Spiritual Sublimation Through Suffering

Suffering is a very important theme in Jewish tradition. Bernard Malamud represented this theme successfully in The Assistant. The status and importance of suffering in Jewish people's life are analyzed in this thesis by ethic theory and method. The miserable history and cruel reality mold together Jewish people's basic existing faith—suffering. In Jewish ethic, suffering possesses purifacational function. Suffering is the purgatory for individual moral cultivation and spiritual elevation. It helps people turn from worldly desires to spiritual sublimation. Favorable social relationship is stressed in Jewish ethic. And suffering provides firm guarantee for establishing and maintaining the harmoniousness of a society. The protagonist Morris manages to achieve the harmoniousness with the others and the society in his endurance. Moreover, the significance of suffering is not limited to the Jewish people, but the same with the whole human race. Human beings can elevate their morality to a higher level and pursue spiritual sublimation according to ethical principles.