Yosl Rakover Talks to God

by Zvi Kolitz

There are two stories here. One is the now legendary tale of a defiant Jew's refusal to abandon God, even in the face of the greatest suffering the world has known, a testament of faith that has taken on an unpredictable and fascinating life of its own and has often been thought to be a direct testament from the Holocaust.

The parallel story is that of Zvi Kolitz, the true author, whose connection to Yosl Rakover has been obscured over the fifty years since its original appearance. German journalist Paul Badde tells how a young man came to write this classic response to evil, and then was nearly written out of its history. With brief commentaries by French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and Leon Wieseltier, author of Kaddish , this edition presents a religious classic and the very human story behind it.

Genres: Fiction, Judaism, Holocaust, Theology, Philosophy, Jewish, Classics

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across this tiny book among the shelves of my library and was drawn to it, mainly thanks to the title: Yosl Rakover Talks to God. I had never heard of the story before and the history behind it, but I was in for a wild journey.

Warsaw, 28 April 1943

There are two stories here. One is the now legendary tale of a defiant Jew's refusal to abandon God, even in the face of the greatest suffering the world has known, a testament of faith that has taken on an unpredictable and fascinating life of its own and has often been thought to be a direct testament from the Holocaust.

The parallel story is that of Zvi Kolitz, the true author, whose connection to Yosl Rakover has been obscured over the fifty years since its original appearance. German journalist Paul Badde tells how a young man came to write this classic response to evil and then was nearly written out of its history.

What struck me almost immediately -and most noticeably- upon starting Yosl Rakover Talks to God was the unnerving honesty behind each sentence. There's no purple prose or watering down the vocabulary; the author tells of the events as they are, and you feel it reverberating for pages to come. A simple passage made me contemplate as if I had just read a whole story. Take for example the one below:

“Rachel had said nothing to me about her plan to steal out of the ghetto — a crime that carried the death penalty. She went off on her dangerous journey with a friend, another girl of the same age.

In the dark of night she left home and at dawn she was discovered with her little friend outside the gates of the ghetto. The Nazi sentries and dozens of their Polish helpers immediately went in pursuit of the Jewish children who had dared to hunt in the garbage for a lump of bread so as not to die of hunger. People who had experienced this human hunt at first hand could not believe what they were seeing. Even for the ghetto this was new. You might have thought that dangerous escaped criminals were being chased as this terrifying pack ran amok after the two half-starved ten-year-old children. They couldn't keep up this race for long before one of them, my daughter, having expended the last of her strength, collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. The Nazis drove holes through her skull. The other girl escaped their clutches, but she died two weeks later. She had lost her mind.”

The ending is what gets me every time because these two half-starved ten-year-old children were dying of hunger and are being chased as if they're “dangerous escaped criminals.” Nothing makes my blood boil more than my hatred for Nazis. Nothing.

This is also why I don’t read the horror genre when you can just take a look at History, or even the news, and have pretty much the same feelings evoked.

But circling back to the story, the language created by Zvi Kolitz was rich in its attention paid to each deserving line, as every word takes part in delivering to the overarching theme.

“I am proud to be a Jew — not despite of the world's relation to us, but precisely because of it.

I would be ashamed to belong to the peoples who have borne and raised the criminals responsible for the deeds that have been perpetrated against us.”

No author has consumed my world as much as Kolitz's did with his short story. It's my mission to get my hands on any of his remaining works. In the meantime, I will be sure to share Yosl Rakover Talks to God with anyone I can because it's impossible to keep to myself.

Point proven, one last quote I want to share that talks about keeping quiet in the face of evil:

“The world will consume itself in its own evil, it will drown in its own blood.

The murderers have already pronounced judgment on themselves, and they will not escape it. But You, I beg You, pronounce Your guilty verdict, a doubly harsh verdict, on those who witness murder and remain silent!

On those who condemn murder with their lips while they rejoice over it in their hearts.

On those who say in their wicked hearts: Yes, it is true that the tyrant is evil, but he is also doing a job for which we will always be grateful to Him.”

The lengthy afterword offered necessary insight on Zvi Kolitz’s life before and after releasing Yosl Rakover Talks to God, his family history, the Yosl Rakover myth and  Kolitz’s fight to have his authorship be recognized. It was dynamic and all-consuming.



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[Barb H · Rating 4 out of 5]

There has been a huge amount of what is titled holocaust literature.
Although this book certainly deals with the topic, its uniqueness makes it difficult to pigeonhole its place. This 99 page work is thought provoking and powerful with the many messages it conveys. I will not attempt to analyze the numerous points which are represented here, but simply comment on the contents.

Initially, the reader is introduced to Yosl Rakover, who is experiencing his final hours in the Warsaw ghetto, fully realizing that his demise is near. His lament to God, his many losses of family and friends, his life of piety are all painfully presented to the reader. He relates his knowledge that Jews have for millenia been the objects of persecution and slaughter, but "being a Jew is an inborn virtue". His words were painful and difficult to read. Although I did not experience such horror and losses, the impact of his recital reinforced my sense of mourning for my people's continuing injustices and suffering.

Yosl Rakover's message was written on paper and placed in a bottle. It was purportedly found many years after the war, amidst rubble, human bones and encased in bricks. The next portion of the book presents the fascinating and compelling account of Zvi Kolitz, who claimed to be the actual creator of this text. The account of his involvement is in many ways incredible.

Emmanuel Levinas, a French philosopher, has followed Kolitz's segment with a thoughtful meditation on the work. It is followed by a discourse by Leon Wieseltier. I will not attempt a critique of the two commentaries, for much can be agreed or debated upon with both positions. I do, however, disagree with Wieseltier's stance that the Rakover piece trivializes the holocaust. Regardless of one's views of God and religion, Wieseltier presents a scholarly and intriguing treatise. Yosl Rakover is but a small piece of this horror, but deserves its place nevertheless.

[robin friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Theology Of The Holocaust

In 1946, a writer named Zvi Kolitz published a story in Yiddish in an Argentenian Jewish newspaper. Although the work was clearly subtitled as "a story" and bore the name of its author, it soon assumed a life of its own. "Yosl Rakover" became published over the years in some sources as a first-person account by a martyr who died in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

The story is best known for its protagonist's reflections on a "God who hides his face."Yosl continues his belief in God and in the Torah while he confronts God with the senseless, undeserved suffering endured by the Ghetto Resistance and by those who suffered and died in the Holocaust.
In this book, we have the text of Kolitz's story together with a lengthy essay by Paul Badde which addresses the history of the story and its author.

I found most fascinating about this book, however, the two essays by Emmanuel Levinas, the great French philosopher, and Leon Wieseltier. In their different ways the two essays discuss and comment on Kolitz's tale and take issue with each other.

Levinas' essay, first published in 1955, recognizes the fictional character of the account. He sees the book as creating an internal (rather than a transcendent) concept of God emphasizing the importance of human ethics. This is consistent with the rest of Levinas's philosophy, but it may not capture the essence of Kolitz's.

In his essay, Wiesentheler takes issue with Levinas's reading and takes issue as well with the theistic approach of Kolitz's story. I find this a courageous approach. Modern readers may well have difficulty with Koiittz' rendering of the Holocaust because of the difficulty they have in finding God through the face of sheer evil. Every reader will need to face this question for him or herself.

This thoughtful book raises difficult theological and philosophical issues.

Robin Friedman

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una preghiera accorata, un grido disperato, un urlo di rabbia rivolto a Dio da parte di chi è condannato. Ciò si può dire di questo brevissimo racconto. Ma soprattutto è stato per me una lezione di cultura ebraica.
“Credo nel Dio d’Israele, anche se ha fatto di tutto perché non credessi in lui. Credo nelle sue leggi, anche se non posso giustificare i suoi atti. Il mio rapporto con lui non è più quello di uno schiavo verso il suo padrone, ma di un discepolo verso il suo maestro. Chino la testa dinanzi alla sua grandezza, ma non bacerò la verga con cui mi percuote. Io lo amo, ma amo di più la sua Legge, e continuerei ad osservarla anche se perdessi la mia fiducia in lui. Dio significa religione, ma la sua Legge rappresenta un modello di vita, e quanto più moriamo in nome di quel modello di vita, tanto più esso diventa immortale”.
Ho riportato il passo che ritengo più significativo del modo di concepire il rapporto tra gli ebrei e Dio. Non un atteggiamento di sottomissione di fronte alla potenza incommensurabile della divinità, ma un rapporto da pari a pari, anzi, dice Yoss Rakover, “ora quello che ho con lui è il rapporto con uno che anche a me deve qualcosa, che mi deve molto”. Chi è più “innamorato” di un altro essere che un creditore del suo debitore? Il creditore ha fiducia nel suo debitore, lo ama proprio perché sa che può esercitare nei suoi confronti il diritto ad ottenere l’adempimento della prestazione dovuta, perché sa che la legge lo tutela nel caso questi sia inadempiente. E così il credente ebreo ha una fiducia incrollabile nel suo Dio, e ce l’ha perché prima che in lui ha fiducia nella sua Legge, la Torah, la legge morale che guida l’esistenza del popolo ebreo.
Un atto di fede mediato, ma proprio per questo il più alto che si possa fare, perché non fondato su cieca obbedienza e sottomissione ma sulla fiducia e sulla parità.

[Shir L · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, concise volume that is both emotionally powerfully and extremely thought-provoking. The inner story is a Jobian question of belief and faith in the most trying of times for a Jew, the end of the Warsaw ghetto. Around it Paul Badde tells the tale of the text itself that ran away from its author; and then we get Levinas' and Wieseltier's reflections on these questions, including the hiding of the face of God and whether it is valid to make up such a story (in contrast to the historiographic philosophy of, say, Laurent Binet in HHhH). Each layer is individually beautiful and challenging as it converses with its predecessors.

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un uomo, un ebreo, è rimasto solo! asserragliato in una casa semidistrutta nel ghetto ebraico di Varsavia sotto l'attacco finale della soldataglia tedesca che non lascia vie di scampo, circondato dai cadaveri dei suoi ultimi compagni uccisi durante le sparatorie, ripensa alla sua famiglia sterminata dal nemico e in un ultimo sussulto di vita decide di lasciare un documento scritto, una testimonianza del suo credo, nascondendo in una bottiglia poche righe...e si rivolge a Dio, al suo Dio, al Dio del suo popolo che sembra averlo abbandonato, che sembra aver girato la testa da un'altra parte mentre il nemico incalza sempre più vicino, quel nemico che non conosce pietà, che non ha umanità, disposto a lasciare dietro di sé solo morte e distruzione. E' il momento del confronto, quando la fede sembra vacillare, cadere sotto i colpi dello sconforto, della morte vicina, della solitudine dell'anima... e Yossl Rakover, ebreo lituano, unico superstite della sua famiglia, parla a Dio! Un racconto da brividi.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A legendary tale that is a quest for understanding; that attempts to find meaning where meaninglessness and godlessness seem to abound. The most remarkable aspect of this story is Rakover's deep and abiding faith in God in the face of such horrible circumstances.

[Denise Blumenfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy impactante díalogo de un judío con una gran fe en D's que vio destruirse por completo toda su familia de la que quedó solo él en Varsovia durante la segunda guerra y su Creador.
Profunda conversacion que refleja la teología del padeciente con una plena fe que se cuestiona acerca delsentido a su vida.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letto venti anni fa, ancora mi ricordo l'angoscia e la lucida tristezza che mi trasmise.
Bellissimo, forse fuori dai titoli più famosi riguardo agli ebrei e all'Olocausto ma non per questo meno forte e "bello".

[Andrea Sacchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per chi cerca un "Dio adulto".

[Roberto/Isairon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro di 91 pagine dove le prime 29 sono di una straordinaria profondità. Le altre sono un'aggiunta dello scrittore Paul Badde che cerca di spiegare come è venuto a conoscenza di questo scritto e del suo autore (a mio parere doveva giustificare la pubblicazione di questo libro, diciamo una ulteriore versione su come si è venuti a scoprire il testo, tanto per aumentare l'aura di mistero attorno allo scritto e al suo autore). L'ultima parte è un saggio del filosofo Emmanuel Lèvinas molto interessante. La cosa che mi stupisce, che ammette anche lo scrittore Badde, è che il testo riportato di Zvi Kolitz, autore “certo” di Yossl Rakover si rivolge a Dio, è una sua traduzione di un'altra traduzione. L'originale oramai è perduto, se non solamente salvato in alcune parti tramite un fax scarsamente leggibile. Mi ricorda il passaparola, la frase parte con un significato e mano a mano che le voci rimbalzano, la frase cambia, si trasforma assumendo significati anche distanti dall'originale. Dove intere parti vengono dimenticate o non prese in considerazione. Parole, punteggiatura, cambiate. Non è un caso simile alla bibbia che ci hanno fatto pervenire? Comunque nulla toglie che il testo così ricomposto, tradotto e interpretato da Badde, di Yossl Rakover si rivolge a Dio è di grande attualità e di un sentimento altrettanto profondo. Pensieri e domande (che purtroppo sono e saranno sempre dei monologhi) che credo un po' tutti, di tutte le religioni o più semplicemente di chi riesce ad Amare arriva prima o poi a porsi.

[Mark Swatek-Evenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

featuring a transcription of the yiddish original in latin letters as well as a german translation, this is the moving yet fictional testament of a man dying in the warsaw ghetto during the 1943 uprising. the book is fascinating not only for the - short - story it tells, but also the story it represents. a tale of a text that was disconnected from its author and stands on its own: sometimes considered to be an authentic testimonial, most definetly a moving meditation on how to "believe" in times of unbelievable darkness.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tricky rating for a four-layered text, in enormous typeset, still straining to pad out a hundred pages. The review of Goodreads' prolific Robin Friedman alerted me. I commented there about the book then reminding me of another very early, and equally terse (and I add here triply conveyed itself by its own translator, editor, and original by Chaim Grade, who shares with Yosl's creator a Lithuanian yeshiva upbringing and Yiddish grounding in a formidable and venerable Vilna-centered pre-WWII regimen) response as theodicy to the vexed question where the Divine Presence hid during the recent Shoah.

I've already weighed in at GR on Grade's My Argument With Hersh Rossleyer, made into the film The Quarrel in the mid-1990s. For Argentinian exile Zvi Kolitz, his successful short story (yes, it's barely that) so convinced many Jewish readers of its authenticity as a testament left behind by a defiant, doomed Masada-like last resister against tyrannical troops, that its inventor couldn't counter his own legend's spell. The journalist pursuing backstory compares blowback to Prague's rabbi and his Golem.

This 1999 ed. appends Paul Badde's account of how invention and veracity confounded those trying to sift evidence from the rubble. Ironically, as the Warsaw Ghetto fighters and their hidden chronicles in turn fifty years later found repeated the destruction of testimony as Kolitz' original publication burned in the bombing of Jewish offices in Buenos Aires. As Badde pieces together truths of the falsely sanctioned manuscript, it feels as if Umberto Eco teamed with Philip Roth and Isaac Bashevis Singer (the latter gets his cameo) to concoct this craft. In a third part, in 1966, we hear from the French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, who presciently sidled past bonafides of the document in question.

And finally Leon Weiseltier weighs in firmly. He takes on his learned predecessor for his existential hot air, and castigates, rightly I aver, Yosl's lament as cloying as Dov Landau in another mid-century monument to Jewish mythmaking, albeit far more popular than Levinas, Leon Uris' Zionist potboiler rendered Hollywood blockbuster, Exodus. It makes for a kerfluffle in this compact, erudite volume.

[B. Rule · Rating 5 out of 5]

What more can you say than Levinas's take, that this text is beautiful and true, in the way that only fiction can be? The actual story/testimonial/conversation with God is very brief, in fact mercifully so, because it is so devastating to bear. Even if Kolitz's account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is fictional, it is the distillation of real lived experiences of loss, real fear and almost hopeful expectation in the face of death, and real anguish at screaming into the divine void whose response is always a silence either freighted or empty (with no way to know which). It transcends its historical moment, while also perfectly encapsulating the specifics of the Holocaust.

It's gravy then, that it also is the heart of a Borgesian or Nabokovian assemblage of shifting authors, plagiarisms that improve upon an existing text, and a dialectic that moves to elevate Torah over G-d. Even if these other sections (a journalistic account of the writing, loss, discovery, and reception of the text and its author by Paul Badde, and theological/ethical essays by Levinas and Leon Wieseltier) were added just to pad out the page length, they create a new layer of meaning without obliterating the primary meaning(s) of the text itself. In just over a hundred pages, this bundle of texts creates a hyperdense singularity of religious, ethical, and literary interpretations that seizes the angel like Jacob.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der Roman ist das Testament eines Warschauer Juden, das er kurz vor seinem Tod geschrieben hat. Jossel ist einer der letzten Widerstandskämpfer im brennenden Ghetto. Er hat seine Familie verloren, seine Mitstreiter liegen tot in dem Zimmer, aus dem er immer noch auf die Deutschen schießt und er und die Kämpfer über ihm können das Haus nicht verlassen, weil das Treppenhaus zerstört ist. In dieser Lage wendet er sich an Gott, um ein letztes Mal mit ihm zu reden.

Bei dem Testament handelt es sich um Fiktion, aber das habe ich beim Lesen vergessen. Gemeinsam mit den Zeichnungen von Tomi Ungerer es ein beeindruckender Text. Er ist nicht lang, aber das muss er auch nicht sein. Denn was gibt es in so einer Stunde noch zu sagen?

Der zweite Teil ist die Geschichte des Buchs selbst und der Freundschaft zwischen dem Herausgeber und dem Autor. Zuerst dachte ich, dass man jedem Teil besser ein eigenes Buch gegönnt hätte, weil sie so unterschiedliche Themen haben. Aber sie gehören definitiv zusammen.

Viel mehr kann ich nicht sagen, weil ich meine Gefühle nur schwer in Worte fassen kann. Nur so viel: selten hat mich ein Buch so berührt wie dieses hier.

[Joseph Sverker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Det här är verkligen en helt unik bok som jag inte hade en aning om att den existerade förrän jag skulle undervisa om den. Jag är mycket tacksam till läraren som hade kursen innan mig helt enkelt. Jämförelserna med Jobs bok är talande och gör boken rättvisa. Det är på något sätt förståeligt varför boken har fått sin egen historia som ett genuint dokument trots att det är Zvi Kolitz's verk. Hjärtskärande på ett sådant sätt att jag var tvungen att skärma av vad som egentligen skrivs. Att sätta sig in i situationen kan helt enkelt vara för mödosamt en vanlig måndag. Men vid något tillfälle är det var persons plikt att i varje fall försöka som jag ser det - allt för att inte totalitära samhällen och masslakt ska behöva hända igen.

[Lars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andreas Malessa hat das Buch in seinem Podcast „Diesseits von Jedem“ zum Thema Leid empfohlen und daraus gelesen.
Der zitierte Text hat mich berührt.
Das Buch danach umsomehr.
Eine beeindruckende Tiefe, die für mich wie eine moderne Hiobinterpretation wirkt.
Diese Geschichte hat mir den Holocaust und den Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto erzählerisch schmerzhaft nahe gebracht.

Nebenbei hat die Entdeckungsgeschichte des Texts, und der Überblick über die Biographie des Autors dem eine zusätzlich Note gegeben.

Meines Erachtens sehr lohnenswerte kurze Lektüre für jemanden, der sich dem Thema Leid und Holocaust aus Glaubensperspektive nähern möchte.

[Sara Vidal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought a copy because of all the great reviews of this little book; when arrived I was eager - now am disappointed; sigh, why do so-called believers make pronouncements on what it means to be a non-believer in particular the claim that a non- believer is unhappier and lonelier and has a lesser moral compass that a believer? How would a believer know? I recommend Sholem Asch's books eg. Kiddush Hashem. And having read the ghetto archive 'To Live With Honor, To Die With Honour' well this just didn't do it for me.

[Federica Tabanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il primo racconto è coinvolgente ed emozionate: racconta il rapporto fra Dio ed un ebreo, il quale ha partecipato alla rivolta del ghetto di Varsavia. Un rapporto di fede che non viene messo in dubbio nemmeno dopo gli orrori vissuti.
Il secondo racconto invece narra delle vicende di un autore ed il personaggio da lui creato, in particolare quando il secondo appare di gran lunga più vivente rispetto al primo.

[Erin Popova · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original writing this book starts out with is amazing. Out of this world moving and thought provoking. I’ll probably have my students read it. The afterword and additional essays are a bit dense but honestly, still very interesting to read about the search for the author (I love a good search for the author angle) and the response and commentary from the Jewish community.

What a great way to start off the New Year. It was a short read but definitely worth the time.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, really just an essay, is beyond beautiful. Powerful and moving on every level. It speaks from the most authentic heart of Jewish suffering in a way that invites all humanity to look in reverent awe of the cruel evils of mankind...and our desperate need to know God. At just under 30 pages you are truly robbing yourself not to read this book.

[LV · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story is a testimony, a faith declaration. Thus it is interesting but not very interesting (a faith declaration strictly speaking is limited by definition, here it is a actually a bit more than that). The second story is much more interesting as well as the two afterwords. In view if these, the first story becomes prerequisite.

[Salvatore · Rating 3 out of 5]

More powerful and interesting that I thought it would be. A recommendation from our business manager.

[Nechama · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I have just read a text that is both beautiful and true, true as only fiction can be.”
What a perfect Rosh Hashana read of a story in a story.

[Emma Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought it was real upon first read. So thoughtful. Recommend!

[Shmuel Calderon · Rating 5 out of 5]

חיבור זה הוא כליל השלמות ממש.

[Ilaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tu dici che ora non si tratta di colpa e punizione, ma che hai nascosto il Tuo volto, abbandonando gli uomini ai loro istinti? Ti voglio chiedere, Dio, e questa domanda brucia dentro di me come un fuoco divorante: Che ancora, sì, che cosa ancora deve accadere perché Tu mostri nuovamente il Tuo volto al mondo? [...] Dove si trovano i confini della Tua pazienza?

[Vittore Luccio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un piccolo capolavoro, breve ma denso di cose, da rileggere periodicamente.

[Michael Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1946, a Lithuanian Jew named Zvi Kolitz found his way to Buenos Aires, Argenitna, where he published the short story "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" in a Yiddish newspaper. Kolitz had escaped Europe just before the prosperous Jewish community there was destroyed by the one-two punch of Stalin and Hitler. He spent only a few years in South America before emigrating to Israel, where he became a film director, and eventually ending up in New York, where he died in 2002 at the age of 89. This book is both the story he wrote and the story of his life--all told in less than 100 pages.

The book actually contains four distinct parts. The first is a relatively new translation of "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" by Carol Brown Janeway. This is a story that has had a strange life of its own, completely independent of the life of its author. Ir filtered into Europe and Israel, appearing in several anthologies of Holocaust Literature as a true story--a letter really written to God by a Jew who was resisting the Nazi's in the last days of the Warsaw ghetto (even though its original publication made no such claim). The story itself creates this fiction and uses it to ask the really difficult questions about believing in God in a world of suffering that people have been asking for thousands of years, but especially after the Holocaust. Rakover's attitude towards God is an almost perfect combination of faith and anger. In one passage, for example, he says

I believe in the God of Israel, even when He has done everything to make me cease to believe in Him. I believe in His laws even when I cannot justify His deeds. My relationship to Him is no longer that of a servant to his master, but of a student to his rabbi. I bow my head before His greatness, but I will not kiss the rod with which He chastises me.

Rakover comes to the conclusion that he must still approach God, but that he can approach Him, not simply as a debtor, but also as a creditor. That he has earned the right to chastise God and expect things from him. That God has a debt to pay to him, and, by extension, to all of the Jewish people. It is a very engaging sort of prayer.

The second and longest part of the book is a biographical essay by Paul Badde. Badde tells of his own stint as a literary detective, tracking down the original version of "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" and then discovering that Kolitz was still alive and living in New York. Through interviews and correspondence with the author at the end of his life, Badde is able to piece together the whole story of the manuscript for the first time in history, giving an excellent context to the fairly short story.

The third part of the book is a brief article on "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" first published in 1963 by the Lithuanian Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas is working without any knowledge whatsoever of the author or even any general consensus about whether or not it was a real leter or a fictional story (Levinas calls it a clear fiction, which turned out to be the right answer). In this brief, but dazzling essay, Levinas uses Yosl Rakover as an example of a mature faith in God--one capable of dealing with the horrible things that happen in the world because it is not based on illusions to begin with.

The fourth and final section of this book is a more traditional afterward by Leon Wieseltier, a journalist and critic, who responds to Levinas and gives his own readings of the story.

The book, as a book, feels a bit thin and haphazard, but all of the pieces are wonderful, and its core--"Yosl Rakoveor Talks to God"--is the most powerful statement of belief in a time of profound suffering that I have ever read.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

To begin with, I do not own this edition – I've got a different one, also edited by Paul Badde, but sadly it doesn't contain the commentaries by Levinas and Wieseltier which I would have loved to read. I'm very happy, though, that Badde includes the story's first print faksimile in Yiddish … a language I'm very eager to learn and the sound of which I like to hear. There is something intriguing about it, it conveys deep-felt emotions that are very hard to render in words of any other language I know.

Let me now return to the book and its subject (I won't summarize its content, because that's been sufficiently done by other reviewers). 'Yosl Rakover' is a masterpiece, there's no doubt about that. Kolitz, without having witnessed the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, captures the agony of a man without hope of surviving, yet blessed with a steadfastness and a God-fearing soul that even the most ruthless enemy couldn't destroy.

How then did Kolitz think up such a finely wrought story - with such an unforgettable protagonist – that continued to be regarded as an authentic testimony throughout the decades? Is it a question of empathy? Did his own life experience and his involvement in war teach him about the innate human evil? Paul Badde gives us to understand that Kolitz shared the pain of the harassed Jewish people all over the world as if his own life or his own family was concerned – perhaps that's the key to all those questions.

However, Zvi Kolitz is a brilliant writer and a connoisseur of human nature. 'Yosl Rakover …' sure did make me think about my relation to God in a new way. And it will continue to do so.