‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’, Considering the Past and Confronting Failure

Rabbis Michael Knopf and Jesse Olitzky are lifelong friends, pop culture fanboys, and lovers of all things Jewish. Join them every other week for a conversation about what’s going on in pop culture from a Jewish perspective and about Judaism through the lens of pop culture.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most important characters in the Star Wars saga. It is Princess Leia’s distress call to Kenobi, her father’s former military comrade whom she calls her “only hope”, that sets in motion the events of the original trilogy, which also depicts Obi-Wan helping a young Luke Skywalker become a Jedi, sacrificing his own life in the process. But the prequel trilogy tells the story of how Obi-Wan once mentored Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker, until Anakin turned to the Dark Side, became Darth Vader, and led a campaign to wipe out the Jedi order. The new Disney+ original series ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’, in which Ewan McGregor reprises the role he played in the prequel trilogy, depicts the character between the events of ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘A New Hope’, a time when he is both hunted for and haunted by his past. What does Jewish tradition have to say about (re)considering the difficult parts of our past and confronting our failures? The Force is strong with Rabbis Knopf and Olitzky in this episode as they examine ‘Obi-Wan’ Kenobi “from a certain point of view”.

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