Chapter 77 Chapter 76

There were about twenty men in shabby clothes, including Ellen.Jastrow, wearing the yellow star, sat around a long table in the Magdeburg barracks, waiting for his first meeting with Theresienstadt's new commander.The newcomer had called the Council of Elders after a few days of driving in the gloomy February weather and half-thawed snow, inspecting the Jewish Quarter thoroughly.The three executive members — Epstein and his two lieutenants — who sat in the main seats around the table said little, but all looked grave. The newcomer, Karl the SS squadron commander.Ram is not unknown here.For many years he headed the Jewish Property Registry at the General Directorate of Jewish Affairs in nearby Prague.The Registry was the official agency for the looting of Jews by the German government.Most European capitals have such institutions, all organized along the lines of the one Eckermann had originally set up in Vienna, and run by people like Lahm.According to rumors, Lahm was an ordinary Nazi, an Austrian, who would frighten people into violent outbursts over the slightest things, but his attitude was not supposed to be as rough and ruthless as Burger.

The elders, members of the puppet governing body in Theresienstadt, were worried about the change of commander.Buggle was a fiend they had gotten used to.Under his rule, the people of the ghetto lived under a poor and stable system.It hasn't been deported for many weeks.What will this impenetrable demon bring?That was the question on the faces of those around the table. Major Ram entered the room, accompanied by Camp Inspector Heindel.All the elders stood up. Jastrow thought, this plain fellow, Ram, owes all his poise to this black uniform with silver epaulets and silver buttons.Once upon a time, people saw thousands of these 30-year-olds with full jaws, blond hair and blue eyes, strolling the streets of Munich or Vienna with their stomachs and buttocks dragging.But Captain Heindel looked as bad as he was: a real gangster.The smoking-addicted Austrian inspector was a man everyone feared and everyone hated.He would jump through barracks windows to arrest smoking Jews, peer through binoculars at labor teams in the field, and burst into hospitals, dining rooms, and even public latrines.For the mere possession of a cigarette, he would beat a victim half to death, or send him or her to the fort to be tortured.Even so, the people of Theresienstadt were still greedily smoking cigarettes; as a currency, cigarettes were second only to gold and jewelry in value, but everyone was very wary of Heindel.On this day, Heindel looked peaceful, and his gray-green military uniform was not as scruffy as usual.

Major Ram told the elders to sit down.He addressed them standing at the head of the table, his feet apart, his black cane held in his hand behind him.The opening remarks are surprising.He intends to make Theresienstadt a veritable Jewish paradise.The elders are familiar with the city.They are familiar with their respective departments.It was up to them to advise him.The current situation is disgraceful.Theresienstadt is in decline.This is what he cannot allow.He is launching a grand "beautification campaign". The cliché, which Eckman had also used, made Jastrow shudder.Throughout Lahm's speech, there were echoes of what Aikman had said two months earlier.Under Burger there was also talk of "beautification" but this idea was so absurd, and Burger himself seemed so uninterested, that the elders thought it was just another German invented phrase.The three-member executive committee only issued orders at random, ordering the streets to be swept and certain huts and barracks to be painted.

Ram spoke a different language. A "grand beautification campaign" would be his main concern.He has issued important orders.The old Zokor Hall will immediately be converted into a residents' centre, with studios, lecture halls and an opera house and theater with a fully equipped stage.All other lecture halls and conference halls in Theresienstadt will be completely renovated.The dining room will be enlarged and refurbished.More orchestras will also be organized.Operas, ballets, concerts and plays will all be scheduled and staged separately.In addition, there are various entertainment and fine arts exhibitions.Materials for costumes, sets, paintings, etc. will all be provided.The hospital will be clean and tidy.There will also be a children's playground and a beautiful park for the elderly to spend their free time.

Jastrow listened to this astonishing rant and wondered if he meant it.That's when the deceitfulness of the whole thing became clear.Ram doesn't mention any of the things that actually make Theresienstadt a hell rather than a paradise: underfed food, appalling overcrowding, lack of cold clothing, heating, public toilets, psychiatric centers and the elderly And care centers for the disabled and all that kind of horrible death rate.He said nothing about these circumstances.He had only come to paint a dead body. Jastrow had long suspected that Eckerman wanted him to be a puppet elder, and he might even be sent to Theresienstadt, in anticipation that the Vatican and the Red Cross Society of neutral countries would send people to investigate.Something like this must be about to happen.Even so, Ram's approach seems clumsy.How could he conceal the filth, the overcrowding, the pale, sickly faces, the malnutrition, the mortality, no matter how much he tried to renovate the house and the grounds?A little more food, a little attention to hygiene, would quickly and easily create a glimmer of happiness in the ghetto that could deceive anyone.Yet the notion of a little lenient treatment of the Jews, even to create a fleeting but useful illusion, seems beyond the reach of the Germans.

Ram finished his speech and called for comments.Eyes rolled in the pale faces around the table.No one spoke.These so-called elders—in fact, heads of departments of various ages—were a motley bunch: some decent, some corrupt, some narrow-minded and self-absorbed, some generous.But all cling to their positions.Private housing, immunity from exile, and the opportunity to benevolent and beneficiary overwhelmed the nervousness and guilt of being a tool of the SS.At this moment, no one would risk speaking first, and the silence became uncomfortable.Outside, there is only a gloomy sky, and inside is a gloomy silence, and there is the dirty human body smell that Theresienstadt often emits.In the distance, "The Blue Danube" can be faintly heard; the city orchestra is starting the morning concert behind the wall on the Grand Square in the distance.

Jastrow's department didn't deal with the big issues that Ram had neglected.He would never do anything that might harm Natalie or her baby, but for himself, since his meeting with Eckerman, he had felt strangely unafraid.The American temper in him still made him feel sick and comical about the European nightmare in which he was involved, and pathetic about this atmosphere of fear around him.What he felt for this portly, barking mediocrity in black uniform like a suit was mainly a cautious, tempered contempt. At this time, he raised his hand.Ram nodded.He stood up and saluted. "Your Excellency, I am the despicable Jew Jastrow—"

Ram interrupted him by pointing at him with a thick finger. "I'm addicted! Don't say that kind of nonsense from now on." Heindel was sitting in an armchair smoking a cigar, and he turned to Heindel. "New rules! No more saluting like idiots and taking off your hat. No more 'scumbag Jews'. Theresienstadt is not a concentration camp. It is a comfortable, happy residential area." Heindel's ferocious face frowned in surprise. "Yes, Your Excellency Commander." All the elders also had expressions of surprise on their faces.Previously, a man who did not take off his hat and saluted in front of the Germans was a serious crime in the Jewish Quarter and could be punished immediately with a club.Loudly calling yourself a "mean Jew" is also mandatory.This reflex effect takes a lot of time to dissipate.

"Allow me to mention," Jastrow went on, "that in my department the music department is in great need of paper." "Paper?" Ram frowned. "What kind of paper?" "Whatever, Commander." Jastrow was telling the truth.Fragments of wallpaper, even flax fiber tissue paper, were used to record musical scores.It's a harmless little project worth a try. "Musicians can draw their own lines. But of course it is better to have lined staff paper." "The lined staff paper," Ram repeated, as if it were in a foreign language. "How much?"

Jastrow's second-in-command, a haggard orchestra conductor from Vienna, whispered something from the seat beside him. "Commander," Jastrow said, "for this grand cultural development you're planning, you'll start with five hundred." "You take care of it!" Ram said to Heindel. "Thank you, sir. This is exactly the opinion I need, gentlemen. Anything else?" At this time, the other elders stood up timidly one by one and made some innocuous requests, which Ramquan enthusiastically accepted.The atmosphere in the room has improved.At this moment, the sky outside brightened, and the sun shone into the room.Jastrow stood up again.Can the music group apply for more musical instruments with better quality?Ram smiled.of course can!The General Industrial Register in Prague has two large warehouses full of musical instruments: violins, cellos, flutes, clarinets, guitars, pianos, you name it!There's nothing wrong with it; just turn in a form.

None of the elders mentioned food, medicine and living space.Jastrow thought he dared to mention such things, but what good would it do?He'll spoil this happy moment, get himself in trouble, and get nowhere.His department didn't have to. As Lahm and Heindel left, Epstein stood up, the same invariable smile gone.One more thing, he announced.The new commander found the city so overcrowded that it was so unsightly and sanitation work so dry that five thousand Jews had to be deported immediately. In an ordinary city of 50,000 inhabitants, if a tornado strikes and kills 5,000 people, people may have more or less the same mood that Jews experience after being deported. You simply can't get used to this kind of intermittent disaster.Each time, the structure of the ghetto was completely destroyed.Optimism and confidence have dimmed.The feeling of death rose again.While no one knows what "Orient" actually means, it's a horrible name.Unhappy people run about in terror, saying good-bye to friends and relatives, and giving away what little they can't pack into a suitcase.The central secretariat is besieged by frenzied applicants trying to gain access to exemptions.However, the steel stage of numbers doomed this tragedy: five thousand.Five thousand Jews had to board the train.If one person is exempted, another must take his place.If fifty people were let go, the other fifty who thought they were safe would inevitably receive a gray call-up notice like an electric shock. The Jews in charge of the deportation team were a sad and distressed lot.They are at once administrators and saviours, as well as their executioners, to their fellow men.There was a joke in the ghetto that in the end there would be nothing left of Theresienstadt but the commander and the deportation team.Everyone smiled at them, but they knew that they were cursed and despised.They have power over life and death that they never wanted.They were Special Command clerks who disposed of the living Jewish bodies with pens and rubber stamps. Are they to blame?Many desperate Jews were ready to take their positions at any moment.Some of these bureaucrats in the deportation team belonged to the Communist or Zionist underground and wasted every night planning an uprising.There are some who think of nothing at all but to save their own lives.There are a few heroic individuals who try to stop the cruelest abuses.Some despicable people accept bribes for personal gain and publicize their personal grievances. Humanity has been ravaged by the cruelty of the Germans; who can say where they fit in under the circumstances?Who could judge the right and wrong of the elders, the central secretariat, and the deportation team members who were not present at the time? "God forgives the oppressed," the ancient Jewish proverb derived from millennia of suffering. Ironically, the Central Secretariat imitated the careful and meticulous style of the Germans and sent gray recruitment notices everywhere.The Jews indexed other Jews intersectingly with each other in half a dozen different cataloging systems.Wherever there was a place where a human body could lie down for the night, the clearing was cataloged, and the name of the person who occupied it was written.The whole city is called every day.Those who died and those who were sent away were all neatly crossed out from the card with a pen.Newcomers are indexed as soon as they arrive, as they are plundered.A person can be crossed off the list card only by dying or "going east." Under the control of the SS, the real power in Theresisstadt is not in the hands of Epstein, the three-member executive committee or the elder municipal council, but in the hands of the Central Secretariat.Yet the Secretariat is not someone you can talk to.It was made up of friends, neighbors, relatives or just other Jews.It was an office that carried out the orders of the Germans following official formalities.The secretariat's reception team, a row of scowling Jewish faces behind desks, was an ineffective mockery, but it provided a lot of work.The secretariat is staffed far beyond what is actually needed because it is a hiding place.However, this time, the gray recruitment notice was even sent to the staff of the secretariat.The monster began to gnaw at its own guts. The most inexplicable thing is that every time they are deported, there are always a small number of people who really apply to leave.Their spouse, parent, or children have left during the previous deportation.They feel very alone.Theresienstadt is not a safe place where they would want to stay at any cost.So they are willing to venture into that unknown place, hoping to find their relatives in the East.Some had received letters and postcards, so they knew that the person they were looking for was at least alive.Even in the mica factory, Theresienstadt's most reliable hiding place, several female workers volunteered to go east.It was a demand that the Germans have always graciously granted. When Natalie met Uddam outside the kindergarten after get off work, she was stunned by the gray call-up notice he had received.He has already been to the secretariat.He knew two of Epstein's lieutenants.The leader of the deportation team was an old partner of the Zionist movement from Prague.Bank managers also intervened.But there was nothing I could do.Perhaps, the SS had grown weary of his performance.Anyway, it's all over.Tonight, they perform for the last time.At six o'clock the next morning, he had to pick up his daughter and go to the station. Her initial reaction was that her heart went cold with shock.She had been acting; would a gray notice be delivered to her room during the day?Udam saw the look on her face.Busy told her he had asked.No call-up notice came to her.She and Jastrow enjoy the highest level of immunity.If no one else is here when "some of our countrymen from the East and West come hereafter," they will be here.He has some new and timely jokes that could be used in Frost-Cuckoo Country}).They might as well rehearse and put on a good show for the last one. She put her hand on his arm as he lifted his leg to walk in, and suggested that the show be canceled.Jastrow's audience was small, and they weren't in the mood to laugh.Perhaps no one will come.Ellen's lecture title, "The Heroes of the Iliad," was too academic—not inspiring at all.Ellen asked for a puppet show, since he had never seen it, but Natalie guessed that the professor's vanity was hard to overcome, and he really wanted to attract an audience.It was the first speech he had given since becoming an elder; he must have known he was unpopular. Udam refused to cancel the show.Why not put some good gags to good use?They went into the house and went to the child.Louis met her with the usual ecstasy at the happiest hour of the day.During the meal, Udam spoke optimistically about the "East".After all, how much worse could the "East" be than Lessienstadt?The postcards from his wife about once a month, always brief but reassuring.He showed Natalie the most recent postcard, dated only two weeks ago.Honey: everything is fine.How is Martha, miss, I miss you both.It often snows here. Love you, Hilda 2nd Camp B, Birkenau "Birkenau?" Natalie asked. "Where is this place?" "In Poland, on the outskirts of Auschwitz. It's just a small village. The Jews work in some of the big German factories around them and receive a lot of food." Udam's tone of voice didn't quite match what he said.A few years ago, Natalie and Byron had stopped by Auschwitz on their way to Medjes to attend the wedding of Ben Riel's son.All she remembered was that it was a dreary railway town.Few people in the ghetto spoke about the "East," the camps there, or what happened there.Like death, like cancer, like executions in the small castle, these are topics that are avoided.Even so, the word "Auschwitz" exudes a sense of trembling horror.Natalie didn't ask Udam much.She didn't want to hear any more. They were rehearsing in the basement, and Louis was playing with his playmate, whom he would no longer see after tonight.Apart from the episode involving the Persian slave girl, Udam's new jokes are dead.The minister of the Frost-Cuckoo Kingdom bought this slave girl for the king's pleasure.She walked into the palace meeting as a dangling female puppet wearing a veil.Natalie makes a husky, coquettish voice for her flirtatious banter with the lustful king.He asked what her name was.She shyly refused to say.He pressed her to speak out. "Well, I named it after my hometown city." "What's that called?" She giggled. "De-ed. Tehran," shrieked the King, and icicles fell from his nose—a wonderful trick Natalie had concocted.The king drives the slave girl off the stage with a stick.This works great.News of the Tehran conference had already lifted the spirits of the ghetto. After the rehearsal, Natalie hurried back to her new residence, still worried that there would be a gray notice at home.Originally, who is safer than Udam?Who has more internal connections?Who can feel more sheltered?She saw immediately in Ellen's face that there was no gray notice, but he said nothing, just looked up from the imposing desk, and nodded, where he was writing with a pen. Highlight important passages of your lecture notes. Their lavish occupation of two rooms and one bathroom still unnerved Natalie.Relations between them had been rather frosty since Jastrow had changed his mind and accepted the office and privileges of eldership.She saw Aikman accept his rejection.He never explained why he changed his mind.Had the selfishness with which he had been comfortable before dominated him?Being an SS tool didn't seem to bother him at all.The only change is that he is now devoutly religious.He put on his phylactery, and spent many hours in the Talmud, and retreated into a silent cowardly repose.Perhaps, she thought, it was an escape from her resentment and his own contempt. Jastrow knew what was on her mind.There was nothing he could do about it.Explanation would be too scary.Natalie was already living on the edge of pain; she was young and had a child.Ever since his illness he had been ready to die when it was necessary.He had made up his mind to let her mind her own business and not know the worst.If the SS wanted to swoop down, her diatribe-filled gig had already convicted her.Now it's nothing more than a race against time.His purpose was to persevere and wait for help to come from east and west. She told him about Udam and, without much hope, asked him to intercede.He replied flatly that he had no influence, and said that it would be very disadvantageous to put forward a request that would be rejected nine out of ten regardless of prestige and status.They hardly spoke again until they set off together for the barracks where Ellen was to make a speech in the tower. A large, silent audience finally assembled.Usually the evening entertainment was preceded by a lively burst of chatter.Not this night.The turnout was astonishing, but the mood was the same as at a funeral.Behind the crude lectern, off to one side, was the puppet theater with its curtain.Natalie took the vacant seat beside Udam, and he smiled at her, which made her feel like a knife. Ellen put the lecture notes on the reading table, looked around, and wiped her beard.He began to speak melodiously and slowly in regular German in a monotonous lecture manner. "Shakespeare seemed to find the whole story boring, which is very interesting. He retold the whole story in his play "Troilus and Cressida", and borrowed his opinions from that cynical coward Terr Sitth's mouth said it - 'The question is only for a bum and a bitch'." This quote from Ellen.Jastrow spoke English, and with a very prim smile he translated it into German. "Shakespeare's other, more famous coward, Falstaff, like Emerson, sees war on the whole as nothing but periodic madness. 'Who gets the honor? Who dies on Wednesday.' We guess Shakespeare Agree with him, the immortal fat man. His play "Troilus" about the Trojan War does not have the characteristics of his best tragedy, because madness is not sad. Madness is either comic or terrible, The same is true of most war literature; or, All Quiet on the Western Front. "But an epic tragedy. It is the story of the same war as Troilus, but with one decisive difference. Shakespeare has left out the gods, but it is the gods that make the majestic and awesome. "Because Homer's Hector and Achilles were involved in a quarrel among the Greek gods. The gods helped each other. They descended on earthly battles to intervene, parrying weapons thrown directly at them to kill , come out in disguise to cause trouble, or rescue their loved ones from distress. A glorious contest of real swords and guns becomes a mocking affair, into supernatural, invisible A battle of wits between sorcerers. Combatants are all mere pawns." Natalie glanced sideways at the audience.There has never been an audience like this!Lacking entertainment, light, or comfort in Theresienstadt, they absorbed themselves in a literary lecture, as people elsewhere are absorbed in a recital of a famous violinist, Or like watching a gripping movie. In the same smooth, pedantic tone, Jastrow recalls the background: Paris gave the golden apple to Aphrodite for her beauty; the ensuing battle on the holy mountain of Olympus; — seduced by the most beautiful woman in the world, the reward Aphrodite promised him; and the inevitable war, because she was a married Greek queen and he was a Trojan prince. .Both were brilliant people who didn't give a shit about bums, whores, or kidnappers, they were all into it.As far as they were concerned, honor was at stake when there was war. "But what gave the heroes of the novel their grandeur in this vile quarrel? Was it their will to fight in spite of the fickle and capricious intervention of the gods? In a In an unjust and unfathomable situation, the stupid bad guys win, the capable good guys fall, and unimaginable accidents often hold back and decide the outcome of the battle. Are they in such a situation that they risk their lives for honor? How about risking this? Fighting to the death in a senseless, unjust, absurdly stupid battle, fighting like a man! This is the oldest of human problems, the problem of senseless evil, in The battlefield is dramatized. This is the tragedy that Homer saw that Li Shakespeare missed." Jastrow stopped, turned a page, and stared intently at the audience, his thin face pale, his eyes wide open in their sunken sockets.If the audience had been silent before, they were now as quiet as so many dead bodies. "In a word, the world of the Iliad is a childish and contemptible trap. The glory of Hector is that in such a trap, his actions are so noble that God Almighty, if there is a God, must be proud And weep with pity. Proud, because out of a handful of dust he created such a sublime man. Pity, because in the world he tinkers, a Hector must die unjustly, and his The poor corpse had to be dragged away in the dust. But Homer knew no Almighty God. There was Zeus, the father of the gods, in the story, but who can say what he was doing? Maybe he was pretending to be a dazed man in the world. The girl's husband, a bull, or a swan, is going to bully the girl. It's not surprising that Greek mythology is now forgotten." Jastrow's distasteful gesture of flipping the pages of his speech unexpectedly produced a hesitant laugh from the attentive audience.Jastrow pocketed his speech, left the lectern, and stepped forward, staring at the audience with a touch of excitement on his normally calm face.Suddenly he spoke in a different voice, which startled Natalie, for he spoke Yiddish instead.He had never given a speech in this language before. "Okay. Now, let's talk about this in our own words. Let's talk about one of our own epics. You remember, Satan said to God, 'Job is naturally upright.He had seven sons and three daughters, and was the richest man in Uz.Why not be honest?See what integrity pays for.A sensible world!A wonderful arrangement!Job is not honest, he is just a clever Jew.The villains are all big fools.You just take his pay away, and see how righteous he'll be! '" 'Well, take the reward,' said God. So in one day the looters took all Job's wealth, and a hurricane killed all ten of his children. What happened to Job? He mourned greatly. 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will return,' he said, 'God gave, and God has taken away, blessed be the name of God.'" Thus God challenged Satan. 'Did you see it?He's still upright.is a good man. '"'Skin for skin,' replied Satan. 'All a man really cares about is his life. Turn him into a skeleton—a sick, robbed, bereaved skeleton, and let this The proud Jew has nothing left but his own skin and bones—'" Jastrow couldn't make a sound.He shook his head, cleared his throat, wiped his eyes with one hand, and continued speaking hoarsely. "God said, 'Well, do whatever you want with him, but don't kill him. 'Job has a terrible disease.He became such a nuisance that he could not remain in his own house, so he crawled out, sat on an ashes, and scraped his sores with tiles.He didn't say anything.His riches had been taken from him, his children killed senseless, and his own body reduced to a hideous, fetid skeleton, covered with sores from top to bottom, but he was silent.His three pious friends came to comfort him.A debate ensued. "Oh, my friends, what a debate! What rough rhyme, what insight into the human condition! I tell you, Homer is eclipsed by Job; Aeschylus in An adversary for force, a teacher for understanding; Dante and Milton sat at the writer's feet, never grasping him. Who was he? Nobody knew. An ancient Jew. He Knowing what life is, that's all. He knows how to live, just as we know how to live in Theresienstadt." He stopped, staring directly at his niece with sad eyes.Natalie was agitated, bewildered, on the verge of tears, and eagerly awaited what he had to say next.When he went on talking, although his eyes were looking away, she felt that he was talking to her. "In the Book of Job, as in most great works of art, the main plot is simple. His comforters insist that since only one Almighty God rules the world, there must be Meaning. Therefore, Job must be guilty. Let him examine what he has done, confess his mistakes, and repent bitterly. What he does not know is what his sin is. "Jophobe fought back with one sublime argument after another. The ignorance must be in God's hands, not his. He was as devout as they were. He knew that there was an Almighty God and that the world must have meaning. But His poor bereaved, sore skeletal skeleton now knows that the world doesn't actually always make sense, that good deeds are rewarded with no guarantees, and that acts of arrogance and injustice are part of the physical and temporal world .His faith requires him to show his innocence, or he is profaning the name of God! He is willing to admit that Almighty God can screw up a person's life; if God can do this, the whole world There's just chaos, and he's not an Almighty God. Job will never admit that. He wants an answer. "He had an answer! What an answer! An answer to nothing. At last God himself spoke in a howling storm. 'Who are you to blame me? Can you hope to understand me? Why do you do something, and how do you do it? Were you present at the creation of the world? Can you comprehend the wonders of the stars, the animals, the myriad wonders of life? You, the short life A little reptile for a moment and then die, do you understand?'" My friends, Job has won!Do you understand?God, with his loud roar, acknowledges Job's main point, namely: the ignorance is in God's hands!God merely claims that his reasons are beyond John's comprehension.Job is perfectly happy to admit this.With the main issues settled, Job humbled himself more than satisfied, and fell down. "Thus the drama was over. God rebuked those who comforted Job, saying that they spoke of himself very inaccurately, and at the same time praised Job, saying that he stood up for the truth. He returned Job's wealth. Job feared and had seven sons and three daughters. He lived another hundred and forty years to see his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who died old, well-lived, and respected." This is the end of the elegant and fluent Yiddish language.杰斯特罗回到读经台上去，从衣袋里把讲稿取出来，翻了好几页。他抬脸朝听众望了望。 “满意了吗？是一个皆大欢喜的结局，是不是呢？比那个荒谬、悲惨的犹太气息浓厚得多？ “你们这么肯定吗？亲爱的犹太朋友们，死去的那十个儿女又怎样了呢？上帝待他们的公道在哪儿？那个父亲，那个母亲又怎样了呢？就是过了一百四十年，约伯心上的那些疮伤能愈合起来吗？ “这还不是最糟糕的。想想看！过于深奥，使约伯无法理解的那不知道的情况又是什么呢？我们可理解，我们难道这么聪明吗？撒旦不过讥消上帝，使他下令作出这个毫无意义的考验。难怪上帝要通过一阵暴风大肆咆哮，来使约伯闭口不说了！上帝在自己创造的人面前不觉得惭愧吗？约伯的举动是不是比上帝更高超些呢？” 杰斯特罗耸了耸肩，摊开两手，脸神也松弛下来，露出了一丝愁闷的微笑，使娜塔而想起了查理。卓别林。 “不过我是在阐明。在中，肉眼看不见的势力水火不能相容，这就造成了一个充满无意义的邪恶的有形世界。在《约伯记》中却不是如此。撒旦根本没有权势。他并不是基督教的撒旦，不是但丁的巨大怪物，不是弥尔顿的骄傲的叛逆者，一点儿也不是。他的一举一动，都需要取得上帝的许可。 “那么撒旦到底是什么人，上帝为什么在暴风中作出的答复里不提到他呢？'撒旦'一词在希伯来文中的意思是'对手'。书上对我们怎么说的呢？上帝跟他自己展开辩论吗？他问自己这个莫大的创举是否有意义？而在回答中，他不是指出延伸到好几千光年的那些熄灭了的星系，而是指出人，就是能意识到他的存在、执行他的意志、测量这些星系的那一把尘土。尤其是指出正直的人，即，就尊严和善良而言，能以创世主本人为标准来衡量自己的那一小撮尘土。这个考验确立了什么别的呢？ 抡伊利亚特》里的英雄人物，比软弱可鄙的神明不公正地进行争吵高超出许多。 “《约伯记》中的英雄人物在最无意义、最骇人听闻的不公正行为下，坚守住了全能的独一无二的上帝的真理，迫使上帝终于扪心自问，承认自己不很公正，尽可能对造成的损害予以补救。 “在中，并没什么不公正的行为需要补救。结果，只有盲目的命运”在约伯身上，上帝必须不问好歹，为发生的一切负起责任。约伯是圣经中唯一的英雄人物。在其他各书中，有战斗人员、族长、立法人、先知等。这却是坐在一个灰堆上，符合于世上的尺度，符合于以色列上帝的高度的唯一人士——约怕，一个可怜的、骨瘦如柴、伤心失望的乞丐。 “约伯是什么人呢？ “什么人也不是。'约伯从来就没诞生，从来就没存在，'犹太教法典这么说。'他是一则寓言。'”说明什么真理的寓言？ “好，我们现在讲到这上边来了。历史上谁始终不肯承认没有上帝，始终不肯承认世界毫无意义呢？谁经受了一次又一次考验，一次义一次掠夺，一次又一次屠杀，经历了一世纪又一世纪，可是还抬脸望着天空，有时是用垂死的眼睛望着天空，并且喊道：”我主上帝，我主是独一无二的？ '“谁到了晚年还会迫使上帝从暴风中作出那样的答复呢？谁将看到谬误的安慰者受到斥责，过去的荣誉再次恢复过来，看到一代代幸福的儿女和孙儿女，直到第四代呢？谁到那种时候还把不知道的情况留给上帝去决定，称颂他的名字，并且喊道：”赏赐的是上帝，收取的也是上帝，上帝的名是应当称颂的？ '不会是中那个高贵的希腊人，他已经不存在了。No!除了灰堆上的那个生病、遇劫的骨头架子外，没有别人。除了上帝心爱的人，只活了短短一刹那就死去的那个小爬虫，不愧于上帝创造的那一把尘土，除了他之外，没有别人。没有别人，只有约伯。他就是向全能的上帝提出敌对性挑战的唯一答复，要是有一位上帝而且有一个答复的话。那就是约怕这个卑鄙的犹太人。 " 杰斯特罗用惊呆了的神气瞪眼望着雅雀无声的听众，然后趔趔趄趄地朝着第一排听众走了过去。乌达姆跳起身，轻轻把他搀扶到座位上。听众并不鼓掌，并不交谈，并不移动。 乌达姆唱起歌来。 乌达姆……乌达姆……乌达姆…… 那么，不上演木偶戏了。娜塔丽也和大家齐声同唱起这个悲伤的叠句来。这是乌达姆在特莱西恩施塔特最后一次唱这支歌，所以他一步步唱向一个令人断肠的高音。 等这支歌唱完以后，大家毫无反应。没人鼓掌。没人谈话，什么也没有。这些默默无言的听众正等待着一件什么事。 乌达姆做了一件他以前从没做过的事情：他又唱了一支歌，没人鼓掌就又唱了一支。他唱起另外一支歌来，娜塔丽在犹太复国主义者的集会上曾经听他唱过的一支。它是用低调唱起的一个古朴、切分的叠句，用的是从礼拜仪式上取出来的一行歌词：“但愿圣堂在我们时代很快重建，并赐给我们一部分您的法律。”乌达姆唱着时缓缓地曼舞起来。 但愿圣堂在我们时代重建起来，赐给我们一部分您的法律。 他象一位拉比在宗教节日所会做的那样，从容而笨拙地舞了起来，他举起胳膊、闭上两眼、仰起脸庞，用手指在空中打着节拍。人们柔声地应和着他，边唱边拍着手。一个接一个他们站起身来。乌达姆的嗓音变得更浑厚有力，他的步伐也更强劲矫健。他在这场舞和这支歌中忘却了自己，进入了一种看去既可骇又绔丽的得意忘形的境界。他几乎没睁开眼就摇摇摆摆，扭动身体朝埃伦。杰斯特罗舞过去，同时伸出一只手来。杰斯特罗站起身，一手拉着乌达姆的手，两人一同载歌载舞。 这是一场死别的舞。娜塔丽知道这一点。大伙儿也全知道。这幕情景既使她心里发毛，又使她意气风发。呆在监狱般的犹太区里这个阴暗、恶臭的统楼上，这是她生活中最为激动的时刻。她为自己境况中的痛苦，以及身为犹太人的得意，激动得不知如何是好。 啊，但愿圣堂重建起来啊，很快地，就在我们时代啊，赐给我们一部分您的法律！ 舞蹈结束之后，听众开始散去。人人全从统楼上慢腾腾地走了出去，仿佛刚参加过一场葬礼似的。简直没人谈话。乌达姆把木偶戏台折叠起来，亲了一下娜塔丽，向她告别。 “我猜他们大概不会要听我的笑话了，”他说。“我把这个还到幼儿园去。继续给孩子们演你的戏吧。再会。” “德黑兰是一个很有趣的玩笑，”她嗓音硬噎地说。 他们走下楼梯，步入光线原脱的街道上，埃伦沉重地倚在她的身上。在逐渐散去的人群中，一个身材魁伟的汉子侧身走到他们面前来，用意第绪语说：“Gut gezugt，Arele ，und gut getanted. ”（话说得好，小矮子埃伦，舞也跳得好。“）”娜塔丽，sholem aleichem.“ 在黑暗的光线中，她看见一张剃得很光、坚强而苍老的方脸，是一个完全陌生的人。 “你是谁？”她问。 Ellen.杰斯特罗也同时问道：“是班瑞尔吗？”他有五十年没看见他了。