Ang Lee, the 58-year-old Oscar-winning director of “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” was understated and thoughtful recently as he settled into a velvet couch at the L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills. He had arrived to discuss his new film, “Life of Pi,” the story of the journey of Pi, a religious teenager from India whose entire family and the remnants of the family’s zoo sinks in a shipwreck, leaving Pi alone and adrift in a small boat, along with a tiger.
Lee brought up his memory of the last time we spoke, before the release of his 2009 film “Taking Woodstock,” a tale of hippies descending upon a Jewish resort in the Catskills to attend the legendary 1969 rock music festival. “That film was very Jewish,” the soft-spoken Lee said, with a quiet laugh. “And this new one, ‘Life of Pi’ is somewhat, a little bit Jewish as well.”
Based on Yann Martel’s 2001 best-selling novel, the film draws on imagery and motifs from the three religions Pi practices simultaneously — Hinduism, Catholicism and Islam — but its worldview is also influenced by the Old Testament and the Jewish mysticism of kabbalah. Lee said he specifically researched Rabbi Isaac Luria’s 16th-century concept of tsimtsum: how God, the infinite, created the world by opening up a vacuum within Himself. “In tsimtsum, God shrunk part of Himself in order to create the world,” Lee said. “God is perfect, but he had to shrink back to create as messy and imperfect a life as ours. It’s the essential energy of the universe.”
In the film, the sinking of the freighter, aptly named the Tsimtsum, literally and figuratively represents the stripping away of Pi’s sheltered previous life in his family’s Pondicherry zoo, as well as of the comforting religious concepts he had been taught, respectively, by his imam, priest and Hindu pandit. “On the lifeboat, Pi has no organized religion, no society, no priest or monk or any human being to tell him, ‘This is what is supposed to be.’ He is on his own,’ ” Lee said of Pi’s spiritual journey. “He’s always had faith in the abstract idea of God, but he has to be cast away to be tested, to test the strength of his faith.”
“It’s kind of like the story of Job,” the film’s screenwriter, David Magee, said during an interview at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel. “Pi finds himself questioning at every turn, why has God put these impediments in front of him, and not only through his suffering on the ocean, but then to put a tiger on the boat along with him. Yet the fear of what he must confront forces Pi into action that he might not have done otherwise. And, in the end, he comes to realize that without the tiger he probably would not have survived.”
The Old Testament power of the Divine is on display in some of the transcendent images in the film: Pi and his lifeboat are dwarfed by the stars shining above and reflecting in the water below, creating an immersion in a bowl-like universe; phosphorescent sea life glimmers magically on the vast night ocean, and, at one point, Pi loses all his supplies in a maelstrom worthy of Noah.
Director Ang Lee
Rabbi David Wolpe, who attended an early screening of the film, described the mythic character of the moment: “That scene reminded me the chaos of creation, and the tohu vavohu, the unformed void,” he said. “In the middle of nowhere, all of nature is intent on both displaying itself to [Pi] and destroying him.”
The filmmakers also were inspired by Steven Callahan, whose book “Adrift” chronicles Callahan’s 76 days as a castaway, and who became a consultant on the film. “Steven talked to us not only about the mechanics of survival but also the humility brought on by his journey,” Magee said. “It put him into both a profoundly awed respect for the universe and his very tiny place in it.”
Lee — who was raised as a Christian but now incorporates Buddhism and Hindu concepts into his personal faith — identifies with Pi’s journey because for much of his life he has felt proverbially at sea. The Chinese, like the Jews, have the concept of Diaspora, he said: “My parents escaped the Chinese revolution to Taiwan, and while we still felt we were authentically Chinese, we were outsiders there,” he recalled. While Lee considers himself an Asian filmmaker, his current home is in Larchmont, N.Y., and, “When I go back to China, I’m an outsider, too. So there’s a sense of being alien, adrift.”
“Life of Pi” merges Aesopian fable, varied religious motifs and wondrous 3-D graphics, but tackling the complex metaphysical film proved daunting for Lee, who signed on after the directors M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuaron and Jean-Pierre Jeunet dropped out of the project.
To write the screenplay, Lee turned to Magee (“Finding Neverland,” “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”) who first read Martel’s novel on the “Neverland” set about 10 years ago and described it as unfilmable. But he jumped at the chance, about four years ago, to tackle the movie when he learned that Lee would direct.
Lee and Magee began collaborating on the film in 2010, meeting daily for months in Lee’s Manhattan loft near Chinatown. Along the way, they embarked upon meticulous research not only into 3-D technology, which Lee believed would help viewers to “feel like an insider in Pi’s world,” but also on world religions — including mystical Judaism. (In the film, the middle-aged Pi, who serves as narrator, recounting his story to a journalist, reveals that he teaches kabbalah at a university near his home in Canada.)
The kabbalistic model of creation, the tree of life, with its 10 sefirot, was part of the research leading to the design of a tree that becomes Pi’s sleeping place when he and the tiger land on a lush island that appears to be an abundant Eden. “It’s there that God gives Pi some little, imperfect but closer insight into His nature, and of the nature of the universe,” Magee said. “It’s a very Judeo-Christian concept: ‘God giveth and God taketh away.’ ”
By day, the island is a nourishing land, filled with bounty, peace and comfort. By night, it all turns carnivorous and devouring — the other side of God. That duality plays out throughout the story, in the duality of the vegetarian Pi and the carnivorous tiger, the philosopher and the animal.”
The tiger, who has the unusual name of Richard Parker, becomes a metaphor for Pi’s animal nature, which he must embrace (and train) in order to brave the elements. “I don’t see the tiger as ‘the other,’ Lee said. “Even though on the surface, he is an obstacle Pi has to overcome, he is also the inner beast that must emerge for Pi to survive.”
Richard Parker, thus, is no cute and cuddly animal, but unabashedly vicious. “Ang was very firm about not wanting to anthropomorphize him,” said Magee, who drew from a real encounter with a ferocious tiger in India while writing the film. “I can’t describe the feeling of a tiger roaring at you from four feet away,” he said. “It goes through your body like a jet engine rumbling, and you feel it viscerally; you don’t so much hear it as you feel that beast touching you with its sound.”
Variety noted the film’s “warm-hearted plea for religious faith,” but Magee sees “Life of Pi” somewhat differently. “It’s more like a warm-hearted plea for faith in storytelling,” he said. “In religion, we tell stories to make sense of this incomprehensible universe, and we were writing about the power of different stories to help you connect to the world around you and how they can help you to organize the chaos.”
“Life of Pi” opens in theaters on Nov. 21.
, squeezed </strong><strong>out of its casing (optional)</strong></p>
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<strong>3 eggs</strong></p>
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<strong>1/8 cup chopped parsley</strong></p>
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<strong>2 1/2 cups Broth That Keeps Giving </strong></p>
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Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Wash mushrooms, pull off stems, and carefully remove brown “gills” underneath, using a paring knife. Slice into 1/2-inch cubes, arrange on one of the baking sheets, drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Add 20 grinds of the pepper mill.</p>
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Holding the thyme sprigs at one end, use the fingers of your other hand to gently slide down the stem, pulling off the leaves, and sprinkle the leaves on the mushrooms (discard thyme stems). Using your fingers, mix gently.</p>
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Remove feathery fronds from the fennel bulb, and cut bulb in half vertically (discard the fronds). Use a paring knife to carefully remove the triangularly shaped tough core. Cut the fennel into vertical slices about 1/4-inch thick and then again into 1/4-inch cubes.</p>
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Place fennel on the other baking sheet and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and add 20 grinds of the pepper mill. Using your fingers, mix gently. Put both baking sheets in preheated 400 F oven and roast for about 17 to 20 minutes. </p>
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To stale the bread: Place bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes at 375 F. Let cool. </p>
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To assemble the stuffing. In a large pan, over medium heat, melt 4 tablespoons duck fat or shmaltz. Saute onion, leeks, celery, sage and 1 teaspoon thyme leaves for about 7 minutes. Put in large bowl and set aside. If you are using chicken sausage, add 1 tablespoon duck fat or shmaltz to pan and saute sausage for about 4 minutes or until cooked through. Add it to the bowl.</p>
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Add the vegetable/herb/sausage mixture, bread, mushrooms, fennel, eggs, parsley and broth to the bowl; mix well. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper. Transfer to a 13×9-inch baking dish or deep casserole and dot with remaining 3 to 4 tablespoons duck fat or shmaltz.</p>
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Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes, until browned and crisp on top.</p>
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<em>Makes 8 servings.</em></p>
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</p>
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SUNSHINE PUMPKIN PIE WITH FLOURLESS PECAN CRUST</h3>
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” target=”_blank”>mealandaspiel.com.. Here you will find the rich and exotic history of chocolate-making, a guide to particularly enticing chocolate museums and plenty of recipes to satisfy the craving for chocolate. But Prinz also describes a journey of discovery as she and her husband (also a rabbi) follow the “heretofore unexplained links between religion and chocolate,” a delightful subtext of Jewish history in the Diaspora. The first Europeans to see cacao, for example, included the Jews and <em>Conversos</em> who sailed with Columbus, but even today, “One could say that Israelis are <em>meshuga </em>(crazy) for chocolate.” By the end of the book, we fully understand why one congregant penned a note to Deborah Prinz: “When I see chocolate …When I eat chocolate …When I read chocolate, I think of you.” </p>
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 by Ilan Stavans and Steve Sheinkin, a noirish graphic novel that opens with an enigmatic death scene in New Mexico and quickly morphs into a thriller about the crypto-Jews who fled the Inquisition and found shelter in the Southwest. “Crypto-Jewish families remained loyal to their faith in an age of oppression,” explains Stavans, who appears as a character in the comic book. “They are rebels with a loyalty to tradition, underdogs with an incredible story to tell.” Sheinkin is the author of the beloved Rabbi Harvey series, and Stavans is a professor of Latin American culture at Amherst; together, they embroider the mystery with plenty of history and not a little wry humor, too. The hero is Rolando, raised as a Catholic in Santa Fe, N.M., whose curiosity drives him ever deeper into a labyrinth where secrets that have been kept for centuries begin to emerge into the light. </p>
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 by Lisa Alcalay Klug is a high-spirited self-help book for Jewish women that draws deeply on the tradition of the Jewish joke. “You know you’re a Hot Mamalah,” writes Klug, “when the word ‘free’ is almost better than sex.” She offers a recipe for the Mamalita Margarita (“Alliterative cocktails,” she explains, “always promote a deep sense of well-being”) with a slight Jewish twist: “Kosher salt to coat rim.” Her prescription for “PMS, periods, pregnancy, and postpartum depression” is “a distraction in the shape of a power tool. Waterproof, cordless, (mildly) scandalous.” The best place to find a husband? “Israel Defense Forces” tops her list. And she is always supportive of her readers, whose anxieties and coping strategies she knows firsthand. “Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out,” goes the caption of one photograph, “but I can usually shut the bitch up with cookies!”</p>
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, edited by Franklin Foer and Marc Tracy, a glorious collection of essays by some of America’s most accomplished Jewish writers on the subject of sports in the very broadest sense. Here you will find David Remnick on broadcaster Howard Cosell, Simon Schama on pugilist Daniel Mendoza, Jonathan Safran Foer on chess master Bobby Fischer, Jane Leavy on Dodger pitcher Sandy Koufax, Deborah Lipstadt on the massacre at the Munich Olympics and much else besides. “Jewish Jocks” is the kind of sports book that only a Jew could or would write — it’s the sporting world as seen by public intellectuals, and they are less concerned with stats than with the heart and mind. “<em>Jewish Jocks </em>is, of course, a Jewish joke, but not in the way you might have thought,” explain the editors, both staff members of The New Republic. “The joke, rather, is that our pantheon includes people who, in some cases, couldn’t even run the bases: the gangster who helped fix the World Series; the idealistic ping-pong player; the nerdy general manager. They get to be counted too: not only as Jews, which is perhaps the most obvious thing about them, but as Jocks, which perhaps isn’t.”</p>
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. The richly told story is set in Babylonia in the third century, where even pious Jews were tempted to dabble in magic, an overlooked fact of Jewish history that figures crucially in the story that Anton tells. The heroine — a gifted woman named Hisdadukh, who knows the Torah by heart — discovers for herself that the ancient Jewish texts include some darker passages, and she is confronted with a choice between sanctity and sorcery. At a time when rabbis endorsed the use of amulets and incantations, the distinction between the sacred and the profane is not always clear, but the remarkable young woman eventually finds her own path through these temptations.</p>
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 by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal is a real-life spy thriller that features the world’s most celebrated intelligence operatives. “The unnamed warriors of the Mossad are its lifeblood, men and women who risk their lives, live away from their families under assumed identities, carry out daring operations in enemy countries where the slightest mistake can bring their arrest, torture or death,” write Bar-Zohar and Mishal, who have selected and explored some of the most compelling exploits of Mossad. Sometimes they add new and unsuspected details to familiar operations such as the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann and the rescue of Ethiopian Jews in “Operation Moses.” At other times they subtly confirm what has been the subject of speculation; the recent assassinations of leading Iranian nuclear scientists, they suggest, was the work of Mossad: “While a fanatic Iran threatened it openly with annihilation, the rest of the world recoiled from any vigorous action,” they write. “Israel was left with no choice but to launch an all-out undercover war against the Iranian nuclear program.”</p>
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 by John J. Collins. Collins, a Yale professor and a distinguished scholar of the Hebrew Bible, is uniquely qualified to untangle the knot of conspiracy and controversy in which the Scrolls have been tied up. “Our purpose is to ask what difference the Scrolls have made to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity,” he explains, “and to probe what has been at stake in the debates that have been so acrimonious.” And he brings clarity and acuity to a subject that has often attracted myth-makers and special pleaders. While he quotes Henry Kissinger’s quip that “academic disputes are so bitter because there is so little at stake,” Collins also allows us to see that the acrimonious debates about the origin, meaning and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls are actually quite consequential to any reader who wonders how the Bible itself and the Bible-based religions actually entered the world.</p>
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