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Ida Nasatir book review
Jacob's Dream by Richard Beer-Hofman
June 12, 1947—Book review—Jacob's Dream by Richard Beer-Hofmann—Southwestern
Jewish Press, page 6: Jacob's Dream is a noble and daring
interpretation of the destiny and mission of the Jew. It is an interpretation
which we American Jews need desperately. This book is a poetic drama,
beautifully translated from German by Ida Bension Wynn. Beer-Hofmann, though not
well known to American Jewry, occupied an important place in German Jewish
literature and drama; he was one of the outstanding Jewish poets and
distinguished dramatists who wrote in the German tongue. His works had the honor
of being burned by the Nazis when they took power in Germany. Beer-Hofmann
himself was able to escape to America. He died in New York City at the age of
seventy-nine. It is impossible to convey in brief form both the beauty and
the nobility of this great drama. On reading it one experiences the same
exaltation of spirit that comes with reading the Book of Job in the Bible. Both
contain richness of noble ideas that search the very heaven in their quest for
understanding. Both seek an answer to the eternally perplexing question about
the meaning of pain and suffering. While the Book of Job deals with the
suffering of the individual, and justifies God's ways to the individual man,
Beer-Hofmann is concerned with his people's—Israel's—tragic suffering
throughout the ages, and especially in our times. Why has suffering been the
badge of the Jewish people? Is this pain and misery without significance? Why
then does Israel persist in faithfulness to their religious teachings? Or does
this pain carry within itself a meaning, and a blessing that exalt the Jews in
their very humiliation and justify their faith in their very martyrdom? The
author believes that the people of Israel, subjected to the excess of pain, saw
God through their tears and felt HIS presence all the more intensely because of
their suffering. The basic theme of Jacob's Dream is Israel's pain and
Israel's mission, as illustrated by its famous ancestor, Jacob, son of Isaac and
grandson of Abraham. Two Biblical episodes are selected to form the plot. The
first is the conflict between the brothers Jacob and Edom (Essau) which resulted
from Jacob's obtaining the parental blessing. The second is Jacob's vision
during that memorable night at Beth-El when he made his covenant with God. The
idealist, the dreamer, the gentle leader, and Edom, the hunter, the materialist.
Both are, however, placed in a sympathetic light. The author endows these
characters with human traits that appeal to the heart of the reader. Who can
ever forget the pathetic cry of Edom when he learns that his mother had helped
Jacob to get the blessing. Shaking with sobs, he cries: "Mother! Mother!
What have I done that you should hate me so?" This is a
remarkable, a gripping drama. It portrays Israel's mission in the world as being
God's emissary and mouthpiece, "the bearer of God's message to the people's
of the earth." As such, they are sensitive to injustice and evil and wrong,
and their sensitiveness brings them suffering and pain. Such is their destiny
which they cannot escape, which they can only affirmatively accept, and, in so
doing, find salvation: "Lord, what Thy will imposes soon or late—I'll
bear it not as yoke—but as crown."