Limmud Toronto 2019

The Haredi community in Shtisel is not the central subject, but one example of a wider issue in familial, political and religious constructions. The severely flawed central figure, Shulem, personifies the weakness of any patriarchal system. His authority severely damages his children's lives, even into adulthood, and severely harms his mother. His lying to others leads him to a tragic self-deception at the end of the second season. Son Akiva represents the opposite to authority, an open sensitivity that finds life in making art. The drama parallels religion and art as alternative discoveries of the eternal in the particular. As there is a spectrum among the artists there is a parallel spectrum among the parents and among the application of religious rules. The drama's myriad details combine to form a remarkable, elegant construction of interlocking ironies and reflections.