Books of Jacob | II. Book of Sand, Chapter 6
"All prophets must come from elsewhere"
This makes sense: prophets never come from within. All prophets must come from elsewhere, must suddenly appear, seem strange, out of the ordinary….
And yet a prophet must also be one of our own.”
Tokarczuk, Books of Jacob, p. 843
In Chapter 6, we finally meet Jacob. Nahman hears first from Elisha and Hayah Shorr that Jacob Leybowicz (whose surname will change later in the novel to Frank) is the Messiah. Nahman travels to meet Jacob in Smyrna (current day, Izmir), where previously Sabbatai Tzvi revealed himself to be the Messiah. Nahman finds what he is looking for: he sees a prophet in the strange wedding guest in white sandals.
The story then returns to Rohatyn where there is a brief outbreak of violence between the divided Jewish community. The Shorr family shelter a gentile runaway peasant, but the more orthodox members of the community resent this “golem”. Nahman visits Yente who sees through her fourth-person narrator eyes the story of Jacob’s childhood. Yente is Jacob’s grandmother. She sees in her memory vision the young Jacob running away from home after being beaten by his father (Yente’s son). He retreats to a cave near Korólowka. There he has a charismatic transformation: “‘I was born in this cave, he proclaims.” (p. 818)
This cave becomes a principal place in the story. Meanwhile Hayah and Isaac Shorr realise that my swallowing the amulet Yente has entered a state of “dying and not dying”. Yente’s great-granddaughter, Pesel takes responsibility for her, transferring her on a cart to Podhajce. There Pesel recalls a story of a goat that reveals the manifestation of the Messiah in Smyrna.
Father Chmielowski resumes his correspondence with Drużbacka about his new encyclopedia.
A lot happens in this chapter. Savour it. At the core of the chapter is a question: who is this strange guest, Jacob?
For paid subscribers below I have two more curated clips from this interview of Olga Tokarczuk responding to Julia Fiedorczuk’s question. I also share some excerpts from the main history of Jacob Frank and the Frankists to enrich your Slow Read.
chat question - about prophets, gurus and Messiahs.
character, Jacob - What fascinated Olga Tokarczuk about Jacob Frank?
context - How Jacob and his followers rose from obscurity and poverty to make a different kind of society?
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