The Elie Wiesel Living Archive

at The 92nd Street Y, New York. Supported by The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity

Contemporary Experience: All Rivers Run to the Sea

Narrating the Story of My Stories

Nov 04, 1993

Why write a memoir, especially one so big (comprising two volumes) given the fact that I prefer small books? I thought that, since I’ve been involved in so many events and certain things are missing from the record, for example the relationship with my father, my mother, my little sister. There are things that have not been said; now I try to say them prudently. Actually, the task is narrating not the story of my life but the story of my stories. I tried to find a way of understanding God’s role, God’s place, God’s power and to reconcile divine justice with what seems to be human injustice. The titles of both volumes of the forthcoming memoir are taken from a single verse in the biblical book of Kohelet: All Rivers Run to the Sea (vol. 1), And the Sea is Never Full (vol. 2). As usual, we need to review the lessons of the three previous lectures: Miriam’s closeness to God does not grant her impunity from punishment; Nadav and Avihu’s quest for spiritual elevation failed because they departed from law and community; Samson’s child companion is the one who conveys the message of his spiritual heroism. The three share a commitment to memory. And the goal of our study is to share the passion for study. Rabbi Akiva wept when Rabbi Eliezer passed away because he needed his friend’s questions. What will be the questions of the 21st century? What are the obligations of those who do not suffer towards those who do? When does hesitation turn into weakness, weakness into passivity, passivity into complicity? Walking out of the state dinner in Belgrade to go to a Shabes dinner: “I collect Sabbaths. This is one of the Sabbaths I collect.” Since the Akedah, I believe Jewish history and perhaps the human condition turn around the relationship between father and son. Thus my reading further excerpts from the novel, The Forgotten, which focuses on this theme. And of course the theme of memory: who forgets will forget more. To give back the keys would mean to forget who gave them to us.

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Subthemes:
1) Wiesel’s Father in Dreams
2) Father/Son Relationship
3) Miriam’s Rebuke of Moses
4) Nadav and Avihu’s Story
5) Samson’s Story
6) Commitment to Memory
7) A Legend: Friendship of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eiiezer
8) Fanaticism
9) Humanity in Terrorism?
10) Innocence of Children
11) Absence of Freedom and Democracy in the World
12) Story of the Cause and Start of WWI
13) Why the Talmud is “Oral”
14) The Oral Talmud in Foreign Hands
15) Blood Libel and Other False Accusations
16) Curiosity to Replace Fear
17) Role of the Jewish Writer
18) Holocaust Deniers
19) Legacy of the Twentieth Century
20) Professor Wiesel’s Diary
21) The Nature of God’s Suffering
22) Inability to Remember the Memories of Another
23) Listening is Witnessing
24) Witnessing and Memory as Necessary Burdens
25) Legend: Titus and the Keys to the Holy Temple
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