The TV show 'Lost' is essentially Biblical. Or at least on biblical proportions to my TV watching (kovea eetim L'TV). Like the Torah, there is just enough dialogue on LOST to leave the commentators debating for eternity on what each line, scene, verse means. The theories are endless. Even Rashi would be stuck on this island for awhile.

Each week you find yourself stuggling with whether you watching a flash forward or a flash back? Rabbi Ellman's 'Intro to Bible' questioned the same idea of the Torah, whether the parshas of the Torah are in chronological order or not. But let's not get lost on YU memories.

Plus, how many medrashim do we know, from our Jewishy childhoods, about the characters of the Torah that isn't written into the text but plays just as an important part to me in understanding the stories and paints a deeper picture to every part of the Torah? Each flash back gives us more data about the characters and how they deal with the current situation on screen. Like the aggadah of the Gemara giving new light to the halacha positions of each amora. And this Island should have a set of mishna berura of it's own. Halachos of the Island are harder than basar v'cholov.

The halachos of the Island also change based on the data. Can we push this, should we go there, where is the food being hidden, should we search for chometz. Are the others chayiv misah?

It's as if the Dubno Maggid told a mashal about being stranded on an Island and they made a TV show out of it. We seach for meaning in our lives from Torah and the survivors look for meaning from the Island. But the Island and the Torah, it's a tree of life to those who grasp (stay) on it!

Even the LOST episode titles hint to the Torah: The Season 1 Finale of the mysterious drama was titled “Exodus”, Season 3 had an episode called “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

And while the show is not Jewish in the sense that people don't ask simple questions or many questions at all to eachother, like “Who are you and why are you on an Island?” JJ Abrams definitley went to hebrew school.

Here are some of the characters of LOST that can be found in the Torah: 
 

  • Claire – Yocheved, Has baby against all odds
  • Jack – Moses, Born leader who doesn't want to lead, and whose anger rages within
  • Ben – Pharoah, manipulates the masses with evil 
  • Hurley – Lot, Oafy friend whose good heart/luck gets him in trouble 
  • Desmond – Jeremiah, Prophesizes the destruction and the redemption
  • Locke – Korach/Aaron, Breaks away from leadership, but not sure what he got himself into   
  • The Others – Erev rav
  • Kate/Sawyer – Devorah/Barak, dubious tag team is love/hate
  • Charlie – Yisro, Ex-rock star looking for purpose and meaning
  • Jacob – Arch angel of Esav
  • Sayid – Caleb, trustworthy friend who does not go with the masses
  • The Island – Israel, the land of milk and honey / miracles and mysteries
  • Oceanic 6 – 6 are books of the mishnah! no longer