Cover Page: ii Title Page Page: v Copyright Page: vi Dedication Page: vii Contents Page: viii Map Page: xxii Prologue Page: 965 I. The Book of FOG Page: 963 Chapter 1 Page: 961 1752, Rohatyn Page: 961 Chapter 2 Page: 940 Of calamitous leaf springs and Katarzyna Kossakowska’s feminine complaint Page: 940 Of bloodstained silks Page: 938 The white end of the table at Starosta Łabęcki’s Page: 935 Chapter 3 Page: 928 Of Asher Rubin and his gloomy thoughts Page: 928 The beehive, or: The home of the Shorr family in Rohatyn Page: 926 In the beth midrash Page: 920 Yente, or: Not a good time to die Page: 916 What we read in the Zohar Page: 911 Of the swallowed amulet Page: 910 Chapter 4 Page: 906 Pharo and Mariage Page: 906 Polonia est paradisus Judaeorum . . . Page: 903 Of the presbytery in Firlejów and the sinful pastor living in it Page: 900 Father Chmielowski tries to write a letter to Mrs. Drużbacka Page: 889 Elżbieta Drużbacka writes to Father Chmielowski Page: 888 Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk writes a letter to the papal nuncio Page: 886 Zelik Page: 882 II. The Book of SAND Page: 875 Chapter 5 Page: 873 Of how the world was born of God’s exhaustion Page: 873 Scraps, or: A story born of travel’s exhaustion, by Nahman Samuel ben Levi, Rabbi of Busk. Where I come from Page: 868 My youth Page: 863 Of the caravan, and how I met Reb Mordke Page: 858 My return to Podolia, and a strange vision Page: 856 On an expedition with Mordechai to Smyrna, due to a dream of goat droppings Page: 854 Chapter 6 Page: 848 Of a strange wedding guest in white stockings and sandals Page: 848 Nahman’s Tale: Jacob’s first mention Page: 846 Isohar’s School, and who God really is: The next installment in the story of Nahman ben Levi of Busk Page: 840 Of Jacob the simpleton and taxes Page: 836 Of Nahman’s appearance to Nahman, or: The pit of darkness and the seed of light Page: 832 Of stones and the runaway with the horrible face Page: 829 Of how Nahman winds up with Yente and falls asleep on the floor by her bed Page: 826 Of Yente’s onward wanderings through time Page: 820 Of the terrible consequences of the amulet’s disappearance Page: 817 What the Zohar says Page: 815 Pesel’s tale of the Podhajce goat and the strange grass Page: 813 Father Chmielowski writes a letter to Mrs. Drużbacka, whom he holds in such high esteem, in January 1753, from Firlejów Page: 812 Chapter 7 Page: 808 Yente’s story Page: 808 Chapter 8 Page: 794 Honey, and not eating too much of it, or: Isohar’s school in Smyrna, in the Turkish land Page: 794 Scraps: What we were doing in Smyrna in the Jewish year 5511 and how we met Moliwda, and also, how the spirit is like a needle that pokes a hole in the world Page: 792 Chapter 9 Page: 782 Of the wedding in Nikopol, the mystery under the huppah, and the advantages of being foreign Page: 782 In Craiova: Of trade on holy days and of Hershel, faced with the dilemma of the cherries Page: 774 Of a pearl and Hana Page: 768 Chapter 10 Page: 764 Who the person is who gathers herbs on Mount Athos Page: 764 Chapter 11 Page: 755 How in the town of Craiova Moliwda-Kossakowski runs into Jacob Page: 755 The story of His Lordship Moliwda, or Antoni Kossakowski, of the Ślepowron coat of arms, which is also known as Korwin Page: 752 Of what draws persons together, and certain clarifications regarding the transmigration of souls Page: 747 Jacob’s story about the ring Page: 742 Scraps: What we saw among Moliwda’s Bogomils Page: 740 Chapter 12 Page: 734 Of Jacob’s expedition to the grave of Nathan of Gaza Page: 734 Of how Nahman follows in Jacob’s footsteps Page: 733 Of how Jacob faces off with the Antichrist Page: 728 The appearance of ruah haKodesh, when the spirit descends into man Page: 725 Of why Salonika does not care for Jacob Page: 722 Scraps: Of the curse of Salonika and Jacob’s molting Page: 719 Scraps: Of triangles and crosses Page: 714 Scraps: Of meeting Jacob’s father in Roman, and also of the starosta and the thief Page: 711 Of Jacob’s dance Page: 708 III. The Book of THE ROAD Page: 703 Chapter 13 Page: 701 Of the warm December of 1755, otherwise known as the month of Tevet 5516, of the country of Polin, and pestilence in Mielnica Page: 701 What is gleaned by the sharp gaze of every variety of spy Page: 698 “Three things are too wondrous for me; the fourth I can’t understand.” —Book of Proverbs 30:18 Page: 694 The Lord’s female guardians Page: 689 Scraps by Nahman of Busk kept secret from Jacob Page: 687 Of secret acts in Lanckoroń and an unfavorable eye Page: 684 How Gershon caught the heretics Page: 682 Of the Polish princess Gitla Pinkasówna Page: 680 Of Pinkas and his shameful despair Page: 678 Chapter 14 Page: 676 Of the Bishop of Kamieniec Mikołaj Dembowski, who doesn’t realize he is merely passing through this whole affair Page: 676 Of Father Chmielowski’s defense of his good name before the bishop Page: 670 What Elżbieta Drużbacka writes to Father Chmielowski in February of 1756 from Rzemień on the Wisłoka Page: 666 Father Chmielowski to Elżbieta Drużbacka Page: 664 What Pinkas records, and what goes unrecorded Page: 662 Of the Seder HaHerem, or the order of the curse Page: 658 Of Yente, who is always present and sees all Page: 656 The Bishop of Kamieniec Mikołaj Dembowski writes a letter to the papal nuncio Serra, while his secretary adds a little something from himself Page: 652 Bishop Dembowski writes to Bishop Sołtyk Page: 649 Meanwhile . . . Page: 646 How Gitla’s stepmother’s pessimistic predictions come true Page: 645 Chapter 15 Page: 642 How the old minaret in Kamieniec turns into a column with the Holy Mother on top Page: 642 What Bishop Dembowski ponders as his face is being shaved Page: 639 Of Hayah’s two natures Page: 635 The shapes of the new letters Page: 632 Of Krysa and his plans for the future Page: 629 Chapter 16 Page: 626 Of the year 1757 and of the establishment of certain age-old truths over the summer at the Kamieniec Podolski disputation Page: 626 Of burning books Page: 623 Of Father Pikulski’s explanation to the nobles of the rules of gematria Page: 620 Of newly appointed Archbishop Dembowski, who is preparing for a journey Page: 616 Of the life of dead Yente in the winter of 1757, also known as the year the Talmud was burned, followed by the books of those who burned the Talmud Page: 612 Of Asher Rubin’s adventures with light, and his grandfather’s with a wolf Page: 607 Of the Polish princess in Asher Rubin’s house Page: 602 Of the reversal of circumstances: Katarzyna Kossakowska writes to Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk Page: 600 Pompa funebris: January 29, 1758 Page: 598 Of spilled blood and hungry leeches Page: 596 Mrs. Elżbieta Drużbacka to Father Chmielowski, or: Of the perfection of imprecise forms Page: 593 The Vicar Forane Benedykt Chmielowski writes to Elżbieta Drużbacka Page: 591 Of the unexpected guest who comes in the night to Father Chmielowski Page: 589 Of the cave in the shape of the alef Page: 587 Chapter 17 Page: 584 Scraps: My heart’s quandary Page: 584 How in Giurgiu we talked Jacob into returning to Poland Page: 580 Father Benedykt weeds the oregano Page: 569 The runaway Page: 567 The runaway’s tale: Jewish purgatory Page: 565 Cousins putting up a unified front and launching their campaign Page: 562 Moliwda sets out and beholds the kingdom of the vagabonds Page: 553 How Moliwda is made messenger in the service of a difficult cause Page: 549 Of useful truths and useless truths, and the mortar post as a means of communication Page: 546 Mrs. Kossakowska, wife of the castellan of Kamieniec, writes to Senator Łubieński, Bishop of Lwów Page: 542 Father Pikulski writes to Senator Łubieński, Bishop of Lwów Page: 540 From Antoni Moliwda-Kossakowski to His Excellency Bishop Łubieński Page: 538 Knives and forks Page: 536 Chapter 18 Page: 533 Of how Ivanie, a little village on the Dniester, becomes a republic Page: 533 Of the sleeves of Sabbatai Tzvi’s holy shirt Page: 530 Of the working of Jacob’s touch Page: 527 Of the women’s talk while plucking chickens Page: 526 Of which of the women will be chosen Page: 525 Hana’s gloomy gaze notes these details of Ivanie Page: 523 Of Moliwda’s visit to Ivanie Page: 521 Divine grace, which calls out from the darkness into the light Page: 513 The supplication to Archbishop Łubieński Page: 508 Of the everlasting interconnectedness between divinity and sinfulness Page: 505 Of God Page: 503 “The miller grinds the flower” Page: 501 IV. The Book of THE COMET Page: 495 Chapter 19 Page: 493 Of the comet that augurs the end of the world and brings about the Shekhinah Page: 493 Of Yankiel of Glinno and the terrible smell of silt Page: 490 Of Strange Deeds, holy silence, and other Ivanie diversions Page: 486 A tale of two tablets Page: 481 Scraps, or: Eight months in the Lord’s community of Ivanie Page: 478 Of doubles, trinities, and foursomes Page: 476 Of candles put out Page: 472 A man who does not have a piece of land is not a man Page: 471 Of stablehands and the study of the Polish language Page: 470 Of new names Page: 469 Of Pinkas, who descends into hell in search of his daughter Page: 466 Antoni Moliwda-Kossakowski writes to Katarzyna Kossakowska Page: 461 Katarzyna Kossakowska to Antoni Moliwda-Kossakowski Page: 459 Of the cross and dancing in the abyss Page: 458 Chapter 20 Page: 456 What Yente sees from the vault of Lwów cathedral on July 17, 1759 Page: 456 Of Asher’s familial bliss Page: 452 The seventh point of the disputation Page: 450 Of secret hand and eye signals and hints Page: 445 Katarzyna Kossakowska writes to Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk Page: 443 Of the troubles of Father Chmielowski Page: 441 Of Pinkas, who cannot understand what sin he has committed Page: 438 Of the human deluge that overwhelms the streets of Lwów Page: 436 The Mayorkowiczes Page: 433 Nahman and his raiment of good deeds Page: 432 Father Mikulski’s bills and the market of Christian names Page: 430 Of what happens to Father Chmielowski in Lwów Page: 428 At the printing press of Paweł Józef Golczewski, His Majesty the King’s preferred typographer Page: 423 Of proper proportions Page: 419 The baptism Page: 417 Of Jacob Frank’s shaved beard, and the new face that emerges from underneath it Page: 415 Chapter 21 Page: 413 Of the plague that descends upon Lwów in the autumn of 1759 Page: 413 What Moliwda writes to his cousin Katarzyna Kossakowska Page: 406 In which Katarzyna Kossakowska dares to disturb the powerful of this world Page: 404 Of the trampling of coins and using a knife to make a V formation of cranes make a U-turn Page: 402 Scraps: At Radziwiłł’s Page: 398 Of sad turns in Lublin Page: 393 Chapter 22 Page: 386 The inn on the right bank of the Vistula Page: 386 Of events in Warsaw and the papal nuncio Page: 383 Of Katarzyna and her dominion over Warsaw Page: 379 Katarzyna Kossakowska writes to her cousin Page: 376 What is served for Christmas Eve dinner at Mrs. Kossakowska’s Page: 375 Avacha and her two dolls Page: 372 A doll for Salusia Łabęcka, and Father Chmielowski’s tales of a library and a ceremonious baptism Page: 370 Father Gaudenty Pikulski, a Bernardine, interrogates the naive Page: 364 Father Gaudenty Pikulski writes to Primate Łubieński Page: 359 The cornflower-blue żupan and the red kontusz Page: 356 What was going on in Warsaw when Jacob disappeared Page: 354 Spit on this fire Page: 352 An ocean of questions that will sink even the strongest battleship Page: 351 Chapter 23 Page: 340 What hunting is like at Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł’s Page: 340 Scraps: Of the three paths of the story and how telling a tale can be its own deed Page: 335 Hana, consider in your heart Page: 329 V. The Book of METAL AND SULFUR Page: 325 Chapter 24 Page: 323 The messianic machine, how it works Page: 323 Of Jacob’s arrival, on a February night in 1760, in Częstochowa Page: 322 What Jacob’s prison is like Page: 318 The flagellants Page: 315 The holy picture that conceals without revealing Page: 312 A letter in Polish Page: 309 A visit to the monastery Page: 308 Upupa dicit Page: 303 Of Jacob’s learning to read and where the Poles come from Page: 301 Of Jan Wołowski and Mateusz Matuszewski, who are the next to come to Częstochowa, in November of 1760 Page: 299 Elżbieta Drużbacka to Father Benedykt Chmielowski, Vicar Forane of Rohatyn, Tarnów, Christmas, 1760 Page: 297 Elżbieta Drużbacka’s heavy golden heart offered to the Black Madonna Page: 296 Chapter 25 Page: 293 Yente sleeping under stork wings Page: 293 Of Yente’s measurement of graves Page: 291 A letter from Nahman Jakubowski to the Lord in Częstochowa Page: 289 Gifts from the Besht Page: 285 The larch manor in Wojsławice and Zwierzchowski’s teeth Page: 281 Of torture and curses Page: 279 How Hayah prophesies Page: 276 Edom is shaken to its foundations Page: 275 Of how the interregnum translates into the traffic patterns of the carriages on Krakowskie Przedmieście Page: 273 Pinkas edits the Documenta Judaeos Page: 271 Who Pinkas runs into at the market in Lwów Page: 269 A mirror and ordinary glass Page: 267 Daily life in prison and of keeping children in a box Page: 262 The hole that leads to the abyss, or a visit from Tovah and his son Hayim Turk in 1765 Page: 258 Elżbieta Drużbacka writes from the Bernardine monastery in Tarnów a last letter to the canon Benedykt Chmielowski in Firlejów Page: 252 Of bringing Moliwda back to life Page: 248 Of wandering caves Page: 244 Of failed legations and history laying siege to the monastery walls Page: 241 Of the passing of Lady Hana in February of 1770 and of her final resting place Page: 235 Scraps: Being under siege Page: 232 VI. The Book of THE DISTANT COUNTRY Page: 227 Chapter 26 Page: 225 Yente reads passports Page: 225 Of the Dobrushka family in Prossnitz Page: 221 Of new life in Brünn and the ticking of clocks Page: 216 Of Moshe Dobrushka and the feast of the Leviathan Page: 211 Of the house by the cathedral and the delivery of maidens Page: 207 Scraps: How to catch a fish in muddied waters Page: 201 The Lord’s words Page: 197 The bird that hops out of a snuffbox Page: 195 A thousand compliments, or: Of the wedding of Moshe Dobrushka, or Thomas von Schönfeld Page: 192 Of the emperor and people from everywhere and nowhere Page: 190 Of the bear from Avacha Frank’s dream Page: 186 Of the high life Page: 184 A machine that plays chess Page: 180 Chapter 27 Page: 175 How Nahman Piotr Jakubowski is appointed an ambassador Page: 175 The return of Bishop Sołtyk Page: 171 What’s happening among the Lord’s Warsaw machna Page: 170 Eine Anzeige, or: A denunciation Page: 163 Coffee with milk: The effects of consumption Page: 159 A hernia, and the Lord’s words Page: 154 Of a proclivity for secret experiments on substances Page: 150 Every variety of ash, or: Recipes for homemade gold Page: 146 How the Lord’s dreams see the world Page: 144 Of the lovemaking of Franciszek Wołowski Page: 140 Of Samuel Ascherbach, son of Gitla and Asher Page: 138 Chapter 28 Page: 136 Asher in a Viennese café, or: Was ist Aufklärung? 1784 Page: 136 Of the healthful aspects of prophesying Page: 130 Of figurines made out of bread Page: 128 The rejected proposal of Franciszek Wołowski the younger Page: 126 A final audience with the emperor Page: 123 Thomas von Schönfeld and his games Page: 120 Scraps: Jacob Frank’s sons, and Moliwda Page: 115 Last days in Brünn Page: 110 Moliwda in search of his life’s center Page: 108 The next chapter in the history of His Lordship Antoni Kossakowski, also known as Moliwda Page: 103 Chapter 29 Page: 97 Of the little insect-like people who inhabit Offenbach am Main Page: 97 Of Isenburger Schloss and its freezing residents Page: 95 Of boiled eggs and Prince Lubomirski Page: 91 How Zwierzchowska the She-Wolf maintains order in the castle Page: 88 The knife set with turquoise Page: 85 Of the dollhouse Page: 81 The dangerous smell of the raspberry bush and muscatel Page: 78 Of Thomas von Schönfeld’s big plans Page: 72 Who the Lord is when he is no longer who he is Page: 69 Of Roch Frank’s sins Page: 65 Of neshika, God’s kiss Page: 63 Gossip, letters, denunciations, decrees, and reports Page: 59 Chapter 30 Page: 55 The death of a Polish princess, step by step Page: 55 A Warsaw table for thirty people Page: 51 Of ordinary life Page: 50 Heiliger Weg nach Offenbach Page: 47 Of women soaking their legs Page: 41 Scraps: Of the light Page: 38 VII. The Book of NAMES Page: 31 Chapter 31 Page: 29 Jakubowski and the books of death Page: 29 Eva Frank saves Offenbach from Napoleonic looting Page: 27 The skull Page: 26 Of a meeting in Vienna Page: 25 Samuel Ascherbach and his sisters Page: 24 The Załuski Brothers’ Library and Canon Benedykt Chmielowski Page: 23 The martyrdom of Junius Frey Page: 22 The children Page: 19 A lovely little girl plays the spinet Page: 17 Of a certain manuscript Page: 16 The travels of New Athens Page: 14 Yente Page: 13 A Note on Sources Page: 7 Author’s Acknowledgments Page: 3 Translator’s Acknowledgments Page: 1 About the Author and Translator Page: 1