I feel that I am treading on holy ground when I approach the depth of suffering and horror that the Jewish people endured during the Holocaust, and that I have little right to express any thought on the matter at all; I would rather listen, listen to what they have to say and to teach us.
The U. I am glad that as a society, we are st I feel that I am treading on holy ground when I approach the depth of suffering and horror that the Jewish people endured during the Holocaust, and that I have little right to express any thought on the matter at all; I would rather listen, listen to what they have to say and to teach us. I am glad that as a society, we are still engaging with it, still wrestling with it, and seeking out answers. I put the book on my to-read list after encountering another book dealing with human suffering, "Re-Reading Job" by Michael Austin.
While Wiesel was in a concentration camp, some rabbis with whom he was acquainted held a mock trial of God. Wiesel wanted to write about this experience later, but it just wouldn't come out-- as a memoir, an essay, a reflection. Instead, he chose to write it as a play set in 13th century Poland. It's a story within a story. The two characters that clash in the third act are Berish, the prosecutor of God who has witnessed the rape, pillage, and murder of his people at the hands of Christians; and Sam, the defender of God whom no one seems to no who he is, but they all feel that he looks vaguely familiar.
Sam makes many of the arguments for God in the face of suffering that seem superficial and do not comfort; we do not know God's ways, we can't see the bigger picture, can we really compare ourselves to God's suffering or the suffering of others, etc.
These are the arguments that Job's comforters make in the book of Job as well. There is a twist at the end though, but I can't spoil it for you. Sam is mysterious for a reason.
I am impressed with how much Wiesel is able to pack into these characters in so little time. The three minstrels, the Christian woman Marie, the outraged Berish, his suffering daughter Hannah, and the cold Sam. It is a book that asks the tough questions, and perhaps challenges your faith. It isn't godless; but Berish demands justice from God when justice doesn't seem to be present. Men of faith too ask why there is such suffering in the world. There is no simple answer, and we should avoid giving them, because rather than comforting, we cause affliction.
God is closer to the Just struck by the whip than to the whip. God may punish the Just whom He loves, but despise the instrument of punishment; He throws it in the garbage, whereas the Just will find his way to the sanctuary. I lived as a Jew, and it is as a Jew that I shall die—and it is as a Jew that, with my last breath, I shall shout my protest to God. And because the end is near, I shall shout louder! So what? Must one be thirsty to drink?
Do birds fly only when they have someplace to go? They fly because they love freedom and the blue sky. We drink the way they fly. Love was invented as an excuse for everything that goes wrong. Well, I do not forgive! If I am given the choice of feeling sorry for Him or for human beings, I choose the latter anytime. He is big enough, strong enough to take care of Himself; man is not. You feel nothing? I prefer facts and cool logic.
I want no part of a justice that escapes me, diminishes me and makes a mockery out of mine! Justice is here for men and women—I therefore want it to be human, or let Him keep it! Commentary: Consolation is no answer. It heightens the problem rather than resolving it. It may have a place within the Jewish tradition, but one cannot remain passive in the face of evil. So what shall we do? Rather than passivity, a dedicated aggressiveness is demanded.
We are invited by another part of the Jewish tradition not to bury our concerns but to hold them up, to confront God with them, sometimes in anger.
And this, rather than diminishing God is truly to take God seriously. He could get a job in most academic theological institutions today. Beware of theologians and excessive rationalizations, Wiesel is warning. Rightly so. For theology too easily strays into the lap of the left brain, too far from the guts where injustice as well as compassion are felt and where wonder and amazement are tasted.
Religious fanatics are prophets with no love, prophets with no mystical soul. They are false prophets, therefore, and corrupters of true religion. While those who dissent are often the true prophets. Wiesel, Elie. The Trial of God: as it was held on February 25, , in Shamgorod pp.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Maybe growing up religiously means moving from an exclusively interventionist theology of redemption to a coresponsibility theology of redemption. In the former we are taught to await salvation from the outside much like the men in the play, who kept looking for Sam to deliver them right up to the end. Such a theology presumes a theistic world view; that is, that the God of creation and liberation is outside of things.
In a coresponsibility theology of redemption God is not seen theistically or outside of things but panentheistically or within things and with things within God. If we believed in the latter, our ways would have to change. Aug 17, Madeleine Lesieutre rated it really liked it Shelves: read-summer This is a play of Jewish people putting God on trial in for refusing to do anything while his people are killed.
While preparing the trial, they struggle to find a prosecutor for God. For the duration of the trial, they debate over the pos This is a play of Jewish people putting God on trial in for refusing to do anything while his people are killed. For the duration of the trial, they debate over the possibility of death being good, and the fine difference between death and suffering.
There is certainly more dialogue and less description. I am not a frequent reader of plays, but I enjoyed this. Mar 10, Colleen Browne rated it really liked it Recommends it for: everyone. Shelves: literature. This is a fast read and like many books of its sort, I feel I could read over and over and each time gain more insight into the author's purpose.
Set in Shamgorod in the 17th Century, the play is set after a series of pogroms that have devastated Jewish villages leaving only a handful of survivors. God is put on trial for allowing the horrors inflicted upon the people to happen.
As a boy in Auschwitz, Wiesel witnessed a similar occurrence carried out by some rabbis which haunted him his entire l This is a fast read and like many books of its sort, I feel I could read over and over and each time gain more insight into the author's purpose.
As a boy in Auschwitz, Wiesel witnessed a similar occurrence carried out by some rabbis which haunted him his entire life. The trial takes places in the inn where the inn keeper and his daughter reside having been the sole survivors of the pogrom carried out in their village. Berish carries the psychological wounds of the atrocities that occurred including the murders of his wife and children, other than his daughter Hanna who was subjected to gang rape and humiliation on the eve of her wedding.
Her father had been forced to watch and was now holding God to account for what has happened. Visitors, most of whom have also witnessed pogroms, arrive at the inn where a decision is taken to hold a trial. What surprised me most about the play was that after all they had suffered, none of the characters had lost their faith. They all maintained their belief in God, but could not come to terms with what he had allowed.
Like the other books by the author, his compassion and empathy for the suffering of other people is apparent. They say that writing can be cathartic and in the case of Wiesel at least, one can't help but agree. This is a thoughtful, worthwhile book. Aug 31, Jenna Van Donselaar rated it really liked it. I wrote a paper on this book my freshman year of college, and then I decided to major in religion. This book deeply challenged me. The antediluvians were truly superhuman, a superior race, with a longevity ten times longer than the current average.
God could no longer bear the spectacle of their daily wickedness. In order to save the only family that was still obedient to God, the Creator decided to destroy that beautiful and blessed world, to drastically lower life expectancy, and thus give the human species a new chance at salvation. The last example, with which Akiba ends his diatribe is, indeed, very provocative: When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, the old man should have stopped God, and not allowed Him to give such a command.
If you find me guilty, punish me, but do not command me to do the thing that You have absolutely forbidden. If you ask me this, I begin to wonder whose voice speaks to me, even if it sounds like Your voice! The gods were expected to be strong, but not good or merciful. Abraham had been removed by God from an initially faithful nation, who had fallen into idolatry. Human sacrifices were present in all peoples.
Canaanite neighbours often sacrificed their children to their gods, and the Torah of Moses and the Prophets, who categorically forbid such a gesture, had not yet appeared. This explains why God was able to test Abraham in this strange and dramatic way.
The test was to verify the faith of Abraham before the heavenly beings. The old man emerged victorious from this test because, although he knew he would make of Isaac a holocaust, he was convinced that God would raise his son even from the ashes.
That is why he promised the servants that he would return with the boy. Adonai was extremely pleased with the success of this experience of trust and devout obedience. Questions such as those asked by Akiba are common, but an honest and patient study of the Scriptures gives us brilliant or at least satisfactory answers. Until the final judgment, however, some of them will still be left without a satisfactory answer. Should we abandon God because He does not give us all the explanations now?
Akiba leaves everyone speechless, and the trial ends tacitly against God. However, someone else will have the final say in this trial. The doctor comes in and reads out the numbers of those detainees destined for gassing.
While the list is being read and the terrified detainees still hope that it may have been a mistake, because some are too young, and can still work, an extraordinary scene takes place. The Jew who had been most angry with God from the beginning hears his number being called. What do we do now? Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.
This is the masterful way the trial of the biblical God of the Jews ends, started and completed in the camp. Now we pray. This means the implicit recognition of our inadequacy on every level: worship, capitulation, the replacement of our indictment and inquisitorial rhetoric with the spirit of repentance, reconciliation with God, the willingness to get to know Him more, and to remain faithful to Him until the end, and at all costs.
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In these stories, various individuals sue God before the Mosaic Law the Torah , which is meant to give people salvation. Most of the time, the petitioners win the lawsuit, and God is obliged to listen to their complaints. Job is an example of faithful steadfastness and refusal to ally with Satan a Hebrew term for the opposition, personified by the rebellious angel. Job does not sue God because he understands the disproportion in all respects and because he does not find the right court to deliberate Job 9: Ezra-Nehemiah, Zechariah, Malachi.
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Sign In. TV Movie 1h 26m. Drama War. Awaiting their inevitable deaths at one of the worst concentration camps, a group of Jews make a rabbinical court to decide whether God has gone against the Holy Covenant and if He is the on Read all Awaiting their inevitable deaths at one of the worst concentration camps, a group of Jews make a rabbinical court to decide whether God has gone against the Holy Covenant and if He is the one guilty for their suffering.
Awaiting their inevitable deaths at one of the worst concentration camps, a group of Jews make a rabbinical court to decide whether God has gone against the Holy Covenant and if He is the one guilty for their suffering.
Director Andy De Emmony. Frank Cottrell Boyce. Top credits Director Andy De Emmony. See more at IMDbPro. Photos 6. Top cast Edit. Joseph Muir Kapo as Kapo. Josef Altin Isaac as Isaac. Ashley Artus Ricard as Ricard. Jerusalem scholar Esther Farbstein, author of Hidden in Thunder: Perspectives on Faith, Halachah and Leadership during the Holocaust, was asked if there is any record of God being put on trial in Auschwitz.
Mrs Farbstein said flatly: "No. But I think it's a story, because I have never seen such a document testifying to such a trial.
Robert Jan Van Pelt, a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, who formed part of Professor Deborah Lipstadt's defence team in the libel case brought by David Irving, said the suggestion of a trial in Auschwitz was "a real problem.
Historians ask for material and eye-witness evidence.
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