Drama Film

My Thereseinstadt friends, I have no heart tonight for a lecture. I will put
aside my professorial notes. They are neat, bloodless, and irrelevant. My topic
was to be the book of Job. That’s what I’ll talk about, but not as a professor.
As one of you: the Theresienstadt Jew. Satan said to God–do you
remember?–“Natually Job is upright. seven sons, three daughters, the wealthiest
man in the land of Uz. Why not be upright? See how it pays. Job is not upright.
He’s just a smart Jew,” sneers Satan. “But take away his rewards, and see how
upright he will remain.” So God allows Satan to put Job through every trail but
death. All his children die. All his wealth is wiped out. A horrible sickness
strikes him. And so, reduced by a whim of God, to a broken, loathsome, plundered
skeleton, covered with sores, Job sits on the ash heap. “Naked I came from the
womb,” he says. “Naked will I return. God has given. God has taken away. Blessed
be God’s name.” Job has stood up to Satan’s test. The oldest problem in human
existence: senseless evil. But no comes a worse trial, a worse test. Job’s
comforters come. Passionately, they urge him to admit that since God is just,
Job must have committed some terrible sin. “Search you deeds. Repent. Confess.”
But Job fights back. “I have not sinned. I will submit to the divine will, but
not to pious platitudes.” And so, in the depths of his most terrible hour, Job
rises to stand toe-to-toe with God, and demand an answer to the great ultimate
human mystery of senseless evil. “Why do you do this to me?” Well, Job gets his
answer. An answer that answers nothing. God himself speaks to Job at last out of
a roaring storm. “Who are you to call me to account? Can you hope to understand
how or why I do anything? My universe is vast beyond human conception. Where
were you when I laid the foundations of the world, when the morning stars sang
together, and all the suns of heaven shouted for joy? Can you comprehend the
infinite mysteries of existence? You, a poor worm who lives for a few moments
and dies?” An answer that answers nothing and everything. The roaring storm has
declared only that God’s reason is hidden, beyond Job, beyond the comforters.
The universe doesn’t always make sense. There is no guarantee of good fortune
for good behavior. Crazy injustice is part of the enigma of the world and of our
brief lives. Job humbles himself, is more than satisfied, and falls upon his
face. My Thereisenstadt friends, this is the thought I would leave you with
tonight. Who is it in history, who suffers ordeal after ordeal, plundering after
plundering, massacre after massacre, century after century, yes looks up at the
sky, sometimes with dying eyes, and cries, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one?”
Who until then will leave the fearful mystery of undeserved suffering to God,
and praise his name, saying, “The Lord has given. The Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord?” Nobody, my friends, but that loathesome,
bereaved skeleton on the ash heap. Nobody but Job. He is the only answer, if
there is one. The satanic challenge to an Almighty God. Job. The stinking Jew.

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