“By the time he was fifteen, Elie Wiesel was in Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. A teacher of Talmud befriended him by insisting that whenever they were together they would study Talmud—Talmud without pens or pencils, Talmud without paper, Talmud without books. It would be their act of religious defiance.
Once night the teacher took Wiesel back to his own barracks, and there, with the young boy as the only witness, three great Jewish scholars—masters of Talmud, Halakhah, and Jewish jurisprudence—put God on trial, creating, in that eerie place, ‘a rabbinic court of law to indict the Almighty.’[Irving Abrahmson, ed., Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel {New York: Holocaust Publications, 1985}, 112–3.] 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 Talmudic scholar looked at the sky and said ‘It’s time for evening prayers,’ and the members of the tribunal recited Maariv, the evening service.” (Robert McAfee Brown, Introduction to The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel [New York: Schocken Books, 1995], vii).
This course seeks to reflect on the problem of evil and pain from the point of view of Scripture’s testimony and the framework it provides: a great war between God and Satan as the context, an eternal covenant between God and creation as the original plan or promise that rules God’s relationship to the universe, the law of God as an unbending measure for life and prosperity, and the Sabbath as a sign of allegiance to God.
It is the hope that the study of these topics from the point of view of Scripture will provide the student keener insights, greater curiosity, a healthier relationship with those who struggle with their faith and a growing confidence in God.
Once night the teacher took Wiesel back to his own barracks, and there, with the young boy as the only witness, three great Jewish scholars—masters of Talmud, Halakhah, and Jewish jurisprudence—put God on trial, creating, in that eerie place, ‘a rabbinic court of law to indict the Almighty.’[Irving Abrahmson, ed., Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel {New York: Holocaust Publications, 1985}, 112–3.] 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 Talmudic scholar looked at the sky and said ‘It’s time for evening prayers,’ and the members of the tribunal recited Maariv, the evening service.” (Robert McAfee Brown, Introduction to The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel [New York: Schocken Books, 1995], vii).
This course seeks to reflect on the problem of evil and pain from the point of view of Scripture’s testimony and the framework it provides: a great war between God and Satan as the context, an eternal covenant between God and creation as the original plan or promise that rules God’s relationship to the universe, the law of God as an unbending measure for life and prosperity, and the Sabbath as a sign of allegiance to God.
It is the hope that the study of these topics from the point of view of Scripture will provide the student keener insights, greater curiosity, a healthier relationship with those who struggle with their faith and a growing confidence in God.
- Teacher: Cortez, Felix