#168 The Pagan Rabbi- Cynthia Ozick
Isaac has just committed suicide, an abomination and an
unforgivable sin for a Jewish man. He has left his wife behind bereaved and
angry. The narrator was his good friend who was raised like Isaac to become a
Rabbi but strayed from that path long ago. Their father’s were fierce rivals.
“It is easy to honor a father from afar, but bitter to honor
one who is dead.”
Isaac became a ravenous reader, about all things, and not
just religion and Jewish texts. This lead to tension between him and his wife.
After his death she found a treatise outlining a rambling decent into
paganistic hallucinations. In his insatiable desire for knowledge he had become
unhinged, but not without lucidity.
“I saw that he was on the side of possibility: he was both
sane and inspired. His intention was not to accumulate mystery but to dispel
it.”
His letter baffles between brilliance and dementia, finding
not only spirit everywhere, but actual spirits that speak to him. Some actually
in his words echoing his confusion.
“You have spoiled yourself, spoiled yourself with
confusion.”
This story is a beast. It’s impressive it scope and depth. I
was a little out of my element on Jewish scripture, so I’m sure I missed some
symbolism, but I enjoyed this nonetheless.
Notable Passage: “I envisaged my soul as trapped in my last
granule, and that last granule itself perhaps petrified, never to dissolve, and
my soul must be released at once or be lost to sweet air forever.”
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