Knopf Doubleday, Belletristik, The Tale of a Niggun (Englisch, Elie Wiesel, 2020)

A ghetto, somewhere in the East, during the reign of night, under skies of copper and fire. The leaders of the community, good people all, courageous all, fearing God and loving His Law, came to see the rabbi who has cried and cried, and has searched darkness for an answer with such passion that he no longer can see. It&rsquo s urgent, they tell him, it&rsquo s more than urgent it&rsquo s a matter of life or death for some Jews and perhaps all Jews. Speak, says the rabbi, tell me all: I wish not to be spared. This is what the enemy demands, says the oldest of the old Jews to the rabbi, who listens breathlessly. The enemy demands ten Jews, chosen by us and handed over to him before tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is Purim, and the enemy, planning to avenge Haman&rsquo s ten sons, will hang ten of our own, says the oldest of the old Jews. And he asks: What are we to do, rabbi? Tell us what to do. And his colleagues, brave people though frightened, repeat after him: What are we to do, rabbi? Tell us what to do. We are afraid, says the oldest of the old Jews, afraid to make a decision&mdash afraid to make the wrong decision: Help us, rabbi, decide for us&mdash and in our place. And the rabbi, their guide, feels his knees weakening, the blood rushing to his face, his chest is ready to burst, and the room is turning, turning, turning around him, and so is the earth, and so are the skies, and soon, he feels, he will fall as falls the blind man, a victim of night and its prowlers. He demands an answer, says the oldest of the old Jews, the enemy demands an answer tell us what it must be, our duty is to guide just as ours is to follow. What should we do or say? ask the leaders of the ghetto somewhere in the East under forbidden and cursed skies what can we do so as not to be doomed?.