The Bible... in Brief
Parental Advisory: The following program may be unsuitable for younger viewers.
May contain adult themes, violence and strong language.
DAVID CONN Special to The Jewish News
hey could never get Torah on television. Too
much violence. Way too much religion. And
full frontal nudity in the opening scene! It
would never fly.
But if producer Aaron ("Melrose Place') Spelling
took a crack at it, he'd find action aplenty: plagues,
_Hoods, plots, murders, courtships and such.
To be honest, there are some dry bits, too. A lot of rules about
sheep, plus the lineages of people with names like Abidan and
Ammishaddai.
But somewhere in there are the fundamentals of morality and
ethics as we understand them. This ancient text — sometimes con-
tradictory, often odd to modern sensibilities, occasionally lumines-
cent — is the cornerstone that for more than 4,000 years has sup-
ported the edifice called Judaism. This is the stuff Jews are made of,
our reason for being as a people and our guidebook to a future full
of hope and promise.
What follows are TV Guide-style program notes for "Sinai: The
Series," a Torah yearpreview of coming attractions for the MTV
Generation:
Bereshit/Genesis
Bereshit, Genesis 1:1-6:8
And what a beginning! God creates
the world (God alone, mind you,
compared with the pagans' gods in
every rock and tree), and sanctifies a
weekly day of rest. He creates man
and woman, who commit the first
sin, with the help of a talking snake,
and get expelled to somewhere east of
Eden to toil upon the land.
Dysfunctional family episode No.
1: In a riveting followup chapter,
Cain slays Abel in a fit of sibling jeal-
ousy, and asks, "Am I my brother's
keeper?" (The answer is yes, for those
who missed school that day.)
Noach, Genesis 6:9-11:32
Frustrated — again — with the
immorality of His creatures, He
destroys the world by flood, all except
David Conn is the assistant editor
of the Baltimore Jewish Times.
his own skin (the Pharaoh later pays
them both to leave town when he
finds out the truth).
Vayera, Genesis 18:1-22:24
Abraham sets a Jewish precedent by
arguing with God over the fate of
Sodom and Gomorrah, but to no
avail. Lot's wife looks back to where
two of her daughters are doomed,
and is turned into salt.
Also, God uses tough love and
tests Abraham's willingness to sacrifice
his son. Imagine your own child
looking up at you from the chopping
block, your hand raised to strike.
"Here is the fire and the wood," Isaac
says, all unsuspecting innocence, "but
where is the lamb ...?" We know the
ending: God provides a ram, and
makes human sacrifice taboo — a
moral breakthrough, in its day.
Chayey Sarah, Genesis 23:1-25:18
Abraham buys a burial plot in
Hebron for his family. Match made C
in heaven: Abraham's servant, in
search of a principled bride for Isaac,
finds Rebecca at the well, where she
gives him a drink, and waters his
the moral Noah and his family. But
He repents by promising never to do
it again, and sets the rainbow in the
sky as a sign of His fidelity.
Lech Lecha, Genesis 12•1-17:27
God stops trying to reform the whole
human race at once; instead, He picks
one man, Abram, to build a nation
that can spread God's message of
morality throughout the world. A
heavy burden for a humble farmer,
but he takes up the challenge,
changes his name to Abraham, moves
to Canaan and even submits to the
first circumcision (at age 99, no less)
— the permanent sign among the
Jewish people of their covenant with
God.
Dysfunctional family episode No.
2: Abraham, the Jews' patriarch, actu-
ally sells his wife, Sarah (the first of
two times), to the Pharaoh, pretend-
ing they are brother and sister, to save
r