The Jewishness of Star Wars

Does it sound a little like “Hashem is everywhere”? Here is the similarity between the force and the Jewish God – both the communal consciousness and the mastermind physical force that links and binds all of nature together.

And who else would God be speaking through, other than a prophet-like character? How else could one explain a prophet who has seeming “supernatural” powers? Take notice that the Hebrew word k’nah-vi sounds similar to its English, Kenobi, and means “like a prophet.” This is not the only Star Wars name that has a Hebrew similarity.

The word Jedi is really close to Jude, the (notorious) German word for Jew. Its appropriateness is seen if the evil dictator Darth Vader is a metaphor for Hitler, and the Stormtroopers as Nazi SS (eerily like Nazi “stormtroopers”), bent on annihilating the small band of Jedi. Those Jedi happen to also have some genetic similarities with each other (cf. Phantom Menace) and a belief in a universal Force larger than themselves.

Recall in Episode III when the Jedi were hunted down and murdered, one by one, by the Galactic Empire, mirroring that of the historical event of 37 CE, when Herod executed 46 leading members of the Sanhedrin (the Jews’ supreme religious council). 

The most esteemed of the Jedi, Yoda, is the “all-knowing” character. In Hebrew – the root for “knowing,” is pronounced “y’da.” Quite close.