{"id":8772,"date":"2017-07-24T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T14:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/?p=8772"},"modified":"2017-07-24T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T14:12:08","slug":"elie-wiesel-a-retrospective-week-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/2017\/07\/24\/elie-wiesel-a-retrospective-week-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Elie Wiesel: A Retrospective, Week #5"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Our text this week is Wiesel\u2019s 1964 The Gates of the Forest<\/em>, first published in French and translated to the English in 1966. This novel, set at the beginning of World War II, follows the struggle of a seventeen-year-old Hungarian Jew, Gregor, who is hiding from both Nazi and Hungarian forces in a cave in the forest. Gregor meets a mysterious stranger, Gavriel, who saves his life. He eventually leaves the cave and hides in the village below, posing as a deaf-mute; and, later, seeks refuge among the Jewish resistance fighters. Although woven together as a single narrative, the work is episodic, with each symbolic encounter or scene revealing the identity crisis that Gregor (and by extension, the Jew, in particular the surviving Jew) is now faced with. The passages we will share this week reflect the lessons that that Gregor learns: from the ghosts of his past, from Gavriel, and from his own survival.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Passage #1:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wiesel prefaced his novel with this famous Hasidic tale to which he added a coda:<\/p>\n

When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov
\nSaw misfortune threatening the Jews
\nIt was his custom
\nTo go into a certain part of the forest to meditate.
\nThere he would light a fire,
\nSay a special prayer,
\nAnd the miracle would be accomplished
\nAnd the misfortune averted.<\/p>\n

Later when his disciple,
\nThe celebrated Magid of Mezritch,
\nHas occasion, for the same reason,
\nTo intercede with heaven,
\nHe would go to the same place in the forest
\nAnd say: \u201cMaster of the Universe, listen!
\nI do not know how to light the fire,
\nBut I am still able to say the prayer.\u201d
\nAnd again the miracle would be accomplished.<\/p>\n

Still later,
\nRabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov,
\nIn order to save his people once more,
\nWould go into the forest and say:
\n\u201cI do not know how to light the fire,
\nI do not know the prayer,
\nBut I know the place
\nAnd this must be sufficient.\u201d
\nIt was sufficient and the miracle was accomplished.<\/p>\n

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn
\nTo overcome misfortune.
\nSitting in his armchair, his head in his hands,
\nHe spoke to God: \u201cI am unable to light the fire
\nAnd I do not know the prayer;
\nI cannot even find the place in the forest.
\nAll I can do is to tell the story,
\nAnd this must be sufficient.\u201d
\nAnd it was sufficient.<\/p>\n

God made man because he loves stories.<\/p>\n

Passage #2:<\/h3>\n

Suddenly he fell silent; winner or loser, Gregor didn\u2019t know. He could still see his grandfather\u2019s lips moving as they said, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, my child. Madmen are just wandering messengers, and without them the world couldn\u2019t endure. Without them there would be no surprise; they surprise even the Creator because they escape from Him and regard Him with pity. Their mission on earth? To persuade us that we don\u2019t know how to count, that numbers deceive or trap us. Are you listening?\u201d And heavy-heartedly Gregor answered, \u201cYes, Grandfather, I\u2019m listening. I think I\u2019ve lived only for this encounter and for this night.\u201d He could hardly hear him whispering, \u201cThat, my child, is true of all encounters, of every night.\u201d (14)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Passage #3:<\/h3>\n

Gavriel\u2019s feverish voice was silent. He panted like a man choking to death, then managed to catch his breath and go on: \u201cYou mustn\u2019t forget laughter either. Do you know what laughter is? I\u2019ll tell you. It\u2019s God\u2019s mistake. When God made man in order to bend him to his wishes he carelessly gave him the gift of laughter. Little did he know that later that earthworm would use it as a weapon of vengeance. When he found out, there was nothing he could do; it was too late to take back the gift. And yet he tried his best. He drove man out of paradise, invented an infinite variety of sins and punishments, and made him conscious of his own nothingness, all in order to prevent him from laughing. But, as I say, it was too late. God made a mistake before man made his. What they have in common is that they are both irreparable.\u201d (21)<\/span><\/p>\n

Passage #4:<\/h3>\n

Spring continued; the war too: they complemented each other perfectly, the one accentuating the other, each prolonging the other\u2019s life. Cold weather isn\u2019t suitable to murder; it slows it down. As a conscientious artisan the killer prefers to work in the sun: brave and free, knowing no fear, loving hard work and good health, relaxed in his movements and guiltless in the eyes of his fellow men, the killer knows that he is following the right way. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it for the good of mankind,\u201d said the philosophers of murder, waiting for the rest of the world to congratulate them. (61)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Passage #5:<\/h3>\n

\u201cJust the same you must admit it\u2019s strange,\u201d said Lieb. \u201cIt took a war to make our paths cross again.\u201d His eyes blazed in the dark, and Gregor was once more a schoolboy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the purpose of war.\u201d said Gregor, concealing his emotion. \u201cIt intensifies and underlines everything strange. War broke out in order that our paths might cross. War has fun; it overturns law and order, shakes the trees, and says to men: Get yourselves out of this mess. Suddenly children are older than their parents, and war says to them both: Go on, look each other in the face, and we\u2019ll see what happens. But nothing happens. Fathers and children are content to look each other in the face, and they die without having understood the game they have been playing. Then war laughs. Why not? It has every right to. It plants you in front of a stranger and says, Love him, kill him, humiliate him, and you obey without asking yourself whether it is right. An hour later you will be loved or killed or humiliated in your turn. At bottom we know all this, but we play the game as if it were for fun. That\u2019s what\u2019s strange.\u201d (121-122)<\/p>\n

Please join us for the next\u00a0week of selected passages at our\u00a0<\/span>Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our text this week is Wiesel\u2019s 1964 The Gates of the Forest, first published in French and translated to the English in 1966. This novel, set at the beginning of World War II, follows the struggle of a seventeen-year-old Hungarian Jew, Gregor, who is hiding from both Nazi and Hungarian forces in a cave in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12896,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8772"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8885,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions\/8885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/jewishstudies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}