“In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist,” Ruchama King Feuerman, New York Review of Books, $8.49 ebook, Sept. 17, 2013
The year is 1998. Isaac Markowitz is a 43-year-old bachelor, who lost the girl he wanted; he is knowledgeable, but did not become a rabbi; and he suffers from eczema. He sells his New York haberdashery business on the Lower East Side, goes to Israel and seeks out a rabbi/kabbalist in the Old City of Jerusalem, offering to be his assistant.
Meanwhile, he encounters Mustafa, a 55-year-old Arab street cleaner with a twisted neck, cast out by his family and his village, who works on the Temple Mount. Isaac tells him he is like a Kohen and a friendship occurs.
As the rabbi’s assistant, Isaac hears questions from the people who gather in the courtyard and relays them to the rabbi for responses. Here he meets Tamar, the American on a motorcycle, looking for spirituality and a husband. Will she find one? Will anything develop between her and Isaac?
When the rabbi suddenly dies, the rebbetzin asks Isaac to stay on and continue to see the people. Who really dispensed the advice, we wonder as we read on.
When Mustafa is not cleaning toilets and the area of the mosque, he is sent to the Solomon’s stables area to remove debris where he discovers some interesting shards. As a token of Isaac’s kindness to him, he gives a shard to him, starting a series of adventures. But overriding everything is Mustafa’s deep feelings of rejection by his family, particularly his mother, and his intense desire to reunite with them.
True, there are some strange twists and turns in the plot or plots, but Feuerman is such an engrossing story writer, we want to keep reading and reading.
The publisher calls this book “a thriller, a courtship tale and a gentle clash between civilizations.”
It is absorbing, fascinating, intriguing and more, written by a creative storyteller with an amazing skill for originality.
Ruchama King Feuerman grew up in an observant home, lived in Israel for 10 years (studying and teaching Torah to women), from which she drew inspiration for her 2003 novel “Seven Blessings” on the theme of matchmakers.
She received a Master’s in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, is married and lives with her husband and five children in New Jersey. She also conducts workshops in writing for religious women.