As July 21st 2023 happens to be the release date for two opposite types of films, there’s been a plethora of social-media memes that juxtapose the smiling cheery hot pink luminous Barbie (a film of fantasy and fun) next to the dark and brooding black and white image of Oppenheimer (a film about the Manhattan Project and building the bomb) – hence #Barbieheimer. (It took me a few days of seeing this meme to look into it and realize what was behind it).
There’s been quite a few clever Jewish adaptations of this meme, all using the same dual graphic, contrasting things like Elli Fischer’s captioning it as Ashkenazi Selichot (serious, somber, & austere) vs. Sephardic Selichot (lively, festive, energizing) or “SidelockHolmes” beginning of Bechukotai (full of positive blessings) vs. later Bechuoktai (long list of negative curses) and many others, cute and clever.
It so happens that the July 21st 2023 dual release of this opposite film types falls during the Hebrew month titled “Menachem-Av”. The hyphenated dual name of this month itself shares a similar paradoxical theme. Av is a very sad Jewish month, the saddest Jewish month of the year with the ‘Nine Days” and the fast day of Tisha B’Av. But we add the name “Menachem” which means comfort.
This dual #barbieheimer message, at least the meme message, is fitting for my father’s informercial article titled “Two Sides of Tisha B’Av” (see here for more about it). The Rebbe especially enjoyed this article and the dual message it conveys (which was based on a teaching that the Rebbe taught and my father internalized.