THE MYSTICAL UNION: A RE-EXAMINATION OF ELIE WIESEL'S LE MENDIANT DE JERUSALEM

Abstract

rupted the passage of holy time. The telos of all other stories has continued to remain vague, disjointed, with past and present uniting to open a way to the future. Characters exist in Chagall-like kingdoms where reality and dreams fuse. Wiesel weaves complex tapestries of phantasmagorical testi mony and Hasidic fantasy in which the memories of his personal past and the collective history of the Jewish people mingle amid kabbalistic signs and symbols. Le Mendiant de Jerusalem (A Beggar in Jerusalem) [1968]1 represents one of the author's most complex and dense creations. In it, Wiesel has abandoned the traditional form of the novel in favour of a technique in which the protagonist, David, sits among the beggars, madmen and mystics of Jerusalem during their nocturnal vigil where he shares their diverse stories. These tales reflect the mystical aspects of the Jewish experience and include contemplations on the recently fought Six-Day War of 1967. Every story and parable offers the reader a revelation of a distant light, some semblance of a transcendent reality in a world of nightmares. This work is unique in Wiesel's oeuvre as it alone is set in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of the contemporary State of Israel, but as the late Andre Neher suggests in his book Jerusalem, Vecu juif et message, it is effectively the capital of Judaism. Jerusalem is a place situated outside of time and space, a portable capital: 'which every authentic Jewish community would carry with itself in its diaspora' (my translation).2 Wiesel believes that Jerusalem 'resonates like a deep, mystical chord in us all',3 and it is this mystical element which is continually reflected in this recit. According to Neher, Jerusalem exists in constant tension. Though tern