The Pagan Rabbi

The Pagan Rabbi Summary | Detailed Summary

"The Pagan Rabbi" is Cynthia Ozick's short story of a well-respected rabbi who hangs himself and the nature of his inner conflict of religion versus nature, which is revealed in a letter found after his death.

An unnamed narrator learns that his longtime acquaintance, a thirty-six-year-old rabbi named Isaac Kornfeld, has hanged himself in a public park. The narrator is a childhood friend of Isaac's, and he visits the park in the hopes that something might exhibit itself and provide some clues as to why Isaac ended his life there.

Isaac and the narrator attended rabbinical school together, and Isaac went on to become an esteemed rabbi, while the narrator dropped out of school to work at various jobs such as a fur coat salesman and most recently, the owner of a bookstore. Isaac was a voracious reader and purchased most of his books from his old friend. Their relationship continued in this way for several years.

While Isaac established the iconic Jewish lifestyle, complete with a wife, Sheindel, born in a concentration camp, and seven beautiful daughters, the narrator married and subsequently divorced a Protestant woman much to the chagrin of his father, who disowned his son for his apparent failures.

The narrator was always attracted to Sheindel and visits her at her apartment one day under the pretense of talking about Isaac. Sheindel knows that Isaac purchased books from the narrator's store and wonders if Isaac was interested in any books on the subjects of botany, plants or agronomy. The narrator cannot recall any specific books and can only tell Sheindel that Isaac had a passionate interest in many topics over the years.

Sheindel reveals that Isaac joined a hiking club and went out at night, sometimes staying out all night on hiking trips. The hiking eventually exhausted Isaac, who resigned from the club and began to write fairy tales. This new avocation delighted his daughters but concerned Sheindel because of Isaac's abrupt change from academia to fantasy.

The narrator cannot provide any clues that will help Sheindel understand Isaac's uncharacteristic behavior, but he takes Isaac's notebook when Sheindel suggests that if he reads it, something might occur to him. Returning to the park where Isaac hanged himself, the narrator begins to read the contents of the notebook.

Unfortunately, the notebook offers up no content of immediate value, simply some musings, random thoughts and bits of poetry. It includes a verse from Tennyson, "And yet all is not taken. Still one Dryad flies through the wood, one Oread skims the hill; White in the whispering stream still gleams a Naiad; The beauty of the earth is haunted still."

The narrator is embarrassed for Isaac. He finishes reading the notebook's contents and returns it to Sheindel soon afterwards. When the narrator arrives at Sheindel's apartment, she tells him that a letter has fallen out of the notebook and that the narrator must read it to fully understand her dilemma regarding Isaac's mental state at the time of his suicide. Sheindel tells the narrator that the letter is a love letter written by Isaac. The narrator is uncomfortable reading it, so Sheindel begins to read it aloud.

Addressed simply to "Creature," the letter poses Isaac's questions regarding the issues of faith versus reality and the probable futility of religion. Therefore, he is questioning his entire existence up to this point. Isaac's crisis in his faith sends him to commune with nature, where he is able to encounter pagan creatures, one in particular named Iripomonoeia, with whom he engages in a sexual relationship.

Iripomonoeia shows Isaac her immortal life as part of nature, as opposed to Isaac's doomed mortality because he chooses a faith-based life. Iripomonoeia allows Isaac a vision of his soul in the shape of an exhausted old man doomed to a bitter demise, an image which ultimately pushes Isaac to take his own life.

As Sheindel finishes the letter, Isaac's words bid farewell to the creature as he says, "see how I am coiled in the snail of this shawl as if in a leaf. I crouch to write my words. Let soul call thee lit, but body... body... fingers twist, knuckles dark as wood, tongue dries like grass, deeper now into silk... silk of pod of shawl, knees wilt, knuckles wither, neck..."

Sheindel is outraged at Isaac's entrye into the pagan world, and she denounces her husband for his betrayal to the Jewish faith. This inability to appreciate Isaac's state of mind convinces the narrator that Sheindel lacks the compassion he seeks for himself, and he determines not to pursue a relationship with her.

The narrator advises Sheindel to visit the park where Isaac died in order to find some understanding, but she has no interest in searching for her husband's soul in a city park. The whole experience has shaken the narrator, and upon arriving home, he immediately flushes his houseplants down the commode and ultimately back to nature.