Our book group kicks off the 2016 with “In the courtyard of the Kabbalist” by Ruchama King Feurman.
Contact Susan Reizenstein for details.
An eczema-riddled, middle-aged former Lower East Side haberdasher, Isaac Markowitz, moves to Israel where he becomes, much to his own surprise, the assistant to a famous old rabbi who daily dispenses wisdom (and soup) to the collection of seekers gathered in his courtyard. It is there that he meets Tamar, a young American woman on a mission to live a spiritual life with a spiritual man, and who sees Isaac as that man long before he sees himself that way. Into both of their lives comes Mustafa, a devout Muslim, deformed at birth, unloved by his own mother, a janitor who works on the Temple Mount, holy to both Muslims and Jews.
When Isaac, quite by accident, runs into the crippled custodian going about his work and suggests that he is, by cleaning this holy site, like a Kohain, a Jewish high priest, Mustafa is overcome: This Jew is the first person in his life who sees him as someone worthy. In turn, Mustafa sees Isaac as someone wise who can help him. When Mustafa finds an ancient shard of pottery that may date back to the first temple, he brings it to Isaac in gratitude. That gesture sets in motion a series of events that land Isaac in the company of Israel’s worst criminal riff raff, put Mustafa in mortal danger, and Tamar trying to save them both.
As these characters – immigrants and natives; Muslim and Jewish; prophets and lost souls – move through their world, they are never sure if they will fall prey to the cruel tricks of luck or be sheltered by a higher power.
Next meetings:
10 April 2016 – Fatherland, by Robert Harris (and Dominion, by C J Sansom)
5 June 2016 – Song of Names, by Norman Lebrecht
18 September 2016 – The Golem and the Djinni, by Helen Wecker
30 October 2016 – Suddenly a Knock on the Door, by Etgar Keret and My Promised Land, by Ari Shavit
4 December 2016 – The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, by Richard Zimler