The Yeshiva, Volume 1[The author is the] winner of the Jewish Book Council's award for best novel of 1978 ... [The novel] does not concern itself with the interaction between the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe and the hostile non-Jewish communities that surrounded the, but rather with what takes place within the Jewish community itself. It is a saga about Talmudic students and their teachers, laced with plots and subplots involving brooding moralists consumed by guilt and doubts. It presents a panorama of life in Eastern Europe's yeshivas, or Talmudical academies, that has never been depicted before in fiction. The novel teems with life. We meet a host of characters, students of the yeshiva, rabbis, teachers, merchants, townspeople, peddlers, workers, and even thieves and lunatics. We see all these people through [the author's] eyes, a gentle view but one never distorted by nostalgia or sentiment. However, this book is not all somber and serious. It is laced with humor, tragi-comic situations, and hilarious descriptions and incidents. Stories of yeshiva students' idiosyncrasies, the way a community picks its rabbi, the hiding of secular books under the Talmud during school and after, and a bungled burning of books from the town library are just a few of the many lighter and comic situations presented ... This is a novel for all persons and all emotions, a book that will remain in the consciousness long after it has been read.-About this book. |
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afraid already answered asked beard become began bench beth medresh brother Chaikl cold congregants couldn't dark daughter didn't don't door eyes face father feeling felt friends girl give hands head hear heard heart Hertzke Holy husband Jews kitchen knew laughed leave live longer looked married Melechke merchant morning mother Musar Musarnik never night once prayer quickly rabbi realized Reb Avraham-Shaye Reb Hirshe Reb Menakhem-Mendl Reb Tsemakh remained replied returned Ronya rosh yeshiva Sabbath scholar shouted side silent sitting Slava smile soon spoke stand stood stopped Street talk Talmud teacher tears tell thought told Torah town Tsemakh Tsemakh Atlas turned Valkenik Vilna Vilner voice Volodya Vova waiting wall wife window woman yeshiva young