I RECENTLY finished a short series on Netflix entitled “Unorthodox”. It’s four episodes and it tells the story of a Hasidic Jew named Esther “Esty” Shapiro.
She ran away to Berlin to escape the society she lived in – a society where marriages were arranged and women were only viewed as house workers and baby machines, a society where you couldn’t express yourself freely or have a proper education, where anybody who wasn’t like them was deemed a “Gentile” or someone unclean. It was a society that took the teachings of the Torah too literally.
What I found ironic about the series was that a Jewish girl ran away from her community to seek refuge in Berlin, Germany. This was where most of the concentration camps during the Holocaust were, but Esther knew she felt more secure in that place than she ever did in her ultra-Orthodox community.
The people who helped and supported her were all the people she was taught to fear – Muslims, homosexuals and some German nationals. She found solace in the most unlikely place.
What I learned from watching the series is that basing your life too much on scriptures can really damage you as a person. I did some background reading on Deborah Feldman, the girl whose memoir inspired the series. She shared how some of their beliefs were disgusting and demeaning.
If you look at the Christian Bible, you will find absurd rules about not being allowed to wear certain types of clothes or not being allowed to cut your hair. If a woman is on her period she is “unclean”. No one is allowed to touch her because they will become “unclean” as well. As if a period is like some sort of virus.
At the end of the story Esty made a lot of big decisions. Even though her husband followed her to bring her home, she refused. She and her baby were to remain in Berlin. She chose true freedom. She was able to dress the way she wanted and eat what she wanted. She was able to chase her passions and express herself without being dubbed as scandalous.
She even met a German guy who she truly felt attracted to and discovered things about her body that were never properly taught to her. She finally lived the life she wanted without any scriptures holding her down. (angelica.panaynews@gmail.com/PN)
