The Decalogue Blog

 Midrash refers to a genre of Jewish literature. Included are interpretations, explanations, and expansions on the biblical texts. This is a thought provoking way of exploring and understanding the deeper meanings and teachings within the scriptures. The film works as a visual medium of Midrash through its symbolic, disruptive and thought provoking concepts that forces a deeper thinking to find deeper meaning. Midrash is taking a deeper look into the circumstances and context as we see it and then determine the full meaning.         

     The Term Midrash is a way of approaching the text of The Torah. The term “crash” means seek out, request or examine. It is a disruptive way of understanding the Torah. Today, Midrash is poetic in nature. 

     The man in the first film wouldn’t ride his horse because it was Saturday. The Jewish people celebrate the Sabbath Saturday, which is to be a day of rest and prayer. The man happened to be a Rabbi. The rabbi refuses to ride on the day of the Sabbath, even though the posse was catching up to them. According to Jewish Law, he can only ride when the sunsets. The Rabbi is sacrificing his safety for the sake of following the Jewish Law. So the Rabi knelt down so the sun would go down for him. Allowing him to ride his horse and get out of danger and away from the posse. This Rabi had faith in following his Jewish Law, did the right thing and he was in the end, safe. Jewish Law must be followed correctly in order to avoid sin. Sabbath desecration, is the failure to observe the Sabbath, and is considered a sin. A breach of a holy day in relation to either the Jewish Shabbat (Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall), the Sabbath in Seventh-Day Churches or to the Lord’s Day (Sunday), which is recognized as the Christian’s Sabbath. 

The first commandment 

“Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”

In the film the Little boy asks his father, “why do people die?”  The dad answers, “people die because of disease”. In this film we are to believe the Father believes in science over a higher being. Science decides whether we live or die. Consequently, The Father put his faith in science and it failed him. He believed his calculations were right about the thickness of the ice and being safe for his son to skate on. Unfortunately, the Father made the wrong choice, the ice broke and the boy fell in and died. In the movie, the computer was thought to be the all knowing god. 

     The visuals lead us to question and try to understand the scenes that we are watching. In Decalogue 5, the producers use the filters strategically to represent what each character may be thinking. In the scene where Jacek is focusing on murdering the taxi driver, the background becomes darker. The viewer is lead to believe that Jacek is maniacally focused on his premeditated murder. God told Jacek not to kill the taxi driver, but he did it anyway. He knew and was told it was wrong and he intentionally killed the man. This is considered a mortal sin, this is how I saw Jacek’s actions. To know something is wrong in the eyes of The Lord, Our Faith, Our culture, Our community and take the Life away from another human being is the most horrible sin. 

      

Commandment number 6 is Thou Shalt not Kill or Murder 

Human beings have a choice between right and wrong. With this choice that God has given to us, there remain Consequences based on your choice. The Freedom of Choice is a gift from God. The problem is Jacek knew what he was about to do was wrong and didn’t change his Choice. With this comes dire consequences. 

    In the law's perspective when the guy killed the taxi driver it was considered wrong and so according to law, the state must kill him. However, this makes the state perform an act against another human being that they know is wrong. This is a difficult concept to see clearly. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

     We know these movies were going to be more about feelings. Kieslowski reiterates the fact that all human beings can relate to each other through feelings, passions, love and fear. These concepts are relatable among all human beings.  Kieslowski said, “It very quickly became clear that these would be films about feelings and passions, because we knew that love, or the fear of death, or the pain caused by a needle-prick, are common to all people, irrespective of their political views or color of their skin”. 

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