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Feb. 2, 2007
An argument for every age
God's existence takes centre stage in the play The Quarrel.
BAILA LAZARUS
One of the best plays that I've seen performed at the Pacific Theatre,
The Quarrel, combines intellectual sparring, Jewish humor,
concern, regret, tears, anger and nostalgia in just the right combination.
In Montreal, at Rosh Hashanah 1948, two old friends meet in a park.
Chaim (Nathan Schmidt) sees Hersh (Dan Amos) performing the prayers
for the Jewish New Year by a pond. They recognize each other as
old friends who had had a falling out when they were yeshivah students
in Poland before the war.
Hersh survived Auschwitz with his belief in God not only maintained,
but strengthened. He went on to found his own yeshivah in Montreal.
Chaim fled Poland, leaving his wife and children, thinking they
would be safe and that the Nazis were only looking for Jewish men.
He survived, but only with the guilt of knowing he left his family
behind to die.
As the two start to catch up on each others' lives, we learn that
Chaim left the yeshivah all those years ago to become a writer and
a poet. He and Hersh had been close friends and Hersh had been devastated.
"I was broken," Hersh laments to his friend, saying he
didn't know what to do – follow Chaim or stay in the yeshivah.
Hersh was having a difficult time in yeshivah because he wasn't
living up to his father's expectations of being a talmudic scholar.
When Chaim left, Hersh became even more confused and estranged from
his father. The day before the Nazis came into their town, his father
came to apologize, but Hersh wouldn't forgive him and now Hersh
carries his own guilt because that was the last time he saw his
father alive.
Despite the horror of everything he went through, though, Hersh
still sees the Holocaust as being all part of the plan that proves
God exists.
When God created Earth and everything on it, He said it was good,
Hersh explains as he argues with Chaim, but not when He created
man.
"God created man without saying if he was good, because it's
up to him to choose," Hersh says. If man chooses wrongly, for
instance, by choosing to assimilate into a different culture, he
has to be punished.
"Since when is punishment for assimilation death by gas?"
Chaim retorts angrily. God was just as guilty as the Poles and Germans
who stood by and watched the Jews being taken to the camps, Chaim
argues. If those people should be punished for not helping their
fellow human beings, then God should be punished.
"Should God strike down a murderer every time he raises a gun?"
Hersh asks.
When Chaim asks why religious Jewish were killed even though they
kept their faith, Hersh responds that each Jew is responsible for
the other. Religious Jews and non-religious ones alike are responsible
for keeping others from abandoning God.
Even as the two quarrel over faith, God and guilt, however, they
can't keep from laughing over times spent as friends when they were
children; reminiscing about the time Hersh told everyone in the
yeshivah right before Shabbat that the laundry detergent wasn't
kosher. All the students rushed to get their washing done before
Shabbat, but used bleach instead. Hersh and Chaim roll with laughter
as they recall how their fellow students' underwear came apart in
shreds.
As the day wears on, the two banter like this back and forth, sometimes
arguing so passionately, they can barely listen to one another;
sometimes sharing such tender memories, it seems likely they will
remain friends forever. But ultimately, their difference in faith
keeps them apart – even until the very end of the play, when
Hersh invites Chaim to join in minchah with him.
"I prayed already," Chaim answers.
"When?" asks Hersh.
"In 1938."
Based on the short story My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner
by Chaim Grade, The Quarrel was made into a Genie-nominated
film in 1991, directed by Eli Cohen, with Saul Rubinek and R. H.
Thomson.
Directed by Morris Ertman, The Quarrel runs at Pacific Theatre,
1420 West 12th Ave., until Feb. 17. Tickets are $9-$32. Call 604-731-5518.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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