{"product_id":"the-trial-of-god-isbn-9780805210538","title":"The Trial of God","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Trial of God (as it was held on February 25, 1649, in Shamgorod)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eA Play by Elie Wiesel\u003cbr\u003eTranslated by Marion Wiesel\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction by Robert McAfee Brown\u003cbr\u003eAfterword by Matthew Fox\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhere is God when innocent human beings suffer? This drama lays bare the most vexing questions confronting the moral imagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSet in a Ukranian village in the year 1649, this haunting play takes place in the aftermath of a pogrom. Only two Jews, Berish the innkeeper and his daughter Hannah, have survived the brutal Cossack raids. When three itinerant actors arrive in town to perform a Purim play, Berish demands that they stage a mock trial of God instead, indicting Him for His silence in the face of evil. Berish, a latter-day Job, is ready to take on the role of prosecutor. But who will defend God? A mysterious stranger named Sam, who seems oddly familiar to everyone present, shows up just in time to volunteer.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe idea for this play came from an event that Elie Wiesel witnessed as a boy in Auschwitz: “Three rabbis—all erudite and pious men—decided one evening to indict God for allowing His children to be massacred. I remember: I was there, and I felt like crying. But there nobody cried.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eInspired and challenged by this play, Christian theologians Robert McAfee Brown and Matthew Fox, in a new Introduction and Afterword, join Elie Wiesel in the search for faith in a world where God is silent.“From the abyss of the death camps he has come as a messenger to mankind—not with a message of hate and revenge, but with one of brotherhood and atonement.”\u003cbr\u003e—From the Citation for the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Wiesel uses words to craft literary monuments, works that stand as acts of remembrance and as meditations on the nature of remembrance itself.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Unquestionably, Wiesel is one of the most admirable, indeed indispensable, human beings now writing.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Not since Albert Camus has there been such an eloquent spokesman for man.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eELIE WIESEL\u003c\/b\u003e was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The author of more than fifty internationally acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, he was Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University for forty years. Wiesel died in 2016.\u003ci\u003eAs the curtain rises,\u003c\/i\u003e MENDEL, AVRÉMEL \u003ci\u003eand \u003c\/i\u003eYANKEL \u003ci\u003eare sitting at a table. \u003c\/i\u003eMARIA \u003ci\u003eis wiping off the chairs at another\u003c\/i\u003e. BERISH \u003ci\u003ecomes in, running; he is annoyed.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eA glass, Maria. Hanna will get up any minutes, and she’ll be thirsty; and there is no glass in her room. I don’t understand, Maria—do you? I have glasses everywhere, for everybody; except for Hanna!\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e(He goes to a table to pick up a clean glass)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eYou’re running, running, Master. You’re always running. Where to, Master? Where from? Why are you running? (BERISH \u003ci\u003estops; he is startled\u003c\/i\u003e) Don’t you see we’ve got customers? Hanna is asleep. Leave her alone. When she gets up, I will be there to take care of her, as I always do. But the customers, Master, have you forgotten them? Do I have to do everything, see everything, be everywhere?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eBe quiet, Maria. Hanna is restless. She’ll get up any minute. She’ll want her milk. Where have you put the clean glasses?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eIn my pocket. In my bed . . . Don’t you see I’m busy? Somebody has to clean up the place—right? (YANKEL \u003ci\u003etries to catch their eyes\u003c\/i\u003e) You should pay more attention to the customers, Master.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eDon’t tell me what to do. You’re getting on my nerves. The customers are getting on my nerves. The whole world is getting on my nerves.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eThen you better get yourself another trade, Master. Better yet, get yourself another world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eI’ll get myself another helper if you don’t stop this.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eLeave her alone, innkeeper. Why don’t you listen to us instead? We’re waiting for you.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eWho are you?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eHis Majesty’s special emissaries . . . Who do you think we are? Don’t you have eyes? We are customers!\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eWhat do you want?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eService.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eService . . .\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eDoes the word sound strange to you? We would like to order drinks,\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eDrinks . . . (\u003ci\u003eHe emerges from his daze\u003c\/i\u003e) All that people want is—drinks. (\u003ci\u003eHe places a bottle and three glasses on their table\u003c\/i\u003e) One of these days I’m going to close up this place, I promise you that. I’ll sell it or burn it to the ground. And I’ll get out of here.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eRight.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eYou don’t believe me? I’m telling you, I’ll go away.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eYou’ll go away, you’ll go away. . . . Where would you go?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eAnywhere. To the end of the world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eNo farther?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003e(\u003ci\u003eLaughs\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003cbr\u003eBravo, woman! Wouldn’t you like to join us?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eWhy—are you going to the end of the world, too?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eNo, we have just come from there,\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003e(\u003ci\u003eTo \u003c\/i\u003eBERISH)\u003cbr\u003eWhere \u003ci\u003eis \u003c\/i\u003ethe end of the world?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eI don’t know. . . . Yes, I do. The end of the world is where you’re not.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003e(\u003ci\u003eTo \u003c\/i\u003eMARIA)\u003cbr\u003eHow do you manage to live under one roof with him?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eMind your own business! He’s my master. If he feels like insulting me, let him!\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003e(\u003ci\u003eMischieviously\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003cbr\u003eWouldn’t you like to join us?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAVRÉMEL\u003cbr\u003eThe end of the world . . . I remember it well. In my village there was a small dusty street. An old witch lived in the last shack. The children were convinced that it was the end of the world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eThe end of the world, the end of the world. In my hometown we were told . . . I forgot what we were told.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eForget it again, Master. You’ll feel better.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAVRÉMEL\u003cbr\u003eThe witch and her shack. People would be seen entering it—no one was ever seen leaving it. The children were scared even to look at it—to look at it from far away.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eCan’t you change the subject?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eWhat’s wrong with this one?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMARIA\u003cbr\u003eChange the subject. And change the inn too. You’re annoying us.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eBut we’ve said nothing. We would like to talk to you, innkeeper.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eI’ve got nothing to tell you.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eHow do you know?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAVRÉMEL\u003cbr\u003eWhat if we asked you not to tell us anything but to listen to us while we tell you something?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eI’m not interested.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eWhat do you mean, not interested? There must be something that interests you.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eRight! One thing: to see you get out.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eAll right, all right. We’ll leave. Afterwards.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBERISH\u003cbr\u003eAfter what?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYANKEL\u003cbr\u003eHave you forgotten that it’s Purim tonight? We must celebrate—have you forgotten how to celebrate?Introduction by Robert McAfee Brown","brand":"Schocken","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304253051109,"sku":"NP9780805210538","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780805210538.jpg?v=1767741910","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-trial-of-god-isbn-9780805210538","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}