Return: Reading the novel "A Guest for the Night"
Date:
Monday (in 19 days)
September 14 at 9:00 in the morning – September 17 at 12:00 noon
© Makore Events 2025
A series of four sessions exploring the novel “A Guest for the Night” by S. Y. Agnon. Through close readings of selected chapters, we will examine the journey of the guest returning to his hometown, alongside themes of self-reflection, memory, destruction, and repair. The sessions will be led by Bella Ben-Eliyahu, a lecturer in Hebrew literature.
“Guest for a Night” by S. Y. Agnon, one of the masterpieces of Hebrew literature, will be at the center of a series of four meetings. During the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we will read together, closely and attentively, selected chapters from the novel, accompanying the guest who returns to his ruined hometown on the eve of Yom Kippur for a ten-month stay. Through his journey, we will examine how wandering through the city’s streets becomes a journey of personal and national introspection. We will consider the symbolic role of Yom Kippur in the work and follow the constant movement between childhood and adulthood, memory and oblivion, the destruction of Europe and the building of the Land of Israel. Together, we will open a window onto Agnon’s rich world and examine the quest he places at the heart of the novel: for an open gate, a spiritual home, and the possibility of atonement.
Bilha Ben-Eliyahu is a lecturer in Hebrew literature.
Weekly events digest
The week's best events, in your inbox — free.
