Gimpel the Fool

“Gimpel the Fool” is a frame story, beginning and ending in the narrator’s present day with the bulk of the story being told in the past tense. Gimpel narrates the story the first person, which positions him as a reliable narrator. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that he is a much more complex individual than the townspeople of Frampol realize and that, rather than being a fool, he has a nuanced, insightful philosophy on life.

One of the main binaries explored in the story is Reason Versus Emotion. Gimpel is motivated not by reason but by his deep religious beliefs, by his abiding optimism, and by his innate desire to be happy. He lives by his own understanding of Faith, Honor, and Integrity, regardless of how others judge his actions or whether they understand him. Gimpel’s dedication to his own values, including The Power of Forgiveness, is so strong that he suffers humiliation throughout most of his life rather than act in a way that seems less foolish to those around him or engage in their mean-spirited behavior. He needs no rationale for believing his neighbors’ lies, and he surely does not rely on reason when he decides to love Elka and her children.

Gimpel’s sensibility comes directly from Singer’s indoctrination in Kabbalah, the Jewish mysticism he learned from his father. In particular, the concept of “holy sparks”—redemptive goodness in a corrupt, evil world—features prominently in Singer’s work (Haike Beruriah Wiegand, Between Concealment and Revelation: Mystical Motifs in Selected Yiddish Works of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Their Sources in Kabbalistic Literature. 2016. University College London, PhD dissertation, p. 31). That sensibility is assaulted by outside forces but is strengthened by a spiritual awareness based in Gimpel’s overriding desire for peace and contentment. Because the people of Frampol are unfailingly abusive to him, Gimpel cannot interact peacefully with them without becoming their victim. Moreover, even when Gimpel knows there is a high likelihood that his neighbors are lying, he chooses to look for the kernel of possibility in each situation. For example, when he is told the rabbi’s wife is in labor, he admits: “She hadn’t had a big belly. But I never looked at her belly. Was that really so foolish?” (994). Gimpel trusts his own judgment above all else, and since he had never made a point to see for himself whether or not she was pregnant, he cannot rule out the possibility. He uses a similar line of thinking when he runs from what he believes is a barking dog. It turns out to be a local ne’er-do-well, but Gimpel acts on his own judgment: “How was I supposed to know it was he? It sounded like a howling [dog]” (994).

His rationale throughout the story is not whether something is probable, but whether it is possible. He notes, “[E]verything is possible, as it is written in the Wisdom of the Fathers” (994). The “Wisdom of the Fathers” refers to the Pirkei Avot, a book of Jewish teachings often translated into English as Ethics of the Fathers. Core teachings in the text urge maintaining faith, honor, and integrity, with ideas like being kind to others, respecting God, seeking peace, and being humble.

Gimpel’s reliance on his own senses changes after meeting Elka. Whereas earlier in the story, he trusted his own senses as the basis for his judgments, after falling in love, he decides to compromise this principle. This happens when the bakery accident forces him to come home during the day and he finds a man asleep with Elka in his bed. At first, his response is to push back: “Enough of being a donkey, […] There’s a limit even to the foolishness of a fool like Gimpel” (998). He even receives counsel from the rabbi, who tells him to abandon Elka and her children. However, he soon realizes that he cannot leave them and rationalizes himself into doubting what he saw. In truth, he does not believe this. After getting confirmation from the rabbi that he can return, he decides not to go home during the day but wait until evening. Though he doesn’t elaborate on his train of thought, he does this to avoid the possibility of catching his wife with another man. After Elka bears her six children, he says “All kinds of things happened, but I neither saw nor heard” (1001). He decides to love and believe in her despite much evidence that he should not.

Gimpel has a crisis of faith when Elka is on her deathbed. She asks for his forgiveness for lying to him for over 20 years, but his response is that there is nothing to forgive: At this point, he truly believes the children are his and that she has been a good, faithful wife. Just before her death, when she insists this is not true, he finally realizes that she has been deceiving him. It is after this that he gives into his impulse to get revenge on the town by contaminating their bread.

Though Gimpel temporarily forfeits his principles, the story proves that faith, honor, and integrity triumph over revenge. Hearing Elka’s ghost admit that she is paying for her lies and that Gimpel should not compromise his principles because of her renews Gimpel’s belief and sense of purpose. His decision to leave Frampol reflects a passage from the Ethics of the Fathers that uses the symbolism of a tree with shallow roots and many branches to teach the importance of community in practicing one’s faith:

Unlike trees, which have no control over where they are planted, human beings can choose their own environment. If one chooses to live among people unconcerned with the goodness of their deeds, then he will become like a ‘lonely tree in a wasteland that will not see good when it comes’ (Rabbi Yonason Goldson, “The Roots of Wisdom: Ethics of the Fathers, 3:22.” Aish.com).

Gimpel leaves Frampol because he realizes he cannot stay without compromising his faith in the world’s goodness. In becoming a wandering storyteller, Gimpel shares his belief in the magical, improbable world in a way that others can appreciate.

The story’s end reveals that Gimpel is telling the story from his deathbed. He is a beggar living in a hut; the plank for carrying away his body sits by the door, and the gravedigger is standing by. He welcomes death because Elka has become a source of hope and comfort for him: Now that he is no longer living among vicious, abusive neighbors, he can see Elka as he always believed her to be, kind, compassionate, and good.

Though Gimpel has bouts of sadness, even despair, in the end, he makes the choice to accept his fate, to love his wife and her children, and go on living in a world that does not value his kindness. His story is a rebuke to the notion of rationalism—the belief that everything we learn, we acquire through logical reason, without the use of our senses or emotions. Gimpel is Singer’s model of true wisdom that evolves from a lifetime of faith, suggesting that people can be happy if they choose to be, and that they can see the “holy sparks” in life if they choose to believe the unbelievable.