Tag: books

In Love with a Book

I am in love. Of course, with my wife, with whom I recently celebrated as our eldest turned 18, our baby became a Bar Mitzvah, and our middle one continues to be wonderful. Such simchas always bring forth the love.

I am also in love with a book, a novel about love, archeology, life and death. Zoe Klein’s first novel, Drawing in the Dust, has been called “a magically inventive archelogical expedition into love’s psyche” by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. Like The Red Tent before it, this novel weaves Biblical stories – the book of Jeremiah – with modern midrash to create a tale that enthralls and even educates.

I confess that I learned more about archeology from this book than I have since leaving rabbinic school. Moreover, the book, simultaneously an exploration of death and life, challenged me to reconsider ideas about what comes after this life. All this, while being caught up in a fast moving, engaging book. Perhaps that is why Rabbi Harold Schulweis called it “an archelogical adventure which resurrects buries romance.”

Read the Jewish Journal and Ha’aretz review of the novel.
Read it for the romance.
Read it to reconnect to the Bible.
Read it if you are interested in learning from Zoe Klein, one of Los Angeles’ most inspiring rabbis.

I gave copies of the book to my mother and sister, two women who love to read and who love Judaism. My wife will be reading my copy next. Let me know what you think when you have a chance to read it too.