Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
a conversation in hell
by Joel Cohen
with Menachem Wecker
For those, and the memory of those, who will never know what hell might be like.
Cover Image: Gustave Dore, Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno (1857). Note: With this image, and
others throughout the book, the author does not hold the copyright and does not give anyone
permission to download and/or reproduce the works.
2
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………4
Characters….…………………………………..8
Cain………………………............................11
Korah…………………………………………….19
Saul………………………………………………..27
Balaam…………….……………………………..43
Miriam………………………………………..….79
Young Man…………………………………..108
Scriptures……………………………………..111
3
GEHINNOM
INTRODUCTION
4
In contrast, the venue of hell is unthinkably odious.
The concept of heaven, whether true to its existence
or reality, gives each of us comfort, hopefulness and
yearning for salvation. We see in it “a better
tomorrow,” after we have shuffled off the Hamletian
mortal coil. We would acquire there a final, lasting
reward – safe passage gained for our good conduct in
this lifetime.
7
Characters
8
attempted to have him killed several times.
He later “fell on his sword” when the
enemy Philistines were poised to capture
him.
wealth to
curse the nation of Israel. Balaam was later
killed at the direction of Moses for trying to
induce the men of Israel to engage in
promiscuity with Moabite women, in order
to turn them from God.
10
Cain Murders Abel
11
PLACEHOLDER: Cain kills Abel. Source: JTS.
12
Cain Alone
13
sinners who endure excruciating torment
and pain. No one rolls a rock endlessly up a
mountain.
Enter Satan
14
CAIN I can’t see you. Who are you? What is your
identity? And why are you here?
18
KORACH REBELS
19
Place holder. Image: JTS.
20
Enter Korah
21
am a glorious prince of Israel – born to the
purple, destined to perform God’s work in
the tabernacle.
26
Saul’s Misplaced Mercy
27
Placeholder.
28
Enter Saul
29
SATAN You see it as irony – not a sadist’s plan to
confound the world?
31
KORAH You don’t understand. You lead, you
become accountable. Either God, or the
princes of Israel, should challenge your
inadequacy. That’s the way it is – the way it
must be.
35
In your imperious arrogance, Satan, you
argue that you caused God himself to bury
me. It doesn’t satisfy your ego to say that
you control the conduct of man. Now you
control the conduct of God himself? Is there
no limit to your arrogance?
36
SAUL Whatever you are, Satan, take no comfort
that I’m here due to you. For surely you did
not cause me to spare Agag. He was spared
because God and Moses taught me mercy.
Imagine – exercising mercy caused me to
end up in Gehinnom with you! And
consider, just consider, my “sin” in letting
Agag live, given God’s own decision to let
Pharaoh live when He exterminated all the
first-borns of Egypt on that fateful night of
Passover, but not Pharaoh.
ENDLESS QUIET
39
CAIN Can’t you release your animus toward
Moses for just an instant, and see beyond
that?
40
KORAH Are you intending to be serious? You first
told your armor-bearer to “Draw your
sword and stab me with it, lest the
uncircumcised stab me, making sport of
me.” And when the armor bearer wouldn’t,
you fell on your sword. You fell in suicide.
You belong here simply for that act that
defied God’s law – not to mention your
tortured effort to claim that your death was
accidental. You say you’re in hell for
sacrificing to God? You belong here for
being a coward!
42
Balaam’s Curse
43
Placeholder. Image: JTS.
44
Enter Balaam
47
creation precisely because he proves that
God and I rule the entire world, not just
those who view Sinai as the totality of
everything.
48
to do over the millennia. They pick and
choose the bible’s words about me – but
yet their daily prayers begin with my words:
the “goodly tents of Jacob.” Words begin
the daily liturgy, but first uttered by the
incarnation of evil?
49
went to heaven and who to hell, heaven
would only be occupied by you – and
maybe not even you. I risked death at
Balak’s hands when I refused to curse Israel,
but I am nonetheless evil?
50
Satan, your arrogance about your status in
the world order aside, I do belong in heaven
– if there is indeed a heaven! Maybe,
finding myself here though, there is only
Gehinnom in the afterlife. But then again,
maybe my insouciant donkey finds himself
in heaven.
BALAAM Cain, did the Torah end for you the day you
died?
52
KORAH Balaam, you should adhere to self-loathing,
rather than self-pity. You’re a spineless,
heathen enemy of God.
SAUL Amen.
54
God, rather than vice versa. You would
probably opt to see the dead buried upside
down, so that they could stride more
quickly to their personal hell. And you
would probably opt for hell for the good
people on earth, as if hell is the preferred
existence in the afterlife.
55
KORAH Cain, you killed your brother when his
sacrifice was accepted by God and yours
rejected, but still you present yourself as a
“victim.” God should have destroyed you
right then. Your appalling evasion – “Am I
my brother’s keeper?” – should alone have
cinched it.
56
It wasn’t God, Satan, it was really you! The
world should come to know that you, you
alone, are the master. Don’t you think?
58
populace of the world would never have
existed.
62
spitefulnesses would wish to invite to join
us.
(SOTTO VOCE)
65
SATAN You can never know my true meaning – it’s
too opaque for who you are. Nor do you
seem to recognize your own realities or
limitations. You seem to think you know
why you find yourselves here but, still, you
don’t see why you awakened the spirit of
my “inviting” manner.
66
killed. And that I did so because I couldn’t
“kill” God who rejected me so emphatically.
67
“successor” – into the fray. What are your
feelings of David?
68
come forth from David to finally end this
day in my existence, giving me hope that I
would not have to share eternity with the
wretched likes of you? That I might escape
too the presence of Satan, impotent as he
is.
69
of Israel. All I earned was God’s rejection
and condemnation to Gehinnom. I have
lived in a Gehinnom since the moment I
struck my brother. Yes, I walked the earth
while my brother’s body lay in the grave.
But what life was that for me? You were the
stand bearer of Israel. Israel applauded you,
bowed to you, admired you. I had nothing –
ever. Can’t you leave me alone?
71
But more important, explain how you feel
about Moses?
72
Buber will later call “I-Thou,” I know my
future until the end without God telling me
a thing. You, each of you, Saul, Korah, Cain,
suffer a different torment – the despair of
not knowing what lies in store for you –
whether fire pits, ferocious lions,
reverberating thunder squalls within an
echo chamber as this, a plague of locusts, or
more of what occurs now. I, in contrast,
know my future and am thus, master of my
destiny. You don’t and aren’t. You ask if I
have ever prophesized anything? What you
would give to be in my shoes right now!
Moses’ envy of me cannot possibly
compare to the torment in your minds right
now.
75
KORAH That we both despise Moses, Cain, is
meaningless, as meaningless as the reality
that Goliath’s mother would despise both
David and Saul. The tautology – “the enemy
of my enemy is my friend” – is just that.
When the two-front battle is over and
victorious fellow armies return to their
respective homelands, they bid adieu to
their temporary comrades-in-arms, only to
plot battle now against each another. Isn’t
that right, Saul?
77
78
Miriam’s Slanderous Tongue
79
Place holder. Source: Wikipedia.
80
MIRIAM I am Miriam, daughter of Yocheved and
Amram, sister of Moses and Aaron. I can no
longer stand silent. Your fierce attacks on
Moses and now Aaron are too disquieting.
What did they do to cause such disdain?
You have no basis for jealousy of them.
81
powerful? But, still, God is El Kanah – a
Jealous God.
86
BALAAM But no female? Didn’t both you and Abel
have twin sisters whom you were each
intended to As usual, Balaam is onto
marry? And something, particularly,
didn’t you love the reference in the
Abel’s twin sister Midrash, Genesis Rabba
22:7, which brings up the
and wanted to
twin sisters (as well as
have her, to other potential sources
marry her, but of the strife).
Abel stood in
your way? Didn’t you simply find your love
for her too much to bear, and so you killed
him to have her? Admit it. Your envy over
what belonged to another man caused your
downfall!
87
MIRIAM True, I don’t understand why Caleb took
Bithiah. Was I not enough for him that he
had to take an Egyptian idol worshipper
too? She didn’t belong to him!
90
Prophetess in Israel, whatever that might
mean.
92
prophetic skills – your special access to the
ways of God – fail you.
SATAN You cry out to God and ask for relief, even
fire torture. Don’t you know that God can
give you no salvation here? You have gone
past the gate for that. Maybe somehow you
have ingested the poetic musings of that
disingenuous harpist, David, and thus cry
out for relief from the enduring torment of
Sheol.
94
SAUL And if I were to say, Satan, that my envy of
David is what brought me here, that would
end the torment?
95
became God’s chosen to lead, but you
didn’t. As if you were a prophet, but
another prophet was far greater. It was as if
David’s sacrifice was accepted by God, and
yours blew up in your face. Do you get it,
Saul? Do you get it, the rest of you?
98
SAUL Returning to your attack on me, you
challenge me over David. You challenge the
very thought of my good intentions. You
somehow conclude that when I became
melancholy as God’s spirit passed from me
to David that I was “angry” at David. You
argue that I hated David and envied him.
But maybe Cain’s act in killing Abel was
truly about God, not Abel.
100
SAUL You continue to assault me, you attack my
reputation, but who is my interrogator – a
man who would be forgotten to the world
but for his evil against Israel. Does anyone
speak of King Balaam, Prophet Balaam? No,
they speak of the evil trickster Balaam. You
are a minor contestant to Moses, as Satan is
allegorically a contestant to God. No one
will ever honor you. The absence of a burial
plot for you is not for fear that pilgrims will
come to worship you.
102
MIRIAM I actually thought for a brief shining
moment that you were asking a candid
question about the relationship between
God and man. But no, the malignancy of
your marrow has metastasized.
103
God is not here, but yet you can’t, even in
the confessional of this cave on the far edge
of nowhere, say anything from the depth of
your heart.
107
GOD Miriam, I will not forsake you. You will be
with me. You will be with Moses and Aaron
and the children of Israel.
108
In some way, I suppose, I would have
wanted to have lived a longer life to
combine each of their traits into my own
being. Maybe I would, then, have given
more to the world, and been more worthy
to both you and those who saw me as an
infidel.
109
GOD No. You will live on. Both you, Miriam, my
daughter, and the young man will be with
me to live on, on to the coming day of
resurrection. He has only been here for one
moment in time.
110
SCRIPTURES
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and
bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the
Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper
of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time
Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their
fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was
very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain,
“Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If
you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do
well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you
must master it.”
113
Korah: Numbers 16:28-32
And Moses said, “This is how you shall know that the
Lord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my
own accord: If these people die a natural death, or if a natural
fate comes on them, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the
Lord creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth
and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they
go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men
have despised the Lord.”
115
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Wait, and let me tell you
what the Lord said to me last night.” And he said to him,
“Speak!” Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in
your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel?
And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent
you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners,
the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are
exterminated.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the
Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord?”
116
Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel
from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is
better than you.”
118
donkey, to turn it back onto the road. Then the angel of the
Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall
on either side. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it
scraped against the wall, and scraped Bilaam’s foot against the
wall; so he struck it again. Then the angel of the Lord went
ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way
to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw
the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Bilaam; and Bilaam’s
anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.
Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to
Bilaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me
these three times?” Bilaam said to the donkey, “Because you
have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I
would kill you right now!” But the donkey said to Bilaam, “Am I
not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this
day? Have I been in the habit of treating you this way?” And he
said, “No.”
121
When there are prophets among you, I the Lord make
myself known to them in visions; I speak to them in dreams.
Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my
house. With him I speak face to face—clearly, not in riddles;
and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not
afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and
he departed.
When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam
had become leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned
towards Miriam and saw that she was leprous. Then Aaron
said to Moses, “Oh, my Lord, do not punish us for a sin that we
have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like one
stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its
mother’s womb.” And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please
heal her.” But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but
spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days?
Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that
she may be brought in again.” So Miriam was shut out of the
camp for seven days; and the people did not set out on the
march until Miriam had been brought in again. After that the
people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of
Paran.
122