The Worthless (original Yiddish title דער מטורף, Der Meturef) is a 1908 play by Jacob Gordin, described by Lulla Rosenfeld as "a study of provincial bigotry and fear", whose central character Ben Zion Garber is "a man of genius lost and misunderstood in an environment that ultimately destroys him".
Rejecting the dishonesty he sees as tied up in the world of business, he is secretly in love with Lisa Rosenberg, daughter of the owner of a rival (failing) factory, who is engaged to be married to Ben Zion's coarse older brother.
After the marriage, Ben Zion quarrels with his father and goes to live with his poor uncle Yisrol Yakob and his wife.
He protests the mistreatment of children in a Jewish school, exposes unhygienic conditions in factories, including his father's.
Toward the end of Act II, he is on the verge of completing his perpetual motion machine, when Lisa comes as an emissary from his mother, to tell him that his father is gravely ill. Their dialogue makes it clear that they are still in love, but that happiness is no longer possible for either of them.