“The truth will set you free” is a quote of Bible scripture that is often taken out of context and thus used entirely incorrectly. Even so, at first, it would be difficult to see the validity of this quote in the story of The Big Kahn, a sequential drama by Neil Kleid and illustrated by Nicolas Cinquegrani which narrates a story of a Jewish family weighed down by its father’s heaviest lie. Everyone reacts negatively when faced with the truth of rabbi David Kahn, they feel shocked and even betrayed by the man they thought was their moral compass and leader.
However, some people see this lie as unacceptable and are unable to move beyond the fact of it, while others come to accept the lie, internalize it, and have a greater understanding of themselves. This book states that people focus too much on status and externalities, and that is detrimental and hampers progress, but when people are able to move beyond the surface of others and ideas they can achieve greater human compassion and development as an individual. The negative reactions and portrayals of those outside the family are exemplary of the negativity caused by a focus on appearances.
The burial of the father, a can of worms. Three consecutive panels show the father’s coffin being lowered into the ground. However, these panels progressively zoom out from the scene from above, taking us further and further away from the ground. When people are lowered into graves, it usually is peaceful, if solemn, and often they take their secrets down with them, six feet beneath the earth. But with his brother Roy coming in and disturbing the funeral procession, the burial scene is anything but at repose, and by exposing David Kahn’s lifetime secret, Roy opens up a can of worms.
The zooming out of the panels shows how uncertainty rather than resolution is brought upon by the father’s death, that the direction that the story will now take is up in the air. The members of David’s congregation feel betrayed at his deception, and begin to reject his family. While he had built up their synagogue from the ground and had enriched it by serving as its rabbi, upon hearing of his secret, the congregation all too quickly grew disillusioned.
The father’s reputation as rabbi cannot be looked to as a reason for his people’s abandonment; he — and his family — was extremely respected while he was alive, as shown by how Avi captivated the audience at the funeral ceremony. Avi calls for them to look to the sky as the sun broke through the overcast clouds, claiming that even in death his father would not want his followers to grow disheartened, and they all agreeably gaze towards those first breaking rays of sunlight. Thus, their hasty rejection comes as a surprise. The seeds of doubt sprout early, as early as the shiva ceremony.
Avi begins to notice clusters of people glancing his way, conversing softly about what seems to be their object of attention, diverting their gaze upon being spotted. In one panel, Avi is shown to be sitting on his stool alone, surrounded by shadowed figures who mutter whatever seditious thoughts they have. It seems ridiculous how quickly these people are able to turn on this family, which is exactly how Kleid seeks to portray them. While out shopping at the grocery store, Rachel Kahn sees two of her old friends wondering aloud whether she still buys kosher products for her family.
Truly, it is incredible that they can entertain this idea, considering the fact that Rachel was born and raised as orthodox Jew, and that her children are all still Jewish given that it is passed through matrilineal descent. Later at a synagogue meeting, one council member calls for Avi to be prematurely deposed as the next rabbi, even though Avi is certainly and highly qualified for the position. The board is then willing to forsake its most qualified candidate because the controversy behind Avi’s father will make them look bad.
The board is then willing to put external appearances ahead of appointing a proper spiritual leader to guide its people. The portrayal of the person who presents this proposal is also important; it exemplifies how ironic the decision is. He is fat. He is somewhat callous. He wears a striped suit, the most expensive looking in the room. The showiness of his suit demonstrates his obsession with appearances. Fatness is sometimes used in art to depict gluttony, sloth, or a myriad of other negative traits.
Thus, it is ironic that they decide to remove Avi while keeping this kind of person in power. The development of Lea and Avi serve as positive examples of how understanding that appearances, reputations, and traditions do not equate to self value leads to progress. Lea is by all means introduced as a rebel. She is hot-headed, swears all too much, and is caught having sex in the broom closet at her father’s funeral. After the revelation of her father’s secret, she drinks her uncertainty away, saying “I dunno” on how this will affect her life.
The panel in which she says this conflicts as the casual comment is matched with a striking image of her shot glass hitting the table. This stark contrast shows the conflict that she is dealing with in this time. At her father’s inheritance ceremony, Lea receives a Star of David necklace. Surprisingly she decides to try it on for size, wearing it at a nightclub. In the nightclub bathroom, she reminisces about being taught about the Magen David as a child by her father. Her child self is portrayed as prim, with bright eyes and deep affection to her father’s lessons.
It is not revealed to us how she became so disillusioned to the religion. Perhaps she felt the religion was too flat, too righteous for her. Her father was in life, of course, a shining example of a man. Perhaps David was too bright for her. He became 1-dimensional to her, inhuman, so then his lessons turned to dogma. She then perhaps shunned the religion, thinking it had no more to offer to her. Then, now, it was her father’s deceit that made him human to her. Learning that her father was a con, a cheat, a “grifter” gave him traits of real people.
He was no longer flat; his lies gave him a depth that Lea could respect and relate to. His death made him more alive to her than he had been in a long time. She then considers the lessons that he once taught her, knowing the mouth that fed her wisdom was one that also once played into the pockets of people. Near the end of the book, she puts away the necklace, deciding that she no longer needs the protection of neither David nor her father. She decides to attend a Jewish seminar, and on the way there, her roommate Cher remarks that “you’re still swearing, I see”.
This small feature of her signifies that while she is trying to understand her faith, she is still her own person and will continue to be so. Avi, opposite to Lea, is extremely well mannered and religious; he is the intended heir to take his father’s place as rabbi. Also unlike his sister, he receives several challenges to his preconceived notions of faith, and has to reconcile these all the while finding his place in the world. After the first visit by Roy Dobbs, his sister questions Avi, asking him what their uncle has to gain by lying about their father.
In that panel, Avi appears to be diverting his eyes, and his face appears to be illuminated from the direction of his sister. His sister presents a plausible theory, but at this time is too impossible for him to accept as a truth. At this point, he is unable to let go of his image of his father, the man who taught him everything he knew about his religion and himself. After being ousted by the counsel, Avi finds himself in his office, recalling a time when his father was talking to him.
His father claimed that first impressions were the most important thing when dealing with people, that if pulled off correctly, one will have their faith forever. The son, however, is disillusioned, for the exposure of his father’s lie revealed that this all too untrue. Being perhaps the closest person to his father, he is potentially the most damaged. Alone in his office, he shouts “you’re lying! ” while flinging and toppling books of religious teaching from a bookshelf.
At the end of this, he is slouching literally in a collapsed heap of his own faith. His spirituality is further egraded when he later, reluctantly, sleeps with his sisters roommate. In one panel, Cher’s cross necklace rests on the son’s bare chest, while the son has a teary-eyed look of shame. Not only had he just committed premarital sex, but the contact of the cross represents a foreign invasion of ideals into himself. From this point, he can no longer regard himself as wholly spiritually pure. However, this does not mark the end of his faith. Later when told of a potential rabbi position elsewhere, Avi still considers himself righteous enough to try and apply for it.
He later goes to Roy for advice, and asks for help on how to trick someone into trusting oneself. While he does say how to con someone, he refuses to help his nephew, saying that Avi is too good of a person to con people. He sees less of his father in him than he first thought. The son’s path from now on must be determined by himself. Soon though, his resolution comes. In a 5 panel sequence, he sits on a couch with his sister, weary from the events of the past week. First, he sits with his head tilted up, a posture of fatigue and rest.
But when his sister suggests that maybe they get lunch together, he turns toward her, surprised. For most of the story, their interactions are generally limited to him restraining her bursts of outrage and/or calling her out on her language. This certainly is a change, so much that he questions “are we best friends now? ” In the sister’s eyes, her brother has gained his humanity, and in turn has gain her respect. She respects him now that he is no longer a ‘religious figure’ and is now a real person with identity issues and who sleeps with their sibling’s roommates.
Likewise, the sister becomes more relatable to him. While not condoning it, he is more compassionate to his sister’s actions, relating to what she feels and now being able to joke that her “broom closet is calling. ” Lastly, Avi has to reconcile his faith. He decides to still apply for the position of rabbi at the new synagogue. There he receives reassurance that he checks out as a fine candidate for the position, the only step left is to check for his spiritual history for any “skeletons in the closet. ”
While he does not have any in room closets like his sister, he certainly does have things to hide. At this final hurdle toward this position, he faces internal doubt; his face is visibly troubled and he is shown clutching his tie. Should he just lie and have it be done with? He most likely considers his father’s actions. While he was great man and leader, his concealment in the end wrought great shame and pain. Thus, after being questioned if he had anything to say, in the final panel of the book, the son says only“… Yes. ” This panel shows only his mouth, none of his other features.
He decides to tell the truth, to expose himself, rather than appear purely righteous when he knows he is not. At the end, he values his integrity more than how he appears. It is not revealed whether the interviewer rejects him for his sins or accepts him for his morals. It does not matter. It is only his decision — his word — that does. The truth may have not freed him from the wages of sin, but frees him with the power to chose. The book ends with us knowing the path the son has chosen, knowing that the son has chosen his path.
