From Maurice Pinay

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Friday, 28 December 2012


 

"In the Beginning Was the h0Ɩ0cαųst" - Wiesel




"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." — Genesis (Beres-hit) 1:1
 
"In the beginning was the h0Ɩ0cαųst. We must therefore begin again. We must create a new тαℓмυd and compile new midrashim, just as we did after the Ḥurban, the destruction of the Second Temple. We did so then in order to mark the new beginning: until then we lived one way; from then on nothing could be the same."
 
— Elie Wiesel, in "Jєωιѕн Values in the Post-h0Ɩ0cαųst Future: A Symposium.'' Judaism, vol. 16 no. 3, 1967.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oAtOthUaLS8/UN5Xt69oh2I/AAAAAAAANco/dd3W1fvcfqI/s1600/1.1.jpg


I found the above Wiesel quote on page 19 of Nightwords: A Liturgy on the h0Ɩ0cαųst (2000, originally published in 1971 as Night Words: A Midrash on the h0Ɩ0cαųst) by David G. Roskies (pdf), and if you ever needed indisputable proof the Big H is now a religion, then look no further.
 
Essentially, Nightwords is a play for Jєωs to enact during Yom HaShoah (h0Ɩ0cαųst Remembrance Fortnight), which involves them throwing their shoes in a pile and writing numbers (i.e. Auschwitz prisoner tattoos) on their arms. There's 36 characters, but only three "require some preparation" to play (roles can be doubled-up if there's fewer people), and there's singing and chanting involved.
 
What Roskies has done is cherry-pick quotes from the Bible, тαℓмυd, Midrashim, Jєωιѕн writers, Jєωιѕн historians, h0Ɩ0cαųst survivors, h0Ɩ0cαųst victims, a dictionary, and even the novel The Last Temptation of Christ, and used them as dialogue in the play.
 

A few quotes from Roskies' introduction to the 2000 edition of his h0Ɩ0cαųst Midrash:
 

"At Sinai we received the Torah,'' the poet Jacob Glatstein reminds us, "and in Lublin,'' in the shadow of the Maidanek death camp, "we gave it back.'' The destruction of European Jєωry is the sign of God's betrayal of Israel. Yom Hashoah marks the day of broken covenants. It is the day of sanctioned rage against God."
 
"... arguing with God, which the Rabbis called ḥutspah kelapei shemaya"
 
"I could not bring myself to quote German-language texts other than through the neutral medium of English."
 
"It is the duty of our generation to create a communal ritual for Yom Hashoah."
 
"Unique to the h0Ɩ0cαųst are the tattooed numbers. They represent the permanent branding of every Jєω marked for slave labor and eventual murder (in-reality, it was only at Auschwitz that the tattooing occurred).

In the writings of Ka-Tzetnik 135633 (Yekhiel Feiner-Dinur), branding becomes a sign of the Apocalypse, beginning with the Jєωιѕн stars and armbands that civilians were forced to wear, and culminating in the branding of young Jєωιѕн women as Feld-huren in Auschwitz." (the Feld-huren 'Field Whore' lie, was made-up by the imfamous Planet Auschwizter about his non-existent sister. He also saw a Jєω covered in marmalade eaten alive by 1,000 prisoners at Auschwitz, although this doesn't make it into Roskies' religious play.)
 



Posted by The Black Rabbit of Inlé at 19:08