This embrace of the secularized Jew has not, however, extended to the Orthodox. Orthodox Jews tend still to be seen by the mainstream as eccentric, even alien. Ironically, this cultural allergy is particularly acute among nominal Jews like Woody Allen, in whose films the Orthodox Jew is invariably a bearded, black-hatted buffoon. And because it is, his ascension to the national stage will effect a demystification of Jewishness. Jewish law, the comedians and others are learning, not only permits it.
Jewish law requires it.
This realization undermines the centuries-old myth of Judaism as severe and unforgiving, a slave of Pharisaic ritual, as opposed to the grace and charity of its progeny religion. Lieberman will not dethrone Shylock, still the single most influential Jewish figure in Western culture, for whom the law is pitiless law. The most famous example concerns the death penalty. It appears rather promiscuously in the Bible. Another authority, continues the Talmud, says one person in 70 years.