There is a wonderfully insightful Talmudic adage that says we can learn the truth about a person's character through their drink, their anger and the way they handle their money. The statement (from the Babylonian Talmud E'ruvin 65b) is a play on words, which in the original Hebrew sound alike: koso, kiso and ka-aso, which literally mean one's cup, one's pocket and one's anger.

The wisdom of the ancient rabbis was once again borne out this week when the world saw another side of Hollywood icon Mel Gibson after he was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence while racing down the Pacific Coast Highway. Gibson angrily lashed out at the police with a hail of anti-Semitic slurs. "The Jews are responsible for all wars in the world," Gibson was quoted as saying. He asked the arresting officer, "Are you a Jew?"

Mel Gibson's behavior serves to illuminate many of the unanswered issues and questions that arose during the whole controversy surrounding his film "The Passion of the Christ."

Looking back, we can now clearly understand some of his reactions that so perplexed many who were following the making of his film. In early 2003, the Anti-Defamation League learned of the numerous virulent anti-Jewish concepts and images embedded in Gibson's screenplay for his forthcoming film about the crucifixion.

In the screenplay, which he co-wrote, Gibson had cherry-picked some of the most vitriolic passages from the four Gospel stories and combined them to produce his own distorted version of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth nearly 2,000 years ago. Gibson ignored what most respected New Testament scholars knew: that the Gospel accounts are four separate, sometimes contradictory, renditions of the story of the last hours of Jesus and cannot be picked apart like a Chinese menu.

Gibson then added into this volatile mix the anti-Semitic writings of a 19th century nun — clearly not part of the New Testament — and declared the whole thing to be the truth of Scripture. This was bad history, bad theology and a direct violation of the guidelines of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on how to present the Passion story.

We did not rush to judgment. Our first move was to privately reach out to Gibson and invite him to privately discuss our concerns that his film would revive the old canard of charging Jews with deicide, a hateful and anti-Jewish concept that was expunged from Catholic teaching by the Second Vatican Council in 1965. It was the first of several such invitations that Gibson ignored, unlike other major directors who over the years have welcomed our input into controversial subjects they were tackling, including Cecil B. DeMille for his epic " King of Kings" and Steven Spielberg in the making of "Prince of Egypt."   

Not only did Gibson dismiss the deep concerns of Catholic and Jewish community leaders, he had already begun an insidious campaign of publicly blaming Jews for attacking him, when in fact, none had. Meanwhile, Gibson excluded most Jewish community officials and journalists from seeing previews of the film.

In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Gibson complained about being forced to excise one scene — based on a passage found only in the Gospel of Matthew — which portrays the Second Temple Jewish High Priest Caiaphas declaring, "His blood be on us and on our children," interpreted by some as implicating the Jewish people in Jesus' death.

"I wanted it in," Gibson told the magazine. "But man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house, they'd come kill me." Contrary to Gibson's assertion, the scene does appear in the final cut. But more troubling is, who is the nefarious unnamed "they" that Gibson was referring to?

Three years later we sadly have a definitive answer. "They" are the Jews. It is now clear why Gibson went out of his way to bait Jews and sow religious conflict with his Passion movie. The circle is now complete.

So where do we go from here?

It would be essential to hear from all the Jewish leaders, the Christian leaders, the political pundits who vigorously defended Gibson several years ago, to condemn his anti-Semitic comments today.

It would be responsible for those in Hollywood to stand up and publicly declare that Gibson's bigotry and anti-Semitism will not be tolerated. We commend the decision by Robert Iger, CEO of Walt Disney, to drop its plans for ABC Television to produce a Holocaust film in association with Gibson.  We did not and would not call for the action taken by ABC, but fully support the decision as being appropriate.

It would be important for those who saw "The Passion" and did not experience — or even refused to acknowledge — the pain felt by the Jewish community because of the ugly, bloodthirsty portrayal of all the Jews (with the exception of those Jews in Jesus' inner circle) to revisit their position. They might reflect on how the director refused to even listen to the concerns of well-intentioned Catholics and Jews, and reconsider the blatant anti-Jewish concepts suffused throughout the film.

As for Gibson himself, his written public apology for his anti-Semitic statements was a welcome first step. Like dealing with the disease of alcoholism, Mel Gibson must now confront the disease of bigotry. Once he completes his rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, we will be ready and willing to help him with his second rehabilitation to combat this disease of prejudice.

We believe people can change their hearts and minds. We believe that just as hatred can be learned, it can be unlearned. We believe Mel Gibson can have an epiphany. And when he does we stand ready to forgive him.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.