Claire Fisher takes a foot ... and the Torah has a comment

Last weekend I trekked to Berkeley on Sunday afternoon to watch an episode of HBO's "Six Feet Under" at Congregation Netivot Shalom. Why not simply mosey to Blockbuster or add the show to my Netflix queue?

Because the screening was accompanied by Torah learning. Strange but true. And very, very cool.

I don't want to get too in depth with the class, which is fairly well-outlined in my column this week, and which you should read if you haven't already. It's okay, you can read it now and come back to this post. I'll wait around for you.

Welcome back. Hope you enjoyed the column. So, to continue. After watching the hilarious, thought-provoking and tragic episode, we talked about a tiny detail in the episode -- the guy who accidentally switches on the industrial bread mixer, killing his janitor boss. What does Judaism say about accidental killers?

This is the richest element for Jewish conversation, said the teacher, Jhos Singer, a maggid (spiritual leader).

The Book of Numbers tells us about the establishment of “cities of refuge” to which accidental killers can flee to a place that would protect him from avengers so that he would “not die until he stands before the assembly of judgment.”

Yet archeologists have never found evidence that these cities existed.

Another interpretation, though, is that the “cities of refuge” are interpersonal. A supportive family, a loving partner, a best friend — all of whom can lift us up when we have made a terrible mistake.

We spent a lot of time talking about who needs a city of refuge and why. We read an essay by a woman who was just 22 years old when she accidentally hit a child with her car and killed the young boy. She was devastated. Now a psychologist in her 50s, she reflects upon how she needed a city of refuge in the aftermath of the accident, and about the many ways the incident affected her adult life (she no longer drives, and she decided against becoming a parent after obsessing over the many ways in which children can get hurt).

She writes about her own experience just days after an 87-year-old man accidentally drove his car into a farmer's market in Los Angeles and killed 10 people. She argues that jail is rarely the best way to treat an accidental killer. She writes: "Might it be more productive to follow the example of the Torah and reflect on our failures as a community, such as the lack of transportation alternatives to driving for the elderly?"

But accidental killers are not always borne out of carelessness or even a fatal mistake behind the wheel, as one man in the class pointed out. He recalled how his sister died of kidney failure when she was just 17 years old -- and their father was a kidney specialist. He couldn't imagine the pain his parents endured, and thought the idea of a city of refuge was beautiful. His parents couldn't find one and turned to alcohol instead.

The class was ultimately thought-provoking and wonderfully creative (thanks Jhos). It is amazing the myriad of ways the Torah connects to our contemporary lives, problems and hearts.

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