The Trial of God
Encyclopedia
The Trial of God (first published in English in 1979 by Random House) is a play by Elie Wiesel
about a fictitious trial ("Din-Toïre
," or דין תּורה) calling God as the defendant
. Though the setting itself is fictional, and the play's notes indicate that it "should be performed as a tragic farce," the events that he based the story on were witnessed first-hand as a teenager in Auschwitz. The play was produced on PBS Television with the title God on Trial
.
/ trial concept: "Its genesis: inside the kingdom of night, I witnessed a strange trial. Three rabbis—all erudite and pious men—decided one winter evening to indict God for allowing his children to be massacred. I remember: I was there, and I felt like crying. But nobody cried." Robert McAfee Brown
elaborates on this strikingly bleak description:
notes that Wiesel initially had difficulty in recounting the story in an appropriate form—"It did not work as a novel, it did not work as a play, it did not even work as a cantata." After several attempts, the story was written as a play to be performed around the Jewish festival of Purim
. This type of play is commonly known by its Yiddish name Purimschpiel
. As Wiesel sets the scene on page one of the play, he notes that it "should be performed as a tragic farce
: a Purimschpiel within a Purimschpiel." The Purim play provides the drama with a backdrop of revelry and intense celebration for the Jewish victory of Queen Esther over the genocidal plot of Haman in the book of Esther
. Purim calls for masks, feasting, drinking, noisemakers, and the creative re-telling of the Esther victory with enthusiastic jeers at every mention of the character Haman. There is a popularly cited line the Tefilla 7b of the Talmud
that it is Jewish duty to drink on Purim until one cannot distinguish between the phrases, "cursed by Haman" and "blessed by Mordecai," which the character Mendel references in the second act of the play.
s across this area modern day Ukraine
and Poland
. These pogroms were associated with the Khmelnytsky Uprising
, which devastated Jewish villages like the fictitious Shamgorod of the play.
State Senator
Ernie Chambers
filed suit against God, to force God to stop harming God's creation. In fiction, writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky have taken up the motif.
question: how (if at all) can people understand God to be just and good in light of the innocent suffering pervasive in the world? As Robert McAfee Brown expresses the issue, "Surely any God worthy of the name would not only refuse to condone such brutality but would expend all of the divine effort necessary to bring the brutality to a halt, and initiate the work of passionate rebuilding." The issue emerges forcibly in the book of Job, since God is incited "to destroy [Job] for no reason" .
character Berish declares "I—Berish...accuse Him of hostility, cruelty, and indifference.... He is...He is...guilty! (Pause. Loud and clear) Yes, guilty!" In a similar thematic vein of accusation, Job cries out, "I would lay my case before [God], and fill my mouth with arguments" . The reason, of course, is that Job is a righteous person who fears God, yet God "multiplies [Job’s] wounds without cause" in a way Job can only describe as murderous .
(i.e., the Devil
) with Job’s friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) from the Hebrew Bible
. In the book of Job, the friends provide the voices of theodicy—namely, the ones insistent upon God’s justice despite the problem of suffering. In The Trial of God, Sam presents the very arguments the reader would expect from Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Compare, for example, Sam’s claim that suffering is "all because of our sins" and Eliphaz’s musings in : "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same."
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
about a fictitious trial ("Din-Toïre
Beth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
," or דין תּורה) calling God as the defendant
Lawsuits against God
Lawsuits against God have occurred in real life and in fiction. Issues debated in the actions include the problem of evil and harmful "acts of God".- Ernie Chambers :In the U.S...
. Though the setting itself is fictional, and the play's notes indicate that it "should be performed as a tragic farce," the events that he based the story on were witnessed first-hand as a teenager in Auschwitz. The play was produced on PBS Television with the title God on Trial
God on Trial
God on Trial is a 2008 BBC/WGBH Boston television play written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, starring Antony Sher, Rupert Graves and Jack Shepherd. The play takes place in Auschwitz during World War II. The Jewish prisoners put God on trial in absentia for abandoning the Jewish people...
.
Historical Background
In introducing the setting for the play, Wiesel gives us an idea of the provenance of the din torahBeth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
/ trial concept: "Its genesis: inside the kingdom of night, I witnessed a strange trial. Three rabbis—all erudite and pious men—decided one winter evening to indict God for allowing his children to be massacred. I remember: I was there, and I felt like crying. But nobody cried." Robert McAfee Brown
Robert McAfee Brown
Robert McAfee Brown was an American theologian and activist.Brown earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1943 and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1944...
elaborates on this strikingly bleak description:
The trial lasted several nights. Witnesses were heard, evidence was gathered, conclusions were drawn, all of which issued finally in a unanimous verdict: the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, was found guilty of crimes against creation and humankind. And then, after what Wiesel describes as an "infinity of silence," the TalmudTalmudThe Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic scholar looked at the sky and said "It's time for evening prayers," and the members of the tribunal recited MaarivMaarivMaariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
, the evening service.
Genre
In his introduction to the play, Robert McAfee BrownRobert McAfee Brown
Robert McAfee Brown was an American theologian and activist.Brown earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1943 and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1944...
notes that Wiesel initially had difficulty in recounting the story in an appropriate form—"It did not work as a novel, it did not work as a play, it did not even work as a cantata." After several attempts, the story was written as a play to be performed around the Jewish festival of Purim
Purim
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...
. This type of play is commonly known by its Yiddish name Purimschpiel
Purim spiel
A Purim Spiel, or Purimshpil, meaning a Purim play—shpil means 'game' or ' play' in Yiddish. .A Purim Spiel is usually a comic dramatization, as a traditional type of Jewish play, or informal theatrical production, with participants, usually children, wearing costumes that depict the characters in...
. As Wiesel sets the scene on page one of the play, he notes that it "should be performed as a tragic farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
: a Purimschpiel within a Purimschpiel." The Purim play provides the drama with a backdrop of revelry and intense celebration for the Jewish victory of Queen Esther over the genocidal plot of Haman in the book of Esther
Book of Esther
The Book of Esther is a book in the Ketuvim , the third section of the Jewish Tanakh and is part of the Christian Old Testament. The Book of Esther or the Megillah is the basis for the Jewish celebration of Purim...
. Purim calls for masks, feasting, drinking, noisemakers, and the creative re-telling of the Esther victory with enthusiastic jeers at every mention of the character Haman. There is a popularly cited line the Tefilla 7b of the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
that it is Jewish duty to drink on Purim until one cannot distinguish between the phrases, "cursed by Haman" and "blessed by Mordecai," which the character Mendel references in the second act of the play.
Setting
The celebratory atmosphere of the Purim is contrasted with the historical setting in Eastern Europe 1649, shortly after a series of pogromPogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s across this area modern day Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. These pogroms were associated with the Khmelnytsky Uprising
Khmelnytsky Uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, was a Cossack rebellion in the Ukraine between the years 1648–1657 which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland...
, which devastated Jewish villages like the fictitious Shamgorod of the play.
Other Lawsuits against God
The idea of suing God is not unique. In 2008, NebraskaNebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
State Senator
State Senator
A state senator is a member of a state's Senate, the upper house in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a legislator in Nebraska's one house State Legislature.There are typically fewer state senators than there are members of a state's lower house...
Ernie Chambers
Ernie Chambers
Ernest W. Chambers is a former Nebraska State Senator who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature. He is also a civil rights activist and is considered by most citizens of Nebraska as the most prominent and outspoken African American leader in the state...
filed suit against God, to force God to stop harming God's creation. In fiction, writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky have taken up the motif.
Plot
The author himself is the best source for a brief plot summary:What is the story? Three minstrels, three Purim spielers, come to a city called Shamgorod in the Ukraine. It is Purim eve, and they want to perform a play in order to get food and drink. The innkeeper says, "Are you crazy? Don't you know where you are? You are in Shamgorod. There was a pogrom here last year. Everyone was killed. I and my daughter are the only Jews here. And you want to perform here?" They insist on performing and finally he says, "All right. Under one condiition—that I will give you the idea. The theme will be a din torah with God, a trial of God. I want you to indict God for what he has done to my family, to my community, to all these Jews." The hungry performers accept.
In the first act the decision is made to hold a trial. In the second act there is a problem; nobody wants to play the role of God's attorney. In the third act we have the trial itself.
Theodicy question
A core concern in both The Trial of God and the book of Job is the theodicyTheodicy
Theodicy is a theological and philosophical study which attempts to prove God's intrinsic or foundational nature of omnibenevolence , omniscience , and omnipotence . Theodicy is usually concerned with the God of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, due to the relevant...
question: how (if at all) can people understand God to be just and good in light of the innocent suffering pervasive in the world? As Robert McAfee Brown expresses the issue, "Surely any God worthy of the name would not only refuse to condone such brutality but would expend all of the divine effort necessary to bring the brutality to a halt, and initiate the work of passionate rebuilding." The issue emerges forcibly in the book of Job, since God is incited "to destroy [Job] for no reason" .
Forensic themes
In connection with the theodicean question, both The Trial of God and the book of Job place God on trial. Wiesel’sElie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
character Berish declares "I—Berish...accuse Him of hostility, cruelty, and indifference.... He is...He is...guilty! (Pause. Loud and clear) Yes, guilty!" In a similar thematic vein of accusation, Job cries out, "I would lay my case before [God], and fill my mouth with arguments" . The reason, of course, is that Job is a righteous person who fears God, yet God "multiplies [Job’s] wounds without cause" in a way Job can only describe as murderous .
Sam and Job's Friends
In a provocative twist, Wiesel conflates SamSamael
Samael is an important archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore, a figure who is accuser, seducer and destroyer, and has been regarded as both good and evil...
(i.e., the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
) with Job’s friends (Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar) from the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. In the book of Job, the friends provide the voices of theodicy—namely, the ones insistent upon God’s justice despite the problem of suffering. In The Trial of God, Sam presents the very arguments the reader would expect from Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Compare, for example, Sam’s claim that suffering is "all because of our sins" and Eliphaz’s musings in : "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same."