სიზმრის ფენომენი შმუელ იოსეფ აგნონის მხატვრულ აზროვნებაში

Abstract

One of the main intertexts which imbues narration of many works by Agnon is the Biblical “dream” – the Song of Songs. The extraordinary ending of a number of works by this writer is an allusion to an unfinished dream. We single out Agnon’s three works, in the process of creation of which, in our opinion, the author’s attention was directed towards the Biblical Song of Songs and the Midrash Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah. These works are Sippur Pashut, Agunot and Shevuat Emunim. Israeli editors and publishers were well aware of Agnon’s keen interest in the text of the Song of Songs and they entitled Volume 3 of his works in eight volumes ‘Al Kapot ha-Man’ul (Upon the Handles of the Lock). This is the echo of the Song of Songs 5: 5-6: “I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him...” “I sought him, but I could not find him” is the phrase which appears as a thematic clue to many significant works by Shmuel Agnon. The drama of separation of sweethearts is the main collision that defines all other actions and states in Agnon’s artistic thought. The pseudonym Agnon (the real surname is Czaczkes) expresses exactly this suffering. It derives from the title of the first story created by the writer in the Holy Land – Agunot, which means “forsaken wives”. It is noteworthy that exactly this story is at the origin of Agnon’s literary career. In this story, the background of a sad story and an unhappy marriage is the traditional Jewish view on a happy and harmonious marriage. In the Midrash Bereshit Rabbah, the relevant passage of the Book of Genesis is explained in the following way: “One woman asked Rabbi Iakob Ben Khalafta: “In how many days did God create the world?” – “In six days, as it is said, “In six days God created the heaven and the earth”, – answered Rabbi. – “What is God doing from that time?” – “From that time God is sitting and making couples: He is connecting the daughter of one or another man to a man...” Thus, according to the Midrash, God participates in the creation of families. And here arises a topical question: If God Himself makes couples, why do people separate from each other? And, in general, why is there so much sin and misfortune in the universe created by God? God created the harmonious universe, but his vessel could not withstand filling with the divine light and was broken. We live in the broken world in which there are cracks everywhere and in everything. A crack, gap and abyss are characteristic of human relations as well”, – such is the answer of the well-known kabbalist Yitzhak Luria to this eternal question. The pseudonym of Agnon is also reminiscent of the broken world. It seems that Agnon’s name, imprinted with deep pessimism, which announces the disharmony of the world, is at the same time imbued with great inner optimism – God will surely forgive the sin, the memory of which is kept so alive in man, because as the Talmud states: “God remembers what man forgets, and forgets what man remembers.”