SOURCE: Boland, Margaret M. “Isaac Bashevis Singer's ‘Tanhum’: An Exegetical Approach.” Tamkang Journal 29 (May 1990): 203-15.

In the following essay, Boland offers a philological analysis of Singer's short story “Tanhum.”

Although Isaac Bashevis Singer assures his readers, and his critics, that he is writing without a greater purpose than to just amuse his readers, it is the purpose of this [essay] to demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that Singer has, indeed, written his work with not only a moral in mind, but also with an entire allegory in place, in keeping with a long exegetical tradition.

Consequently, I shall begin with a philological approach—Philology being the traditional gateway to Wisdom. From the names and meanings of the characters I shall progress to the usual significance of the numbers used in the text. I shall then treat the similies used in terms of their Biblical placement and concomitant significance...