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"In the Heart of the Seas" is a sophisticated fantasy that tells the story of a pilgrimage of a group of Hasidim to the Holy Land. During an early decade of the nineteenth century in Bucsacz, S.Y. Agnon's actual birthplace, a small group of pious townspeople decides to sell their property and belongings, put aside their business affairs, and make their way to the Holy Land to spend the remainder of their days in study and prayer.The pilgrims are joined by a simple Jew by the name of Hananya, who carries all of his possessions in a kerchief and who has encountered many obstacles and privations in his longstanding efforts to reach Jerusalem. He not only completes their minyan but also drives one of the wagons and provides the practical know-how that enables the faithful to negotiate the long journey from Eastern Europe to Constantinople.Along the way many Jewish settlements are encountered and described and many legends about the Holy Land are told. Hananya is late to the ship's departure from Constantinople to the Holy Land because he is busy reading the Agunah, and unaware of his absence, the faithful embark upon the tempest-tossed voyage without him. When they arrive in Jaffa, Hananya is there before them, having flown over the seas transported on his "magical" kerchief. Settled in Jerusalem, the members of the group experience a mixture of fates, and it is only Hananya who lives to a contented old age. Named by Harper San Francisco one of "The 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century" and among Harold Bloom's selections for "The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages." The Wisconsin edition is not for sale in the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, or the traditional British Commonwealth (excluding Canada.)"… (more)
User reviews
The plot of the story sounds simple; a group of Hasidim make aliyah, emigrate to Israel. On one hand this does not sound too exciting; after all, nowadays lots of people travel, emigrate or even make aliyah. On the other hand we have to consider that these travelers made their journey back in the day, when traveling was a much more arduous process. Furthermore, making aliyah is not just any journey, but THE journey for a devout Jews of the 19th or any century, it requires as much spiritual preparation, strength and persistence as physical. Agnon’s story draws a clear parallel between the physical, spiritual and lifelong journey. By the last I mean that it is possible to read the book at a deeper level as a metaphor for life journey. We start out somewhere low and as we aspire to higher ground, we do everything we can to get there. What we strive for more of is not material wealth, but getting closer to G-d. This is Agnon’s main point in my reading.
Another focus is that the journey cannot be done alone. The value of community is essential for our travelers. They would not be able to survive alone. They value each other and each others’ differences. The group develops from a band of travelers to a close-knit congregation through their tribulations.
There are two literary connections I could not escape noticing. Joseph Campbell described the monomyth, aka the hero’s journey, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces as a tri-stage process,
" A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."
In this case (most of) our heroes do not return, but they definitely follow the rest of the pattern Campbell recognized. In this sense Agnon’s book is a typical monomyth.
The other famous book where ten people travel together and tell stories to each other is Boccaccio’s Decameron. It is mostly known for its erotic and tragic content, but that too deserves more attention. There the characters escape from the Black Death. Here they are not escaping from death but going towards fulfillment of their lifelong dream. There Lady Fortune, aka fate, is the decisive factor of what happens. Here divine authority saves or condemns people, who have the power through their actions and prayers to influence their life. Rather different outlooks, wouldn’t you say?
Just last week I wrote that I like reading fiction books for their plot and character development. I forgot to mention that I enjoy descriptive just as much. Shmuel Yosef Agnon is a master of that. (I spelled out his first and middle name on purpose, because almost all the time he is referred to only as S. Y. Agnon. He deserves his full name to be known. And not just because the Nobel Prize for Literature he won in 1966.) Here is the very opening of the book, setting the tone for the rest,
"Just before the first of the Hasidim went up to the Land of Israel, a certain man named Hananiah found his way to their House of Study. His clothes were torn, rags were wound around his legs, and he wore no boots on his feet; his hair ad beard were covered with th dust of the roads, and all his worldly goods were tied up in a little bundle which he carried with him in his kerchief."
I cannot omit mentioning the work of I. M. Lask, who magnificently translated the book from Hebrew to English. T. Herzl Rome illustrated the book with nine pictures. His style of drawing with simple, yet powerful lines fit well the book’s theme.