Jeremiah by Stefan Zweig Play Review

Jeremiah by Stefan Zweig Play Review

I am not much of a play person. I rather see it on the stage, than on print. Ok, keeping this in mind, a while back I was going through the complete collection of Stefan Zweig. His only know play (translated to Spanish) was Jeremiah. Why would a non Jew like Zweig be interested in Jeremiah? Let me tell you, as you may not know, Zweig lived during the time of Hitler. It sorta happens that he had to exile Germany because Hitler said Stefan Zweig was a Jew. After discovering that he was a Jew, Zweig began to get interested in the religion of his Great, Great, Great (take a deep breath), great Grandmother. As it stands, Judaism is matri-lineal (meaning that one is a Jew down their mother's line). Hitler knew about this technicality, thus a lot of non Jews became Jews.

In any case, during his exile in Brazil, Stefan Zweig began to write a few stories and novels with Jewish themes. Among them was the play Jeremiah. Jeremiah was my favorite prophet of the Old Testament (or the Torah for the Jews). He could not call forth lightning, or split the ocean. His super powers (aside from God's foresight) was diplomacy. Heck, to get Nebuchadnezzar (above is a painting of the king. He was known as a grass eater) to  reconsider destroying Israel is a miracle all in itself. Plus, he is credited as the author of Lamentations (the most depressing book inside the Bible).

The play itself begins with Jeremiah being called by God. Then, he goes of to deliver his infamous speech  about how the Temple of the Lord had become a den of thieves. There is a lil action afterwards when a mob of the tribe of Levi (this tribe had been in charge of the temple following the line of Aaron, Moses older brother) try to slay Jeremiah. This scene is not without foundation. Those who bother to read between the lines will notice that in the Bible there is a lil tension between the Levis and the Prophets.

The Levis thought that because they controlled the Temple they had direct access to salvation. Their writing is more Messianic. Meaning, that they spend most of their time kissing up to the king. However, the Prophets were always knocking off their high horse the Levis and the king. They knew that the king and the priest had become corrupted.

In any case, the play shows the arrogance of the Levis. They thought that with the Ark of the Covenant they had their victory assured. They hated that Jeremiah kept reminding them that God was pissed. In any case, it does not take a seer to see that there was not freaking way the Isrealites and their big fancy Jericho wall could withstand the onslaught of Nebuchadnezzar. This time, their Bahamut YHWH was not gonna pop out of the Ark to save them. For those that do not know, Bahamut is the dragon form of God. There was an incident where Ark stolen by the Canaanites. They placed it next to Baal. Bahamut is a fire Dragon and Baal an ice dragon. Long story short, the Canaanites had to return the Ark cause YHWH kept picking fights with Baal (after all YHWH is a jealous God and hates playing second fiddle). Trust me, you don't want two dragon deities dueling all over your city.

For those that do not know Nebuchadnezzar (II) was a Babylonian king credited for the destruction of the first temple. He also built one of the wonders of the world, The Hanging Gardens (above is an artist rendering of how they used to look like) . Basically, his favorite wife missed the Tropical Gardens of her old place. He built her a fancy Garden inside the palace. This was quite the extravagance because there is usually a lot of water shortage in the desert.

Ok, back to the destruction of Jerusalem. After that incident, Jeremiah hears that his mother is dying. When she goes quietly into the night, he returns to his mission. For his own safety (or so the king says), Jeremiah is put in a hole or well. On the meantime, his disciple goes to ask Nebuchadnezzar to forgive Israel. Its interesting how Zweig knows the ancient begging method. In the old days, one asked something of a king by tugging at the ends of his long robe. He spent like 5 months doing this until Nebuchadnezzar gave in.

Now all that was left was to convince the Israelite to surrender. They had one final chance but the Levis convinced the king going as before. They had lost their last chance at salvation. Now Nebuchadnezzar was really gonna make things bad for them. Originally, they had gone to war because of Taxation (no surprises there). However, they desired their ancient independence. The problem was that they bit on more than they could chew. Thus, they barricaded themselves inside their fancy walls at Jerusalem and then waited for the attack. Nebuchadnezzar was not stupid. He had conquered by then all the fertile crescent and even Egypt. He just sat back and waited for the food to run out. This is a classical bleeding tactic.

In any case, in the last scenes play focuses on the king. He starts hearing about riots about food shortage taking place in the city. The citizens believed that the Levi were taking most of the food for themselves (and they were right). The king goes to Jeremiah's hole has him released. He then starts commenting on the "new" famine. Jeremiah surprised that the king has just noticed the famine. Jeremiah knew about the famine long before the king. He had noticed how his daily meal had grown smaller by the day. He told him that the last place to be affected by the famines is usually the palace. We can see a similar incident during the French Revolution. The queen said, " If they are hungry, then let them eat cakes". So, yeah, here we see the usual redistribution of resources. The ones with most power always get the biggest cut. I bet if there was a famine in America the last persons to starve are gonna be the robber barons or the politicians (perhaps not even them, they always have the funds to jump ship).

In any case, Nebuchadnezzar wins and blinds the king after destroying Jerusalem. After the king was blinded, Jeremiah calls him a worthy king of the exiled Jews. The play ends with the hopes of one day rebuilding the kingdom. This exile experience was the thing that the Israelite needed to solidify their faith. Before the exile, they had always flirting with Baal or other Canaanite deities. Through hardship, they found out who was their true God. In any case, this play is 5 star worthy. (Oh, above we see the Jeremiah Tablet. It is a written Babylonian record telling the story of Jeremiah, the Fall of Jerusalem and Nebuchadnezzar. Those scribbles are cuneiform, the ancient writing style of Babylon.)

 

Description: The Great Play of Stefan Zweig • About: The best of all prophets of the Old Testament • Author: Teresita Blanco • Awards: None • Content Location: books • Content Rating: 5 • Contributor: Fernando Blanco • Copyright Holder: Teresita Blanco • Copyright Year: 2012 • Creator: Teresita Blanco • Editor: Fernando Blanco • Genre: Sad • Headline: Jeremiah by Stefan Zweig Play Review • Keywords: biography, book reviews, books, historical, holocaust, Jeremiah, Jews, levi, paintings, plays, prophet, sad, stefan zweig, torah, warning,  • Mentions: Michelangelo,Jeremiah,Nebuchadnezzar, Aaron,Moses • Provider: Me • Publisher: Phi Stars • Publishing Principles: Teresita Blanco • Source Organization: Phi Stars • Version: 7 • Item Reviewed: Poems • Review Rating: 5 •

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