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

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