הגויה של תשעה באב

[hatam_soferet]

MarGavriel points us to a little Agnon story. A story appropriate for the season:
סיפר לי ר’ אהרן פריימן ז”ל משמו של ר’ אליהו פלנסר ז”ל. ר’ איציק אייכל וחבריו מצאו להם נכרית אחת שבישלה להם לתשעה באב. שבאותו הדור קשה היה ליהודי בברלין למצוא תבשיל בתשעה באב. היו קוראים לאותה נוכרית הגויה של תשעה באב. Aaron Freiman, of blessed memory, told me the

Comments

[gimmelgirl]

I got nuthin.
I know that's not helpful, but I wanted you to know I've been pondering it all day.
Perhaps something about how foreign the idea of mourning the 2000 year old Temple really is? Seems just as arbitrary to mourn a non-Jewish woman... they were already eating on 9 Av, so clearly it wasn't something they felt strongly about, so maybe the message is that this ancient idyllic Jerusalem that is lost is really just a foreign woman they know only slightly. She gives them food, just like Jerusalem feeds our souls, even though she is, like the goyish woman, really foreign to us.

[margavriel]

There are a lot of loose ends in this story, not the least of which are: Why can't these men cook for themselves, and when was Berlin ever considered the ideal of an entirely frum city? Quite the opposite

[margavriel]

In short, I think I read the story in a way diametrically opposite from gimmelgirl's reading: Nothing is less foreign to us than the Temple and Jerusalem. We may attempt to hire foreigners, and bring foreignness into our lives, but when they die, all that is left is the stark reality: We are Jews, inextricably connected to a People, History, a City, and a Temple.

[lipman_]

Sounds like an entirely pointless story. Or an Agnon parody of hasidist stories, including facts that are historically wrong or falsified in such an obvious way (no fodd in Berlin).

Maybe an inside joke? But probably not.

So, Freimann is an historic person - how about the others?

[lipman_]

Food, sorry, infant between eyes and screen, trying to pour the tea that's left in my cup on my keyboard.

[jonbaker]

Itzik Eichel has to be Isaac Euchel. Looking at that JE article, he seems to have been a follower of Mendelssohn, but after Rambeman died, he went OTD with MM's children. This biographical book indicates that he was leaning that way throughout his life.

He is characterized as the founder of the Enlightenment, since he organized institutions and schools and publications, far more than Mendelssohn ever did.

[margavriel]

Fascinating!

[margavriel]

Sarit compares the story in IV Ezra, The central climax of the book is a vision that Ezra has of a woman lamenting over the death of her only son. Ezra consoles the woman by promising her son’s resurrection, and also scolds her for her obsession with her personal problems when “Zion the mother of us all” has much more for which to mourn. Ezra urges: “…keep your grief to yourself and bear gallantly your calamities, for if you accept as right the verdict of God, you will get back your son in his time and be highly extolled among women.”[3] As soon as Ezra imparts this message to the woman, the woman transforms into the glorified city of Zion, which comforts Ezra and gives him hope and strength for the future. It is also at this point that Ezra realizes that the advice he gave to the woman should be applied to himself as well, and thus Ezra stops complaining about God and realizes that his sorrow is also personal and individual

[jonbaker]

2 Esdras 9:38 through the end of Ch. 10.

[jonbaker]

Agnon Agonistes.

Hey, you're in WH. Do you know an older family (probably in their 70s) named Israel & Esther Chachkes in WH? I was friend with their son G. in elementary school from WH; Agnon's real name was Czazkes, and yes, Agnon was G's uncle or something.

I think they're on FtWash in the 180s.

[margavriel]

Never met them, but that's cool!

Agnon used to invite my grandmother (and grandfather?) over for tea at his house, in the mid-to-late 1940s.