One night while the brothers were still leading a deliberately anonymous and restless existence, they were stranded at a village inn where a wedding was being celebrated.
Excited by the wine and noise, a band of ruffians, eager for new distractions, decided to have some fun with the two uninvited guests huddled in a dark corner behind the hearth. For no particular reason , Zusia was the one they grabbed. They made him twirl and stumble and let the blows rain on him before letting him go. An hour later they started all over. And so it went until late into night.
“Why does it have to be you, always you?” whispered Elimelekh.
“Such is the will of God” Zusia groaned weakly.
“I have an idea. Let us change places. They are too drunk to notice. You’ll see, next time they’ll take me- you’ll be able to rest.”
He was wrong. For at this very moment one of the drunkards cried out, “But there are two of them! And it is always the same we honour with our company! That is not good, that’s not right! Let’s take a look at his friend....”
Later, Zusia told his brother; “You see? It isn’t up to us; we are powerless. Everything is written.”
*
All his life Elimelekh aspired to fulfill himself through suffering, which taunted him by eluding him. Whereas Zusia, constantly beaten by life and tormented by Him who gives life, considered himself to be the happiest of men.
*
“Zusia, how can you thank the Lord? What about your suffering?”
“My suffering?” asked Zusia amazed, “Who is suffering? Not I. I am happy. Zusia is happy to live in the world that God blessed be He, created. Zusia lacks nothing, needs nothing. Everything he wants , Zusia has, and his heart is filled with gratitude.”
He had not even understood the question. On another occasion he nevertheless felt it necessary to explain the problem of good and evil, and he did it in his inimitable way: “True, suffering exists. Like everything it too comes from God. Why does it exist? I’ll tell you: man is too weak to accept or absorb divine charity, which is absolute. For that reason, and that reason alone, does God cover it with the veil that is pain.”
In his extreme naïveté, he simply could not conceive of anything in creation not testifying to God’s mercy. Unhappiness he dismissed as a figment of the mind. Wounds were opened only to be healed. When his own wife made his life miserable , he showed her his pillow, drenched with tears, and she repented and became good. No tear is in vain, no prayer goes unheard. If woman can be moved, would God remain inflexible? Man has no reason to complain.
*
He came to an inn and noticed birds in a cage Naturally he freed them. And naturally the innkeeper thought otherwise—and gave him a lesson without words. No matter , here was Zusia, back on the road, his body aching but his spirits high, carefree and deliriously happy. Man is made to be happy, even when his tormented flesh cries out in pain.
Elie Wiesel
from Souls on Fire
No comments:
Post a Comment