Sages and Dreamers

I have before me a copy of the recently-published Israeli edition of Elie Wiesel’s Sages and Dreamers: Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic Portraits and Legends. This is actually a selection of essays culled from a series of lectures that Wiesel delivered to New York’s 92^nd Street Y between 1967 and 1991.

This book is not a commentary on Pirkei Avot but it does throw light on some of Avot’s major contributors. Lively biographical ske.tches cover the lives of Hillel, Shammai, Elisha ben Avuyah, ben Azzai and ben Zoma, not to mention Rabbis Chanina ben Dosa, Elazar ben Azaryah, Ishmael, Akiva, Chananyah ben Teradyon, Meir and Shimon bar Yochai.  Between them, these scholars contributed 28 teachings to Pirkei Avot, this being getting on for a quarter of the whole.

Wiesel’s approach is populist rather than scholarly, seeking to express through mishnah and midrash the personalities and ideals of the featured rabbis, as well as giving a flavour of their interaction with each other and with less exalted mortals. This being the text of a collection of lectures, it is unsurprising that there are neither footnotes nor textual references. However, anyone with a passing knowledge of the subject will soon spot how widely Wiesel has read and how deeply he has delved in seeking to bring out the individual essence of each.

I must confess that, while Wiesel writes with passion and great intelligence, and his discursive, often emotive style of narrative is widely appreciated both within Jewish circles and beyond, I struggle to enjoy it. This may be because I am a stern, cold academic at heart and remain more interested in making up my own mind about the Tannaim featured here than in buying into Wiesel’s assessment of them. I wonder if I am alone in feeling so, and am prepared to accept that I may well be.

This title is published by Whirlwind Press, Jerusalem (a subsidiary of Pomeranz Booksellers). You can order it here.