Dwie żydowskie podróże z przystankiem w Częstochowie

Abstract

Two literary journeys: that of Nechemia Kohen, a rabbi from Komarno, the protagonist of Yakov Mayer’s book “Nechemia”, and that of Jacob Frank, a Kabbalist and Frankist leader, the protagonist of Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize-winning novel “The Jakub Books”, take place in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are separated by almost a whole century. There are many things that make these journeys different: the direction of travel, the method of travel, the motivation. In the following article, I look at these literary heroes’ journeys, juxtaposing them with the cultural record of expeditions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I compare Nechemia’s and Jacob Frank’s journeys with each other, but also with records of noble and Jewish journeys made during this time. I highlight in them what is intrinsically close to the existential and identity experience for the Jewish people.