Elie Wiesel: Jewish, Literary, and Moral Perspectives

22. Toward a Methodology of Wonder

22 Toward a Methodology of Wonder Ariel Burger Rabbi Hanoch Henich of Alexander told the story of a man who was so forgetful that, when he awoke in the morning, he didn’t know what to do with the strange things he found in his room. Every morning saw him painstakingly trying to determine what each item of clothing was for, looking them up in research books, and finally putting them on correctly. One day he decided to label everything in his house. The next morning , he woke up and looked around. Following the labels’ instructions, he dressed. He recognized a chair from its note and sat on it. As he was leaving, his eye fell on the mirror by the door. He looked in the mirror, and, bewildered, whispered, “But who am I?”1 Introduction The topic of Elie Wie­ sel’s approach to education is marked by urgency, and the question of how precisely he inspires, educates, and awakens students is not merely academic . For his self-­ described task as a teacher for over three decades has been nothing less than to quicken minds, and to fight for memory, the searing memory that transforms and that may serve as guardian and barrier against the darkness within men. Remarkably, this urgency is accompanied by a wondrous sense of joy in learning . Wie­ sel’s curiosity, his almost childlike capacity for wonder at the turns of a text, constitute an invitation to do the one thing students don’t always expect in the classroom : to have deep, sound fun. The moral of this tale is that it is possible to sensitize with wonder, imagination, and delight in text, subtext, and context. It is in the midst of this startling dance of urgency and wonder, sadness, and joy that Wie­ sel’s students are transformed. The Problem Wie­ sel’s teaching is defined by a problem, the disintegration of knowledge and its betrayal . It is a problem that acknowledges a painful his­ tori­ cal reality: that irresponsible readings of the texts that carry cultural knowledge and values—­ especially sacred texts—­ have so of­ten served as justifications for racism, antisemitism, oppression, 255 256 | Ariel Burger murder, and genocide.2 How many times have congregants or crusaders, inspired by fiery sermons, left places of worship to commit atrocities with the blessing of their religious leaders? “Theology is a dangerous business,” Wie­ sel of­ten reminds his stu­ dents. The knowledge carried by sacred texts, which claim the invested belief of millions, can build and grow communities, can heal the sick, and can bring new life to the living. Or it can explode into a consuming fire. The twentieth century can to an extent be characterized by the radical separation of ethics from knowledge. As Wie­ sel has written: “Knowledge alone is not enough. . . . The killers had college degrees”3 ; and many of those responsible for the destruction of European Jewry were doctors, whose Hippocratic oath did not immunize them against evil. One of the painful lessons of the Holocaust, according to Wie­ sel, is that “it is possible to acquire knowledge and to use that knowledge against mankind.”4 Neither grand literary nor august philosophical traditions provide protection against fanaticism; as a result, even ideas and the words used to express them became suspect. On the opposite side of the moral universe, Wie­ sel’s own relationship with knowledge —­ as well as that of myriad fellow Jews—­ can be characterized by radical disruption . His early education in the heder, where he learned classical Jewish texts in the traditional modalities and melodies of study, came to an abrupt halt (although he continued to study without books in the Kingdom of Night). His first request upon arriving in France after the war, for a Talmud folio, in order to pick up at the exact place where his study had been interrupted, is a key to understanding both his quest for restoration and its method.5 Wie­ sel’s teaching is therefore defined by the quest for a worthy response to the problem of the disintegration of knowledge: both the betrayal of learning by the killers and the disruption of learning for the victims. How can one restore knowledge to its place at the center of human life? Wie­ sel’s response is simple and yet seemingly impossible : memory. This is why his series of courses at Boston University for thirty years have appeared under the heading “Literature of Memory.” Memory is the challenge, the...