Jamaica Abare

Hello all, what a crazy book to start out with but hey you know me, skip the shallow waters and make your way to the depths. Since the thoughts presented in books have served to shape my thoughts in so many ways, hearing from my favorite people in dialouge with great books seemed a great idea. Please join the conversation!

Though it has been over a month now since I have read "Night" the one thing that I remember impacting me the most was the scene describing a boy hanging from the gallows. Elie recollects someone muttering under his breath where God was in this situation, and another man whisper, he is there on the gallows.

What a profound picture of a God who enters into suffering with us. I know of no better way to respond to the problem of evil than to describe how God enters into suffering. In contrast to Buddhism he does not deny the existence of suffering as an illusion but gives us the comfort of his presence to endure.

Having just completed a lecture on the problem of evil I am tempted to bore you with the different so called "solutions" to the question of how an all-good all-powerful God could allow evil, but the answer given in "Night" offers more solice than any argument could. While there are many logical possibilities of why God allows suffering, the only answer those in the shadow of the valley want to hear is: "I am Here". Perhaps on the other side of the vale we will see the purposes of pain but, for now I will content myself with Presence.

maic, you are way too smart for me... :) most of my current reading involves either birth or home improvement drabble. i'm glad i found your blog, though! love you!

allo Jama,

thanks for the book club!

I wonder if you felt like "Night" gave you an answer. I'll have to re-read the ending to make sure, but I felt just sadness no pressence.

After I read "Night", I was thinking about it for a whole week. As I was driving in my car I would try to figure out how society could get so bad. How humanity could decide that one group of people were to be treated with less care than animals.

Wiesel was so honest about how he went from a human being to a mere living thing that could only think of survival. It made me sad and angry that the gaurds took such pleasure in slowly making these people into animals. They laughed and encouraged them to fight between themselves to live.

I respect the honesty that Wiesel gives us. How shameful a feeling to feel like your father is holding you back and you need to get rid of him. But yet he tells us this so that we are aware of how desperate we can be as people...to let us see that it was not only that they starved these people physically...but that they stripped them of their humanity.

Last of all though, with my anger, sadness, and tears...I pray to God that we would all read testimonies like this and stand up for the down-trodden. I think that it would be very easy for us all to be in the place of these guards. I had a relative by marraige...who was in the German army. He told me his story one day. He was driving a group of people and realized that they were being taken away to be killed. When he stopped and said he wouldn't drive, they stuck a gun to his head and demanded he keep driving. He lived to tell me, so I guess he drove the car. But I'm not sure that I wouldn't have chosen to do the same thing. IF he didn't drive someone else would have. What do you do in the face of so much evil when you are only one person?

Hence, I think it is important for us to be aware of how depraved we can become. To not think that we are above anything and to ask ourselves now what we would do in situations like this. Millions of people watched as the Jews died. It was a well kept secret. Even the Jews didn't believe it was coming. No one listened to the warnings. Few countries beleived the stories.

There are people like Cory TenBoom ( "Hiding Place") whose whole family was exterminated for their courage to hide the Jews. For taking a stand.--- My relative kept driving. What would you do? I fear I would keep driving. And with that internal honesty...I realize that it is better to be aware of the warning signals that your hearts gives you... and take a stand then....rather than wait until you become one of these guards.