The Books of Jacob

A comet appears in the sky on 13 March 1759. Many people look to the comet for signs and portents; it makes “little impression” (465) on Yente, however, as she is more interested in people. In Ivanie, Jacob preaches about the arrival of the Messiah in the form of a maiden or “Everlasting Virgin” (464). Nahman spends more time with an old teacher of his named Yankiel of Glinno. Yankiel brings news about the ways in which Poland’s traditional Jews (the Talmudists) are seeking to deal with the Contra-Talmudists in Ivanie. Yankiel, after falling in love with a gentile woman, has his own motivation for joining the mass-conversion to Christianity. In Busk, Mrs. Kossakowska convinces Princess Jablonowska to shelter an orphaned peasant baby whose mother died in childbirth. Moliwda writes to announce “that Primate Lubienski has granted their requests” (459) and that a disputation followed by the mass baptism will take place in the coming summer.

As Ivanie prepares for the baptism, Nahman notices that “everyone wants to know about intercourse” (458) rather than any spiritual matter. Jacob assures everyone in the village that they must break all the old laws because “until they are trampled, the new ones cannot appear in their place” (457).