User:Brysais/Tehila

Tehila is a novella written by Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer Shmuel Yosef "Shai" Agnon. The novella was published in 1950 in a short story collection titled "Ad Henah" (To This Moment).

Plot Summary
Tehila is an old pious woman living in Jerusalem in the days of the British mandate. The narrator, a young man walking the streets of Jerusalem, happens to encounter her while searching for the home of a Jerusalemite wise man. Tehila directs the young man, and the two strike up a conversation. The narrator describes Tehila as being youthful and beautiful in appearance, in addition to her lively bearing and pleasant temperament. She dedicates herself to the service of others, and creates a clam and positive air around her.

The narrator comes across Tehila on several occasions, and every time is exposed to a different aspect of her character. As the acquaintance deepens, more details about her past come to light. Tehila is 104 years old, and when she first arrived to Jerusalem, many years before, she was a successful and wealthy woman. With the passage of time she has lost her wealth, and despite her optimistic disposition she is known to have experienced many sorrows.

The tale continues to unfold until the uncovering of Tehila most significant and shameful secret. In her youth, Tehila was promised at the age of 11 to a boy named Shraga, himself being only 12 years old. The two were intended to we when Shraga became 13 years of age, but the wedding was called off because Shraga's family was discovered to be Hasidic. Tehila's father was a vocal opponent of Hasidism, and tore the engagement terms, thereby shaming the family of his daughter previous intended. In cases of broken engagements, it is traditional for the bride's family to ask forgiveness from the groom. However, citing the groom's family's religious convictions, Tehila's father refrained from doing so.

The story is inspired by the Talmudic tale of the rat and the hole. The story details the tragic consequences of breaking the vow of matrimony. Agnon added details to the original plot in order to rationalize the severity of Tehila's father's actions. According to Tehila's retelling, her father used his influence as head of the community to ostracize and cast out Shraga's family. She goes as far as stating that had the family not left, they would have been killed by the end of the year.

Some time later, Tehila was married and gave birth to three children. Although the marriage was successful and led to a good and stable life, with the passage of time, both her sons died, and her daughter converted to Christianity (after breaking her own engagement). After these tragedies, Tehila comes to link them to the broken engagement and the shameful conduct that followed, seeing them as her just punishment. Tehila's current comportment is her attempt to atone for the sin of her father.


 * 1) Tehila cares for the old cantankerous Rabbi's wife to atone for her daughter's treatment of the Rabbi's wife's father.
 * 2) Tehila wants to ask forgiveness from Shraga, to end the cycle of tragedies.

After Tehila Accomplishes these goals, she dies peacefully at the age of 104.

Tropes and Motifs
Agnon implements in his writing many ideas, tropes and motifs from the religious Jewish world. For example, the biblical principal of ancestral sin affecting the descendants - "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Jeremiah 29:30). The idea that children will have to carry the burden of their parents actions is explored both in Tehila carrying the weight of her father's choices, and her own children carrying the consequences of her not rectifying the injustice done in her name.

The analogy between the beauty and piousness of Tehila and the ugliness and wickedness of the Rabbi's wife is interpreted by some as social criticism on the part of Agnon.

There are many repeating motifs and symbols throughout the novella, including the motive of the light and the water symbolizing Tehila, and the dying candle symbolizing the life of her son.

Jerusalem
The character of Tehila is analogically and symbolically linked to that of the city of Jerusalem. Throughout the story, Tehila is seen not just as inhabiting the city, but directly embodying it. For example, despite being an elderly woman, Tehila is described as being very beautiful, regardless of her ragged clothes. She is always welcoming to the people around her, and is described as "an angle of god" - much in the same way Jerusalem is described as an ancient beauty clothed in rags, paved in holiness and welcoming to newcomers from far and wide. In addition to this, the death of Tehila's two sons is paralleled to the destruction of the two temples.

The city of Jerusalem is commonly read as a metaphor to the religious wellbeing of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem is presented in the novella in a dilapidated state, between the ancient past and future modernity, full of both uncertainty and potential.