Gimpel the MysticIn "Gimpel the Fool", Gimpel's gullibility becomes the basis for the power of faith as the theme of the text. Using Gimpel's credulity as the basis of the short story's theme, Isaac Bashevis Singer redefines faith as a belief in possibility. By redefining faith as a belief in possibility, the author makes the reader aware of the power of faith as a theme of the text, particularly through the use of symbolism and characterization; However, this use of characterization and symbolism as tools to describe the theme of the short story suggests the influences of Jewish mysticism as well as the author's upbringing and personal beliefs on the formation of the power of faith as a theme of the story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get the original essay Jewish mysticism plays a role in the characterization of Gimpel in "Mad Gimpel." In the text, Gimpel is characterized as being “easy to get into” (Singer 278). Although he is aware of the possibility that the villagers were still playing a trick on him by telling them that his parents were resurrected from the dead, Gimpel accepts the villagers' claims at face value after telling himself that something " could have been very serious.” arrived well” (278). In turn, this openness to the possibility of the face value of the statements helped Gimpel believe that the young child seen with Elka in her cabin was his brother (279), that the child born seventeen weeks after his marriage to Elka was his child. but “only premature” (280-281), and that the men Gimpel found sleeping with Elka were only a figment of his imagination (281, 284). The ease with which Gimpel accepted these events is a reflection of the transcendence sought in the mystical teachings of Kabbalah. This transcendence does not consist of inferring a traditional image of God as a benevolent deity who interferes in the daily lives of mortals but of a distant and distant deity who reveals his existence through his creation (Lee 157). The transcendence of the hidden God is invoked in Gimpel's statement that the world is “undoubtedly an imaginary world, but only once removed from the real world... Praise be to God; there even Gimpel cannot be deceived” (Singer 286). According to Grace Farrell Lee, this statement by Gimpel that the current world is an illusion removed from the "real world" demonstrates Gimpel's desire for ultimate clarity beyond deception but, due to his inability to find it, forces Gimpel into a state of “exile” where God remains silent in the face of human questions (157). This vision of God as a hidden and distant divinity finds its roots in Lurianic Kabbalism, where God reveals his existence not through his emanations, but through his sefirot or radiation in the world; to make room for creation, God had to hide (157). By hiding, God revealed the magnificence of creation, which leaves its very existence open to question; however, for Isaac Bashevis Singer, this concealment created a world “devoid of the possibility of God” (157). In turn, the author's characterization of Gimpel as "easy to accept" suggests that, for Gimpel, the choice to believe the villagers and his wife was not the result of an innate trait of his personality but of 'a conscious and voluntary decision. For Gimpel, this willingness to always believe what he was told served as a spiritual model in his quest for the “real world,” a world where he would finally witness the brilliance of the whole of God and not just a glimpse of the radiance of God, as he would do in the past.”.