The Agunah

by Chaim Grade

Agunah [Hardcover]

Genres: Fiction

265 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Milly Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho, me transporta a esos pueblitos de Rusia en donde la tragedia, la pobreza, los chismeríos, la Torah, los rabinos, las leyes, la rigidez, los celos, y la lucha diaria marcaban a las familias judías de entonces. Un drama escrito al estilo de los que contaban este tipo de historias en idish de las cuales ya no tenemos muchas traducciones. Y una tema, buf, fuertísimo. Si no sabes lo que es una agune, métete a ver, porque el tema es lo más actual.

[Masha Shollar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intense, painful, honest book.

Merl, the agunah in question, has made peace with her existence and isn’t interested in remarrying. As an irreligious woman, she isn’t interested in getting rabbinical permission even if she did want to find a new husband. But after being courted by a cemetery cantor who convinces her that she must get permission, she is thrust into the center of a town wide controversy.

What’s so painful about this is the way that all the different subgroups of the village—the poor vs the wealthy, the secular vs the religious, etc—use Merl’s story as a cudgel to beat their opponents with. Their concern is not whether it was right for her to remarry, but what her story means for their own desires, lives, and freedom. If an agunah can remarry, argue the butchers, how come they can’t bring in kosher meat from a cheap slaughterhouse in Oshmeneh? Whether by an angry blacklisted mohel, a truculent shul shammes, or the vicious gangster that’s been pursuing her for years, Merl’s reputation and fate is manipulated by others to achieve their own selfish ends. She is not even called by her name by most of these people, being referred to only as “the agunah,” effectively erased as an individual and becoming only metonym.

By allowing us to witness all this conflict and uproar, Grade implicates us in the arguments, manipulation, and violence. This book has very powerful, painfully honest things to say about our love of gossip and scandal, mob mentality, and quickness to judge.

As always, the host of rabbis who appear, and particularly the two opposing rabbis at the heart of the controversy, Reb Levi Hurwitz and Reb Dovid Zelver, are so humanely portrayed that neither gets to be the sole bearer of truth.

Grade’s books are so deeply, sometimes uncomfortably human, and this one is no exception. I’ll be thinking about Merl’s story for a long time and returning to it in the future.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected but a great book nonetheless. The Agunah is reluctant to get married but does so amid pressure from her family and wannabe husband. She gets married through the permission of a lone rabbi who is ruling against the rabbinical society.

Her marriage sets off a series of events that takes us until the end of the novel. A very sad book, but fascinating characters (something Grade always excels at) and a very tight plot. Not an easy read but an important one.

Would definitely recommend to those who are interested in religion and how its structures can sometimes be harmful to women, rabbis and others.

One interesting thing that I saw pointed out in another review is that although the agunah law is supposedly in order to preserve the "sanctity" of marriage, not one person in this book has a happy marriage or family life. Pretty much everyone is miserable.

I think there was a lot in this book I may have not gotten. Could be worth a reread.

[Marcos Chávez · Rating 5 out of 5]

No, no iré. No me humillaré y no pediré perdón. La verdad, la justicia, la ley y el buen juicio me acompañan. ¡No me equivoqué! Lo que dije e hice fueron tan correctos como la Ley del Sinaí. Me olvidaré de ellos y si Dios Todopoderoso se alía con ellos los convocaré a todos a un Tribunal Celestial. Y si determinan en mi contra me prepararé para arder en los infiernos y aun así no me arrepentiré de lo que hice. Si fuera solo cuestión de mi honor me arrodillaría, pero después de oír que se puede llevar dinero en sábado si así alguien contribuye más de lo previsto; si un pedazo de pan llega a tiempo para salvar de la inanición tan solo a un niño, habré salvado no solo la vida del niño sino el honor del Eterno ante los que dicen que no tiene corazón. Yo tengo la razón y no ofreceré disculpas. No, no me arrepiento y no pediré perdón.

[Yisroel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This powerful, engaging but deeply tragic story takes you back to a destroyed world that is hopefully not forgotten. Grade shows financially poor but spiritually and culturally rich Jewish Vilna's warts and beauty in the full glory, and I often wondered if he exaggerated some of the former so the reader would not miss his message. If we forget its warts then we are sure to repeat its mistakes; if we forget its beauty, we will lack a unique source of inspiration.

[Alisa]

Not crazy about the translation. The plot is great, though, with a masterful handle on characters and motivations and how a situation comes to a boiling point. The tendency to overexaggerate and caricature some of the characters and groups did not detract from the story. Wish it didn’t have to end so depressingly.

[Laura Boudreau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written but very depressing book showcasing the worst mindset of the Jewish shtetl.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure if the translation wasn’t great or what but I didn’t love this book. A lot to admire and a lot of interesting characters but felt much more like a polemic than a novel.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully-written story. Even translated into English, it feels Yiddish to the core. In a time when pogroms against Jews were extremely common, you feel the sense of community and the accompanying struggles of betrayal and desperation among those trapped in the close-quarters of a Jewish village. To the world they were just European Jews, but within their world is a diverse, close-knit, and sometimes petty community of villagers held together by a common (yet sometimes very thin) thread.

Grade gives a sad but honest look at early-20th century Jewry in post-WWI Vilna, Lithuania. It tells the tale of Merle, an agunah (a woman, "chained" by Jewish Law to her husband who disappeared 10 years ago) living in the poor Jewish section of Vilna. Without proof of her husband's death, she cannot receive permission to re-marry (in a religious sense). Merle is a kind-hearted, strong-spirited woman who often lets her principles guide her more than she does religious Law. Out of respect for her religious mother, though, she does not seek to re-marry without obtaining permission first. Without the permission, she lives a lonely life, but keeps busy by doing charitable acts for her fellow villagers, and is actually quite content to just help others.

This ultimately heart-wrenching tale is told from many different perspectives, and the reader can see how much easier everyone's lives could be if compassion were given in a pay-it-forward kind of way. Although I'm not sure this was Grade's main inention, it definitley makes a case for why love, respect, and compassion for your fellow human beings should ultimately preside even over religious Law.

[Ted]

I managed to get a copy of this after it was weeded from our library collection. My first Grade!

[Natan Meir]

Abolutely marvelous.