The woman at the lake in the leg braces that Larry talks to before seeing a rabbi turns out to have better things to say to comfort Larry than any of the three rabbis, who only get progressively worse. Rabbi #1 is not bad, suggesting a change in perspective (“just look at the parking lot, Larry!), which is advice that makes sense to Larry once he gets stoned with the seductive sunbather. Rabbi #2 is awful, totally non-spiritual, telling the same unhelpful story to people who come in needing spiritual help. The lawyer in his sportsman’s lair is a more spiritual person and more empathetic than Rabbi #2.
And what’s the problem with rabbi #3, the great and wise Marshak? Maybe he’s thinking or meditating or whatever, but he just seems senile. And he won’t even see Larry, (“too busy” everyone says) although they literally see each other (if Marshak can see that far) before Marshak’s horror-story of a secretary closes the sliding door.
I certainly think it’s cool that Marshak quotes the lyric of “Somebody to Love” (changing “joy” to “hope”) and he names the members of “The Airplane!” when Danny gets in to see him, but it’s significant that Marshak tries to pronounce Jorma Kaukonen’s last name and can’t, and ignores Danny as he mouths the correct pronunciation in a whisper. Then Marshak tells Danny, who is of course happy (and the audience is happy) that he gets back his radio and twenty dollar bill, to “be a good boy.”
Okay, I almost forgot. Marshak does say “Den vaht?” after misquoting the lyric: “When the truth is found to be lies /and all the hope within you dies.” That, at least, is a worthwhile question.
The great physicist Niels Bohr liked to tell a story about three rabbis, and how it related to explaining quantum mechanics. I’ll have to look it up.
What really makes A Serious Man funny is the acting of Michael Stuhlbarg. He’s on a par with, and seems to be a linear combination of, Harold Lloyd and Robin Williams.
