The Judges
By Shirley Saad
SAN DIEGO (UPI) -- An airplane en route from New York to Tel Aviv, Israel, is forced to make an emergency landing because of a bad storm. Five passengers find refuge for the night at the house of a man who calls himself the Judge and his sidekick, the Hunchback. The Judge locks them in and tells them that before long one of them -- the least worthy -- will die.
It may sound like a horror movie or the start of an Agatha Christie novel, but it is in fact the latest novel by Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel.
Weisel, a Romanian Jew who survived the Nazi camps, has made it his life's work to remind people of the Holocaust so it will never happen again. He is the recipient of several prizes including the Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He teaches at Boston University and lives in New York with his wife.
Weisel is most famous for his "Night" trilogy, in which he recounts his experiences in the camps.
"I try to write about my experience and I try to transcend it," he said in a television interview last September. "I write not for those who are gone, but for the children."
In "The Judges," five stranded passengers take a good look at their lives: Claudia, who found a new love after leaving her husband; Razziel, a former political prisoner who now teaches religion; Bruce, a philanderer; George, an archivist with an important secret document incriminating a politician; and finally Yoav, an Israeli commando dying of cancer.
They face the Judge, each reacting according to his or her character, and answer his questions, unwilling to believe that one of them is going to die. How does one judge one's worthiness? Who is qualified to do the judging? The title indicates that the characters will be the judges -- there is no one judge.
With his characters' dialogues and musings, Weisel explores the philosophical, religious and moral questions that are the essence of his work.
Their first reaction is disbelief. Razziel, the yeshiva teacher, remembers his childhood prayers.
"As long as he was praying, nothing bad could befall him."
As a child, Razziel saw prayer as "a shelter and a defense, a protection against rough winds and the wickedness of man." And yet, his world falls apart, he loses his family, his freedom and even his memory.
He sees his old friend and master, Paritus, in a dream in which the mystic cries out, "You and your dreams of making the Redeemer come. You make me laugh. Do you really think he is still alive? Do you really think he'll appear one day, just like that, to please you? Seriously, my boy, I knew you were naïve and mad, but not to that extent. Can it be that you long to be a prophet too? Do you really think that the Savior we have been waiting for so long will materialize out of thin air tomorrow or next year to bring you his light and grace? Don't be stupid. Stop waiting for the end. We've passed it already. The end is behind us. The Redeemer is not going to come now. And if he ever comes he'll need our pity more than we need his. Anyway, he's lost his powers, believe you me. I know what I'm talking about. He's taken too long to get here. He's missed his opportunity, let it slip through his fingers."
And indeed, if the Redeemer is coming, what is he waiting for? The forces of evil seem to have taken over the world.
All around us are incidents of ethnic cleansing, religious conflicts, racial tension. Violence and cruelty abound. Is it really too late? Where is God in all this? How can he allow such misery? "God watches, that's all," Paritus replies.
Razziel thinks of the Day of Atonement, and of the one question, God, the ultimate Judge will ask. "How have you spent your days and nights, what have you done with your talent?" Does the answer give anyone the right to judge, to condemn?
Who is to say who's more or less worthy? By what criteria can one be judged?
In this seemingly simple novel, Weisel, obviously marked by his own life experiences, examines deeply philosophical aspects of life. At one point, Razziel remembers an essay he wrote on the concept of exile in Jewish thought.
"Exile is the principal theme of human existence. Adam and Eve were exiled from paradise. Thereafter the whole universe, and its creator too, lived in exile."
Yoav, the dying soldier, discusses forgiveness with a young German doctor whose father participated in some of the camp experiments.
"I might possibly be able to forgive what has been done to me as a Jew, but not what was done to us as men."
Yoav goes on to quote a French Jewish philosopher, Vladimir Jankelevitch: "There are cases where there should be no forgiveness."
Who will die? Will one of the hostages give up his life for the others? Yoav knows he is dying, does that make his the least worthwhile life? Is he capable of giving up his life for a set of complete strangers?
Claudia wants to savor her newfound love; George wants to make sure his discovery does not fall into the wrong hands; each one has a good reason to go on living. What is worth living for and what is worth dying for?
This novel forces readers to stop and take stock of their own life, to ponder their principles, to question their values. It makes one take a good look at the world around us and ask which of the horrors the world has witnessed in the last 50 years is unforgivable.
The denouement is somewhat of a surprise,
but rest assured somebody dies.
("The Judges: A Novel"
by Elie Weis, Geoffrey Strachan)