The Pagan Rabbi By Cynthia Ozick Analysis

The Pagan Rabbi by Cynthia Ozick creates a series of conflicts which are predicted by the title. A Rabbi cannot be Pagan. This begins to indicate the characters will discover that Isaac, the Rabbi, is not as dedicated to his Jewish faith as it may have seemed. The title itself is a conflict between being Jewish and being Gentile. This inclusion of opposites is evident throughout the story.
The relationship between Isaacs soul and his body is at the forefront. The description of his journal which was a “Tiny affair” signified that it was not the exterior that determined who he truly was, but his beliefs, thoughts, and soul that actually defined him. The fact that the only importance of the book was the letter written by Isaac inside of it, indicated that the body of the work was not of as great importance as the soul or letter. In the letter, he began to write in a personal

way where the narrator was able to “penetrated beyond Isaac’ alphabet into his language." Whereas in the book he actually was chaotic and wrote in “three languages” which contained “nothing personal, only a sentence or two in his rigid self-controlled scholar’s style.”
Isaac’s goal was to break free of his “indwelling soul.” His soul wanted to be bound by “The Fence of the Law” while his body wanted freedom.

Ozick uses names to illustrate Isaac’s conflict which is shown through the using of his actual name as well as the title Rabbi to refer to him as if he were two separate people.
The narrator personifies the tree Isaac died at by saying, “ The tree that had caused Isaac to sin against his own life” as if it is not Isaac’s doing. This further expands on the idea that Isaac was living as if he were two people; his soul and body and the physical. Since the tree was a physical object it is clear that his death showed that his body had won its internal fight with Isaac’s soul. Isaac uses his “own prayer shawl” to hang himself in an attempt to uphold his Jewish front till the very end because “A Jew is buried in his prayer shawl.”
These antitheses allude to the differences in human motivations. Isaac and the narrator differ in many ways but the narrator's father dies silently without a word, and Isaac died with may words written down. This is another

comparison.
Again, Cynthia Ozick adds contrasting images when describing a banner that states, “the purpose of war is peace” in order to emphasize Isaac’s intentions. He was searching for peach but in order to reach it, he has an internal war.
Unity is found when he focused on the “intersects’’ of the tree. This unity symbolizes the unity that is meant to be present in the soul and the body. When the soul and the body have separated a person, specifically Isaac, dies. This ongoing pattern of separation and contrasts shows the reason for Isaacs demise.
This in-depth look into the life of a Rabbi may have been caused by Cynthia Ozick’s childhood experience with a Rabbi turning her away from school by saying “Take her home; a girl doesn’t have to study.” Since “Ozick dates her feminism to that time” it becomes clearer as to why she chose to focus more on the men and as well as their flaws in this story. She analyzes the relationship between father and father, father and son, son and son and Isaac’s conflict.