My Encounter with Hemingway

Many writers are fascinated by Jewish characters. F. Scott Fitzgerald who was best friends with Hemingway when both were living in Paris after The Great War created a Jewish character Meyer Wolfsheim in his book, The Great Gatsby who was a gambler and mobster living in New York. Wolfsheim took Jay Gatsby under his wing and made him a rich man so he could woo the girl he fell in love with as a young officer, Daisy Buchanan. He created some images of Wolfsheim the Jew that were not complimentary, but I did not take offense because Wolfsheim seemed a father figure to Gatsby and was pivotal to the story. Karl Marx whose parents converted to the Lutheran religion when he was five years of age and possibly to young to have had a Jewish education (maybe he did?) definitely had a Jewish soul because the Communist Manifesto is a book about the importance of life and condemmed the Christian religions of the time for giving the exploited industrial worker in the squalor of European cities of the 19th Century a hope that only after death would things be better for them if they went to heaven and believed. This is the same false hope that radical Islam gives to its adherents today. Judaism is truly a religion of life, not death, and Karl Marx along with his friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels the son of a Lutheran minister, both created a vision of a social and economic system that changed the world. Most of the reforms that happened in workers rights, women suffrages, rights of children to be free of exploitation stemmed directly from their vision. I as a Jew am proud that Marx was Jewish and somehow the ethics of our religion permeated his Jewish soul.

Insightful article. Several years ago I came to the conclusion that the Israelite's 40 years in the wilderness was not completely "punishment". They needed those 40 years apart from other nations to create their own distinctive culture. (language, habits, holidays) You just explained one major aspect of that new culture. Thanks.

Sorry to break it to you, but in The Sun Also Rises, an otherwise excellent book is marred by the unsavory unlikeable character of Robert Cohn who is Jewish. He is called a kike, etc. and is modeled after real life Harold Loeb who was a competitor for Lady Duff with Hemingway.

I read The Sun Also Rises with my book club about ten years ago. I was the only Jewish member of the group, and the only person who defended Hemingway against accusations of anti-semitism. I said Robert Cohn was an example of an inauthentic Jew, a man who disdained his own people and chose instead to tag along with a group of anti-fascist activists. Cohn basically buys his way into the group. The others, all non-Jews, see him as a pretender — and that’s when they reveal their anti-Semitic feelings about him. My sense is that Cohn represents a type of American Jew circa 1939 who threw off his Jewishness, or tried to, and ended up looking like an activist wannabe. Is Hemingway an antisemite because he created a fictional character based on a common enough phenomenon of his time?

How is it we never heard of this in all the years??

Be well and regards, Sara

If we have two lives, one in the here and now and the other in the here after, it's because our Creator gives us both; so why shouldn't we live both? Our lives here and now is our training ground to prepare us for the one here after. Our lives here and now is only temporary, the other one is eternal! It is also of much greater quality and joy(no sorrow). My personal philosophy is: THIS life is not what LIFE is all about.

I agree with your thoughts 10,000% I am with hospice for many years visiting Jewish people. There is so much fear when they realize they are dying. Yes, we should do our good deeds here on earth. But there is more. I do feel when a person is aware of the evil inclination, they might become aware of their emotions, and wrong actions based on ego.

Before even reading this article I knew it would be a great article and probably inspirational which it certainly is. I knew this because it was by Rabbi Benjamin Blech. Thank you Rabbi Blech and Aish for making it available.

Great article. Thank you

I was born Jewish and grew up within the religious community somewhat. Now, I don't believe in G-d (out of respect for you all, I chose to write it like that). However, I think Judaism is the smartest and most beautiful religion of all. Hemingway was right that Judaism focuses on life. My sweet mother explained this to me when I asked her why Jews don't "believe" in hell (I have a lot of Christian friends). I can relate to Hemingway, as I am not spiritual but that I can see the intelligence and beauty of Judaism. I struggled in learning Hebrew at school. To this day, I have no idea what I'm saying, but I can phoenetically read it. And, personally, I'm scared beyond belief at having to learn Kaddish (even though you say it's far more than a death prayer) because that will mean that someone I love more than anything will be gone. Osama's statement illustrates why there will never be peace in this world. The leaders in the Arab world will never allow their people to make genuine peace with the Western world.

I look forward to your book. Let me know when it is published. On Oct 6 I will hit 85 so its a very timely topic for me

one comment: I guess the prohibition for the Kohanim to come into any contact with the dead, helped to save them from infectious diseases during the times of primitive medicine.

Oy oy Vey

:)

Yes, the only contact that many Jews have with Jewish practice is that they only say Kaddish and Yizkor. But first off, that doesn't mean that we should despair of them learning anything else; and second, even a mitzvah done without a full understanding helps to heal the world in some small measure.

Good explanation why it's not mention in the Tanakh. How many though, didn't believe in the afterlife? Another explanation why it was omitted. To jag at religions that do believe in the afterlife, doesn't fair to comparison with the average basic instinct to know their is life after death. The bestseller book "Heaven is Real" shows either peoples curiosity about the afterlife, a need to believe in one, or they have the basic instinct to know there is one. Judaism needs to step up, to help fill the need of human desires or human instinct to bring comfort where they have lacked, and where other religions have filled the void. And through personal experience I would say Judaism is a religion in the study of life. We study Torah day and night. Don't we mistake the rules of religion for ultimate reality or God sometimes? No religion is perfect, and usually what starts out as a good thing in them, turns to extreme and is not a good thing. All religions has been guilty of such, Judaism no exception. In your book "Why we shouldn't fear death" it can't leave out the afterlife, I hope, or it's missing a tenement of reality when we look at a corpse and know we are only looking at a body, not the soul that dwelt in it, and knowing their soul has gone somewhere, because the soul does not die. Has Judaism gone to such extreme about this life, that many do not believe in an afterlife now? Then those who do not, may have fears of death, having no hope beyond the grave. We will find out in full, when your book is published, how you addressed this concern in some people, who may have a fear of dying, because they never heard of, or believed in, an afterlife.

While it is certainly true that Judaism puts it greatest emphasis on living life over obsessing over death, there are many Jews whose only religious practice is to say Kaddish on the yarzeit of their parents, or to attend Yitzgor services (and nothing else) on Yom Kippur. To them and many Gentiles, the Kaddish is a prayer for the dead, which is of course absurd. We choose this time for a private praise to Hashem with no reference at all to death or the occasion for this special moment of prayer. I guess our Rabbis and teachers will spend their entire careers trying to correct that misunderstanding with little success.

Fantastic. Just what I needed to hear - clears up tons of things in my mind. Have written down key points in my notebook that I carry with me everywhere for Chizuk! Kol Tuv :)

Thank you, Rabbi, for this beautiful account. It helps expand, for me, yet another possible reason why Hashem did not include discussion of the afterlife in Chamishei Chumshay Torah. Though there are clearly hints (such as the otherwise difficult task of explaining "vaye'asef el amav" by Avraham Avinu and Aharon HaKohen- see Sforno by Avraham) this assists in a meaningful way.

excellent essay

A most beautiful commentary!

It is interesting that a toilet was created by the Chinese several hundred years before the Europeans developed one but because the Chinese one was designed for use by someone who had died similar to the games designed for the Pharoh in the pyramids, and the European one was designed for people who were alive, we consider that Europeans developed it.

I think you need to be very mindful in mentioning details of suicide how traumatic it can be for people who have had any kind of contact with this situation or who themselves are suffering mental illness. Newspapers in my city always, for instance, advertise helplines when mentioning anything remotely related to such things. Perhaps aish ought to consider something as well, although a helpline might not be feasible.

I'll second this idea

An unusually brilliant insight. It's a shame that due to severe depression he took his own life.

wonderful ! I enjoyed the read.

I especially loved his summary of the role of the cohanim in revering life and becoming holier by helping people in life not death.

Hemingway pontificated and was not much of a people lover. His arrogance, by testing the Rabbis tells much about him. I ask our very in tune Rabbi Blech, how can Americans vote for politicians, who are determined to cut health benefits and support for public education and the arts, when the very wealthy are made free of their social obligations? This is not Egypt. Life in this country is not enhanced when the wealthy are protected by tax breaks, in the hopes that wealth trickles down. So far, With this practice in place, There has been little corporative incentive to hire more people and feed more families. Outsourcing and downsizing is the practice. I wish Rabbi Blech's article would be read by politicians who have replaced the ethical thinking of a living religion in favor of the few . We should not permit corporations to bury American citizens. They should be making life more livable by paying taxes, manufacturing products and providing employment with benefits and a view to the future. L' Chiam!

It seems that people with your political bent can never miss an opportunity to pontificate to the rest of us. This article was about Hemingway and the Jewisah emphasis on life rather than death, yet you use it as an opportunity to make a poorly disguised argument onbehalf of the president's policies. You might wish to consider the totality of his policies including not only his total failure to address the unemployed but also his obsessive need to placate the Muslim world and his overt hostility to Israel and its security concerns. After all, he is the man who, while speaking in Cairo, gave a moral equivlancy to the displacement of the Palestinians with the death of 6 million Jews in the Shoah.

Thanks for your attention, Anonymous. Our living religion certainly meets the challenges of the day. Jewish laws provides substance for understanding political actions and guide our thoughts when we vote. Our goal is to make a good life and flourish. This includes Love your neighbor as yourself, take care of the widow and taking care of our obligations here on earth. These values live with us and come with our decisions about who shall become our presidents, senators, congressmen and women, mayors and all who govern us. Our minds stay open to the memory of the kind of mentality that caused our family of 6 million Jews to perish in the Shoah. We are on guard and support our living religion by voting for government that rejects candidates whose philosophy promotes policies that diminishes the welfare and safety of citizens. A living government does not create policy that caters to billionaires who are excused from doing their part to fix what is broken and in need of repair. These ideas are not an argument on behalf of any president. They are part of our history.

Repeated polling shows 30-40% higher level of support for Israel among conservative Republicans than among liberal Democrats. Half of the Democrat National Convention strongly booed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2012. And your president has donated $150 billion to the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. Does that make you proud?

Anonymous is correct. There is no reason why a comment about "social justice" was appended to this article about Hemingway. I don't believe Rabbi Blech intended this article to be a discourse on Hemingway and his political leanings or about Hemingway's writings on social justice, or even about hs own (ie., Rabbi Blech's) views on social justice and government policy. This article was simply an excellent writing about some of Judaism's view's about life.

Hemingway's one-time pal F. Scott Fitzgerald was more clearly antisemitic. Perhaps it goes with the territory in upper class WASP U.S, viz, Jonathon Pollard's treatment. Re Hemingway , wasn't one of his wives , Martha Gellhorn , Jewish?

Yes Marthas Gelhorn was Jewish. She was a well respected journalist, particularly in war zones. Among the areas she visited in that later regard was Israel as it faught for its independence.

yes, you are quite right, Martha Gellhorn was of Jewish descent on her father's side, but her mother was not Jewish...she was his third wife, well after his Paris period, and yes as well, Fitzgerald was an open anti-semite and a very good friend of Hemingway's in the Paris years...

Martha Gellhorn did have a Jewish father and maternal Jewish grandfather. She was not halachically Jewish, but after WWII she identified more strongly her Jewish identity and with Israel.

To state that Hemingway's suicide was a spiritual failure is genuinely unjust. The man was suffering from severe mental illness, including biplar disorder and amnesia, as well as a number of physical ailments. I cannot (nor can Rabbi Blech) speak to Hemingway's spiritual issues at the end of his life, but his death, it seems to me, might more easily be explained by his illnesses than by some spiritual crisis.

No where in this article did Rabbi Blech state that Hemingway's suicide was the result of spiritual failure. The statement "Somehow he was never able to find a spiritual source on which to lean in order to give him a reason for living" is simply an after the fact conclusion. Rabbi Blech did not go out on a limb in making this statement. This is not the equivalent of blaming the suicide on a spiritual crisis. If anything, Rabbi Blech makes a second and obvious but simple statement -- again not going out on a limb to say it -- that the ideal to "choose life" .. "could not guide him in the end". What's so controversial about this statement that you believe this is an "unfair conclusion"? I am not a Hemingway scholar. Rabbi Blech did not state that he is a Hemingway scholar. Whatever the reason Heminway committed suicide, be it mental illness, physical pain or both, remains for scholars to debate. This does not negate the comments that Rabbi Blech drew.

David, Thank you for this information on Hemingway. Comments, by some, troubled me also. More than ever, the Lord has been impressing upon me that, MANY times, I too am jumping to conclusions. Hemingway, I believed, in order to not jump to conclusions, asked questions. Thank You.

It seems that lately, wherever I turn, there is an article about Hemingway, and perhaps its an anniversary event, that is creating these connects, but they are many. I notice words and I noticed a long time ago, the title of his book, The Sun Also Rises, because son and sun are aurally related. I am sure Hemingway probably did not realize this, but in Christianity there is this: the Easter story. When you ask, as I have, why THIS particular story has given rise to so much sorrow, and so much adulation, and so much of course literature and art, if you believe, that G_d is the author of all things, all Creativity, then you might perceive that words themselves have this alchemy, because "they" seem to mysteriously contain the story itself. For example we are all one, and we are alone. Life is about profound paradox for us all, at all levels. The word JEWEL contains Jew and El, and El surely is one of the names, currently in use, for G_d. So here is the profound question I pose, and that is, are we potentiating the inherent potentials within the letters themselves? I believe that G_d wrote us all into a profound story, and that this story, will bring us all, to Jerusalem, to the Wailing Wall. And yes, of course it's about LIFE. L'Chayim! Thanks for a beautiful article. I love what you write, Rabbi Blech. And Blech contains Lech, so Lech l'cha... come with me. This is a journey about love itself. I say this entire collective story, is about LOVE. The AV if you hear it, in LOVE.

As usual Rabbi Blech writes in tune with the modern Jews and his/her concerns. This is a piece I am saving and will forward often.

this speaks for itself

I found this article intriguing....in The Sun Also Rises, his early book from his Paris years, so reviles the character Robert Cohn based on his real-life acquaintanceship with Harold Loeb...much of what Hemingway wrote about Cohn/Loeb arose from real-time events and conversations...the Cohn character is portrayed in a very unlikeable fashion with liberal references to his Jewishness and epithets such as "kike" are used throughout...I find that hard hard to reconcile with the Rabbi's account of the Hemingway he met in Cuba...but...I suppose, everyone changes with time...??? Paula Maclain in her recently published The Paris Wife, written from the point of view of Hadley, his wife at the time he wrote "Sun", and to whom he left the royalties of the book after his death, makes reference to the blowout Hemingway had with Cohn and vile words that were spoken, one assumes, of an anti-Semitic nature....Very interesting, indeed????

Rabbi Blech always writes superbly. For me, this article explained beautifully why the Bible speaks so little about the afterlife, and by extension, about the hidden hand of G-d. Thank you Rabbi Blech.