The Books of Jacob

The Books of Jacob is presented as a compendium of written sources, as well as third-person narration and source material. As such, books play an important role in the depiction of Jacob and his life, becoming a central motif.

In the novel, the written word is the dominant form of media. Books symbolize authority, either in the form of religious texts, law books, or the status acquired by being an author. The innate power contained within these books is emboldened by the limited literacy of some of the characters: Not everyone can read and access the information contained within books, which is a way to access knowledge and power. Druzbacka acknowledges this, writing to Chmielowski to criticize him for writing in Latin (a language of the elite) rather than vernacular Polish, especially given that his encyclopedia is an attempt to increase the knowledge available to the average Polish citizen. Chmielowski’s efforts to acquire the knowledge that he enters into his encyclopedia also indicate the symbolic power of books. He covertly tries to acquire Jewish texts, even though he cannot read Hebrew, and he offers to shelter books for Elisha Shorr. Books are to be read, protected, shared, and—for those in power—potentially destroyed because they contain such valuable information. The information contained within these books grants them an authority; the books symbolize the vitality and importance of information and access to that information.

Nahman’s aspirations as a writer and a biographer of Jacob run counter to the idea of books as a symbol of authority. Instead, Nahman’s writing is a symbol of anti-authority. The subject of his writing is explicitly a controversial person. In both Jewish and Christian communities, Jacob is labeled an outsider and a heretic. As such, a book written about his life—especially one written from such a subjectively preferential point of view—would be considered equally heretical. Jacob seems to understand the symbolic threat that such a book might contain, so he orders Nahman not to write it. Nahman disobeys. He hopes that a book about Jacob’s life will have the power to spread the word of Jacob’s Messianic status far beyond Poland and the region. In this sense, Nahman understands the power of literature. The books symbolize the intensity of his belief, which he believes should be spread far and wide. At the same time, however, the very existence of the books is dangerous. Nahman’s writing has the power—or so he hopes—to alter the social order. By evangelizing about Jacob, Nahman is creating a symbolic threat to the ruling hierarchy of the world. This threat cannot be tolerated.

For all the symbolic power of books, however, they are brittle and fragile objects. Nahman’s writing is lost to the ravages of time while Chmielowski’s encyclopedia is eventually derided for the shallowness of its information. For all the power contained within these books, they cannot withstand the relentless march toward the future. Fate and circumstance conspire against them, destroying them in fires or elevating the baseline scientific understanding of the society in such a way as to render them irrelevant. Nahman and Chmielowski both believed in the symbolic power of their book to change the world. That neither of their works succeeds in leaving a lasting impression on the successive generations symbolizes the fragile nature of knowledge and understanding. During these men’s lifetimes, these books felt vitally important. In the wider scheme of history, they are rendered irrelevant.