In Ani Maamin, Wiesel navigates the extremes between shallow religious fervor and glib atheism. He tells the tale of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who have been tasked by God to travel through the world to gather Jewish suffering and to place it before Heaven, but the mission becomes crushing and unbearable during the Holocaust. Each of the patriarchs, in turn, complains to God and places an exemplar of Jewish suffering before Him – Jacob, for example, brings before God a Passover Seder in a concentration camp, a sharp irony of the ritual celebration of Jewish freedom and redemption – and, though God cries, none of the forefathers perceives the tear on His face.
After blessing the Jewish people, each patriarch leaves the presence of God to share the fate of the victims, but they manage to find hope in the lives of their children. Unknown to them, however, they are accompanied by God who, inspired by their reports, walks along with them weeping and whispering “nitzchuni banai” (“my children have prevailed over me”).
Displayed with this column is Wiesel’s signed dedication of Ani Maamin: “To Dr. Ephraim Katzir, President of the State of Israel, with blessings and deepest regards.”
Shown also are notes, dated March 3, 1974, handwritten by President Katzir regarding his draft of a letter to Wiesel:
[In Hebrew:] Talk to Mrs. Nordau and ask that she read Wiesel’s book, “Ani Maamin.” After that, we will discuss the book and I will ask her to prepare a few words for my draft correspondence to Wiesel.
It seems to me that in this book, Elie Wiesel is trying to develop and explain the Jewish philosophy of (this is, verbatim, Maimonides’ Twelfth Principal) –
I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah,
And even though he tarries, I will wait for him for whatever day he arrives.
I believe.
And the following is the philosophy the author develops at the end of the book:
[Continuing in English, Katzir has copied the crucial conclusion of Ani Maamin:]
Ani maamin, Abraham
Despite Treblinka
Because of Belsen
Because and in spite of Majdanek
Dead in vain
Dead in naught,
Ani maamin.
Pray, man.
Pray to God
For God.Whether the Messiah comes,
Or is late in coming,
Ani Maamin.
Whether God is silent
Or weeps
Ani maamin.I believe in you,
Even against your will.
Even if you punish me
For believing in you.
Blessed are the fools
Who shout their faith.
Blessed are the fools
Who go on laughing,
Who mock the man who mocks the Jew,
Who help their brothers
Singing, over and over:[This, in Hebrew:] Ani maamin
Wiesel’s antidote to the nihilistic gloom and doubt of Night is a hard-fought optimism for the future, which he establishes as a credo in Ani Maamin:
I believe in God – in spite of God!
I believe in Mankind – in spite of Mankind!
I believe in the Future – in spite of the Past!
Thus, Wiesel’s great legacy is not merely his rescue of the Holocaust from historical and literary oblivion, which is how everyone will likely remember him, but also as a man among men who emerged from the Holocaust cloaked in Berkovitz’s “authentic rebellion” who nonetheless found his way back to “authentic faith” in the eternal Jewish God and the Jewish people. Each of these constitutes a contribution for the ages. Yehi zichrono baruch.
