//literary and arts//
Spring 2019
Spring 2019
A Russian Doll with a Jewish Soul
Sarah Skootsky
“With the amount of guilt, I’m surprised you’re not a Jew.”
Like Groundhog Day but with death, Russian Doll, a new Netflix series, follows Nadia Vulvokov as she relives her thirty-sixth birthday party on a loop. As we learn in the first episode, thirty-six was always going to be a hard birthday for Nadia: Nadia’s mother never made it past that age. It’s a macabre curse that Nadia can’t outlive her own party. The show follows Nadia as she dies, again and again, each time in a different way. After each death, she immediately “resets” at the party, completely aware of each time she has died and the events that came before it. It’s a premise that’s horrific and hilarious and intensely psychological, and also deeply, richly Jewish.
The birthday party is set in a trendy apartment building, a remodeled version of an “old yeshiva school.” After several deaths and resets, Nadia discovers that the yeshiva never disappeared, but was merely relocated. A casualty of Manhattan’s gentrification, the school sold the building to new developers. In a pivotal episode, Nadia seeks answers at the new synagogue. It’s an odd scene: the secretary won’t allow Nadia, a Jewish woman, to see the rabbi. Instead, she waves in John, Nadia’s Catholic ex-boyfriend, even after John explains that the extent of his Jewish identity begins and ends with his circumcision. Still, the scene provides us with the beginnings of an answer to Nadia’s predicament.
“Mysticism teaches that there is wisdom inaccessible to the intellect. You can only reach it through surrender. Turn away from the physical world and turn toward the spiritual one,” the rabbi tells John, utterly matter-of-factly. When asked about the possibility that the original yeshiva building is haunted, the rabbi dismisses the question outright. “Buildings aren’t haunted. People are.”
The rabbi’s turn to mysticism recalls the Kabbalistic concept of gilgulim. According to The Encyclopedia Judaica, gilgulei haneshamot refers to the transmigrations of souls attached to various bodies throughout time. According to this understanding, a soul will cycle through earth as many times as it needs to in order to complete all 613 mitzvot. This idea is tied to the Kabbalistic concept of a broken earth filled with the divine sparks of shattered vessels, formerly whole. The process of bringing these sparks together is what Kabbalists refer to as tikkum olam. Once all sparks fulfill their purpose, the world will become whole. Until then, we are all haunted by the mistakes of the past.
Nadia is haunted. The ghost of her inner child, frozen at the age she believes she left her mother behind, plagues her. This younger self literally kills her over and over, preventing her from moving on and self-actualization. In other words, an aspect of Nadia’s psyche is stuck in a version of her younger self even as her physical body matures.
This idea is grounded in EMDR therapy, which plays a prominent role throughout the show. In the middle of the second episode, the following scene unfolds: Dr. Ruth Brenner, Nadia’s therapist and adoptive mother figure, sits with a patient as green lights systematically flash before his eyes. “Are you back at that Touchstone memory?” she asks. When the patient nods, she asks, “How does that make you feel?” “Frozen,” the patient responds. “Powerless.” Ruth pauses. “Is that belief true now?” The patient blinks back tears. “No. No, I know how to ask for things myself now.”
According to the EMDR International Association (EMDRI), “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and been proven effective for the treatment of trauma.” It often involves rapid-eye movement involving flashing lights, as seen in Russian Doll’s therapy scene. No one really knows why EMDR works. All that is known is that it has been proven effective for people suffering from various forms of post-traumatic stress. As EMDRI’s website explains:
“When a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes ‘frozen in time’ . . . Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.”
For Nadia, finding new ways to relate to other people proves crucial in her journey towards health. When Nadia discovers that Alan, a man who is also stuck in this cycle of death and reset, can’t remember his first death, she is taken aback. “We’ve got to trigger your memory,” she tells him confidently. “Lucky for you, I know a professional.” She brings him to Ruth for answers. Unfortunately, Ruth isn’t on board with the plan. “Darling, that’s not how I work,” she says. “I see patients regularly for years before even trying EMDR.”
Despite Ruth’s reluctance to help, Alan and Nadia work together to move beyond their pasts. As the show reveals, Alan and Nadia’s deaths occur because they are frozen in destructive patterns rooted in an experience of trauma. In order to grow, they must confront their past selves. These ideas are rooted in the show’s own title: Russian Doll refers to the fractured multiplicity of selves inside Nadia and Alan that they are tasked with healing. If trauma is a fracturing of self, then Nadia and Alan learn to help each other piece together the parts of themselves into one raw whole.
Gilgulei haneshemot is based on the concept of a shattered earth seeking wholeness by recycling fractured sparks. In this understanding, a soul will cycle through countless deaths and rebirths before it is healed. In EMDR, one proactively seeks to repair the fractured pieces inside of oneself until they find internal resolution. Likewise, Nadia and Alan cycle through deaths and resets until they make peace with their past selves, and move on from their initial shattering. In effect, a personal tikkun olam.
Like Groundhog Day but with death, Russian Doll, a new Netflix series, follows Nadia Vulvokov as she relives her thirty-sixth birthday party on a loop. As we learn in the first episode, thirty-six was always going to be a hard birthday for Nadia: Nadia’s mother never made it past that age. It’s a macabre curse that Nadia can’t outlive her own party. The show follows Nadia as she dies, again and again, each time in a different way. After each death, she immediately “resets” at the party, completely aware of each time she has died and the events that came before it. It’s a premise that’s horrific and hilarious and intensely psychological, and also deeply, richly Jewish.
The birthday party is set in a trendy apartment building, a remodeled version of an “old yeshiva school.” After several deaths and resets, Nadia discovers that the yeshiva never disappeared, but was merely relocated. A casualty of Manhattan’s gentrification, the school sold the building to new developers. In a pivotal episode, Nadia seeks answers at the new synagogue. It’s an odd scene: the secretary won’t allow Nadia, a Jewish woman, to see the rabbi. Instead, she waves in John, Nadia’s Catholic ex-boyfriend, even after John explains that the extent of his Jewish identity begins and ends with his circumcision. Still, the scene provides us with the beginnings of an answer to Nadia’s predicament.
“Mysticism teaches that there is wisdom inaccessible to the intellect. You can only reach it through surrender. Turn away from the physical world and turn toward the spiritual one,” the rabbi tells John, utterly matter-of-factly. When asked about the possibility that the original yeshiva building is haunted, the rabbi dismisses the question outright. “Buildings aren’t haunted. People are.”
The rabbi’s turn to mysticism recalls the Kabbalistic concept of gilgulim. According to The Encyclopedia Judaica, gilgulei haneshamot refers to the transmigrations of souls attached to various bodies throughout time. According to this understanding, a soul will cycle through earth as many times as it needs to in order to complete all 613 mitzvot. This idea is tied to the Kabbalistic concept of a broken earth filled with the divine sparks of shattered vessels, formerly whole. The process of bringing these sparks together is what Kabbalists refer to as tikkum olam. Once all sparks fulfill their purpose, the world will become whole. Until then, we are all haunted by the mistakes of the past.
Nadia is haunted. The ghost of her inner child, frozen at the age she believes she left her mother behind, plagues her. This younger self literally kills her over and over, preventing her from moving on and self-actualization. In other words, an aspect of Nadia’s psyche is stuck in a version of her younger self even as her physical body matures.
This idea is grounded in EMDR therapy, which plays a prominent role throughout the show. In the middle of the second episode, the following scene unfolds: Dr. Ruth Brenner, Nadia’s therapist and adoptive mother figure, sits with a patient as green lights systematically flash before his eyes. “Are you back at that Touchstone memory?” she asks. When the patient nods, she asks, “How does that make you feel?” “Frozen,” the patient responds. “Powerless.” Ruth pauses. “Is that belief true now?” The patient blinks back tears. “No. No, I know how to ask for things myself now.”
According to the EMDR International Association (EMDRI), “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and been proven effective for the treatment of trauma.” It often involves rapid-eye movement involving flashing lights, as seen in Russian Doll’s therapy scene. No one really knows why EMDR works. All that is known is that it has been proven effective for people suffering from various forms of post-traumatic stress. As EMDRI’s website explains:
“When a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes ‘frozen in time’ . . . Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.”
For Nadia, finding new ways to relate to other people proves crucial in her journey towards health. When Nadia discovers that Alan, a man who is also stuck in this cycle of death and reset, can’t remember his first death, she is taken aback. “We’ve got to trigger your memory,” she tells him confidently. “Lucky for you, I know a professional.” She brings him to Ruth for answers. Unfortunately, Ruth isn’t on board with the plan. “Darling, that’s not how I work,” she says. “I see patients regularly for years before even trying EMDR.”
Despite Ruth’s reluctance to help, Alan and Nadia work together to move beyond their pasts. As the show reveals, Alan and Nadia’s deaths occur because they are frozen in destructive patterns rooted in an experience of trauma. In order to grow, they must confront their past selves. These ideas are rooted in the show’s own title: Russian Doll refers to the fractured multiplicity of selves inside Nadia and Alan that they are tasked with healing. If trauma is a fracturing of self, then Nadia and Alan learn to help each other piece together the parts of themselves into one raw whole.
Gilgulei haneshemot is based on the concept of a shattered earth seeking wholeness by recycling fractured sparks. In this understanding, a soul will cycle through countless deaths and rebirths before it is healed. In EMDR, one proactively seeks to repair the fractured pieces inside of oneself until they find internal resolution. Likewise, Nadia and Alan cycle through deaths and resets until they make peace with their past selves, and move on from their initial shattering. In effect, a personal tikkun olam.
//SARAH SKOOTSKY is a senior in Barnard College. She can be reached at ses2246@columbia.edu.
Photo courtesy of https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/2/1/18205534/russian-doll-review-spoilers-netflix-natasha-lyonne-loop.
Photo courtesy of https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/2/1/18205534/russian-doll-review-spoilers-netflix-natasha-lyonne-loop.