The Rabbi's Cat

This week I'd like to talk about The Rabbi's Cat. It is a graphic novel about a cat that belongs to a rabbi and briefly learns to talk. So the book is able to take some licenses with anthropomorphism, and it uses them effectively. I find The Rabbi's Cat interesting because it's a satirical work, in a way. It uses a cat to criticize how people behave when it comes to basic human needs, like sex, as well as serving as a means in which to express doubts about religious belief.

The work is satirical in that it shows society through the eyes of a bluntly honest feline. This is interesting, to me, at least, because it gives an objective view of human society; but, while it's objective in a way, it still primarily relies on being that it's almost considered human in itself. It enjoys all things that are human. It enjoys sex, food, conversation, and attention, which makes the cat seem almost hypocritical because in the graphic novel, he chastises the young Jewish boy for his actions, but when he sees him go to the whorehouse he almost likes him better for it. It makes the cat more interesting because the cat wants people to be open about their sin and vice. It says, "When I want to f*ck, I f*ck." So the cat's only critical of sin and vice when that sin and vice is hidden. The cat thinks when a person does something he ought to be proud of the fact they do it. This comes up in one of the images where the reader sees the cat actually having sex. So the cat serves as a way to show that humanity ought to either fully embrace the fact that humanity needs sin and be open about it or we ought not to do it at all.
The cat is also used as a way to point out conflictions in religion and doubts about the actual letter of the Jewish law. This is first displayed to the reader when the cat eats the parrot and the rabbi chastises the cat for lying and for murder, the rabbi tells him he must be a good Jew, but then refuses to give him a bar mitzvah. This makes the rabbi’s position paradoxical, the cat must be a good Jew, but is not allowed to become a Jewish man. The cat is also used to point out the errors with the rabbi’s rabbi when the rabbi’s rabbi, says the cat cannot have a bar mitzvah, and then the cat convinces him that he is god. The rabbi seems apologetic and humbled by “gods” presence until he finds out the cat is not god and he seems truly angered by this to the point where he says cats are evil things and Jewish people ought to only own dogs. Yet the cat out maneuvers the rabbi’s rabbi in the conversation, which I think is a way for the cat to come off as incredibly clever and to make the rabbi’s rabbi look foolish. This shows an interesting situation were an animal is smarter than a rabbi, which is a way to show that just because one man holds a certain station in life does not mean he is superior or more clever than another. The cat helps give a critique of social and religious practice.
The cat in The Rabbi’s Cat serves as a measure by which we can see the world of the graphic novel through an un filtered lens. This world though crude and vulgar is pure, it is humanity, and the cat is really how humanity ought to be.