Zalman, Or, the Madness of God

by Elie Wiesel

On Yom Kippur eve in 1965, Elie Wiesel found himself in Russia, "in a synagogue crowded with people. The air was stifling. The cantor was chanting . . . Suddenly a mad thought crossed my Something is about to happen; any moment now the Rabbi will wake up, shake himself, pound the pulpit and cry out, shout his pain, his rage, his truth. I felt the tension building up inside me; the wait became unbearable. But nothing happened . . . It was too late. The Rabbi no longer had the strength to imagine himself free."
In "Zalmen, or The Madness of God," Wiesel gives his Rabbi that strength, the courage to voice his oppression and isolation, and the result is a passionate cry. This play illuminates not only the plight of the Soviet Jew, but the anguish of individuals everywhere who must survive--and yet long for something more than mere survival.
(Adapted for the stage by Marion Wiesel.)

Genres: Fiction, Drama, Theatre, Jewish

Hardcover

First published January 12, 1975

About the author

Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wonder of this book, besides the harsh and oppressive reality of Jews in the former Soviet Union, or of Jews anywhere, is that it was published at all. The American Jewish community is fragmented now, but it wasn't always. The plight of Soviet Jews once galvanized the entire community and brought Jews out into the streets, in righteous protest against the physical torture of their brethren, but also against the purposeful starvation of their souls as Jews. In "Zalman," Weisel perfectly captures the contradictions of today's Jewish community, to protest but also to remain silent out of fear. Fear of officialdom in the former Soviet Union, but also fear of speaking out in the West, because anti-semitism is always right around the corner. As Jews in the West discovered again after October 7, 2023. Weisel brings us a play set in 1965 Moscow, but it could be 2025 NYC. How many times have you sat in Shul and wished that your Rabbi would find the courage, in light of the ongoing fight to exist as a free People in their historic indigenous homeland, Israel, to stand up and cry to God with an overwhelming grief and pain that He hear his People and redeem them? Weisel understands this, and he does not disappoint.

[Spiritblue · Rating 5 out of 5]

IMPRESIONANTE

[Talia Rosenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

-About repressed feeling of Russian jewelry - rabbi driven to madness
-fascinating paragraphs, dialogue gets draggy

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wiesel played an important role publicizing the plight of Soviet Jews and the suppression of their Judaism during the 60s and 70s. This play from the mid-70s was sparked by a visit Wiesel made to a Russian synagogue the decade before. In this version of events, on Yom Kippur the Rabbi rails, mildly, against the oppression of Jews in front of foreign visitors and Soviet security plants. “The Torah is in peril and the spirit of a whole people is being crushed!” Yawn. What follows is a brief interrogation of the quivery rabbi, his cowering congregants and his family by a midlevel Soviet hatchet man. Meanwhile, there’s a crazy beadle, Zalman, whose sole purpose seems to be the stock cartoonish madman Wiesel has in most of his fiction. “Become mad tonight!” he urges the rabbi. There’s a thoughtful speech by the Soviet official near the climax that is either is to be a pep talk for activism or a rationale for resignation. Overall, it’s not a terrible play but it’s frightfully underdeveloped.

[ابراهيم قيس جركس · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zalmen

زالمِن أو جنون الرب

جنون إله بني إسرائيل

مسرحية اكثر من رائعة