Free A Serious Man by Joel Coen

prompts:
    LARRY
    So what did you tell him?
    The rabbi seems surprised by the question .
    RABBI NACHTNER
    Sussman?
    LARRY
    Yes!
    RABBI NACHTNER
    Is it … relevant?
    LARRY
    Well – isn’t that why you’re telling me?
    RABBI NACHTNER
    Mm. Okay. Nachtner says, look …
    The consultation scene again, with the rabbi once again narrating in voice-over. He silently advises the fretful Sussman in sync with his recounting of the same .
    … The teeth, we don’t know. A sign from Hashem , don’t know. Helping others, couldn’t hurt.
    Back to the rabbi’s office in present. Larry struggles to make sense of the story .
    LARRY
    But – was it for him, for Sussman? Or –
    RABBI NACHTNER
    We can’t know everything.
    LARRY
    It sounds like you don’t know anything! Why even tell me the story?
    RABBI NACHTNER
    ( amused )
    First I should tell you, then I shouldn’t.
    Larry, exasperated, changes tack:
    LARRY
    What happened to Sussman?
    Sussman, back in his office, works on different patients as the rabbi resumes the narrative in voice-over .
    RABBI NACHTNER
    What would happen? Not much. He went back to work. For a while he checked every patient’s teeth for new messages; didn’t see any; in time, he found he’d stopped checking. He returned to life.
    Sussman, at home, chats with his wife over dinner .
    … These questions that are bothering you, Larry – maybe they’re like a toothache. We feel them for a while, then they go away.
    Sussman lies in bed sleeping, smiling, an arm thrown across his wife . Back in the rabbi’s office, Larry is dissatisfied .
    LARRY
    I don’t want it to just go away! I want an answer!
    RABBI NACHTNER
    The answer! Sure! We all want the answer! But Hashem doesn’t owe us the answer, Larry. Hashem doesn’t owe us anything. The obligation runs the other way.
    LARRY
    Why does he make us feel the questions if he’s not going to give us any answers?
    Rabbi Nachtner smiles at Larry .
    RABBI NACHTNER
    He hasn’t told me.
    Larry rubs his face, frustrated .
    A last question occurs to him:
    LARRY
    And what happened to the goy?
    Rabbi Nachtner’s forbearing smile fades into puzzlement .
    RABBI NACHTNER
    The goy? Who cares?

EXTERIOR: THE SYNAGOGUE
    The modern synagogue grafted onto a patch of prairie .
    An echoing voice rings out:
    VOICE
    Sy Ableman was a serious man!
RABBI NACHTNER
    In close-up he gazes around, weighing the effect of the words just delivered .
    After a beat during which he seeks to establish eye contact with as much of his audience as possible:
    RABBI NACHTNER
    Sy Ableman was a man devoted to his community …
    Wider shows Rabbi Nachtner and the congregation facing each other across a casket that rests below the bema .
    … to Torah study …
    Larry sits among the congregants, his gaze fixed on a point off.
    … to his beloved wife Esther until, three years ago, she passed …
    Larry’s point- of- view: Judith is visible from three-quarters behind. She sits a few rows forward looking weepily up at the rabbi.
    … and to his duty, as he saw it. Where does such a man go? A tzadik – who knows, maybe even a lamid vovnik – a man beloved by all, a man who despised the frivolous? Could such a serious man … simply … disappear?
    The words echo .
    Again the rabbi gazes around, as if awaiting answer .
    Then:
    … We speak of olam ha-ba , the World to Come. Not heaven. Not what the gentiles think of as afterlife. “ Olam ha-ba .” What is olam ha-ba ? Where is olam ha-ba ? Well: it is not a geographic place, certainly. Like – Canada.
    Murmured chuckles from the congregation .
    Nor is it the eretz zavat chalav ood’vash – the land flowing with milk and honey, for we are not promised a personal reward, a gold star, a first-class VIP lounge where we get milk and cookies to eternity!
    More chuckles .
    Olam ha-ba … is in the bosom of Abraham. Olam ha-ba is in the soul of this community which nurtured Sy Ableman and to which Sy Ableman now returns. That’s right, he returns. Because he