Circumcision of Jesus foreshadowing of Christ's Passion to come in the context of the "Circumcision". Having borrowed the large architectural setting in the Temple of the "Presentation", later scenes may show the high priest alone holding the baby, as he or a "mohel" performs the operation, as in the St Wolfgang altarpiece by Michael Pacher (1481), or Dürer's painting (right) and his influential woodcut from his series on the "Life of the Virgin". This reflected what had by then become, and remains, standard Jewish practice, where the ceremony is performed in the synagogue and the baby is held by the seated rabbi as
A Serious Man Jewish women's certitude in crisis, anticipating Judith's affirmative stand that her husband should pay for her lover's funeral. "The Wall Street Journal"s Joe Morgenstern disliked what he saw as the film's misanthropy, saying that "their caricatures range from dislikable through despicable, with not a smidgeon of humanity to redeem them." David Denby of "The New Yorker" enjoyed the film's look and feel, but found fault with the script and characterization: ""A Serious Man", like "Burn After Reading", is in their bleak, black, belittling mode, and it's hell to sit through ... As a piece of movie-making craft, "A Serious Man"