ABSTRACT
This riff or mini chapter introduces the legendary figure of The Wandering Jew. The legend originates with a biblical passage describing the request from Jesus—as he carries his cross to the Crucifixion—to rest on the bench outside a shoemaker’s shop. The shoemaker denies the request, which leads to his fate as a restless wanderer. While the Wandering Jew invites reflections on Jewish otherness and on wandering as punishment, the discussion turns to the painting by Marc Chagall entitled Ahasver, the legendary figure of the eternally wandering Jew. Chagall painted it shortly after World War I, and in many ways it contradicts traditional versions. Chagall’s wanderer resembles a sturdy peasant, as if sprung from the earth, striding forward, wrapped in thick, coarse, cheap cloth layered against the cold like his wiry, full beard. The traditional anti-Semitic outsider is an outsider still—separated from the town behind him—but his resolute, salt-of-the-earth appearance betrays no fear of the road ahead. His prominent boots look rugged enough for any crisis, his pack well provisioned, and the walking stick a match in sheer ruggedness for the crisis-proof boots. This is not a figure absorbed in loss and melancholy.
