Babettes gæstebud ( Babette’s Feast ) is a 1987 Danish film directed by Gabriel Axel , with a screenplay based on a short story by Karen Blixen . Babette’s Feast was the first Danish film based on a story by Blixen. It was also the first Danish film to win an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.
This film, due to the detail shown in the preparation and choice of ingredients, ended up becoming a “food movie” and is perhaps the greatest icon of food as art, very much in the French style. The aspects that insert food into the religious behavior of the participants seem to be simply a case of misunderstanding and lack of comprehension on the part of very hardened people, who are led to a new understanding of God’s Grace. Like everyone else, I also bought into this idea that has spread and continues to spread around the world, which can be summarized as follows:
Based on Isak Dinesen’s 1958 short story, “Babette’s Feast” is the archetypal story of cooking as an art. The protagonist, Babette, flees the violence in France to work for two pious nuns in 19th-century Denmark, whose bland diet of bread soup keeps them just adequately nourished, never succumbing to gluttony. That is until Babette insists on preparing a “true French dinner” with dishes such as turtle soup, quail with foie gras and truffles, and rum cake. In silence (to avoid praising what would certainly be a sensual sin), the town eats and comes to understand the divine power of the pleasure that food can provide.
Based on this understanding, I wrote two posts: one discussing in a more sophisticated and intellectual way how the film is understood , and another discussing only the famous Clos Veugeot that Babette served at dinner.
But there is something that is not hidden, but requires discerning eyes, which I recently had the opportunity to perceive and which will be the subject of this post: the climax and closing of the film, the toast and speech that General Löwenhielm makes, mentioning Psalm 85:11.
“Mercy and truth have met together.
Justice and peace have kissed each other.
— All things are possible with God.”
Psalm 85:11:
Love and Truth meet,
Justice and Peace embrace;
from the earth Truth will spring forth,
and Justice will look down from heaven.
What I had the privilege of realizing recently, thanks to my wife, who drew my attention to the following, which she discovered in her readings:
MIDRASH – THE CLASSICAL READING OF GENESIS 1:26
“Let us make man in our image…”
The Midrashic tradition asks: Why does God speak in the plural? And with whom is He speaking?
The symbolic answer is that, before the creation of man, the divine attributes themselves conversed among themselves , in a kind of celestial assembly:
- Truth (Emet) says: “Do not create it! The man will be false, deceitful, inconsistent.”
- Peace (Shalom) says: “Don’t create it! It will be conflictive, hostile, destructive.”
- Justice (Tzedek) says: “Create him! He will do righteous deeds, defend the weak, and correct what is wrong.”
- Mercy/Love (Chesed) says: “Create it! For it will be capable of compassion, care, and redemption.”
The Midrash then imagines that God responds not with an argument, but with an act :
He creates man nonetheless , knowing of the inevitable conflict between the attributes.
What is behind General Löwenhielm’s speech?
1. The context: Midrash and the divine attributes
Midrash is the name given to rabbinic literature that creatively interprets the Torah.
The word comes from darash = “to seek, investigate, interpret”.
The Midrash explains not only what the text says , but what it may be saying behind the scenes, between the lines —through dialogue, metaphor, theological imagination, and depth psychology.
Among the most famous is the Midrash on Genesis 1:26 : “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
Why does God speak in the plural? Who would He be talking to?
The Midrash answers: God was consulting His own attributes , personified as beings representing universal principles. And these attributes are exactly those that appear in Psalm 85:11:
- Chesed (חסד) – Love, Grace, Mercy
- Emet (Truth) – Verdade
- Tzedek (צדק) – Justice
- Shalom (Peace) – Peace
These four attributes are seen as divine forces that “converse,” “debate,” and even “fight” when God decides to create humankind.
See a more detailed explanation of the Midrash and other attributes that also encompassed the creation of man.
2. The Classical Midrash – (metaphorically) the divine forces discuss the creation of man.
The Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 8:5) says:
Chesed (Mercy) said:“Create man, for he will do good.”
Tzedek (Justice) said:“Create man, for he will practice justice.”
Shalom (Peace) said:“Do not create it, for it will be full of conflict.”
Emet (Truth) said:“Do not create it, for it will be full of falsehood.”
And then the Midrash concludes: God took Truth and cast it to the ground , so that it could sprout again, as Psalm 85:11 says: “Truth will spring up from the earth.”
Why did God do this? Because if absolute truth spoke for itself, humanity would not have been created .
The creation of man is only possible when:
- Truth is tempered by Mercy .
- Justice bows down from heaven .
- And peace becomes possible despite the conflicts.
3. Emet, Shalom, Tzedek, and Chesed are metaphors for the divine attributes “within” us.
Judaism asserts that Tzelem Elohim (“image of God”) is not physical appearance , but participation in divine attributes.
These four attributes are indeed expressions of what God has placed in humankind:
Emet — TRUTH
Humanity has the capacity to seek what is real, what is authentic, even when we fail to find it.
Divine truth, however, is “too explosive”—that’s why God “throws it to the ground” so that it may sprout in human forms.
Chesed — MERCY
Our capacity for compassion, care, connection, and loyalty.
Without it, we would exist as judgment machines.
Tzedek — JUSTICE
The moral drive, the search for balance between rights and duties — both personal and social.
Shalom—PEACE
Not just the absence of war, but harmony between the parties, integrity, reconciliation.
It is the rarest attribute, because it depends on the other three functioning.
4. A deeper theological reading
When God decides to create humankind, He is deciding to create a being capable of love and deceit, peace and conflict, justice and injustice .
In other words: We are a living synthesis of divine attributes — but broken, incomplete, and strained.
And the role of humankind on Earth is to restore these attributes to the world , as co-creators.
Psalm 85:11 describes exactly that:
“Love (Chesed) and Truth (Emet) meet.”
“Justice (Tzedek) and Peace (Shalom) embrace.”
“Truth will spring forth from the earth.”
“And Justice will bow down from heaven.”
This is a picture of what God has placed within us—and what He expects us to do with it.
5. Conclusion
In Jewish tradition, these four attributes are direct metaphors for the elements of the “spiritual DNA” of human beings , placed within us because we were created “in the image and likeness” of God.
And the Midrash suggests: Every human being lives an inner battle between the four divine attributes.
O Sentido da Vida - The Meaning of life 