Five Biblical Portraits

The Bible tells stories about many men and women to delight readers, inspire them to act as God desires, help them learn from the lives described, and improve themselves and all of creation.

Many commentaries were composed to highlight and explain the messages of the tales. In Five Biblical Portraits, Elie Wiesel describes the lives and activities of five men mentioned in the Tanakh, the Hebrew name for the Bible. The term is composed of the opening letters of the three collections of books in the Hebrew Bible: Torah. Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings). 

Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), a Romanian-born American writer, professor, and political activist, received many awards for his 57 books, primarily written in French and English. He received the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal, among his other honors.

When he was fifteen years old, the Nazis kidnapped him and his family and deported them to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. His mother and younger sister were murdered in gas chambers on the night of their arrival. He and his father were deported to Buchenwald, where his father died before the camp was liberated on April 11, 1945.

He is best known for his first book, Night, in which he tells the horrible experiences he encountered during the Holocaust. However, the brilliant author, who not only deserved the Nobel Peace Prize but also deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature, was also an advocate for peace for all people. He also wrote about the lessons derived from Hasidic teachings, as in the book Souls on Fire, and what we can derive from the Bible, as in this volume. These lessons, if learned, understood, and practiced, would ensure that horrors such as what occurred in the Holocaust would not be repeated.

Five Biblical Portraits is a new 2023 edition of the previously published 1981 popular edition. It contains a new 32-page introduction by Ariel Burger, which, among many other things, reveals Elie Wiesel’s paramount thinking. Burger knew Wiesel well. He attended his classes in 1996 and served as his teaching fellow from 2003 to 2008. He tells us that Wiesel once ended a class lecture, saying, “When it is time for me to come before the heavenly tribunal, I will ask God my question. It will consist of one word: Why.” Burger comments, “This emphatic, passionate “Why?” lies behind Wiesel’s reading of biblical tales.”

Burger also writes that Wiesel was convinced that the power of literature lies in its ability to galvanize human action. This includes the Bible. “The text is not – cannot be – neutral, nor is it an end in itself: it must serve to humanize our society.”

Wiesel shows this in his discussions of Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Jeremiah, and Jonah’s lives and actions.

He informs us that although Joshua led a successful battle during the lifetime of Moses, he was not confident after his teacher’s death. The book of Joshua begins with God encouraging him to be strong. We read how he lost a battle when he led the Israelites into Canaan, but he learned from his mistake and was successful when he fought the next time. We also read about his goal to have the Israelites conquer all of Canaan, but he failed to do so. (We are reminded of the advice of Rabbi Tarfon in Pirkei Avot 2:21, “It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work. But you are not free to desist from it.”)

He mentions the dispute among scholars about whether God was satisfied with Elijah’s activities and gives his view that God was delighted. He notes that many see a marked difference between the depiction of Elijah in the Bible and the ones we see in the many legends about how he helped people after his death. Elijah is the most famous of all prophets. One legend says he will return to earth and announce the messiah’s arrival. Wiesel tells many of these legends and reveals much we can learn about proper behaviors and Jewish law. An example of the latter is the tale of a dispute between a single rabbi and most of his colleagues, with God taking the side of the lone rabbi. The rabbis disregarded God’s view, saying Jewish law is decided on earth by a majority. One of the many rabbis met the legendary Elijah and asked him how God reacted. Elijah responded, “God said, Natzchuni banai – ‘My children have defeated Me.’” Wiesel adds, “I would prefer to change the punctuation, “Please, children, defeat Me!” God loves to be defeated by His children – but only in debates.”

Wiesel is bothered by how the Bible depicts King Saul. Saul was Israel’s first king and was followed by King David. In many ways, he sees Saul as being better than David. He never dreamed of being a king. God chose him for a task he did not seek. He told Samuel, who appointed him a king, that he did not deserve this honor. Saul’s failures fascinate us. David has many wives; Saul only has one. David marches behind his troops while Saul leads them in battle. David committed adultery and had the woman’s husband killed; Saul’s crime was that he sought a sorcerous to bring Samuel up from the dead to give him advice. Samuel rebukes Saul for not killing King Agag. Is Samuel correct that this act of kindness shows he is unfit to be a king? What does his life teach us?

We are shown the prophet Jeremiah as a man searching for truth. He was born in 645 BCE and began involving himself in public affairs at age twenty-two. He spent more than a decade in prison for his activities. The word “falsehood” appears seventy-two times in biblical literature, half in the Book of Jeremiah. He alone predicted a catastrophe, the destruction of the Jewish state in 586 BCE, experienced it, and lived to tell the tale. He alone sounded the alarm before the fire and, after being singed by its flames, went on to retell it to any who would listen. But people ignored what he said while he was alive, but they listen today. We use his words to describe our struggles.

The prophet Jonah is unusual. He argued with God not to save the people of the city of Nineveh, a city of non-Jews, but to punish them. Why?  We read his story at the most solemn moment of the Fast Day, the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. Why? We read his fantastic story, and it moves us to think. Why? Is it about repentance or free choice or the need to think of helping not only Jews but all people? Jonah sits under a plant that shades him as he broods that Nineveh is saved. God kills the plant. Jonah weeps for the dead plant. The Book of Jonah ends with God’s question to Jonah, “You feel sorry for the plant, and you want Me not to feel sorry for Nineveh and its people and its animal?” Jonah does not respond. Isn’t it true that we, too, are not responding?

Like all of us, the five men Wiesel described had severe problems, for life is complicated. But each of them made it into the Bible. Perhaps this teaches us that we, too, can succeed somehow.