The Third Hero: Why is Israeli Cinema Afraid of the Prophetic Creator?

History, sometimes, ties fates together in a surprising and meaningful way. At the end of the 19th century, two "men of legend" – one, the artist of cinematic fantasy, Georges Méliès; and the other, a Viennese playwright and writer, Theodor Herzl – were drawn unwillingly into the coarse political reality by the exact same event: the Dreyfus affair.

Many believe, and rightly so, that cinema as an art was born with Méliès, when he began to create worlds by the power of imagination, and not with the Lumière brothers, who dealt with the reproduction of reality. But it was precisely Méliès, the man of imagination, who responded to the moral injustice with the most realistic creation – the first political docudrama about the Dreyfus affair. And simultaneously, Herzl, the man of legend and theater, was the one who declared in the face of the harsh reality – "If you will it, it is no dream." This is not a politician's statement, but a declaration of a creator; a declaration that by the power of will and imagination, a new reality can be created.

This declaration echoes an older journey, an archetypal journey of another redeemer, who was also a creator of reality. And the question of why these two foundational figures – Moses and Herzl – barely receive representation in Israeli cinema, reveals a deep truth about the greatest challenge of Israeli creation today.

The Two False Images

World cinema, and consequently Israeli cinema as well, has been trapped since the Dreyfus affair between two flat representations of the Jew. The first is the Dreyfus archetype: the Jew as a victim. He is weak, persecuted, suffering, and always morally right by virtue of his weakness. This is an image that is easy to identify with, but it fixes the Jew in the position of the eternal victim.

Opposite it stands the equally superficial opposing image: the archetype of the conqueror. This is the new Israeli, the strong one. And in this simplistic paradigm, if he is strong and victorious, he must necessarily be unjust, cruel. Israeli creation struggles to this day to free itself from this false dichotomy of "just and weak" or "strong and unjust." It fears the third possibility, the truly complex hero.

The Archetype of the Prophetic Creator – The Journey of Moses

To understand the missing third hero, we must look at the journey of Moses, not as a historical story, but as the training path of the prophetic creator. This journey has three stages:

1. The Egypt Stage (Studying "Political Science"): Moses grew up in Pharaoh's palace, the center of culture and power of his time. There, like Herzl in Vienna, in the heart of European culture, he acquires the tools for managing the world, the "political science," the language and the technique. The encounter with an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man awakens in him a moral consciousness, like Herzl seeing a French man striking Dreyfus. But in Moses, this is still a cosmopolitan and simplistic consciousness, based on the equation "the weak is always right."

The next day, when he sees a Hebrew striking a Hebrew and is rejected by them, this illusion shatters. His cry "Indeed the matter is known" is not just fear of the revelation of his deed, but a deep and shocking understanding: reality is more complex, the Hebrews are not innocent righteous people, and the weak is not necessarily right. This understanding, and the double rejection – from the pursuing Egyptians and from the Hebrews who do not accept him – forces him to embark on a deeper journey.

2. The Midian Stage (Studying the "Message"): In his flight, Moses embarks on a world-crossing journey. According to the Midrash, he seeks a new nation to redeem, disappointed both by the oppressors and the oppressed. He reaches Jethro. And Jethro is not a marginal figure; he is the "priest of Midian" who worshipped all types of idolatry. This is, as Manitou teaches, evidence of a holistic search, an attempt to contain all beliefs in order to find unity; this is the closest to the absolute Hebrew monotheism of the future. With Jethro, Moses learns the "sciences of prophecy." This is the stage of inner refinement, the transition from dealing with external tools of politics and power, to the discovery of the inner content, the spiritual essence.

3. The Burning Bush Stage (Revelation of the "Mission"): This is the moment of the great upheaval. Moses is asked to unite the two worlds he has learned – the political science from Egypt and the sciences of prophecy from Midian – and apply them to his own people. His intense resistance stems not only from humility, but from the immense difficulty of moving from cosmopolitan universality to particularistic nationalism. But there, at the burning bush, he discovers the great secret, which Abraham our father also discovered before him: Hebrew nationalism is not national egoism, but the only way to realize true universality.

The Inner Essence is Not an Escape from Reality

The call of Pre-Prophetic Cinema to connect to the inner essence, to the world of imagination and dream, might sound like an escape from reality. The history of cinema proves the opposite. Federico Fellini, whom I consider one of the Pre-Prophetic directors, like Tarkovsky, began his career as part of Italian Neorealism. When he moved on to create personal and fantastic films like "8½," he was accused by his friends of betrayal and escaping reality. His answer was resounding: "The inner world of man, his fantasies and dreams – they too are part of reality." Reality is not just what is visible; the inner reality is a powerful engine that shapes the outer reality.

Just as we saw with Méliès: it was precisely the creator living in the worlds of imagination who responded in the sharpest and most realistic way to a real moral injustice. The connection to the inner essence is not an escape; it is the charging of the spiritual batteries needed to act in the world with full force.

The Challenge of the New Israeli Creation

The call to Israeli creators is not for mobilized creation serving a national ideology. On the contrary. It is a call to break free from all external ideologies, and to embark on a journey inward, to the root of their essence.

It is precisely filmmakers who know very well that the most specific, local, and personal story – is the one that becomes truly universal. True universality grows out of the deepest authenticity.

And what is the most inner and authentic essence in our case? It is Hebrew prophecy. This is not a religious concept, but a cultural-spiritual one. It is the unique virtue of Hebrew culture, the original Israeli talent. It is a worldview that sees man as a partner in creation, and the story as a generator of reality.

This is the true gospel that Israeli creation has to present, first of all to itself, and from there to the whole world: that the path to the universal Tikkun Olam (repair of the world) passes, necessarily, through the brave and honest connection to our inner and unique essence.