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If Muhammad will not come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Muhammad.
 
— Rabbi Bligh, The End

Rabbi Bligh is a colonist on The Island.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Alonso: I washed up on these shores many years ago, after enduring a terrible storm and a dreadful political scandal.
Rabbi Bligh: So what? Eventually, everyone washes up on these shores.
The End

At some point in their life, Bligh became a Rabbi, a teacher of Jewish written and oral laws.

It is unknown how or when Rabbi Bligh came to the island, nor why they chose to stay nor what their job was.

The End[]

Madame Nordoff: You shouldn't be reading!
Dr. Kurtz: Well, you shouldn't be yodeling!
Rabbi Bligh: You're yodeling? Maybe we should have a mutiny after all!
The End

While storm-scavenging the day that Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire wash ashore, Rabbi Bligh finds a large, ornate bird cage. Ishmael convinces them that such a cage such as that would be little use, and Bligh agrees and puts it on the sleigh to go to the arboretum.

They are among the crowd of islanders who go storm-scavenging the day the Count Olaf and Kit Snicket wash up ashore, with Kit on a raft of books. When Kit cannot be moved and Friday Caliban explains that Olaf should not be allowed on the island, Bligh suggests they bring Ishmael to the coastal shelf, and he leaves with the crowd to put Ishmael on the sleigh in order to drag the disabled facilitator there.

He remains with the crowd of islanders when they return and use Bligh's cage to trap Olaf, and who are convinced by Ishmael to abandon Olaf, Kit and the Baudelaires on the coastal shelf, as the Baudelaires refuse to leave Kit.

When the island has a mutiny over breakfast on Decision Day, Rabbi Bligh is seen ready to begin wrestling with Madame Nordoff in the sand. When Dr. Kurtz reveals that Nordoff is yodeling, Rabbi Bligh is aghast and says that maybe they should have a schism after all.

Ishmael suggests the islanders drink cordial to try and dilute the poison, and the fermented cordial drugs them into compliance. He convinces them that the Baudelaires are the root of the trouble, and then gathers them on the outrigger and has them sail off towards Lousy Lane for a cure, though they will not make it in time to save their lives.

Probable Death[]

Ishmael: Nobody is going to die.
Rabbi Bligh: It depends on how you look at it. Eventually we're all going to die.
The End

It is unknown if they met their fate by being poisoned by the Medusoid Mycelium. It is noted that the Incredibly Deadly Viper followed the boat with an apple, and as the Baudelaires did not know this, it is possible some islanders survived to report this to Lemony Snicket. Friday knew the snake to be friendly, and thus may have taken the apple from it; however, it is unknown if she would have been able to convince Rabbi Bligh or the drugged islanders to eat it.

Trivia[]

  • Rabbi Bligh is liked named after Captian William Bligh in the novel Mutiny on the Bounty, the first of the Bounty trilogy by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
    • The series concerns a ship's mutiny that results in several characters landing on an island.
    • Madame Nordoff takes her name from one of the authors of the trilogy, while Professor Fletcher is named after another character. Mr. Pitcairn derives his name from the islands in the series.
  • Their gender is technically unspecified. As women are often not allowed to be authority figures in many religions, Rabbi Bligh is probably male, but there is still a small chance Rabbi Bligh is female. They are depicted as male in the Russian illustrations; however, it is unknown how canonical the Russian illustrations are, and Rabbi Bligh could also identify as nonbinary or transgender.
  • While they make no physical appearance in the Netflix Adaptation of The End, they could still potentially be one of the unnamed islanders.

Appearances[]


Gallery[]

Sources[]

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