Shabbat
(4/19/2019) 39 min
Summarized by Michelle Llewellyn (2020)
Cast
Shahar Isaac
Simon Peter
Jonathan Roumie Jesus
Elizabeth Tabish Mary Magdalene
Paras Patel
Matthew
Noah James Andrew
Janis Dardaris Zohara
Lara
Silva Eden
Shaan
Sharma Shmuel
Nick Shakoour Zebedee
George Xanthis John
Shayan Sobhian James
and Erick Avari Nicodemus
Directed/Produced and Written by Dallas Jenkins
Chinnereth, 948 B.C.
(Chinnereth, according to Google,
was the Old Testament name for this same area-the Sea of Galilee region)
Exterior, dusk, a camp-like setting for Bedouins where tents
have been set up in a sheltered ravine: animals bleat, fires crackle and the
low hum of people talking pleasantly as they prepare for an important evening
meal that will begin after the first star is sighted in the sky. A young boy
named Eli talks with a woman who looks WAY too young be called “Savta” or
“Grandmother” who teaches him why tonight marks the start of weekly Shabbat, a
day to honor God, family, friends, even strangers and, of course, their people
and all of God’s works. She lights a few candles on the table while they talk.
The star appears. The woman’s husband recites the “Eshet Chayil” or ode to
women or even better known as Proverbs 31 “Who can find a virtuous woman…”
Parents place their hands on the heads of their children and bless them (Think Sabbath Prayer from “Fiddler on the
Roof”)
Cut to everyone sitting at the tables laden with bread and
fruit, passing jugs and pouring out the wine while a “Saba” (again he also
looks too young to be a Grandfather!) recites the scriptures of why God rested
on the Sabbath day and sanctified it-as they are doing now. The sixth day and the heaven and earth and
all their hosts were completed. And God finished by the seventh day all His
work that he had done. Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe.
From all His work that God created to function. He creates the fruit of the
vine. Amen. All respond, “Amen.”
Opening Credits
City of Capernaum AD 26
Apparently there were beauty salons in ancient Capernaum.
Two women sit getting their hair braided and styled. Mary enters from a back
room and is invited to finish braiding this customer. Mary blushes, hesitates,
but her friend encourages her to try, she’s seen her talent, come. Mary
complies. A flower would set this simple hairdo off perfectly. Mary knows just
the one and exits through the curtain into the busy market square to pick one.
A man sees her; he is dressed like a Pharisee or some kind of holy man.
Quintus is not thrilled a Jewish tax collector and his Roman
centurion escort are here to bother him with questions about a man named Simon
supposedly hired by Quintus to spy on Jewish merchant vessels fishing on
Shabbat to avoid taxation-is this true? The tax collector asks.
Why yes, this
is true, is the brusque answer. Goodbye! But Matthew has more to say and while
he could die just for suggesting Quintus might
have made a bad deal, Quintus signals for the Roman soldier to lower his sword.
He is impressed by the audacity and integrity of this common Jewish tax
collector. He asks his name and lets Matthew know he may summon him in the
future for more information on this Jew he made the deal with. We also learn in
this episode that Matthew is estranged from his family and will be observing
Shabbat alone tonight.
Cut to the tavern where Simon is buying a round of drinks
for his merchant friends which Sol sets down for them. Thanks Sol! More friends
enter such as James and John, sons of the wealthy merchant Zebedee. Simon
teases them, “The Hammer is serving minors now, eh?” Glad-handing completed, Simon
joins his brother, Andrew, at a small table in the corner while the merchants
begin their games of chance, still jovial over their drinks but Andrew is not
so jovial. Simon shouldn’t act so carefree and happy either, he warns his
brother, but Simon just shrugs and grins. This is going to work. He has a plan.
Nicodemus sits at a desk in the Torah room of the school,
intent on his study of a large parchment about demons and exorcism. We don’t
have to wonder why. Shmuel enters, excited. The Sanhedrin of Capernaum, the Av
Beit Din himself has requested the presence of the honorable Rabbi Nicodemus of
the great Jerusalem Sanhedrin who offered rites to a woman in the Red Quarter.
Nicodemus goes with Shmuel to the room where these men meet and is astonished
to learn the news. The woman is healed! A certain priest saw her himself in the
marketplace. She is redeemed, restored, radiant! Jerusalem must hear of this
great miracle at once. Nicodemus is reticent; he would like to find and talk to
this woman first before anyone starts summoning her for questioning and make a
fuss over her. Perhaps she is not completely restored. He would like to make
his own investigation. Permission is granted.
Entering his boudoir Nicodemus sees his wife, Zohara,
applying makeup and other cosmetics (such as they were in ancient times,
including some kind of glitter to sprinkle over her hairdo) readying herself
for tonight’s special Shabbat dinner where her husband, the great “teacher of
teachers” will be leading the Shabbat for all the important people attending. Nicodemus sighs for he would rather study up more on exorcism but he doesn’t say that
to his wife.
Mary found some Shabbat candles at the market as she enters the
salon to show her friends who are busy tidying up and organizing the main room.
All customers have gone and they appear to be closed for the rest of the day. Mary
is hosting a Shabbat dinner tonight and hasn’t kept this observance in years;
she’s already getting a little stressed out. She barely remembers how to do it.
Her two friends assure her she’ll do fine but if she really is hosting she’d
better get out of here as preparations will likely take her the rest of the
afternoon: bread to bake and sweeping the house for starters. Shabbat Shalom they all smile and
exchange the blessing and Mary exits.
She steps out into the market square and nearly runs into
Nicodemus who is astonished to have found and recognized her. It’s you! She is
obviously healed but she probably doesn’t even remember him. He introduces
himself, explains he’s the Pharisee who ministered to her. Looking
uncomfortable, Mary pulls her veil up to cover her nicely arranged dark hair
but Nicodemus brushes off the action. He’s not here to enforce Jewish law. He
heard she experienced a miracle and, if she’d be so kind, he wants to hear all
about it. Please.
Mary gets a little emotional. It was all a blur, what
Nicodemus tried to do, she barely remembers but it was someone else who healed
her. He called her by name, the name she was born with. She is not “Lilith”
anymore, she is Mary. This man redeemed her. She doesn’t even know his name
only that he told her, His time for men to know (him) has not yet come. She was
one way but now she is completely different and all that happened in between
was HIM.
Nicodemus is incredulous hearing this. Someone else healed her! Remarkable! Would she know this man if she
saw him again? Mary replies she will know Him for the rest of her life. Now, if
you’ll excuse her, she needs to get home to prepare for the Shabbat dinner she
is hosting. Shabbat Shalom Nicodemus.
Marveling, he lets her go murmuring his own blessing at her departing figure.
Simon tries to woo his wife, Eden, who is chopping
cucumbers, rather savagely, as her husband comes up behind her in the humble
kitchen area of their dwelling. Something is up with her husband and she doesn’t
like it. She’s suspicious. Yes, they have food for their Sabbath dinner tonight
but how? He hasn’t taken a catch to market in days, weeks, why won’t he tell
her what’s he’s up to? Simon merely regrets he has to go out on the lake
tonight. Just trust him, please. Eden glares. If he is up to no good, and it
wouldn’t be the first time, he will have more than just God to answer to.
In a fine dining room, decorated with expensive and rare
artwork including a very old tapestry which Nicodemus admires, guests are
welcomed in for the great dinner. Zohara listens to her learned husband explain
the history behind this tapestry and smiles before reminding him it is almost
time to start. All the guests seat themselves at the table.
Mary is laying her own humble table. This room is NOT the
same room in which we first met her in the pilot episode (so she must’ve moved
to a more respectable neighborhood outside the Red Quarter!) The Shabbat
candles are lit, the bread is covered, there are bowls and plates set and a
flower in a small cup for decoration.
A knock at the door. Her friend Barnaby
and a blind woman named Shula are both welcomed in but as Mary turns to close
the door, two men are there. They hope this is the place they heard about. They
are James and Thaddeus and may they impose on her? Mary is more than gracious
to have them and invites them in, shutting the door. Her guests seat themselves
around her small table. She nervously shows them the extra place she set out
for Elijah, she remembers her mother doing something like that, is that right?
(This viewer also chuckles at the naivety, even I know Jews only do that at
Passover, not every Sabbath) She is gently corrected and another pleasant joke
is made so there is no tension. Mary looks at her notes, yes she can read, her
father taught her.
Just as she is about to begin, (The first star is out? Okay,
good) leading the Shabbat blessings and prayers, there is a second knock at the
door.
IT IS HIM!!! (Again)
Mary stutters a hello. Jesus smiles warmly, good to see you
again, Mary.
Awkward beat until Jesus asks if he might…you know…come in? Mary
laughs nervously remembering where she is and what she is doing. Of course he
can come in and join the dinner. The two disciples greet their Rabbi who hopes
they have been minding their manners. Jesus takes the empty place at the foot
of the table originally set for Elijah (very appropriate!) and as Barnaby and
Shula introduce themselves, Mary reminds her newest guest she doesn’t even know
his name.
“I am Jesus…of Nazareth” he adds. Barnaby jokes that something good
CAN come out of Nazareth. Barnaby laughs but nobody else does. Jesus winks at him
before inviting Mary to begin. Still looking uncomfortable she sits at the head
of the table and reads from her parchment and we cut to Nicodemus leading the
recitations and prayers at his fancy table, Simon kissing Eden seated at their Shabbat
table with Andrew before leaving, Matthew eating alone in a deserted alley from
his humble soup bowl with only his dog for company.
Mary V/O but we also hear some of the other voices such as
Nicodemus also reciting the same words from time to time during the montage:
Genesis 2:1 And the heavens and the earth
were completed and all their hosts and God completed on the seventh day His
work that He did. And God abstained on the seventh day from all the work he
did. And God blessed the seventh day and He hallowed it, for thereon, he
abstained from all the work that God created to do.
Jewish Prayer from Torah:
Blessed are you Lord our God Ruler of the Universe who creates the fruit of the
vine. You have lovingly and willingly given us your Shabbat as an inheritance
in memory of creation. Because this is the first day of our holy assemblies in
memory of the Exodus from Egypt. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the
universe who brings forth bread from the earth. Amen.
All at Mary’s table: Amen
And Jesus too: Amen
Cut to Simon standing on the shore of the lake in the
moonlight alone. Behind him approach Roman soldiers with their torches and red
capes. A boat stands ready to launch. This story arc will continue in Episode 4
“The Rock”
Comments
Post a Comment