Comments on: The Good Wife: Unorthodox, From a Rabbi / Law Student Perspective

By: duddes02

duddes02 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:28:33 +0000

Thanks for the insight. I caught the supermarket thing and I wondered if that was the acutal plot

By: rabbifink

rabbifink — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:19:53 +0000

Great point. Maybe it was the only time she was sure she could reach her father due to his eccentric schedule…

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:11:27 +0000

I’m embarrassed I didn’t catch the supermarket thing.
But what bothered me the most out of what I thought to be a pretty interesting and fairly accurate episode, was, why would she choose Friday night to call her father? I could understand her need to call him, but why was it necessary to do so on Shabbos? Did I miss something? I didn’t hear any explanation for why she called him then. And I *think* her husband would have been more forgiving if she had done it on another day.

By: rabbifink

rabbifink — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:58:52 +0000

The show insinuated it was a Kosher type of market with only Kosher foods. The type that would never be open on Shabbos.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

By: Michael Sedley

Michael Sedley — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:56:11 +0000

I agree that the guy’s haircut and beard didn’t look at all Hassidic.

I didn’t think that the Kosher market was a plot hole, I don’t know the situation in Chicago, but in other cities (I’m thinking Toronto as an example) there are large non-Jewish supermarkets in Jewish areas with big kosher sections that are open on Shabbat, I got the impression that this was the type of store she was referring to.

I also liked the way the couple didn’t embrace (which was in character), the point when they discreetly touched hands was a great way to portray affection in the Hassidic community (and they contrasted it nicely with the way the lawyers touched in a similar way)

By: Naftali

Naftali — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:48:50 +0000

My wife saw the episode. She noticed the plot-hole herself. She told me about the episode and I said that there is a second flaw and that is:

If an eruv wire breaks on Shabbos, even though the eruv cannot be fixed on Shabbos, it is absolutely muttar to pick up the wire and wind it around something or some other similar procedure to move it out of the way l’imnuyei hezeika (to prevent damages). This is the same reason one can sweep up the pieces of a broken glass on shabbos even though the pieces themselves become muktza.

Thus, unless the characters were real amei-haaratzim, if they were aware the wire broke, they would have moved it away and the story wouldn’t start.

By: Ilana-Davita

Ilana-Davita — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:40:14 +0000

Interesting post even though I’ll probably never get to see the show (too little time just now and maybe impossible to watch from my side of the Atlantic).

By: rabbifink

rabbifink — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:06:17 +0000

Excellent points.

I am unfamiliar with Chicago so I figured the neighborhood was at least close to W. Rogers Park – I guess not!

The accent was awful.

I can excuse them for not knowing about a lechi. That is an more intricate detail.

Welcome, and thanks for checking out the blog!

By: rabbifink

rabbifink — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:01:42 +0000

He doesn’t even smile when they win.

It was completely unnatural.

Thanks for stopping by!

By: Yankev

Yankev — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:59:56 +0000

My wife and I caught the supermarket hole too. Other things that bothered me:
1. Why chassidim to begin with? Chassidim make up a very small part of Chicago’s frum community. Out of that percentage, many are Chabad (which this couple clearly was not) and do not use the eruv. Many of the rest are Satmar; I’m not sure whether they use they eruv or not. Why not show a couple who were yeshivish or moderni, except to emphasize the otherness of shomrei shabbos?

2. Why the semi-accent on the husband? He was clearly not European or Israeli, but he spoke English with a slight hesitation, as though not fully at home in that language. Again, emphasizing the otherness?

3. The closeup of the juncture between the eruv wire and the house did not appear to have a lechi; the wire went straight into the wall, horizontally.

4. The frum nieghborhoods in Chicago — West Rogers Park and Peterson Park — look nothing like the NY-style row houses in the episode. You can find those row houses in older, gentrified neighborhoods of Chicago like Linclon Park, but the West Rogers Park and Peterson Park are a mix of single family houses WITH front and side yards, and two-to-four story brick apartment buildings. Were they trying to make the scene look more like NY?

By: Menachem Ickovitz

Menachem Ickovitz — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:56:54 +0000

I enjoyed the episode as well as your thoughts on it.

The fact that the chassidic guy doesn’t smile could be because he was getting sued and upset about it then he finds out that his wife was being mechalel shabbos when calling her father. I understand your point, I’m just sayin’.

By: rabbifink

rabbifink — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:02:49 +0000

The eruv description was pretty good just not precise.

We have an eruv issue in Venice so I have explained it very rationally to many uniformed people. Use the explanation I gave in the post, it is very simple for a non-OJ to ‘get’.

By: Susanne

Susanne — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:00:23 +0000

I caught it too and thought, okay, it’ll be addressed later on and that’ll be the clue discovered that makes her story false!!!! But then, she had already been to the grocery (she had broken bottles all around her the hatzalah guy said). I was ticked off too. Although, thought the eruv description was pretty good. When I try to explain it to non-observant people I sound like an idiot.

By: rabbifink

rabbifink — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:56:04 +0000

Thanks.

His background was not significant. He may have also been a baal tshuva but he was more devout than she as he was visibly hurt by her breaking of Shabbos.

By: tesyaa

tesyaa — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:47:26 +0000

Wow, what an analysis. You are right on target about the ring and the hairdos and the leather yarmulke.

The phenomenon of a party girl becoming “chasidic” exists. I would say, though, while the number of former party girls who became “chasidic” is not negligible, they would be married to other baalei tshuva, not to an FFB chasid. Since I don’t watch the show, I don’t know if the husband’s background was mentioned.