Agnon's Conversation with Jeremiah inA Guest for the Night:‘Aginutin an Age of National Modernization

Abstract

Approaching A Guest for the Night from the point of view of the Book of Jeremiah--from which this novel draws its title--leads us to revisit two central components of Agnon's theology and stylized identity. First, his majestic evocation of a deity (Jeremiah's "guest") who abandoned his "wife" (the people of Israel); and concomitantly, Agnon's lifelong preoccupation with the "'agunah problem" as a metaphor for national rupture, in ways that for Agnon were linked to his vocational identity as a modern writer dedicated to the project of national repair. Through his conversation with the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations traditionally attributed to this prophet, Agnon adjusts and reduces the diasporic weight assigned to the 'agunah metaphor. In his midlife masterpiece, he enlists the midrashic concept of 'aginut to explore, among other things, his own composite identity as a traditional Jew and modern Jerusalemite, lover of texts and absent-minded husband.

The Reception of Jeremiah in Modern Hebrew Literature

“…Agnon's 1939 A Guest for the Night alludes to Jer. 14:8 (Agnon 1968;Halevi-Wise 2014). Although none of these authors deal with Jeremiah the man or the book, they draw on his book to portray their own time and place.…”