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Yosl Rakover Talks to God

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Yosl Rakover, minutes away from perishing in the Warsaw ghetto, reaffirms his unwavering belief in God, even if this is not what God wants him to do. As Rakover personally relives the nightmare of the Holocaust, he concludes that it is his faith that has made him a man, a human being, a "mentsch", possessing the very attributes with which his tormentors were NEVER endowed; and knowing he must die, he reaffirms his own worth in the cosmos by clinging to that which has made his life so meaningful and dichotomously opposed to that of his murderers, i.e. his belief in God. Here is a terse and extremely powerful response to all those who have wondered where God was during the Holocaust.

On July 18, 1994, a terrorist bomb destroyed the AMIA Jewish community center at 633 Calle Pasteur in Buenos Aires, killing 87 people and injuring more than 100. It also destroyed the library from which, a year earlier, a Jesuit priest had retrieved an original copy of the 1946 publication, in Di Yiddishe Tsaytung, of Zvi Kolitz' Yosl Rakover Talks to God.

This is but one of many fascinating details in Paul Badde's 1994 essay on Zvi Kolitz and the separate and mythological life that his 25-page short story took on after its 1946 appearance. One of Badde's friends had searched fruitlessly for the story after reading a 1963 essay about it by the great philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. He finally found a yellowing copy in the Munich State Library, in German, which had been translated by Anna Maria Jokl in 1954. Zvi Kolitz' story is almost as great as Yosl Rakover's monologue.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, before he died, called the fictional tale about a participant in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising a "story of a Jew possessed by his faith as if by a Dybbuk." It similarly came to the attention of George Steiner and the theologian Klaus Beger. One can read the story in less than an hour. But it is so great that it was believed for years to have been the work of an actual victim of the Warsaw Ghetto.

This book, though short, carries great weight. It is a gift to all serious readers. Alyssa A. Lappen

In 1946, Zvi Kolitz, who was a journalist and an ardent Zionist, wrote a short work of fiction in Yiddish. It was called "Yosl Rakover Talks to God." Kolitz put himself in the shoes of a man who was about to meet his death in the conflagration of the Warsaw Ghetto. Before he dies, Yosl confronts God and pours out his anguish and his testament of faith.

Over the years, this short manuscript passed through many hands, and a myth grew up around it. Many people insisted that it was an authentic document written by someone who really lived in the Warsaw Ghetto. Zvi Kolitz was disassociated from the work that he had written.

The story itself is touching and very meaningful. Yosl says that no matter what hardships and pain God sends his way, he is proud to be a Jew, and his belief in God is unwavering. He realizes that, for some reason, God has decided to turn his face away from his people. Therefore, the Nazis and their cohorts had few obstacles to overcome in their mission to rid Europe of its Jewish population. Yosl takes the liberty of chastising God for putting the Jewish people through so much suffering. This work is filled with compassion, anguish, deep feeling and a determination to remaining a proud and committed Jew. "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" cannot fail to move anyone who has strong feelings about the Holocaust and man's relationship to God.

Following the story is an illuminating essay by Paul Badde, explaining the many twists and turns that this manuscript took since its original publication, and he provides some insights into the life and philosophy of Zvi Kolitz. Although very brief, this little volume is moving and thought-provoking.

In 1946, a writer named Zvi Kolitz published a story in Yiddish in an Argentenian Jewish newspaper. Although the story 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 protagonists 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, rirst 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 philosphy, 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 Koolitz' 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.

A thoughtful book raising difficult concerns.

In my reading of 'Yosl Rakover talks to God' I felt that he was speaking for all of the Jewish people. I felt he had found a voice so powerful and true in addressing God that he was saying what so many of us have thought for so long and not been able to express.
I know that this is a fictional story of the author Zvi Kolitz, and know too that Kolitz's life story is told in the second part of the work by Paul Badde, and that this volume contains afterwords by Emanuel Levinas and Leon Wieseltier. And all that may be of help to the reader.
But what I recommend is to concentrate on the story, on the words of Yosl Rakover.

"Here then are my last words to You, my angry God: None of this will avail You in the least! You have done everything to make me lose my faith in You,to make me cease believing in You. But I die exactly as I have lived, an unshakeable believer in You.
Praised be forever the God of the dead, the God of vengeance, of truth and judgment, who will soon unveil His face to the world again and shake its foundation with His almighty voice.
"Shema Yisroel"! Hear, Israel!The Lord our God the Lord is One. Into Yourhands, O Lord, I commend my soul."pp.25

The short story "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" is a curious piece of literature that has taken on a life of its own as stated frequently by Paul Badde. This is not because of the writing - the story is not exquisitely written. It is not because of the theology - there are inconsistencies. It is not because it is the best literature of the Holocaust - it is not. It is because the story speaks directly to the heart of the reader, helping the reader both to make some sense out of the Holocaust and to accept the utter senselessness of the Holocaust.

The story is packaged in this slim volume with three essays: (a)a history of the text and author by Badde, which I found useful in understanding the impact of the story, (b) an essay by Emmanuel Levinas on the notion of the hidden face of God which I found to be biased and time-bound - the one line pot-shot at Simeon Weil annoyed me, and (c) an essay by Leon Wieseltier in response to Levinas which effectively placed the notion of the hidden face of God and the Holocaust into a broader picture of the Jewish experience.

None of the essays explore the theme of the story's condemnation of the Christian tradition. Especially effective in this condemnation is the contrast of the practice regarding death sentences between traditional Judaism and Christianity. Also effective is the contrast between the love of the Torah - God's written law and the love of the Word of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

This is a text I recommend all Christians, including myself, read and reread. It forces us to review how we live our faith, to review how people of our faith allowed/participated in the Holocaust and all the "little holocausts" against a variety of people for the last 2000 years.

I do also recommend that the book be read as literature, as well. It is a masterful example of how literature can effectively carry a message to the heart not just to the intellect. It deliberately pulls the emotional strings without making the reader feel manipulated - something rarely successful in literature.

An amazingly powerful read, Zvi Kolitz wrote the "letter" this book discusses following the Second World War from the point of view of a Jew about to die in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Powerful in his writing, for many years, there was a debate as to whether Kolitz's work was one of fiction. The letter itself, written by "Yosl Rakover", a resistance fighter and modern day Job, chronicles the challenges of faith and belief in an environment where God has "hidden his face".

The remainder of the book is a history of the writing itself, the discussion of a meeting with the author, and a couple of commentaries. These are OK - and interesting in their own right, but the best part about the book is the original letter itself. If you have never read it, please do so. It is a moving testimony to the resilience of faith.

Reading this book should be compulsory in all schools of the West.
This book raises the spiritual light that Western civilization has lost and forgotten.
It 's a book that children can read and that feeds the soul of all men and women of good will.
Reading this book is the best thing you can do in your entire intellectual life.

The short story "Yosl Rakover Talks to God" is a curious piece of literature that has taken on a life of its own as stated frequently by Paul Badde. This is not because of the writing - the story is not exquisitely written. It is not because of the theology - there are inconsistencies. It is not because it is the best literature of the Holocaust - it is not. It is because the story speaks directly to the heart of the reader, helping the reader both to make some sense out of the Holocaust and to accept the utter senselessness of the Holocaust.

The story is packaged in this slim volume with three essays: (a)a history of the text and author by Badde, which I found useful in understanding the impact of the story, (b) an essay by Emmanuel Levinas on the notion of the hidden face of God which I found to be biased and time-bound - the one line pot-shot at Simeon Weil annoyed me, and (c) an essay by Leon Wieseltier in response to Levinas which effectively placed the notion of the hidden face of God and the Holocaust into a broader picture of the Jewish experience.

None of the essays explore the theme of the story's condemnation of the Christian tradition. Especially effective in this condemnation is the contrast of the practice regarding death sentences between traditional Judaism and Christianity. Also effective is the contrast between the love of the Torah - God's written law and the love of the Word of God incarnate in Jesus Christ.

This is a text I recommend all Christians, including myself, read and reread. It forces us to review how we live our faith, to review how people of our faith allowed/participated in the Holocaust and all the "little holocausts" against a variety of people for the last 2000 years.

I do also recommend that the book be read as literature, as well. It is a masterful example of how literature can effectively carry a message to the heart not just to the intellect. It deliberately pulls the emotional strings without making the reader feel manipulated - something rarely successful in literature.

I must say, this book was a disappointment to me. I kind of feel like the kid who said, "But the emperor isn't wearing any clothes!", while everyone else is raving about the beauty of his clothing. I had relatives who were killed during the holocaust, but still... I really loved the movie 'Europa, Europa' and I loved 'Man's Search for Meaning', but this book didn't hold a candle to them - IMHO.