Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Writings

Elie Wiesel divides his Jewish works stricto sensu into three parts: retellings of biblical stories, rabbinical stories, and Hasidic stories. He calls these retellings Célébrations, according to the volume published by Seuil in 1994, which includes Wiesel's Célébration biblique (1975), Célébration talmudique (1991), and Célébration hassidique I and II (1972 and 1981). A "Célébration" usually consists of a series of individual, double, or group portraits of biblical heroes and heroines, rabbinical or Hasidic masters.

During his lifetime, Wiesel published seven such "portrait galleries" with subtitles such as "Biblical, Talmudic, and Hassidic Portraits and Legends" as well as over 90 portraits (see list below). However, such a celebration is not for a dry philological society; historical-critical standards fall short. These panegyric doxologies or hagiographies are more reminiscent of wine-fueled traditional storytelling rituals. That does not mean, however, that Wiesel's Célébrations are not based on reliable source material. After all, Elie Wiesel not only possessed a comprehensive traditional knowledge of biblical, rabbinical, and Hasidic literature. As he states in a preliminary remark to Célébration talmudique, he regularly "studied" with masters of historical criticism such as Saul Liebermann and David Weiss-Halivni, and from 1972 onwards he himself was a professor of Jewish studies, first at the City University of New York and then, from 1978, at Boston University.

He wrote his Célébrations in this academic setting and for his teaching activities. In any case, his Célébrations, which certainly claim historical truth and use maps and chronological tables, must be distinguished from the distinctly legendary material he published with illustrations by Mark Podwal, such as The Golem. The Story of a Legend (1983), The Six Days of Destruction: Meditations towards Hope (1988), King Solomon and his Magic Ring (1999), The Tale of a Niggun (1978/2020). It is therefore possible and desirable to provide his portraits with scholarly references and accompany them with references to Wiesel's source material, as has already been done on a trial basis in the volume Raschi. Ein Portrait (2015).

However, the commentary must go even deeper, because the term "retelling" does not do justice to the portraitist's ambition. Wiesel did not see himself as an anthologist of edifying and entertaining Majsse books. Rather, he sought to distill a sharp psychological profile, a historical problem, or a religious program from the scattered stories about a primal or patriarchal figure, a rabbi, or a rebbe. In this sense, the people portrayed are general examples, and his headings are accordingly: "X or x": "Rabbi Akiwa ben Josef or the Love of the Absolute," "Elisha ben Abuja. Rebel or heretic." One could also say that his portrait gallery attempts a typology and topology of Judaism, a series of beings and concepts whose sum exhaustively describes the phenomenon.

For example, the nine portraits in the book about Hasidic masters, Célébration hassidique II (1981), each represent a particular aspect of Hasidic spirituality, which together are intended to cover the entire spectrum of Hasidic attitudes and beliefs: "Rabbi Pinhas de Koretz ou la sagesse hassidique," "Rabbi Aharon von Karlin ou la ferveur hassidique," "Rabbi Wolfe de Zbarazh ou l'hummilité hassidique," etc. The fact that his portraits never become lifeless allegories is due to the fact that, as a novelist and reporter, the reteller has a keen sense of religious scandal and spices his stories with juicy details. A more detailed characterization of Elie Wiesel as a narrator is reserved for a supplementary study.

Elie Wiesel's vision of Judaism is shaped by his years of study in France. He received his decisive philosophical and literary impressions in post-war France, and French remained his poetic language throughout his life. In the Renouveau Juif after the Libération, there was a kind of division of labor: Léon Askénazi was responsible for Pensée juive, André Neher for Leçon biblique, Emmanuel Lévinas for Lecture talmudique, and Elie Wiesel for Légende hassidique. The master thinkers of the Renouveau Juif knew each other and shared essential prerequisites. They were all survivors of what was already known in their circle at that time as the "Shoah," which, in contrast to "Churban," expresses irreparable destruction. In the "zero hour," some of them still during the German occupation and extermination, they set out to rebuild Jewish life intellectually. In doing so, they faced not only the ashes of European Jewry, but also the ruins of Western civilizations with their broken promises of progress, emancipation, and assimilation.

After this catastrophe, a complete revision of their Jewish and European identities was necessary. It was no longer possible to treat Jewish thought as a footnote to Greek, Arabic, or German thought, as had previously been common practice in academia; for them, Jewish thought and the Jewish destiny ennobled by martyrdom were a message of universal significance. Léon Askénazi once put it this way: "D'emblée, la 'pensée juive' se formulait comme universelle à sa manière." Instead of liberal apologetics, which had proved completely ineffective during the years of persecution, there was to be proud self-assertion and a reversal of the burden of proof. "C'est un renversement radical e de cette attitude que nous avons connu. Subitement nos livres devenaient de grands livres. C'était la pensée dite universelle qui, à son tour, devait être évaluée aux critères de la conscience juive" (Jacob Gordin, Écrits. Le renouveau de la pensée juive en France, Paris 1995, p. 15).

Recently, Dr. Sandrine Swarcz revived this intellectual milieu in her book Fascinant Chouchani (2022), with Chouchani, the Talmud teacher of Lévinas and Wiesel. Dr. Carina Brankovic is also researching the general philosophical and literary influences on the young Elie Wiesel in post-war France at the Elie Wiesel Research Center, Potsdam branch. This was the intellectual ambition with which the mature and late Wiesel created his portraits, now of course in all fields, biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic. Since the three parts of Elie Wiesel's Jewish work are assigned to three specific disciplines in Jewish studies, the volume will be edited by experts in the relevant fields.