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Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Jonathan Sacks

A jeremiad, named for the 7th-century BCD prophet Jeremiah who proclaimed the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem, is a long literary work in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and contains a warning of society's downfall. Unfortunately, that’s what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has written in Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times—a 330 page “devastatingly insightful critique of our modern condition” that, in my opinion, gives little hope for humanity’s future.

Especially after this month’s events, I see little hope for morality restoring the common good in the divided USA. Not when one side views gay sex [never mind gay marriage] as immoral, and another sees the belief in white supremacy as immoral. I was very disappointed that Sacks never defined “immorality” nor addressed how humanity can deal with various groups that view the “other” as immoral. Yes, it would be better if our “I”-oriented society was replaced by a “We”-oriented society, as Sacks recommends, but I don’t see a path to this happening, nor does Sacks provide one. He essentially says we all going to hell in a handbasket, which is not the kind of uplifting book I need right now. His writing and his goal are excellent, but I can’t give this book a 5-star review. Nor can I give it 1-star. View all my reviews

Here’s my response to a recent HBI [Hadassah-Brandeis Institute] Blog titled Women’s Daf Yomi: Gender and Talmud Study in Digital Space

Ten years ago, in Spring 2012, I was busy getting ready for "Rav Hisda's Daughter" pub date and speaking tours while also working on its sequel "Enchantress." I'd heard that it was possible to do daf yogi online, but I didn't think I'd have the time to commit to a 7-year daily study session. But the 12th cycle was ending in July so I thought I could commit to 73 days for one tractate, the final tractate Niddah. I figured it should be interesting to learn a tractate that had to concentrate on women and our issues, especially since there were online classes where nobody would know my gender. I used the Schottenstein edition to follow along at home, and I was sorely disappointed. Not only did the very Orthodox and Haredi classes gloss over sugyot concerning women, but one class removed the texts from the page entirely. So it's good see the progress women Talmud students have made in ten years. Y'shar Kocheych.

4-star review of "Eternal Life" by Dara Horn

Eternal Life by Dara Horn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really appreciated how Eternal Life started, using a 3rd-person POV for a 1st-person story. I was thrilled with the scenes of our heroine Rachel's youth in Jerusalem; especially when her first child son is named Yohanan ben Zakkai, whom I recognized from my Talmud studies as the 1st-century sage who saved Judaism by escaping the Temple's destruction to start the first yeshiva. Unfortunately, things sort of went downhill from there. The other half of the story takes place 2000 years later, with pretty much nothing described of the time in between. There could/should have been so many fascinating chapters of the amazing lives she lived, both great and terrible, in those middle centuries. The book is only 233 pages, way too short for a historical novel that takes place over two millennia. Considering all her experience in the world, surely Rachel must have done more than marry and have kids, but we’ll never know.

Maybe I’m critical because I read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab only six months ago. In that novel, the immortal heroine describes many of the places and times she’s lived in. View all my reviews

So what was my second nice surprise on May 17? The mail included the May/June issue of Hadassah Magazine. I quickly turned to the BOOKS section, where on page 51 I was thrilled to see my 1/3 page ad for The Choice. Not only was it well place opposite their “Top Ten Jewish Best Sellers” list, but every word was legible, as opposed to other ads with text too small to read. Unfortunately I couldn’t link to the page, so I’ll just provide a jpeg of the ad.

Wonderful review by the Jewish Book Council

Yesterday was pub date for my latest book, "The Choice," and I got two very nice surprises. First, the Jewish Book Council posted an excellent review. What made it excellent? 1. It is just over 500 words, long enough to describe the plot and characters in sufficient detail that the potential reader gets more than a taste of why the reviewer recommends the book. 2. It has several quote-worthy sentences we can use for promotion. 3. The reviewer completely gets, and explains, what I was trying to accomplish—to demonstrate and critique the unequal and inferior of position of women in traditional Jewish texts—yet still provide an appealing romance.

I’ll share the second surprise in my next post, and to further conserve space, I leave you with only the review’s final paragraph. But I do hope you’ll be intrigued enough to click on the link and read the whole review. After which you’ll want to read the entire novel.

“Hannah and Nathan’s faith and love are tested as they encounter setbacks, misunderstandings, and strong conflicts. They find their way through these life clashes and decisions with a sense of justice and respect. The Choice is a thought-provoking, informative, important, and engaging read.”

3-star review of "the Body on the Lido Deck" by Jane Bennett Munro

The Body on the Lido Deck by Jane Bennett Munro
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked Jane Bennett Munro's previous murder mystery sufficiently that I decided to read the next book in the series, The Body on the Lido Deck: A Toni Day Mystery. I've been on enough ocean cruises to appreciate the Caribbean setting, and as in the prequel, the action starts up immediately. Like before, I was fine with all the medical terminology, but I also wasn't so fine with the large cast of characters. New victims and suspects kept appearing, nearly all of whom had relationships with each other that weren't revealed until later. While the fast paced plot eventually made sense, I sometimes lost track of who did what to whom and had to reread earlier chapters to jog my memory. I advise readers to take careful notes.
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Historical Novel Review of "The Choice"

As May 17 pub date for "The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith and the Talmud" gets closer, reviews, interviews and blog posts (from other people) start coming online. Here’s an excerpt from the review from Historical Novels Reviews: “The Choice is a compelling book about the role of women in a patriarchal society. The author pays homage to Chaim Potok’s characters in a respectful way…it should greatly appeal to those readers interested in scholarly Talmudic debates. But at its heart, it is a love story, and a unique one at that.” The complete review is below.

“Inspired by characters and situations Chaim Potok’s classic novel, The Chosen, Talmudic scholar and author Maggie Anton has written a love story steeped in faith, tradition, and the Talmud. In 1950s Brooklyn, Hannah Eisen is a journalist at a Jewish newspaper. She interviews a Talmud professor, Nathan Mandel, about his life and his controversial classroom methods. Hannah is very intelligent and has the mind and the drive to learn Talmud, but as a woman, she is prohibited from learning. However, she somehow convinces Nathan to meet with her in secret to teach her Talmud—and the two fall in love.
Meanwhile, Nathan is grappling with family issues of his own, as his father never revealed to him the circumstances surrounding his mother’s death, leaving him with a gaping hole concerning his own childhood history. A concurrent storyline is the tenuous relationship between Nathan’s best friend Benny and his wife, Sharon, whose marital troubles stem from Sharon not being accepted by the rest of the women in their tightly knit Orthodox Jewish community. The progression of Hannah and Nathan’s relationship, as well as Hannah’s investigative journalism projects, add a dimension to the book apart from the Talmudic discussions the characters engage in frequently.
"The Choice" is a compelling book about the role of women in a patriarchal society. The author pays homage to Chaim Potok’s characters in a respectful way. Though the storyline is interesting and nuanced, it’s long and wordy at times. However, it should greatly appeal to those readers interested in scholarly Talmudic debates. But at its heart, it is a love story, and a unique one at that.”

Q&A from Deborah Kalb books

In advance of next weeks' May 17 pub date for "The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith and the Talmud," here's a Books Q&A from Deborah Kalb's blog . One of her questions asked what surprising things I learned from my research. Another asked what I was working on next.

Goodreads 4-star review of “Death by Autopsy” by Jane Bennett Munro

Death by Autopsy: A Toni Day Mystery by Jane Bennett Munro
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I decided to read Death by Autopsy: A Toni Day Mystery because the protagonist Dr. Toni and I are both hospital laboratory professionals, the former having worked her way through med school as a medical technologist. I too was a med tech, or clinical laboratory scientist as it's called now; in my case for almost 40 years. So I was curious to read a murder mystery written by such an author. There's a lot of medical terminology, which I appreciated, but other readers may not. This is a fast-paced novel. So much is happening and so quickly that I'm sure I missed some important information. I wish this novel had a cast-of-characters; 29 different characters appeared In the first 100 pages. So of course I couldn't always remember who was who and what each had done that might be important. By page 200, Dr. Toni was definitely on the right track. Persons unknown are stalking her, slashing her tires, poisoning her drinks, and putting a bomb in her car, but she'd gotten her teeth into this murder mystery and wouldn't let go. Here’s a hint: follow the money and you'll find out who done it.
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Limmud NA 49-steps

Last month I wrote a 300-words about women and mitzvot for the Limmud North America 49-steps series of essays for observing the Counting of the Omer. You can read it by clicking in the link, or by continuing with this post.

The Omer is an appropriate time to think about mitzvot that specifically affect women – by obligating women to fulfill them, and also by exempting or forbidding women from fulfilling them – because three of them occur during the days between Passover and Shavuot. The Mishnah exempts women from time-bound, positive mitzvot (“TBPM”), those actions at a certain time, yet the Torah makes no such differentiation – it provides only two categories: positive (“do this”) commandments and negative (“do not do this”) commandments. The Talmud suggests that the distinct category of TBPM exists to exempt women from being obligated in their performance. Yet despite this exemption, one Talmudic sage obligates women to fulfill all commandments related to Passover – eating matzah and maror; drinking four cups of wine; reclining – because women were involved in the miracle of the holiday. Rashi’s grandson Rabbenu Tam rules that women may fulfill any TBPM, providing they say a blessing for doing so.

Even so, some rabbis today still disagree on whether women are obligated to count the Omer, and whether they should say the blessing for doing so or not, even though this is the easiest TBPM to fulfill. Women were present at Sinai to receive Torah, and Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children (“benaichem”).” But Talmudic rabbis ruled that women were forbidden from study Torah or Talmud and men were forbidden to teach them, based on the literal translation of “benaichem” as “sons,” rather than the more common, “children.”
Why this restriction? The heroine of my upcoming novel The Choice explains it thus: “It was a matter of power. If women didn’t know how halacha was formulated and established, then they couldn’t challenge it or change it.”

Interview in Lilith

I'm so excited. The new issue of Lilith Magazine contains an interview with me. Here's the introduction: When journalist Hannah Eisen meets Rabbi Nathan Mandel, sparks begin to fly. Their mutual attraction grows when Hannah convinces Nathan to teach her Torah (Talmud actually)—something expressly forbidden by Jewish law. Set in 1955, in Brooklyn, NY, "The Choice" describes the many ways in which women have been given a subordinate role in Judaism. Author Maggie Anton—who also wrote the acclaimed trilogy Rashi’s Daughters—talks to Fiction Editor Yona Zeldis McDonough about how her novel both exposes and dismantles these inequities in an effort to set the record straight.

3-star review of “The Matzah Ball” by Jean Meltzer

The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I agree completely with Amy's 3-star review. So completely that I could easily cut and paste it here. The Matzah Ball isn't going to win a Pulitzer or Nobel Prize for Literature, but as its punny title suggests, it's a fun and entertaining novel. I read it in one day over Shabbat. The plot is classic girl and boy meet, hate each other but are secretly attracted, meet again with more attraction but all sorts of misunderstandings, and ultimately they get together for a happy ending. I, and other readers familiar with the romance genre, will know by page 15 how it ends. I'm sure it is no coincidence that the couple are named Rachel and Jacob, the Bible/Torah true loves who had to undergo all sorts of trials and tribulations.

I could dismiss this novel as fluffy and light (like a good matzah ball), but there's some serious stuff underneath that takes the plot to a higher level. Rachel, the heroine, suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which she tries to hide from everyone except her family and best friend. Of course this creates difficulties for her professional, and romantic, lives. Our hero Jacob has his own tsuris: his now-deceased mother had MS, which is why his father abandoned them. There is also lots of good Jewish content. So take it for what it is and enjoy the ride.
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