The Six Jewiest Moments From This Season of ‘Transparent’

Image by Amazon

By Daniel J. Solomon September 26, 2016

Transparent’s third season dropped last week, and we are kvelling. As Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) continues to transition, the family deals with dramatic changes and reversals. But there’s one constant in this installment: the Pfeffermans are as Jewish as ever. Here’s a run-down of this season’s best Jewish moments.

1. Elizah’s Crisis

As the season opens, we see a ‘day in the life’ of Maura and Rabbi Raquel (Kathryn Hahn). After her break-up with Josh (Jay Duplass), Raquel takes to the wilderness to contemplate what to preach this Pesach. Meanwhile, Maura volunteers at a help-line for at-risk trans youth. A call arrives from Elizah, a poor, black trans girl who wants to commit suicide. Sure enough, Maura goes in search of her. It’s a clever twist on the story of Elijah, the prophet whom Jews leave a seat for at the Seder table. He asks God in the Bible to strike him down out of despair, before God saves him and restores his faith. As for Maura, she’s no Hashem.

2. Sarah Gets into Temple Politics

It’s widely known that there’s no chattier place than the Kiddush table on a Saturday morning. Such is the case for Sarah (Amy Landecker), who applies for the temple board, only to be undone by her arch-nemesis, a life-coach who trashes her morals to the other board members.

3. Hipster Shabbat!

Sarah regroups after her disappointment with the board to organize a temple without walls, aka the Shabbat carnival that she and Raquel put together and call Hineni (Biblical Hebrew for ‘I am here.’) There’s papusas and espresso, and the whole Pferfferman gang shows up, including Ali (Gabby Hoffman) and her Judith Butler doppelganger, Leslie (Cherry Jones). It’s quite the evening, with a fight over Israel-Palestine and an unexpected emotional climax thrown in.

4. Ahava on the Bima

This season introduces a new cantor to the Pfeffermans’ synagogue. Duvid, with his knitted kippa, comes straight from Israel, and he attended seminary with Raquel. The two renew their friendship, and eventually that leads somewhere else.

5. Raquel to the Mikveh

After an emotional melt-down, Raquel heads to a mikveh (a Jewish ritual bath) to cleanse herself literally and figuratively. She dips under the water, while singing the customary prayer, and we know Transparent has gone deeper into Jewish trivia than almost any other general audience show.

6. A Seder Afloat

After a season of break-ups, disappointments, and gnawing questions, the Pfeffermans land on a cruise ship for Passover (no getting rid of hametz for them!). In the spur of the moment, Sarah and Alli decide to celebrate the holiday, and head to the all-you-can-eat buffet to find suitable replacements for the items on the Seder plate.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter at @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO