By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
The best part of reading novels based on Jewish fantasy and folklore is the wide range of material offered. If you add real-life settings (well, at least, for parts of the book), then you create the elements for some of my favorite genre reading. What is particularl…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
People ask a variety of questions about the biblical text. Some focus on the stories, offering commentaries meant to teach religious lessons. Others look at the book from a scholarly point of view. They want to know who wrote particular sections or how the scribes b…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Something left me puzzled as I read the first chapters of “Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism” by Anka Muhlstein (Other Press). The biography tells the story of Pissarro’s life in clear, easy-to-read prose and focuses on his relationship with his…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
In biblical times
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word jezebel refers to “an impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained woman.” For readers of the Bible, Jezebel was the evil wife of King Ahab, ruler of the northern kingdom of Israel. She was…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
It’s difficult to write about some novels without giving away part of the plot. I don’t feel bad in this case because anyone reading the book jacket of “Stockholm” by Noa Yedlin (HarperVia) already knows what happens. In fact, it’s one of the novel’s se…
