Reading the Chunksters discussion

Since we have abandoned the weekly sections with chapter summaries due to lack of interest, this thread is available for open discussion of the rest of the book. Expect spoilers.

Book of sand
Chapter 12
Describes Jacob Frank’s rise as a Messiah. He and his crew of learned men fail as traders in Salonika. Jacob gets followers as well as hostility from the people, because of religious rivalry and doubts in the new faith. Moliwda says that the world is equally divided in good and evil.
As a story too much is going on at a very fast pace. But Nahman’s philosophy of the Absolute caught my attention as it goes on to be applicable in Jacob’s case. (Like Moliwda’s philosophy)

(view spoiler)[“First, in order to create a finite world, God had to limit himself, but there still remains an infinite part of God completely unengaged in creation.”

“Second,” Nahman continues, “creation as an infinitesimal part of God’s mind strikes Him as insignificant, and He is only barely involved in this creation; from the human perspective, this indifference may be perceived as cruelty.”

“Third,” Nahman continues in a quiet voice, “the Absolute, as infinitely perfect, had no reason to create the world. So that part of the Absolute that did lead to creation must have outsmarted the rest, and must go on outsmarting it now, and we take part in those machinations. Do you get me? We are taking part in a war. “

“And fourth—since the Absolute had to limit Himself, in order for the finite world to arise, our world is for Him a kind of exile. Do you understand? In order to create the world, the all-powerful God had to make himself as weak and passive as a woman.” (hide spoiler)]

Finished reading. This book is one of the most memorable experiences for me. The theme of the book is not just the plight of a heretic sect but man’s tenacious grip on his beliefs and an ardent desire to belong, to set roots somewhere on this earth.

Though it is a bit difficult read because of myriad of characters, languages, locations, cultures (costumes and cuisines ) and trades , author has made it easy by including letters and her laudable creation Yente , who sees all (And so, if Yente had ever professed any religion, after. all the constructions her ancestors and her contemporaries had built up in her mind, her religion now is her faith in the Dead and their unfulfilled, imperfect, miscarried, or aborted efforts at repairing the world.) Together they make it easy to understand the religious mysticism as well as religious politics.

I liked the philosophy of the book delivered by Nahman. His scrapes also contribute to make things clear.

(view spoiler)[There are two varieties of it being impossible to know. The first variety is when someone does not even try to ask or investigate, considering that in any case he cannot learn anything in full. And the second is when a person does investigate and seek, and he comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to know completely. Here I referred to an example, that my brothers might better understand the weight of this difference. So I said that it is as if two men wanted to meet a king. One thinks: Since I cannot meet the king, why would I go into his palace at all and wander its chambers? But the second man thinks differently. He looks around the royal chambers, enjoys the royal treasury, delights in the luxurious carpets, and even when he learns he will not be able to meet the king, at least he is familiar with his rooms.
It is the light that has revealed to us that the huge body of matter and its laws is not mechut, or real, and also all its shapes and manifestations, its infinite forms, its laws and habits. The truth of the world is not matter, but the vibration of the sparks of light, that constant flickering that is located in every last thing.
Remember what we were going after, I said unto them. Religions, laws, books, and old customs have all been worn out. He who reads those old books and observes those laws and customs, it is as if he’s always facing backward, and yet he must move forward. That is why he will stumble and ultimately fall. Since everything that has been has come from the side of death. A wise man, meanwhile, will look ahead, through death, as though this were merely a muslin curtain, and he will stand on the side of life. (hide spoiler)]

Nonetheless it is written that any person who toils over matters of Messiahs, even failed ones, even just to tell their stories, will be treated just the same as he who studies the eternal mysteries of light.

Thanks Nidhi - sorry we didn't manage to get more of a discussion going. I found the reread very rewarding, and on a second reading, the way the book is structured seems much cleverer. Nahman's narrations were interesting, since he is far from objective, and Jacob's many faults are all too obvious, along with his charisma. I thought Tokarczuk also did a great job of explaining the social context that made 18th century Poland such fertile ground for such a cult to thrive in.

This book is very rewarding book where knowledge is concerned. It is a magnificent achievement by the author, this is my first book by her, I did start Drive Your Plow.... but I have a natural aversion towards murder mysteries ( I took the title as symbolical lol.) Though now I am looking forward to read more by her.

I can understand the second read will be more rewarding, the book contains many thoughts which have chances of being overlooked in first read.