The polytheistic origins of monotheistic Judaism

[Magical Realist]

15 minute history of the Jewish and Christian God based on archaeology and text analysis..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZY2eeozdo8

[C C]

The graphic for El Elyon (aka El Shaddai, Elohim) somewhat resembles a silhouette of Doctor Manhatten of the Watchmen (the comic book series). The graphics for Asherah and Baal are striking poses similar to superheroes or action figures.

The original superhero, and why Jerry Seinfeld was probably so fixated with him:

A nice Jewish boy from Krypton
https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-nice-jew...t-krypton/

EXCERPT: . . . Superman’s connection to Judaism was always there. As Tye recounts in his book, Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were childhood friends in Glenville, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. [...] Glenville boasted twenty-five Orthodox synagogues — living there during the 1930s was like living in Israel today.

[...] In the book, Tye makes analogies between Superman, and the biblical tale of Samson, who came forward to rescue the Israelites from enslavement by the Philistines. Tye further proclaims that part of the Superman mythology was inspired by no less than the Mishna and the Gemorra.

“The three legs of the Superman myth — truth, justice and the American way — are straight out of the Mishna,” Tye told the Times. “The world, the Mishna reads, endures on three things: truth, justice and peace. The explosion of Krypton conjures up images from the mystical Kabbalah, where the divine vessel was shattered and Jews were called on to perform tikkun olam by repairing the vessel and the world.”

Tye feels that Superman’s ties to Jewish culture and history harken back to the very origins of the character. “I find it had to believe that Superman wasn’t at least as Jewish as his creators,” he said. “Start with his rescue from Krypton: his parents floated him in space, and then the consummately gentile Kents rescued and raised him as their own. If that isn’t the story of Moses and Exodus I don’t know what is.

[...] “The baby’s birth name offers another clue: Kal-El, which in Hebrew roughly translates as a ‘vessel of God.’ Superman came to Earth with survivor’s guilt, he was the ultimate outsider, both of which conjure up for me, as I suspect they did for Jerry and Joe, classic sentiments of Diaspora Jews.”

And yet the character’s creators never overtly acknowledged their hero’s Judaism. “There are early stories about Superman going after Hitler and later-day ones about him rescuing Jews during the Holocaust, but no, nothing saying he was Jewish. Jerry and Joe weren’t, at that young age, confident enough to announce it. But Siegel’s next big comic character was Funnyman, who was overtly Jewish, and, I think, came at a time when Jerry no longer felt the need to just hint at his hero’s ethnic identity.”