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Borges, Cabbala and "Creative Misreading"

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Borges, Cabbala and BORGES, CABBALA AND "CREATIVE MISREADING" Evelyn Fishburn* "the always wandering meaning of all literary g meanin h whic o t g accordin , representation wanders, like human tribulations, like error, from text to text, and within the text, from figure to figure." Harold Bloom: Kabbalah and Criticism The importance of "Borges and the Cabbala" has been well recog- nized by several critics. The two major works in this field are by Saúl Sosnowski (1976) and by Jaime Alazraki (1972). The former sees Borges's interest in the Cabbala as a means to discover the true secret of the universe and man's position within it. Alazraki reaches an opposing conclusion, suggesting that for Borges Cabbala is symbolic of "the agonizing history of mankind, played out between two stories — one imagined by God and the other fancied by man".1 In this article I shall develop Alazraki's idea of "story", focussing more specifically on Borges's use of the Cabbalistic theme of the world as an infinitely speculative text whose meaning wanders, subject to permanent displacement by renewed meanings. The Cabbalists, as Borges knew, were not bound by the idea of communicable meaning; for them the significance of a text lay mainly in its incentive to further thought: "Sé que esos libros no están escritos para ser enten- didos, están escritos para ser interpretados, son acicates para que el lector siga el pensamiento" (Borges 1980a: 16). "I, a Jew" was the title of an article Borges wrote in the magazine Megáfono (April 1934) when accused of Jewish ancestry on the * Evelyn Fishburn: *1937, Ph. D. (London) 1978, Senior Lecturer in the Divi- sion of Spanish and Latin-American Studies (Polytechnic of North London) since 1984. Address: Department of Language and Literature, Polytechnic of North London, Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3LB, Great Britain. I should like to express my particular gratitude to Dr. Bernard McGuirk for his generous assistance with the shaping of my argument. I should also like to thank Dr. Daniel Eilon for his valuable comments on an early draft of this manuscript. 1 See too Alazraki (1971) and Rabi (1964). Ibero-Amerikanisches Archiv N. F. Jg 14 H. 4 1988 n Fishbur n Evely 2 40 n i e mad s wa e challeng e Th . Acevedo e surnam y famil s hi f o s ground an ultra nationalistic periodical calles Crisol at a time, 1934, when , reply s Borges' . Argentina n i d groun g gainin e wer s ideologie t fascis t i y wh d aske " teasing f o e masterpiec a " l Monega r Emi y b d considere t no d an s Hebrew e th n i d intereste y onl e ar s inquisitor r "ou t tha s wa the Phoenicians, Numidians, Scythians, Babylonians, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Ethiopians, Illyrians, Paphlagonians, etc." and wondered why "The nights of Alexandria, Babylon, Carthage, Memphis" never e th f o s tribe e th y "onl : grandfather e singl a g engenderin n i d succeede " power t tha d ha e hav o t m see ) Jews e (th a Se k Blac s bituminou e h h muc w ho , perhaps y provocativel , said y repeatedl e H . 12) : (1978 y eventuall d an , people h Jewis e th f o r membe a g bein t no d regrette accepted the possibility that the Acevedos might have been of Jewish Portuguese descent (they were from Catalonia), if only, one feels, to put an end to a tedious discussion. o perdid l e n e s está i s á dir e m n Quié Laberinto de ríos seculares De mi sangre. Israel,... he wrote after the Six Day War in an uncharacteristic involvement in a topical issue (OP p. 332).2 I believe that in fact until the Falklands/ Malvinas war this is the only incident in which Borges felt stirred to m poe a n i s wherea t Bu . situation l politica a o t y poeticall d respon written after the War in the South Atlantic,3 Borges adopted an ambivalent position, in "Israel" Borges's position is for once unequiv- ocal: l inmorta r se a a obstin e s e qu e hombr n u , batalla u s a o vuelt a h a ahor e qu y , victoria a l e d z lu a violent a l a hermoso como un león al mediodía (OP p. 333).4 Borges's philosemitism is well known. It found repeated means of expression in his frequent visits to and lectures at the "Hebraica", the Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires; his contributions to s hi n i s character h Jewis f o n presentatio s hi n i d an l journa s it Davar, fiction. This is not to imply that he idealises Jews, as becomes imme- diately evident upon reading "Emma Zunz", to start with an obvious , Emecé : Aires s (Bueno poética Obra o t e ar y poetr s Borges' o t s Reference 2 . 5) e not e se n fictio s hi o t s reference r (fo OP o t d abbreviate , 1977) . 1982) r Septembe h 18t Times, The n (i " Ward n Joh d an z Lópe n "Jua 3 4 The lion is the emblem of the tribe of Judah. 3 40 " Misreading e "Creativ d an a Cabbal , Borges example. This story, published in 1949, is set in the predominantly Jewish atmosphere of the textile industry of Buenos Aires, and shows Borges's familiarity with this milieu. Edna Aizenberg, in her s thing h wit p relationshi s Borges' n o h researc d documente y excellentl Jewish (1984), "lo hebreo", as she calls it describes Borges's point- - Argen t fascis f o m antisemitis g growin e th t agains e stanc t over y edl tina. Yet, as one would expect, Borges does not allow this conviction e despicabl a s i , one r fo , Loewenthal . world l fictiona s hi e invad o t figure: hypocritical, cowardly, fraudulent, a perjurer conforming, in , money-grabbing , fat e th f o e stereotyp c antisemiti e th h wit , fact - inespera a l , anterior o añ l e , decoro n co o llorad a "Habí . Jew y miserl a buen a un o traj e l e qu , Gauss a ¡un — r muje u s e d e muert a d dote! —, pero el dinero era su verdadera pasión." And then, as if cracking open the stereotype, the more intimate particularising detail, suggestive of a possible motive for his felony: "Con íntimo bochorno se sabía menos apto para ganarlo que para conservarlo" (A p. 64; my italics).5 Clearly, Borges feels sufficiently free to be able to write negatively about Jewish characters, even at such a sensi- tive time as immediately after World War Two. Emma Zunz's is a - con r anothe n i d remarke s ha s Borge s A . presentation x comple e mor n betwee n tensio a z Zun a Emm n i s i e ther , Fierro n Marti t abou t tex e th d an , understanding d an c sympatheti , narrative e th f o tone e th actions carried out by the protagonist. Her surname, Zunz, is palin- dromic in that it can be read upside up and upside down (and accord- ing to handwriting, also from left to right and right to left). This mirror image in the name embodies the duality of the story, in which o tw s reflect , Loewenthal f o g killin s Emma' , action d outwar e on motives, or rather, one reversed motive which can be read either in one direction or its opposite.6 But the name Zunz is also an intri- h nineteent g leadin e th f o e on , Zunz o Leopold o t n allusio g guin century Jewish scholars of Hasidism. This popular religious move- - exces n a d considere s wa t wha o t n reactio a s a , Poland n i e aros t men sive adherence to the letter of the law, and which encouraged among y primaril d base e on , God o t h approac t direc e mor a s follower s it upon direct prayer and intuition. Emma's decision to become the r temo r po o "N — e Justic e Divin f o r executo d an r interprete l persona e th f o n editio é Emec , Aires s Bueno e th o t e ar n fictio s Borges' o t s Reference El A: , (1956) Ficciones F: : follows s a d abbreviate d an completas Obras Aleph (1957), /: El informe de Brodie (1970). n i ; honour s father' r he e aveng o t r orde n i l Loewentha l kil o t t ou s set a Emm d an r fathe r he g killin y symbolicall s i e sh , Loewenthal g killin n whe , event e th avenging her own, and her mother's honour. Other interpretations of Jewish s Stavan d an ) (1984 g Aizenber n i d foun e b n ca " Zunz a "Emm n i s element (1986). n Fishbur n Evely 4 40 - castiga r se a querí o n a ell , Justicia a l e d o instrument n u r se r po o sin da" and "Los labios de Emma se atareaban, como los de quien reza y pla n ca e on t Bu .
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