Several years ago, when I was still in school, we attended a wonderful play at the Gesher Theatre. The name of the play was Adam Resurrected, in the original Hebrew - אדם בן כלב, "Adam Ben Kelev" - which is a pun - both "Man, son of a dog" and "Adam, son of a dog".
The play is based on a book by Yoram Kanyuk that deals with a man broken down by the memory of the Holocaust. The book is currently being made into a Hollywood movie, starring Jeff Goldblum (for some reason I was convinced it was Ben Kingsley - where would I be without Wikipedia?).
In a way that proves the genius of the play director (for it does not appear in any way in the book), twice or thrice during the play, a wagon is driven inside the stage, and on it a figure of a clown-become-Auschwitz-inmate. He cries 'גאנצע יאר פריילאך', 'Ganze Jahr Freylach' as he passes over the stage. In Yiddish it means 'Happy All Year Round'.
A bit later, when I started writing in an online forum, I picked this line as my signature. A couple of times, when an opponent wrote something like 'you Jews are too concerned about survival' it reminded me where I stood, as petty and insignificant as it appears now - but the human existence is more often petty and insignificant than not - and I'm no exception; but then, of course there's the hope of occasionally making a good point.
In that mood - friends, countrymen, Romans - on the first day of the new Jewish year 5769, I wish you all the best for a wonderful year.
The play is based on a book by Yoram Kanyuk that deals with a man broken down by the memory of the Holocaust. The book is currently being made into a Hollywood movie, starring Jeff Goldblum (for some reason I was convinced it was Ben Kingsley - where would I be without Wikipedia?).
In a way that proves the genius of the play director (for it does not appear in any way in the book), twice or thrice during the play, a wagon is driven inside the stage, and on it a figure of a clown-become-Auschwitz-inmate. He cries 'גאנצע יאר פריילאך', 'Ganze Jahr Freylach' as he passes over the stage. In Yiddish it means 'Happy All Year Round'.
A bit later, when I started writing in an online forum, I picked this line as my signature. A couple of times, when an opponent wrote something like 'you Jews are too concerned about survival' it reminded me where I stood, as petty and insignificant as it appears now - but the human existence is more often petty and insignificant than not - and I'm no exception; but then, of course there's the hope of occasionally making a good point.
In that mood - friends, countrymen, Romans - on the first day of the new Jewish year 5769, I wish you all the best for a wonderful year.
