Elijah in a Roman coat Der Nister’s The Family Mashber: a mystical and subversive text

This book is about the novel The Family Mashber written in the Soviet Union in the time of the Stalinist repression by Der Nister, the pseudonym of Pinkhas (Pini) Kahanovitz. With this socialist-realist historical novel Der Nister, who used to be a symbolist writer, adapted and developed his literary style. Nevertheless, the novel’s ambiguity, mystical motifs and symbolism have puzzled many readers.
The leading question of this study is whether Der Nister’s The Family Mashber hides a mystical layer under its realistic surface, intended to be understood by a limited number of readers, and if so, how it is realised, what it implies for our understanding of the text and whether or not it also reflects on the historical reality of Der Nister’s time.
The conclusion is that The Family Mashber is a multi-layered text and that Der Nister continued his kabbalistic style under the cover of a socialist-realist novel. The esoteric level of the text undermines the socialist-realist narrative and is therefore subversive. Intertextuality and knowledge of the Jewish (mystical) tradition are the key to unlock this esoteric level. Der Nister also used certain narrative techniques to mislead or manipulate the reader in assuming he changed course as a writer and adapted himself to socialist-realism.
In The Family Mashber Der Nister also reflects on his own writership. In this way the novel also reflects on the social and political circumstances of the 1930s in the Soviet Union. Der Nister uses the image of Elijah in a Roman coat as an illustration of his subversive writership in disguise. He compares The Family Mashber to the Zohar, presenting it as innovation of Torah, meant to strengthen Jewish tradition even in times of persecution.