Michal's Tefillin

By Fire, By Water – by Mitchell James Kaplan

Five years ago, when I came to live in Spain, I had no idea how much my Spanish ancestry would consume me. I read everything I could get my hands on, I started writing a blog, The Perfumed Garden, devoted to the incredible contribution to food history of my Sephardi people (and by that I mean the Jews of Spain, not the countries to which they fled during the long years of the Inquisition) – I even found out, thanks to the incredibly devoted scribes of the hate machine – who was put to the fire for cooking a shabbat stew or not lighting a fire on a Saturday.

So, it was with some trepidation I began reading James Mitchell Kaplan’s debut novel By Fire, By Water, a breathtaking story set amidst the few short, history altering years in Spain where centuries of the “golden age” of Muslim rule came to an end and when Spain became the world’s first global super power thanks to the vision of Christopher Columbus.

I need not have worried.  Kaplan is a gifted wordsmith and a story teller second to none.  ”This is a book,” he emphasizes, “that takes place at a specific time, the story of a man (Luis de Santangel, a member of the Spanish court and a Jewish converso) who is initially skeptical about the quest of a Genoese sailor, but as events unfurl, he slowly buys into Columbus’ dream because he has no other options available. Santangel realises the world in which he lives is growing ever more dysfunctional, it is the dissolution of a whole society, and Columbus, he sees, is a man who can fulfill a mission, a mission bigger than the individual. And for all Columbus’ grandiose egoism, it was true.”

There are sentences Kaplan has written, so exquisite in their perfection, so achingly pure, that they will be imprinted on my brain for ever – “The waves and curls of silver that adorned Yossi’s pieces were characters of the alphabet, spelling words like jewelry spilling over the edges of a bowl or serving dish. When the filigree did not represent letters, it resembled the distilled essence of Arabic writing. “

He says: “There is a lot of debate about the golden age of Islam. Yes, Islam was the most tolerant culture in the 10th and 11th centuries, but that is relevant to then, not today. Evaluated from today’s standpoint, it wouldn’t be seen so. Calligraphy is a high art form in the Arabic world, I feel it is important to make people aware of the beauty in Arabic culture. Today there is a tendency to over-simplify and marginalize.”

Mr Kaplan has stayed true, more or less, to actual events and real characters; it is evident that he has researched painstakingly, and he has devoted himself to not only the Jewish conversos, but to Columbus, the Catholic monarchy and its Inquisitors and the fervor of religious fundamentalism – and as a result, his novel sees events and personalities, and what drives them,  from all perspectives.

By Fire, By Water is a novel that can be read time and time again, where each reading will surprise you with a jewel that you missed previously. It is inspirational, thought-provoking and intelligent with beautiful, flowing narrative; rich, incredible attention to detail and accuracy and tinged with healthy dose of realism, no matter how painful to the reader, and, as you might imagine, given the events, there can be no Hollywood-style ending.

The Alhambra Decree of 1492, the same cataclysmic year when Columbus sailed westward and created a new world order, saw Spain’s Jews, who had been in the country centuries before the Moors, leave forcibly, en masse, on Tisha B’Av. Ironically, the common thread that linked Isabel, Fernando, Santangel and the great Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada, was not just a chain of events, but their shared Jewish ancestry.

Historical footnote: Four hundred and seventy-six years after King Fernando and Queen Isabel ordered the Jewish expulsion, the Spanish Government finally declared that the order was void.

By Fire, By Water is available at Amazon.com

If you are a fan of By Fire, By Water, then you might be interested to know that Mitchell James Kaplan will be giving one lucky Michal’s Tefillin reader a signed copy of his incredible debut novel. Details in the next issue, which is out on September 1st 2010.

Popularity: 31% [?]

The Book Of New Israeli Food by Janna Gur

Israeli gourmets and gourmands are already familiar with the country’s beautiful gastronomic magazine, Al HaShulchan (At The Table), the brainchild of the redoubtable cook and food author Janna Gur. Israeli cuisine, to those who have never been, might seem to be some variation of any southern Mediterranean diet, with falafel thrown in, but it is much more important than that.

Israel’s history and its Jewish immigrants from around the globe have brought, amongst others, Russian, Moroccan, Lithuanian, Tunisian, German, Spanish, Persian, Hungarian, French, Polish, Yemenite, Chinese, Indian, Scandinavian, Italian, Egyptian, Syrian and Kazakh influences with them – which has made Israel a nation of food adventurers obsessed with eating (well, it is a Jewish tradition!)

Obsession with food, and it has to be the freshest, and the best quality, runs like delicious Golani wine throughout Gur’s book and her monthly food magazine. The kibbutz settlers built Israel from dirt. The desert they found bloomed under their care and backbreaking labor and today, Israelis enjoy the fruits of this more than at any other time. Recipes in the book include Figs Stuffed With Bulgar & Cranberry Salad; Balkan Potato & Leek Pancakes; Sea Bass in Tehina Sauce; Chili Shakshuka and much, much more. This is feast, not famine. This is for those who love food. Love life.

www.hashulchan.co.il

http://www.amazon.com/Book-New-Israeli-Food-Culinary/dp/0805212248/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270130514&sr=1-1

Popularity: 36% [?]

The Secret of Challah by Shira Wiener and Ayelet Yifrach

Shabbat is not Shabbat without the smell of a fresh baked Challah loaf. The smell is so distinctive that even a long lost member of the tribe would be instantly transported back to his mamaleh’s kitchen with one sniff of that sweet, yeasty dough. If you think that store-bought Challot are just as good, or you’re scared of the lengthy labor of love involved in making a challah, then this is the book for you. This is not just bread, this is holy bread, bread over which blessings are said before it is baked, this is the bread that enriches your soul simply by making it.

This is the bread that kept our ancestors, for thousands of years (since the Israelites finished wandering in the desert and entered the land of Israel), braided to Shabbat – and which continues to be the core of the Friday night family meal. This amazing book will not only help you understand the rich tradition behind challah, but it will also take the fear away and show you how to make many different kinds of challah – shaped like a Star of David, a hamsa or just the time-honored beauty of the three-strand braided loaf.

Also available in Hebrew.

www.secretofchallah.com

Popularity: 20% [?]

Cool Jew by Lisa Alcalay Klug

All you ever wanted to know about being a Cool Jew – with added chutzpah!! Lisa Alcalay Klug has written one of the wittiest, most irreverent and knowledgeable books about what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century, or how to Super Jew your own lovely Heeb self, because, Oh My G-DASH-D, you can never be Heeb enough!

The daughter of an Ashkenazi Holocaust survivor and the descendant of a Sephardic chief rabbi of Sarajevo, Lisa Alcalay Klug is an American-born journalist whose work has appeared in a wide range of mainstream and Jewish publications, including the New York Times,  the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.

Inside Cool Jew you’ll find everything from FYIs “For the Yiddish Impaired” to “Self-Help for the Christmas-Carol Intolerant.” You can quickly pick up “Jewsticulations,” compare the “Heeb vs Dweeb,” and demystify the fine art of frummin’ out.  Ms Klug promises you will forever end any Christmas tree envy once you’ve finished with her book.

Become instantly cool and buy the book at:  Cool Jew

Popularity: 23% [?]

Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Anita Diamant always had a hard act to follow because of her epic novel The Red Tent. And while Day After Night is utterly different, it is very similar. Set in the same country (Israel), it follows four women (as in the Red Tent) who have been imprisoned by the British at Atlit prison near Haifa after they fell off boats from Europe at the end of World War Two.

Classified as “illegal”, the story revolves around Leonie, Tedi, Shayndel and Zorah, all of them haunted by horrors they experienced in France, Holland and Poland and who find themselves trapped yet again behind barbed wire, but who find strength and hope for the future.

As part of her research, Ms Diamant visited Atlit and interviewed people who had been held there. Easy to read, engaging, intelligent and humorous, even when in the depths of despair, once again Ms Diamant creates a set of characters who really get under your skin.

Available from Amazon.com at Day After Night

Popularity: 23% [?]

The Dogs of God – Columbus, The Inquisition & The Defeat of the Moors         by James Reston Jr

One of the greatest tragedies that befell the Jewish people was their expulsion from Spain in 1492, the same year that Columbus discovered the Americas. Two defining moments in Spanish history, following on from years of terror at the hands of the Inquisition, following on from centuries of Muslim rule, the Golden Years when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived peaceably, where literature, poetry, science, medicine and architecture turned Spain into one of the most dynamic cultures ever known.

Isabella and Ferdinand may have got their vicarious pleasures from Columbus’ success which in turn made them a world superpower of their day, but at a great expense – they turned Spain from a dazzling land of intellectualism into a world of Christian superstition and lies (Ferdinand fervently believed the apocalyptic Italian theologian Joachim of Fiore that ‘he who will restore the Ark of Zion will come from Spain’).

This is a compelling and highly readable book about one of the darkest times, not just for Muslims and Jews, but for Spain. The loss of all the brilliant minds and culture is something it has never fully recovered from.

Available from Amazon.

Popularity: 14% [?]

…And Then There Were Four by Ellen Stein, Marcelle Robinson, Lisa Klein and Daisy Roessler

Sometimes, it’s the small details that remain etched in your mind. Small and, in the grand scheme of things, insignificant details. Such as the fact that in London on September 3^rd 1939, the day that Britain declared war on Hitler’s Nazi Germany, it was a blazing hot Sunday morning. Or that a famous department store in pre-war Berlin had a fabulous fountain that spouted orangeade; or that to make a proper gefilte fish for shabbat, you had to bring your fish home alive and keep it in the bath. Or what it felt like after Kristallnacht to have so much glass underfoot you panicked that it might cut through your shoes into the soles of your feet. Or that a poor London washerwoman spent her savings buying a group of refugee children a box of chocolates.

And then there are things like this: before the war, England took 10,000 German Jewish children into its homes and its collective heart and the USA or France, not one. Four of Ellen Stein’s friends who survived Hitler by being Kindertransport kids died of cancer. Another schoolfriend, who survived Auschwitz, threw himself off the George Washington Bridge, unable to overcome his memories. Daisy Roessler still remembers, word for word, anti-Semitic epithets hurled at her, a little girl. Lisa Klein was 13 when she left Berlin, alone, on a train for England. She still cries when someone leaves her. Marcelle Robinson has blocked out huge chunks of her life.

These four remarkable women were childhood friends, they still are, and their stories stand as testament to the disintegration of a cosmopolitan and civilized world into one of incomprehensible daily barbarity from which they were lucky to escape. It is not just their memories, their stories, it is the stories of their parents who coped with overwhelming and terrifying circumstances. It is the story of those who did not get out, it is the story of everyone who touched these four girls’ lives. It is the story of life.

And Then There Were Four is available from Amazon.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality, A Sourcebook

Edited by Ellen M. Umansky and Dianne Ashton

This is a revised edition of the Jewish feminist classic first published in 1992 by Umansky, professor of Judaic Studies at Fairfield University and Ashton, professor of religion and director of American studies at Rowan University.

The book spans four centuries, from 1560 to 2007, and is a mesmerising and breathtaking collection of Jewish female experience discovered through prayers, letters, diary excerpts, selections from sermons, essays and midrashim. The voices include those of Italian poet Sara Copia Sullam, who in 1641, defended herself in a pamphlet to a Catholic cleric of her belief in the immortality of the soul; American Zionist Henrietta Szold, who in 1916, explains in a letter that she will defy Jewish tradition and say kaddish for her mother; and Hungarian-born World War 2 heroine Hannah Senesh, who dreams of a national homeland for the Jews.

This is a wonderful book for spiritual seekers, historians, religious scholars and any Jewish woman (or man) with an interest in Jewish issues and the struggle to have them heard.

Available at Amazon.

Popularity: 14% [?]

RASHI’S DAUGHTERS: RACHEL   by Maggie Anton

The third and final book in the trilogy has been long awaited by Maggie Anton’s legions of fans and it does not disappoint. Centred on the great Talmudist Rashi’s youngest daughter, the beautiful and willful Rachel, aka Belle Assez, this is once more an incredibly detailed tapestry of life in medieval France. From herbal medicine to food preparation, shopping, religious and family life to wine growing in the Middle Ages,  these books are sparkling historical gems.

While the stories of the family are gripping and cleverly interwoven, the greatest thrill is learning about the Talmud and studying Rashi’s amazing clarity on tricky subjects. It made me want to be one of his daughters.

Rachel is perhaps the darkest of the three books. While we’ve experienced tragedy and death in the preceding books, history takes a turn for the worst in Rachel as growing anti-semitism turns a rather pleasant, almost bucolic existence into one fraught with horror, something that European Jews will be forced to endure for the next 900 years.

Ms Anton’s novels are meticulously researched and she has spent many years studying the Talmud. While each of Rashi’s daughters have their own personality stamped quite clearly on their relevant stories, Rachel is something else – witty, flirtatious, free of the pressures that were placed on her elder sisters, and as Rashi’s unashamed favourite child, she is full of confidence that everything she does will be a success. But events will show her just how fragile her life is as a Jew and how everything she held dear is about to be shattered in the face of early fundamentalism.

Rashi’s Daughters: Rachel is available from Amazon

Popularity: 32% [?]

RASHI  by Elie Wiesel

Maggie Anton described this latest book by Elie Wiesel as “a love story between the author and Rashi” and she is absolutely right. A short book, only 128 pages long, Wiesel’s Rashi is a beautiful paean to a beautiful mind, a man whose enlightenment has been lost by many of today’s rabbis.

In the book’s preface, Wiesel writes:  “Ever since childhood, Rashi has accompanied me with his insights and charm. Ever since my first Bible lessons in the Heder, I have turned to him in order to grasp the meaning of a verse or word that seemed obscure.

“He is my first destination. My first aid. The first friend whose assistance is invaluable to us, not to say indispensable, if we’ve set our heart on pursuing a thought through unfamiliar subterranean passageways, to its distant origins. A veiled reference from him, like a smile, and everything lights up and becomes clearer.

“Of course, it is the Jewish child in me who thanks him. But Rashi’s appeal is addressed to everyone. What I mean is this: his passion for delving in a text in order to find a hidden meaning passed on by generations can move, interest, and enrich all those whose life is governed by study.”

The book includes a brief biography of Rashi and examples of his commentary, but the heart of it is Rashi’s lucid responsa, which reveal not only the depth of the man’s insight and intelligence, but also the gentle spirit in which he lived his life.

Rashi, who lived in France, was around long enough to feel the anti-Jewish violent impact of the first Crusades in Europe in 1095. Wiesel was also a yeshiva student who found refuge in France after surviving Auschwitz. The parallels between the two men, some 900 years apart, are both heartbreaking and resonant.

Rashi by Elie Wiesel is available via Nextbook Press and online bookstores Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Popularity: 34% [?]