Shmuel Yosef Agnon - Some Unpublished Correspondence with Dov Sadan

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Shmuel Yosef Agnon (known by the acronym of his Hebrew initials as Shai Agnon, 1888-1970) was the central figure in modern Hebrew literature, and whose enormous impact on contemporary Hebrew writing is felt to this day. Born Samuel Josef Czaczkes in Buczacz, Galicia, Poland, he immigrated to Palestine in 1907, living most of his life in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966.

Dov Sadan (born Stock, 1909-1989) was a noted Hebrew and Yiddish scholar. Born in Brody, Galicia, he came to Palestine in 1925. He was a member of the staff of the Davar daily newspaper and the Am Oved publishing house. In 1932, he served for four months as secretary to Agnon, and a lifelong friendship developed between them.

The following is a selection of hitherto unpublished letters between the two, selected and annotated by Emuna Yaron, Shai Agnons daughter.

Kfar Megged, Tuesday Torah portion of the week: Balak
Tammuz, 5692 12th July, 1932

My honourable friend Mr. Stock,

By rights I should return to Jerusalem and commence working. But I am still taken up with rearranging the house and have no place there.
As my dear wife wrote, the builders will be busy for another two weeks. My friend, do not be severe with me. When I return to Jerusalem, God willing, we will work doubly hard.

I stay in Megged where I can see the whole land lying before me.
How pleasant it is here, I relish it with open mouth. The air is fresh, and the sun is gentle. Were it not for the guests Id ask if the price were right.

In the meantime, Mr. Bialik calls me to Tel Aviv, and shows me all sorts of affection, saying that all the slanderers are full of deception, and thus it was when he was with me, he never, ever let go of me. Finally, he gave me his commentary on Zeraim,¹ with a sweet and pleasant poem² he had written within.

For a number of days I was ill at ease. A stack of correspondence awaited me. Finally I answered some of them. On Wednesday evening I have to go to Petah Tikvah. My literary friends headed by Mr. Bialik are making me read some of my stories at their gathering. So as to keep the peace I agreed, though my conscience already judges me.

I have a nice parable about this but I shant write it again because of keeping the peace.

With peace and blessing,

Shai Agnon

1 A tractate of the Mishna
2 The dedication from Bialik reads:

"Im not smart or recondite,
But an old jar,
who composed a commentary to the Mishna,
not much, but it will give light
to young and bright."

Jerusalem, Talpiot.
Torah portion of the week: Shoftim

Friday, eve of the Sabbath day.
1st Elul 5695 30th August, 1935

My dear friend,

Every day I work like a horse and at night I do not sleep even the sleep of a horse and I am at the end of my strength, and my brain is unfocused, and my limbs tired, and my hands hang down and you demand something from me. Oh my friend, do not make demands! For some weeks I have not slept neither during the day nor at night because of the stray dogs who enter Talpiot at night and yelp and when they go the Arabs come with their camels and donkeys, their women and their bicycles, and they make a noise shouting and yelling. All this in addition to the cars and buses, with their horrendous non-stop honking.

Perhaps you have it within your power to influence the Jerusalem correspondent (of Davar, ed.) to write about this. I am incapable of doing so, in order not to anger my neighbours who own boarding houses. Rest I sought, my soul was fraught, to Talpiot I fled, but am yet to find a bed. Who will give me my nightly rest, for in Jerusalem my soul is put to the test.

Mr. Melzer made a good impression on me and it seems to me that he would have been able to work with me, but I am afraid that he would not find sufficient income from the work. Moreover, after the festival of Succot, I wish to leave Jerusalem for a number of weeks. In the meantime, I continue to do my work in a state of fatigue.

Greetings to you and all your family,

Shai Agnon

Greetings from my wife and children

End 5696, September 1936

My dear friend,

I thank you for the two things you sent me and for the extracts that you have sent me up to now. By the way, what is the childrens supplement, to which paper is it attached, and where is it distributed? And what is the newspaper "Blau-Weiss?" I am a total ignoramus, though I was once an expert on all these journals, or at least knew their names.

Regarding my work on the book "The Days of Awe," the work is far larger than I conceived at the outset. I work 16 hours a day. I am now writing about the Temple service¹. The great Torah scholar Dr. Bialoblutzky² helps me in this. Bialik (may he rest in peace) made it very easy for him, erasing what was unnecessary to erase. I know the reasons³. While working on it, I discovered that all the sources for the book "Hemdat Yamim" were stolen from others. Moreover, most of the source is a hundred times better than the copy. What, in the original was an idea, was transformed in "Hemdat Yamim" into preaching and moralizing combined with Sephardic pedantry.⁴

My book is approximately one thousand pages of closely written text, and this is about half of the book. I have erased the entire sections on repentance and prayer, yet my publisher is still not satisfied, and I will be disappointed if I have to erase another 50 pages. In the meantime I work like a slave. The subject matter "interests" me. What shall I do? And in the meantime, the desire to write a new story tickles me each day. Yesterday after my previous work, from half past three in the afternoon to one oclock in the afternoon of the following day, I set aside "Days of Awe" and began to copy a chapter of my book "Beginning and End"⁵ for Davar. Then, just as I was getting into the writing guests arrived. Afterwards, I was obliged to compose a poem for a Barmitzvah, after that I had to run to Mea Shearim to see some Hassidic books. Books of the righteous Rabbi David Biderman (may his memory be for a blessing) were being sold⁶ since his son Rabbi Pinhas was ill (this is between us tell no one I used Rabbi Pinhas as a model for Rabbi Zanwill, the son of righteous people⁷. May God help him because he is mentally deranged and is a dear friend of mine). By now it was after one oclock on Tuesday, after I had worked half a full day and night and another half day, and I had to examine a sheaf of manuscripts of Habad about which I have no comprehension; indeed during my whole life I have been careful not to interest myself in their books unless out of necessity. And thus I sat for some time fortified by two glasses of strong Kava (coffee, ed.) and I examined and clarified and found part of the printed matter, etc., etc. and there is no space here to elaborate.

I do not know if part of the story that I began to write is suitable for Davar because of the ethics in it. I dont know what it is with me.
I am no longer in control of my words, the words control me. I am not in charge of my creation, and my creation has abandoned me.

I have at present a great need to speak to a wise friend about a number of things so as to elevate a little the language and the rest of the utterances of the mouth. Someone is knocking on the door: Oy, guests are arriving.

Shalom, shalom, shalom

Shai

Neither of my two pens write properly. I console myself that in another 22 years I will be 70 and they will certainly make me some sort of Jubilee celebration, and I already rejoice that they will surely present me with a pen, which will certainly be better than the ones I have now. What do you think?

1 Priestly work in the Temple.

2 Rabbi Shmuel Shraga Bialoblutzky (born in Lithuania, 1891 - died in Tel Aviv, 1960). Immigrated to Palestine after the rise of Hitler. With the establishment of Bar-Ilan University he was appointed head of the Talmud Department.

3 In a letter to the publisher Zalman Schocken, in 1929, in which he speaks of composing books of musar ("character building") in our time, Agnon wrote: "...this is the situation regarding Aggada (Jewish legends). It is difficult at this time to write a new book of aggadot after Bialik and Ravnitzkis book, however good or bad it is. I see that everything demands a persons life, a person who will devote himself totally to one project, and only then will something complete emerge."

4 Hemdat Yamim had been an Agnon favourite.

5 "Beginning and End" was the name Agnon had originally intended to call Tmol Shilshom (lit. "Formerly").

6 Rabbi David Zvi Shlomo Biderman was brought to Palestine as a young child (born in Lalov, 1844 died in Jerusalem, 1918), and became a famous Hassidic leader. Apart from his great Torah scholarship he was very involved in public affairs. The "Warsaw Buildings" in Mea Shearim are registered as "The Biderman Houses."

7 Rabbi Zanwill the son of righteous parents, is one of the patients in the hospital of Dr. Langzam in "A Simple Story."

Talpiot, Jerusalem

Friday, eve of the Sabbath.
22 Tammuz 5698, 1st July, 1938
Torah portion of the week: Hukat

My dear Mr. Stock,

You wished to deny me the simple pleasure that every decent reader derives from a good book, and turn me unwittingly into a critic, by writing an appraisal of it. Shrewdly, I read your book on the Sabbath day and obviously did not indulge in criticism but read as does someone who does it for pleasure. And truly my pleasure was great from (reading about) the place of your childhood. To be exact, I read each page without skipping even one word. When you come to me, I will show you that I even corrected some printing errors of which there were many. This I did with the first four chapters, which I read before the Sabbath, and the last chapter, which I read after the Sabbath.¹

If I repeat my words of praise which I wrote to you in my first letter you will again ask me for a critique, harsh words in short, give what that self-same man (namely me!) is unable to give. Moreover, I found something new in your book in regard to our narrative literature the exploits of individual people. You know that the strong point of most of our literature is not in the creation of fictional characters. Some of them are the tales of "book keepers" who stubbornly insist on writing stories; some of their pieces are articles rather than stories. When I wish to make a census of all the portraits in our literature I do not find even a quorum. Two or three of our writers succeed in creating living characters (not many), but most of our friends and colleagues are merely making comments not characters. Sometimes these are poetical expression that do not create real characters, as it is written "let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26) which the Midrash says means that man was already made.² This is not the case here. I feel your characters through my senses and hear their conversations, and am able to picture situations that they get into which you have not mentioned. This is the power of a real character, even when the author has not described all their actions. In addition, your portraits possess a feeling of reality about them. However (here comes the criticism, which I never intended since I am not a critic by nature) something is good if it seems good to me, then I am happy with it. But, if it does not seem good to me then I say, along with the psalmist: "Are they all dross?"³ Sometimes, the language is unsuitable to the actions, and sometimes there is a lack of awareness of superfluous words and light humour that slows down the reading and does not pass muster for the intelligent reader. Regarding "historical errors," such as when you substitute Rabbi Hillel for Shimon bar Rabbi Akiva Yosef, his son-in-law, I do not judge you according to this.

(Here follows some detailed criticisms of the books content, ed.)

My friend, I began in praise and finished with damnation. But do not look at my criticism, but rather at the huge pleasure your book gave me. I am pleased that you were able to compose this wonderful work and you should only write more.

In order not to hide my deeds from my friend (though the secret should be just between us), please tell Berl Katznelson⁴ that I want him to know, that for some months I have been writing my magnum opus⁵ of which my wife (bless her) has already copied out 173 pages, about a third of the manuscript. The book itself concerns the days after the events in 1929 (The Arab riots throughout Palestine, ed.) God willing, I shall finish it it should be doubly blessed as a result on the eve of Tisha BAv⁶ of this year. Because of this I turn days into nights, not ceasing from my toil even to read a letter. I do not go out into the city so that they should see that I am not wasting my time and thus give me the Evil Eye heaven forfend!

1 Orthodox Jews do not write on the Sabbath

2 According to tractate Berayshit Rabba, fifth chapter

3 Psalm 53: verse 1

4 A leader of Labour Zionism and editor of Davar

5 "A Guest for the Night"

6 Ninth day of the month of Av. Traditional date marking the destruction of both the First and Second Temple; a day of mourning.

17th Shvat 5718 7th February 1958

To R. Shai Agnon, peace and blessings,

a) I thank you for your letter and blessing and for your additional blessing of whose realization I am unworthy, except from the merit of your own worthiness it ought to be realized, and we should live and see how far the state gives credence to your blessing. In the meantime, I read your words on Buber and enjoyed them very much, especially how you encompassed several chapters of our literature into a few articles, some of which I had expanded on in over-wordy lectures. From now on I will be free from this wordiness and will suffice by quoting your words. Certainly, in order to justify my salary I must say that it is impossible to depend on the article by Rabbi Lifshitz on Bik,¹ and it is better to say votum separatum² on the matter of heredity, according to Mendele.

(b) Regarding Buber himself: to my regret I did not see in him what my contemporaries saw, and am saddened by this blindness and am jealous of all those who were not affected like me. Out of shame I say nothing or even less than nothing about him. For on his eightieth birthday, it is certainly not the appropriate time for me to be among those who raise questions about him, and I am afraid that many years will pass until I say what I think in public. Who knows if, by then, the public will relate to him in the same way as they do now. This is the subject of a lengthy discussion. Believe me it is not easy for me to say these things. For forty years I have been surprised at this phenomenon, and even more at the impression he makes, which I do not merit to understand.

(c) I saw what you wrote in the introduction of the translation of "Sippur Pashut."³ I wrote an afterword and this gentleman, Yisrael London, did not even send me a confirmation⁴. And rightly, you sound an alarm against the licentiousness practiced regarding translation, the withholding of payment, and even withholding the translation itself. Your words are appropriate regarding the Yiddische Kampfer⁵ (By the way right now I am sending you another translation of your work that was published in a booklet for the festival.⁶ Perhaps your words will be effective.

d) I am pleased that you and Esther are residing in Ashkelon, far from the madness and craziness, and I wish you a pleasant rest.

With all the best to you and Esther from myself and my wife,

Affectionately,

Dov Sadan

1 Yaakov Shmuel Bik (born and died in Brody 1772 -1831). Hebrew author, among the first Enlightenment writers in Brody.

2 Votum separatum: the opinion of the individual or the minority as opposed to that of the majority.

3 Sippur Pashut ("Simple Story") was translated into Yiddish by Eliezer Rubinstein in 1958. In the book is a portrait of Agnon written by Aharon Zeitlin, an introduction by Agnon, and an afterword by Dov Sadan, all in Yiddish.

4 Yisrael London, was the owner of Der Kval publications in New York.

5 Yiddische Kampfer, a Yiddish journal published in the USA.

6 Presumably Sukkot (ed.)

Translated by Mordechai Beck