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"I love silence," Katriel continued. "But beware; not all silences are pure, or creative. Some are sterile, malignant. My father can distinguish between them with ease; I only with difficulty. There is the silence which preceded creation; and the one which accompanied the revelation on Mount Sinai. The first contains chaos and solitude, the second suggests presence, fervor, plentitude. I like the second. I like silence to have a history and be transmitted by it. My father and I ... my wife and I ... we can sit together whole evenings without exchanging a word, and yet, when we get up, we know we have told each other all there is to tell. If I have not succeeded with you, it's my own fault. I accept the blame and beg your forgiveness."
Elie Wiesel, A Beggar in Jerusalem, trans. from the French first Avon printing January, 1971, p. 131.
TIME: middle 20th c. (before WWII)
CIRCUMSTANCE: a quote by Katriel, who was killed in the war but whose life almost became a reality by those who knew him.
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