in the communities where the women’s rights are massively violated. According to the religious women’s rights group Kolech: “The fact that in the name of Jewish law, women are excluded from the public realm, contradicts the value of human dignity and the perspective that women, like men, were created in the image of God” (Sharon, 2012). At the same time it is important to keep in mind that the film is a specific tool of expression and the extreme nature of the plot is designed specifically to capture the viewers’ attention to the issue. Many Haredi women are strictly observing the Jewish laws by choice and feel blessed to be a part of their small community. This phenomenon exists in almost every religion, when women choose to stay in the conservative society and abandon their secular legal rights to exercise the religious rights and obligations.
Another vital issue of the Haredi society existence is the economic part. Not only women have to earn money for the whole family, but the community also enjoys the subsidies from the country. Needless to say that the Israeli taxpayers are not satisfied with the state of affairs, when sometimes aggressive members of Haredi society publicly announce the whole nation an enemy, while partly living on the money of the citizens.
Judaism being a very old religion and its zealots scattered all over the world observing different streams from Reform to ultra-Orthodox Judaism, it was very interesting to find out not only about the specific traditions of the culture, but also to comprehend it better by way of comparing the seemingly same paths of two sisters, who in the end choose different directions. On one hand the viewer understands and feels sympathy to Malka for being a part of the community that she would rather leave for good, and on the other hand the actions of Rivka prove that one can enjoy being a part of such a misogynistic society by basing their affiliation on the personal feelings of affection and commitment. Another interesting scene mentioned above about the discussion of the tea making between the two Yeshiva students shows the viewers that despite the visibility of the seriousness of the students and the studies, it does not necessarily mean that these activities are always useful and serious. The movie also features a series of detailed descriptions of the Jewish traditions including the morning prayer, the ritual bath, the wedding and the shaving of the married woman’s head. These details give a deep perspective of the lifestyle and make the viewer feel and understand the plot and the characters better.
Kadosh is directed in a specific manner, when scenes between and of the two loving people (Rivka and Meir) are slowed down to the extent when one can fully dive into the emotional empathy of the couple’s tragedy. The episodes with Yossef are extremely loud and harsh, while most of the scenes with Malka are bright, clear, pure and silent. These means helped the director make the right emphasis on the main themes of the plot and carry the viewer further and deeper into the tragic story. When watched for the first time, the movie invites the viewer’s aggression that peaks during the violent scene of the first wedding night of Malka and Yossef. Overall, Kadosh leaves a bitter taste with a sad understanding that the story is based if not on the real events, but at least on the observations and recollections of women of the Mea Shearim district. I would definitely recommend this movie to those people, who try to learn more about the diversity of the world societies, particularly to those people, who are interested in the religious studies and Judaism. However, I would not recommend this movie to those people, who have not learned about Judaism before, as the religion itself has a lot of beautiful aspects, especially of the traditional observant life, e.g. the weekly celebration of Shabbat and other holidays, and the viewer, who does not know much about this religion, may end up with a wrong perception of one of the oldest cultures of the world. The movie gives the right picture of the negative aspects of the community, but does not show the positive ones, thus, I can say that it is bias and will not provide the necessary extensive information and may distort the inexperienced viewer’s opinion.
All in all, the presence and socio-political activity of the Haredi community has a controversial effect on the modern society, with some Israeli people becoming more observant and others becoming less accepting, and it seems hard to evaluate the whole community based on one film, especially when there are many other films like Ushpizin by Gidi Dar that portray the society from a completely different point of view.
References
Gitai, A. (Director). (1999). Kadosh [Motion picture]. Israel: Kino on Video.
Sharon, J. (2012, August 29). Women's group sues haredi radio for discrimination.
www.JPost.com. Retrieved November 21, 2013, from http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Womens-group-sues-haredi-radio-for-discrimination
