Wise Men and Their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters

By Elie Wiesel

Book Overview

In Wise Men and Their Tales, a master teacher gives us his fascinating insights into the lives of a wide range of biblical figures, Talmudic scholars, and Hasidic rabbis.

The matriarch Sarah, fiercely guarding her son, Isaac, against the negative influence of his half-brother Ishmael; Samson, the solitary hero and protector of his people, whose singular weakness brought about his tragic end; Isaiah, caught in the middle of the struggle between God and man, his messages of anger and sorrow counterbalanced by his timeless, eloquent vision of a world at peace; the saintly Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, who by virtue of a lifetime of good deeds was permitted to enter heaven while still alive and who tried to ensure a similar fate for all humanity by stealing the sword of the Angel of Death.

Elie Wiesel tells the stories of these and other men and women who have been sent by God to help us find the godliness within our own lives. And what interests him most about these people is their humanity, in all its glorious complexity. They get angry--at God for demanding so much, and at people, for doing so little. They make mistakes. They get frustrated. But through it all one constant remains--their love for the people they have been charged to teach and their devotion to the Supreme Being who has sent them. In these tales of battles won and lost, of exile and redemption, of despair and renewal, we learn not only by listening to what they have come to tell us, but by watching as they live lives that are both grounded in earthly reality and that soar upward to the heavens.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805211209
• ISBN13: 9780805211207
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

A Wise Man Tells Wise Men's Tales

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel returns to thoughtful biography of major figures of Judaism in this fine collection. A modern-day prophet, Wiesel commands our attention because of his moving personal story of perseverance in the face of unspeakable horror (which he tells unforgettably in Night (Oprah's Book Club)), because of his wonderfully beautiful poetic prose, and because of his extraordinary insight. In this volume, Wiesel addresses Ishamel, Hagar, Lot's wife, Aaron, Miriam, Nadab, Abihu, Esau, Jethro, Gideon, Samson, Saul, Samuel, Isaiah, and Hosea among Biblical characters, as well as Tarfon, Yehoshua ben Levi, Abbaye, and Rava among Talmudic sages and Zanz and Sadigur among the Hasidic masters. This is territory that Wiesel has periodically explored before. He writes of other Biblical characters in Messengers of God: Biblical portraits and legends (where he tells of Adam, Cain, Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Job), Five Biblical Portraits (where he tells of Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Jeremiah, and Jonah), Sages and Dreamers: Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Portraits and Legends (where he tells of Noah, Jephthah and his daughter, Ruth, Solomon, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther), and in his chapter in the anthology Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible (Ezekiel again). He also writes on Talmudic sages in Sages and Dreamers: Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Portraits and Legends. And he also writes of Hasidic Sages in Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters and Four Hasidic Masters and Their Struggle Against Melancholy (Ward-Phillips Lectures in English Language & Literature). Wiesel repeatedly helps us to see surprisingly fresh perspectives in these long-examined vistas. His reexamination proves the enduring value of the great Biblical Texts. And with the significance of his contribution, he reassures us of the continuing worth of the human soul.