Rodger Kamenetz is the author of The Jew in the Lotus and The History of Last Night's Dream and seven other books of poetry and prose. A winner of the National Jewish Book Award, he now works as a dream therapist. In Burnt Books, Kamenetz asks us to join him for a laser-sharp look at the lives and works of Rabbi Nachman, a Hasidic Jewish master, and Franz Kafka, the famous writer who lived about 100 years after him. In his mind the author sees them reaching toward each other across space and time.
Rabbi Nachman and Franz Kafka share much in common: they both had troubles with their fathers; they both loved stories; they were both affected by severe mood swings; and they both died young of tuberculosis. But there were also differences: one was a master of faith and the other a master of irony; one was a religious man responsive to the challenges of Jewish secularism while the other was a secular Jew who was entranced by the parables of Hasidism. Kamenetz is especially intrigued by the similarities between Nachman's tale "The Humble King" and Kafka's The Trial; he sees them as midrash on the Book of Job.
Kamenetz has taught a course in Prague on Kafka and so he has a substantive understanding and appreciation of his work. He also takes us to Uman, the Ukrainian town where Rabbi Nachman lived the last years of his life and was buried. Jews of many different backgrounds are in town for the annual Rosh Hashanah service. The author is surprised and pleased by the contemporary interest he finds in Nachman's faith and his perspectives on God's hiddenness. And then there is this bit of wisdom from the Rabbi: "Nothing in the world is without significance. All the events which take place in this world contain allusions to things of the highest order."
