O przekraczaniu granic państwowych, religijnych i tożsamościowych – „Nechemia” Jaakowa C. Meira jako powieść drogi
About Crossing State, Religious and Identity Borders - "Nekhemia" by Yakov Z. Mayer as a Road Novel

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the issue of crossing borders in Yakov Z. Mayer's novel Nekhemia (Nehemiah) from 2019. To construct the title character, Mayer used two historical accounts about the 17th-century Polish kabbalist Nekhemia Ha-Cohen, who was supposed to verify the rumors about the alleged messiah Shabtai Zvi by traveling to Turkey. The analysis begins with the issue of state borders, the absence of which on the map preceding the text of the novel corresponds to the nature of the journey and shows that the wandering Jews functioned, to some extent, outside of state divisions. Reflections on religious and cultural boundaries constitute an important element of the analysis. The title character balances between the rabbinical Judaism and the fascination with the figure of the messiah, and also explores the Christian and Muslim world. The book also describes the confrontation of the Jewish religious world with the Christian world of art. The topic of identity boundaries was also discussed, with numerous examples of otherness, strangeness, deception, pretense, disguise and theatricality. Finally, it was noted that during the period of the Sabbatean euphoria, concepts were also redefined, orders were reversed, taboos were broken and applicable laws were violated. The ambiguity prevailing in the text and, above all, the lack of characterization of Shabtai Zvi indicate that the center of interest of the author of the novel is not the self-proclaimed messiah, but the internal drama of a Jew facing the messianic prospect of salvation.

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