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PARTISAN REVIEW
the power of imagination. And the magic "as if" that he used appears
in a very shocking way, in one of the most profound and famous inter–
pretations of the episode of the binding of Isaac by Abraham- wrongly
called the sacrifice of Isaac.
In
this interpretation, the eleventh-century
Rashi describes Abraham
as
ifhe bound Isaac,
as
ifhe was going to stab
him. Was it or wasn 't it true? This question for Rashi is beside the point.
The truth is not the question, the
as
if
is. The
as
if
happened in Abra–
ham's psyche, and it created a real rea lity, and with the same power like
a blessing that "magical ly" creates the world. Which is the sta tus given
to a blessing in the Jewish tradition. Truth is not far from human will.
Victor Kestenbaum:
It's a fine, nearly compelling response, but in its
putting aside reality and truth, how do we measure the success of the
putting aside? Reality cannot simply be a fo il for imagination, and so
it's not yet clear how one should appreciate imagination's movement in
and out of reality. Mr. Meyers, I wou ld lik e
to
hear if this is closer to
your view: that reality still matters and you must get it right; you can–
not simply say, " It's beside the point."
Edith Kurzweil : I
think we'll have
to
ponder this one.
Ellen Birnbaum:
I'd like to borrow a concept mentioned by Michal
Govrin to ask Andre Aciman a question. The Jewish biography has a
very important chapter, namely the enslavement in Egypt and the mem–
ory of the Exodus from Egypt. Egypt is a symbo l of a place that Jews
left behind, and in the Bible it mentions a number of times that it's a
place Jews or the Israelites are not to return to. I wondered if you could
tell us whether this memory from the Jewish biography resonated for
yo u when you were living in Egypt. What was it like to have a Seder in
Egypt, recalling the Exod us from a place where you found yourself?
Now that you're no longer there, when you long for it or think about
it, does the memory from the Jewish biography have any resonance in
your thinking about it as a foundation for your current ways of think–
ing?
Andre Aciman: I
have to tell you a littl e story. I've never liked Passover.
I've grown to hate it more every year, and the more I hate it, the more
people want to invite me to prove to me that their Seder is different. And
it's a lways a catastrophe. There's a lways one question I ask myself at a
Passover: "What am I doing here?" My next thoughts are: "How do I
get out fast," and " I wish it would stop now."
