Baby Yoda, Christmas, and Hebrew Narrative
With the release of The Mandalorian, Disney+, and Episode IX, American culture is saturated with Star Wars. Perhaps the characters and themes in the galaxy far, far away are drawing on Hebraic concepts, specifically those depicted in the Christmas narrative. Baby Yoda, despite being an adorable character and a brilliant Christmas marketing tool, is also exemplifying some of the literary and philosophical allusions the CHT wants to popularize.
In this episode, Dr. Mary Hom and Dr. Dru Johnson discuss the impact of the baby Yoda story in the Christmas season, how the Star Wars stories and Yoda’s poetic speech prime expectations, and how much these resemble aspects of the biblical narratives and style—especially Christmas! Along the way, they analyze what makes something cute, criticize the acting and storytelling of the Star Wars prequels, talk about killing puppies, and get nerdy with some biblical grammar.
Shownotes:
- 0:00 Baby Yoda and Baby Jesus
- 4:17 Why does the Hebrew Bible use narrative?
- 5:30 Discussing Star Wars and the appeal of Baby Yoda
- 10:28 Christmas type-scenes in The Mandalorian
- 16:57 Culture and dead puppies
- 23:18 Yoda and yada
- 26:30 Fronting and copula
- 32:41 Final reflections on Hebraic Thought
- 36:15 Introducing Dr. Mary Katherine Hom
Mary Katherine Hom 
Dru Johnson
Credits for the music used in the CHT podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits
