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Loading... A Seat At The Table: A Novel of Forbidden Choicesby Joshua Halberstam PhD
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book was a pleasure to read. It accurately depicts human curiosity, the conflict of wanting to belong and needing to leave, the importance of family, the consequences of our choices. Additionally, the chassidic fables are beautifully woven into the narrative throughout. The book provides great empathy for all the characters, no matter which side they're on in regard to the choices made by the protagonist. The work is fiction, but is the story of many people I know. "A Seat At the Table" is a must read for anyone interested in Judaism. Joshua Halberstam is a wonderful writer and this is his first novel and hopefully he will be writing more of them. This is a story about a young Chassid, Elisha, who at the age of twenty decides to go to City College in New York. He is from Borough Park a Chassidic community in Brooklyn. He finds himself emotionally and spiritually torn between his close ties to his Chassidic community and his desire to integrate into the "modern" world even eating in nonKosher restaurants and dating a nonJew. The author succeeds in drawing us into the anxst of Elisha's journey to manhood and we sympathize with his desire to please his father and mother while finding his true self. An exquisite portrait is drawn of a young man who carries with him the pride and destiny of his lineage of famous Chassidic rabbis, yet his curiousity overwhelms him and he delves into experiencing people and places that are forbidden to him. This theme of a young man or young woman on a spiritual journey has been dealt with before in books like "The Chosen" or "The Outsider". What makes this book unique is the incorporation of Chassidic tales within the text and the wisdom the reader gains as he/she accompanies Elisha on his journey. A wonderful story that will bring tears to your eyes for sure!!!! I very much enjoyed A Seat at the Table by Joshua Halberstam. To follow Elisha from an innocent peek from inside his talis to the broader world is a treat. As a Chassidic Jew, Elisha has trouble reconciling his family identity with his own and his Jewish identity with a forbidden secular one. As much as Elisha groups apart from his family and his father in particular, he very much values his upbringing and takes joy in Chassidic storytelling and Torah study. no reviews | add a review
Lust * Tradition * Love * Faith * Self * Family Elisha walks through Brooklyn with side curls tucked behind his ears and an oversized black hat on his head. He is a Chassidic Orthodox Jew and the son of a revered rabbi in whose footsteps he's expected to follow. When he leaves his insular world to take classes at a secular college, he vows to remain unchanged... Praise for A Seat at the Table: "A poignant depiction of a deeply loving father and a no less loving son desperate to find his own very different path without shattering the connection to his family, to his father."-- Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Author of Jewish Literacy and a Jewish Code of Ethics "Halberstam takes you deeply into the Chassidic community with a critical eye but a loving, understanding heart. This tender, compassionate coming-of-age story brims over with wisdom from the Jewish tradition. It's worth reading for the Chassidic tales alone."-- David Grubin, Documentary Filmmaker, The Jewish Americans, LBJ "Joshua Halberstam knows the soul of Chassidic Brooklyn better than anyone without payes and a black hat. He explores that world with a unique combination of skepticism and compassion. A Seat at the Tableis a lovely and deeply humane book."-- Melvin Jules Bukiet, Author of Strange Fire and Neurotica "In this novel of fathers and sons, faith and doubt, Joshua Halberstam illuminates a world rich with religious tradition and Chassidic stories, and he proves himself to be a master storyteller in his own right. A Seat at the Table is unusually wise, genuine, and always affecting." -- Tova Mirvis, author of The Ladies Auxiliaryand The Outside World No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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