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Aramaic Prayer in the Movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”


Video from The Hebrew Bible


Aramaic Prayer in the Movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”

Why Indiana Jones’ Nazi-Loving Enemy Said a Torah Prayer

Listen carefully to the words of Nazi sympathizer René Belloq, Indiana Jones’ archnemesis, in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark just before he opens the Ark of the Covenant. Dressed in the garb of the Biblical High Priest, Belloq recites the following incantation:


La al enash rachitzna, v’la al bar elohin samichna…d’hu eloha k’shot v’oraytei k’shot…Bei ana rachitz v’lishmei kaidsha yakira…tushbechan.


Despite Belloq’s odd pronunciation, regular shulgoers may recognize the words as excerpted from the B’rikh Shmei prayer traditionally recited on Sabbath and Festival mornings in front of a very different ark: the opened Torah ark..." from the article:


Indiana Jones [ 4K - HDR ] and The Raiders of the Lost Ark - Opening of the Ark (1981)

Video from 4KArchives


"Presented in HDR [ High Dynamic Range ] 4K Ultra High Definition [ UHD ] and uploaded with 5.1 Digital Surround Sound.

Marion and Indy are tied up and forced to view a ceremony where Belloq opens the Ark in front of a group of German soldiers. However, to his dismay, the Ark appeared to only contain sand, angering Dietrich and amusing Toht.

A strange force suddenly destroys the equipment the Nazis were using to film the opening. Indy warns Marion to shut her eyes as spirits emerge from the Ark and float around the Nazis. Belloq shouts out it's "beautiful" but a spirit with the face of a woman floats towards him, and suddenly takes on a malevolent countenance. Toht and Dietrich scream at the sight. Belloq looks back into the Ark, and flames form above it. Bolts of energy shoot through the gathered Nazi soldiers, killing them all. Dietrich's head collapses in on itself, Toht's face melts off his skull, and Belloq's head explodes. The fire rises up through the clouds before the Ark pulls in the remains of the dead and seals itself shut. Having witnessed none of it, Indy and Marion realize that their ropes have been burned off, and embrace after having been spared from the wrath of God.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman.

It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, and Denholm Elliott. Ford portrays Indiana Jones, a globe-trotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces in 1936 to recover the long-lost Ark of the Covenant, a relic said to make an army invincible. Teaming up with his tough former lover Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Jones races to stop rival archaeologist Dr. René Belloq (Paul Freeman) from guiding the Nazis to the Ark and its power.

The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra." from the video introduction







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