This story from Cynthia Ozick is about a highly respected Jewish scholar who is driven to suicide as he tries to reconcile the strict tenets of his religion with the philosophical (pagan) concept of immortal “free souls” existing in Nature. This so affects the rabbi’s mind that his suicide note refers to several encounters with a dryad (wood nymph). Some of these are sexual, which he clumsily tries to rationalize with: Scripture does not forbid sodomy with the plants! Themes: Jewish identity; marriage and family; friendship; philosophy (search for meaning in Nature); death; sanity/suicide; (lack of) understanding and forgiveness. More…