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The Books of Jacob
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Books of Jacob week 2
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A few striking things to mention about these chapters: The first is the importance of writing: everyone seems to be writing! Chmielowski's books; Elżbieta’s poetry; Sołtyk's letters first about his gambling and then the one about the horrific torture and execution of the Jews; Nahman's narrative.
On top of this we have Yente's vision which becomes the omniscient voice of the book we're reading.
I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about this form?
One immediate thing that comes to mind is the sense of competing narratives - not just their subjectivity and placedness but narratives/letters as deliberate untruths?
Soltyk, I think, rounds up the money-lender from whom he's borrowed to cover his gambling debts so is this the main reason for his death? Covered up by a version of the Jewish 'blood libel' (that certainly survives into the Nazi era) and the horrific deaths of his friends and relations.
As readers, we're almost detectives having to read amongst these stories to trace motivations and what has happened.
I just finished the Book of Fog which ended in a very dramatic way. I too had suspicions regarding the letter written by Soltyk, that the incident may be fabricated to some extent. Gambling is vicious, destructive vice and that is the only base of my suspicion. Like every other field of knowledge this also i got from literature, The Old Curiousity Shop by Dickens.
Chapter summaries (as always beware spoilers):
(view spoiler)[
4. PHARO AND MARIAGE
Bishop KATEJAN SOŁTYK is worried. He has been playing Mariage, a card game, with Jabłonowski, Łabęcki and Kossakowski. Only his valet ANTONI knows that he has also been going out to play Pharo for money, and has needed loans from Jews to pay his debts. His debts grow and he worries about a scandal. He has pawned his bishop’s insignia with Jews in Żytomiersz, who were reluctant to take it, and is now considering using force to recover it.
POLONIA EST PARADISUS JUDAEORUM
Sołtyk writes to the Bishop of Kamieniec, MIKOŁAJ DEMBOWSKI. He finds it difficult to express his problem, but asks for a loan to help with his good works, and complains about the Jews he has borrowed from.
OF THE PRESBYTERY IN FIRLEJOW AND THE SINFUL PASTOR LIVING IN IT
Elżbieta Drużbacka arrives at Firlejow in a large britchka. It is late October, she misses her pregnant daughter but likes to travel. Chmielowski meets her and they walk round his garden, which she admires. He shows her his own gravestone, which he has had made. He tells her he knew Katarzyna Kossakowska’s eldest sister Mrs JABłONOWSKA. Elżbieta complains that she is cold but soup revives her. She sees that Chmielowski is lonely. He shows her his book New Athens, telling her it is a compendium of knowledge about everything. She remembers having read the book. She asks him why so much of it is in Latin, saying that women rarely speak the language. She departs, and Chmielowski doesn’t know what to do. He reads her book of poems and starts writing, imagining he is addressing her. He recalls his first job with the Jabłonowskis, and how he started writing to suppress his love for Lady JOANNA MARIA JABŁONOWSKA. She helped him with his church career but died before New Athens was published.
FATHER CHMIELOWSKI TRIES TO WRITE A LETTER TO MRS DRUŻBACKA
Chmielowski is not happy with what he said to Elżbieta when she visited, and decides to write to her, struggling to get beyond his opening words. Eventually he relaxes enough to finish the letter. Having sent it, he is impatient for her response. Eventually the reply arrives and Rothko comes to look for him, finding him decanting wine in the cellar. He saves the letter for later.
ELŻBIETA DRUZBACKA WRITES TO FATHER CHMIELOWSKI
Elżbieta’s letter says that she was impressed by Chmielowski’s humble lifestyle. She has been rereading New Athens, and thinks it is important, but has been struggling with the Latin and thinks it would reach a larger audience if written in Polish.
BISHOP KATEJAN SOŁTYK WRITES A LETTER TO THE PAPAL NUNCIO
Sołtyk writes to the Papal Nuncio, describing the arrest and trial of 33 Jews from Żytomiersz, trying to justify the brutality with which they were treated.
ZELIK
One of the Żytomiresz Jews, ZELIK, has managed to escape. He is the son of the moneylender who lent money to Soltyk. He travels by night, and eventually crosses the river into Turkey. He wonders how a gentleman could have lied under oath. He is taken in by his mother’s friends in Jassy, then continues his journey south, writing letters as he goes. Eventually he reaches Rome, and gains an audience with the Pope.
THE BOOK OF SAND
5. OF HOW THE WORLD WAS BORN OF GOD’S EXHAUSTION
How God tires of his silence, and creates a world of sea and sand. Yente sees horses, donkeys and people travelling across a desert. It is a caraven travelling north from Smyrna to Bucharest, where some will continue to Poland. An Armenian merchant JAKUBOWICZ travels with them to Salonika, having decided sea travel was too dangerous. NAHMAN SAMUEL BEN LEVI of Busk is transporting tobacco and precious stones. He is exhausted. He looks at the shadows, and sees signs. Yente sees the aged Nahman writing. He has been keeping company with JACOB, who doesn’t like the scratching of his pen. Jacob does not want his words to be recorded. Nahman has been writing a life of SABBATAI TZVI, but has also been writing something else in secret. This is a memoir. The narrator talks about the Torah, and how Kabbalists believe it is out of sequence.
SCRAPS, OR: A STORY BORN OF TRAVEL’S EXHAUSTION BY NAHMAN SAMUEL BEN LEVI, RABBI OF BUSK
WHERE I COME FROM
Nahman introduces himself, and talks about his childhood and his stutter. His father was the rabbi of Busk in Podolia. He remembers little. He recalls a guest of Lord Jabłonowski calling at the tavern his mother ran, with a daughter, a princess who wanted to rest. Before they left, the gentleman dragged Nahman’s father out, drank all the vodka and destroyed the tavern. Nahman sees Smyrna, which REB MORDKE calls Izmir. Nahman’s memoir describes the city of Busk and its Jewish community, and how they believed a Messiah had come to Turkey, died and left a successor, according to the teaching of Sabbatai Tzvi.
MY YOUTH
As a youth, Nahman wanted to study the scriptures, and became a student of BAAL SHEM TOV in Międzybóż, 200 miles away. On the way he met a boy LEYBKO who became his friend. He talks about the Besht (Baal Shem Tov)’s Kabbalists’ belief system. He talks about his first revelation, that God vanished from the world he created.
OF THE CARAVAN, AND HOW I MET REB MORDKE
On his return to Busk, Nahman’s family arranged his marriage to 16 year old Leah. He soon set off for a business trip for the Shorrs to Prague and Brünn. On this journey he met MORDECHAI BEN ELIAS MARGALIT (a.k.a. REB MORDKE), who became another Besht. Nahman decides to stay with him and leave Podolia.
MY RETURN TO PODOLIA, AND A STRANGE VISION
Later Nahman returns to Busk, and succeeds his late father as rabbi there. One night he has a strong impression that everything around him is false. He returns to Reb Mordke’s books. His wife Leah is suspicious of Kabbalism. He has more visions and sees himself shining.
ON AN EXPEDITION WITH MORDECHAI TO SMYRNA, DUE TO A DREAM OF GOAT DROPPINGS
A few days later Mordechai (Reb Mordke) appears in Busk after having a strange dream, that outside the synagogue in Lwów the Jacob of the Bible was handing out goat droppings. Those who accepted them began to shine. Nahman tells him about his own shining experience. Mordechai decides that Nahman has been chosen for his mission, and tells him that the Messiah is in Smyrna. They set out on a journey from Lwów with the caravan of an Armenian merchant GRZEGORZ NIKOROWICZ. In Bucharest they leave the caravan. They travel on, and Mordechai adds resin to their tobacco, which makes them see visions. They support themselves by acting as matchmakers for local youths. They sleep in stables and talk about Sabbatai. Mordechai shows him a tome, “And I Came This Day Unto the Fountain” by Eibeschütz, Mordke’s master, which makes him feel part of a long chain of initiates.
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