Gimpel the Fool essay
Gimpel is not a fool in a conventional sense of the word, though he is easily deceived by others. He is in his own way a wise man, for he does not go against the will of the majority, which is unacceptable in a society of his people, who survived as a nation only because of their strictness in adhering to age-long traditions. He might seem a fool from the text of the story, though we must bear in mind that in Jewish society, where the action of the story takes place, the opinion of the community about it’s certain member and his actions bear a considerably greater weight than in western societies in similar situations. In a traditional Jewish society it is largely a common opinion which decides for each person what he or she should do, whom to marry etc (Majority Rule).
From the story we know that all his life, since childhood, Gimpel was a usual target for witty and often cruel jokes of his peers and surrounding. After he had grown into a man, he was matched by common opinion with a woman of dubious reputation. Her doings were not a secret and she had a bastard son already, when Gimpel approached her with his offer. Though everybody knew about this, they made Gimpel marry her nevertheless. He tried to struggle and disobey, but his efforts to retain his own will were met with irrational anger and accusations: “What do you mean! You want to call everyone a liar?” (Singer). As he was deceived and fooled by his neighbors and community, he was fooled by his own wife Elka. She had born him a child but he never lied with her since their marriage. Only on her deathbed, Elka had confessed the sin of adultery, saying: “It was ugly how I deceived you all these years. I want to go clean to my Maker, and so I have to tell you that the children are not yours” (Singer).
It becomes evident from our explanation that even if Gimpel was a fool, it was not his fault, but the evil intent and cruelty of other people, of commoners and rabbis, who were supposed to guide and instruct common people in times of need.
