Harry Potter Strikes Again

By Moshe Feiglin (Editor's Note: The eagerly anticipated seventh Harry Potter book was released in Hebrew this Chanukah). Chanukah, 5768 Dec., '07 As Chanukah approached, we became more and more certain that we could not escape it. Our youngest son had forgotten all about his ball games and friends. Even computer games did not interest him. Our son impatiently paced the floor of the house like a caged lion, counting the minutes and the seconds left until we would buy him the seventh bible written by J.K. Rowling. Even before the appointed hour, he sat in the car, urging me to hurry to the home of the local Harry Potter salesman. He darted out of the car into the salesman's home and when he returned with the newest book, he was the happiest boy in town. It was already night and the car was dark. Somehow, though, by the light of the streetlights, he was already on page 20 by the time we reached home. After a day and a half, he was already back to the beginning of the book. By the end of Chanukah, he had read the pile of papers for the third time. Once, before he went to sleep, he asked me to read him (for a change) a chapter from Harry Potter. Usually, I divert his attention to stories by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, or at least Don Quixote, The Little Prince or something that I make up. But this time, I gave in to the pressure, picked up the hefty book and began to read out loud. After a page and a half, I gave up. It's not that I can't follow the story -- my son had already dragged me to see the film based on the first book -- so I more or less know the main characters. But reading Harry Potter to my son became a mission impossible. It's not that I hadn't tried to break him of the habit. I bought my son "Around the World in Eighty Days" by Jules Verne. At his age, I was also a book worm. There was not one book by Verne that I had not read. My son was interested by the illustration of the hot air balloon on the front cover, but after one page he put the book down and went back to the disintegrating pages of one of the first six Potter tomes. "How do you explain this phenomenon?" I asked my cultural analyst friend Aryeh Vodka. "It's quite simple," Vodka smiled. "It used to be that art would describe what exists. But today, it describes what does not exist." Humanity has despaired of the world and escapes to the realm of fantasy. What, then, is the difference between the fantasies of Jules Verne and those of J.K. Rowling? The major difference is that Verne's old fashioned fantasies gave birth to new reality -- and in fact, many of Verne's fantasies were eventually realized -- while Harry Potter has absolutely no pretense of becoming reality. I seem to belong to the fantasizers of the old generation, while my son was born into the culture of fantasy for its own sake. What do I have against Harry Potter? My problem is with the fantasy culture that it creates. Currently, our country is being led by irresponsible people who have created a mad fantasy, disengaged from any responsibility for its results. In the "post modern" era there doesn't seem to be any reality at all. As a result, points of reference for determining the results of policies do not exist either. Everything is subjective, there is no truth and no falsehood and all that matters is that somebody continues to supply us with more and more fantasies. Get ready for the next book: Harry Potter in Annapolis. We may not be able to help the main characters in the Israeli version of the Potter fantasy saga. But why does the Jewish majority keep reading the book? The only possible answer is that we are so busy reading and re-reading the Israeli fantasy, that we have not yet written our own book. For us, though, it is even easier to write. After all, G-d has already written the happy end. Not only that, but the Creator of the world has given us the opportunity to write the next to final act and to help determine if it will be long and painful, G-d forbid, or short and joyous. Manhigut Yehudit is working hard on the penultimate act -- providing Israel with authentic Jewish leadership. Please join us in creating the ultimate, all time best seller! Manhigut Yehudit needs your help now more than ever. You can also help create the Jewish majority revolution. Now is the time to support Manhigut Yehudit. Click here for our on line secure donation form. If you are in Israel, now is the time to volunteer to help. For more information, call (Israel) 02-996-1123.