Isaac & Ishmael: A West Wing Special
It took me a while, these past few weeks, overseas, In Israel, and here at home. It took a while to figure out what was going on and why I felt so strongly, feelings that seem to move, strangely, in too many directions at once.
It wasn’t until President Biden’s speech in Israel, and his warnings about the mistakes our country made earlier this century, that it clicked for me. Because we’ve been here before, certainly. But more specifically I’ve been here before.
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Written Format*
It took me a while, these past few weeks, overseas, In Israel, and here at home. It took a while to figure out what was going on and why I felt so strongly, feelings that seem to move, strangely, in too many directions at once.
It wasn’t until President Biden’s speech in Israel, and his warnings about the mistakes our country made earlier this century, that it clicked for me.
We’ve been here before, certainly, but more specifically I’ve been here before.
I remember those first few weeks after 9/11. How kids carried posters calling for vengeance in our school’s hallways. Some teachers made crystal clear references to Pearl Harbor. Other teachers mentioned. JFK, and said we’d always remember where we were when we heard the news. The JROTC kids suddenly walked with more purpose, and kids talked openly about joining up to fight for revenge, to rescue America’s honor.
Muslims at the time in America were terrified, not that there were really any Muslims in my high school. There were barely any Jews. But Bowling Green, KY where I grew up, was a resettlement location for Bosnian refugees in the mid-90s, Muslims among them, so our town had a larger than expected community that like Muslims all over America was suddenly forced to display their Americanism, just as a defensive measure to make sure people knew which side they stood with.
But history didn’t stop there, and I also remember something that happened a few weeks later, something surprising.
In September 2001, Aaron Sorkin’s Emmy winning hit show The West Wing was about to start its third season. Like many shows, they delayed their season premiere while America mourned, but unlike most shows, Aaron Sorkin—who is Jewish, by the way—used that time to make a radical statement, about the strength of American values in the face of adversity. He gathered his cast, wrote a barebones script that jettisoned most of the shows norms—with just two storylines instead of four, and no walk and talks…a standard for any Aaron Sorkin show.
Isaac and Ishmael premiered three weeks after 9/11, in place of the shows third season premiere which CBS agreed to delay for an additional week. The episode had the highest viewership of any West Wing episode during the show’s seven season run, and it was the most watched show on television in American that week.
Isaac and Ishmael largely focused on two scenes—one, where the White House security apparatus tracks down a totally innocent Muslim man,Mr. Ali, who’s working in the Outer Executive Office Building is detained, because his name also happens to be an alias used by a person named during interrogation by suspected terrorist. This mostly involves Leo McGary, the fictional Chief of Staff, interrogating the man. It gets pretty racist pretty fast.
The rest of the episode depicts Josh Lyman, trapped in the White House mess with his witty assistant Donna, and a couple dozen high schoolers who won essay contests to meet him. They’re stuck while Leo is figuring out if he accidentally hired a terrorist, and they use the time to dig into the stickiness of terrorism, Islamaphobia, American values, and the much more basic question of how a country can ever make sure its citizens feel safe. Characters from the show pop into the mess for a cup of coffee while they push the conversation forward.
It’s a pretty great episode. Josh compares Islamic jihad to the Klan, saying “extremism is to Islamic as KKK is to Christianity,” while making the case that Islam and Islamic terrorism are totally different. Toby, the shows most overtly Jewish character, pops into the mess saying “kill them all,” meaning everyone who bothers him, before quickly walking that statement backwards. It’s a classic Toby rant.
“I mean everyone. You’re all bothering me, I want to be left alone, clearly the only way for that to happen is for me to be alone so I’m sorry but I’m going to have to let you all go. Except the Yankees and the Knicks. The Yankees and the Knicks are going to need someone to play, so we’ll keep the Red Sox and the Lakers. And the Laker girls. And the Palm, and of course we’ll need to keep the people who work at the Palm. But that’s it’s though, the Yankee, the Red Sox, the Lakers , the Laker girls and anyone who works at the Palm. Sports, girls and a well prepared steak that all I need. Except I like to mix it up with Italian every now and then. Or Chinese. Okay fine you can all stay, but just remember I was this close to banishing you.”
“Bad people can’t be recognized on sight,” he says, “it’s not worth trying.”
This week’s Torah portion contains a lot of challenging material in our current crisis. We meet Abraham, and watch as he grows his family, settling in new lands held by hostile tribes. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, is actually kidnapped this week, by a group of kings who invaded Sodom.
A fugitive brought the news to Abram the Hebrew, who was dwelling at the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, kinsman of Eshkol and Aner, these being Abram’s allies.
When Abram heard that his kinsman’s [household] had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers, born into his household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
At night, he and his servants deployed against them and defeated them; and he pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his kinsman Lot and his possessions, and the women and the rest of the people.
Or HaChaim, the 18th century Moroccan commentator offers a poignant analysis of Lot’s capture as a direct and intentional assault on Abraham.
The reason the Torah adds that Lot was Abraham's nephew and that he lived in Sodom, something we have known for a long time, is to tell us that these kings were very well aware of who Lot was. This did not deter them from taking Lot captive. The Torah stresses that these kings deliberately ignored the fact that they were provoking a man of international repute when they took his nephew into captivity. None of this would have happened to Lot had he not chosen to live in Sodom. The matter can be compared to Israel capturing a substantial part of Moab though G'd had forbidden Israel to provoke war with Moab or to attack it (Deut. 2,9). Once the Emorite king Sichon had defeated Moab in war, the lands captured by Sichon were no longer considered as Moabite territory, and Israel took possession of them. Here too, once Lot had chosen to throw in his lot with the Sodomites he was no longer considered as part of Abraham's entourage, and was not entitled to the protection Abraham could have afforded him. This also explains why Abraham did not try to secure Lot's release by peaceful means. He knew that the 4 kings knew very well whom they had taken prisoner. If Lot's relationship with Abraham had not stopped them, there was no point for Abraham to warn those kings before attacking them. Lot's capture was a hostile act against Abraham.
The West Wing ends in about the same place the Torah does this week, with the story of a woman desperate to have children. Stockard Channing, who plays First Lady Dr. Abigail Bartlett, delivers the final parable, juxtaposed against the scene where White House security realizes they’ve made a mistake, and lets Mr. Ali go.
“How did this all start?” Asks one of the teenagers hanging out with Josh. “Sarah,” replies Abby, before recounting the tale of Sarah and Hagar, and the birth of Ishmael, who are subsequently cast out by Sarah. God promises to make Abraham and Hagar’s child the father of twelve chieftains, and a great nation,
“But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac,” says the Torah, “whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”
“And so it began,” finished Abby Bartlett, “the Jews the sons of Isaac, the Arabs the sons of Ishmael.”
I’ll finish this week with a rant by the one and only Josh Lyman, who summarizes the episode’s lessons, and sets the tone for what Aaron Sorkin is trying to say to a grieving nation.
“But don’t worry about this right now.... Learn things. Be good to each other. Read the newspapers, go to the movies, go to a party, read a book. In the meantime, remember pluralism. You want to get these people? You really want to reach in and kill them where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. It makes them absolutely crazy. Go.”
And with that, I wish you a Shabbat shalom.
*written formats may differ slightly from the podcast recording
