The Book of Lights
by Chaim Potok
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"At the center of the novel is Gershon Loran--a young rabbi, the product of a parochial New York Jewish upbringing--whose early life [was] shaped by darkly irrational circumstances ... It is this young man--raised in the absolute belief that 'the Jewish religion made a fundamental difference in the world'--who at the end of the Korean War, finds himself a chaplain in a country where Judaism has played no part ... Gershon begins to see his own people--and himself--in a new light ... Gershon show more has the most disturbing ... of his visions--encompassing both light and dark, both good and evil, just as life must; just as, he begins to understand, Judaism must, if it is to remain a living faith." show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Gershon Loran is a Kabbalah student drawn to the visions of light. Arthur Leiden is a fellow student who is trying to come to terms with the light brought by his father the physicist. It is in Kyoto, far away from their Jewish roots that they begin to see the answers they seek. Very intense and personal feeling.
This book just sucked me in.: This is my second favorite Potak novel. My favorite is "The Gift of Asher Lev".
I had a slow time starting this story, but it didn't take long for me to be drawn into the setting and the story and the characters. Soon I was living inside this novel -- watching every scene with rapt attention.
Potok has a way of making me not only think, but to feel deeply. This is one of his most intuitive novels, so I was able to feel this story to the innermost part of my bones.
I had a slow time starting this story, but it didn't take long for me to be drawn into the setting and the story and the characters. Soon I was living inside this novel -- watching every scene with rapt attention.
Potok has a way of making me not only think, but to feel deeply. This is one of his most intuitive novels, so I was able to feel this story to the innermost part of my bones.
libro molto bello, come era da aspettarsi da Potok, ma rispetto agli altri suoi libri meno del solito. A tratti molto poetico e con spunti folgoranti di riflessione è però un po' troppo lento e noioso in molte parti. Si fatica un po' troppo per i miei gusti
Not a book that you want to rush through, I found. My first thought was that The Book of Lights is markedly different from My Name is Asher Lev, yet some of the same themes dominate the book. What does it mean to be a Jew? What are one's responsibilities to one's family? Should one go through the motions or should one find one's passion? How can a person be both faithful to his family's traditions and faithful to making his way in the world? Important questions, all.
The story of a Jewish chaplain in the Korean War, this also deals with the theme of Kabbalah. It is a thought provoking book and a good read.
Two young men in rabbinical school forge an unlikely friendship. One begins studying Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism; the other is haunted by the knowledge that his father was instrumental in developing the atomic bomb.
Light from Kabbalah draws rabbinical student; light representing guilt of friend's whose father worked on the atomic bomb
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Chaim Potok was born in New York City in 1929. He graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors) from Yeshiva University in 1950, and received an advanced degree from Jewish Theological Seminary in 1954, when he also became an ordained Conservative rabbi. After two years of military service as a chaplain in Korea, Potok married Adena Sarah show more Mosevitsky in 1958. The couple had three children. Eventually Potok returned to school and received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. Potok has held a variety of positions within the Jewish community, including directing a camp in Los Angeles, teaching at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles at a Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and working as an editor on various religious publications, Potok's first novel, The Chosen, was published in 1967, and he quickly won acclaim for this best-selling book about tensions within the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities. This and later books have been both critically and popularly successful. Many of them explore the meaning of Judaism in the modern era, focusing on the conflict between traditional teachings and the pressures of modern life. The Chosen was nominated for a National Book Award in 1967 and made into a successful film in 1982. Its sequel, The Promise (1969) was the winner of an Athenaeum Award. Potok is also the author of a nonfiction volume, Wanderings: Chaim Potok's History of the Jews (1978), as well as several short stories and articles that have been published in both religious and secular magazines. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Het boek van het licht
- Original title
- The book of lights
- Original publication date
- 1981 (Engels) (Engels); 1988 (Nederlands) (Nederlands)
- People/Characters
- Gershon Loran
- Important places
- Korea; New York, New York, USA; Hiroshima, Japan; Kyoto, Japan; Hong Kong; Honshū, Japan (show all 7); Japan
- Important events
- Korean War (1950-1953)
- Epigraph
- See how many hidden causes there are . . . hidden from the comprehension of human beings. . . . There are lights upon lights, one more clear than another, each one dark by comparison with the one above it from which it receiv... (show all)es its light. As for the Supreme Cause, all lights are dark in its presence.
-THE ZOHAR
Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle. . . .The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation.
-ALBERT EINSTEIN - Dedication
- TO
DAVID FLEISHER
my teacher and friend - First words
- He arrived in Korea in a snowstorm on a huge big-bellied aircraft named the Thin Man.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Gershon Loran sat in the light and shade amid the yellow jasmine and purple bougainvillaea and the red and white roses of Jakob Keter's Jerusalem garden, waiting.
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 9
- Rating
- (3.86)
- Languages
- 5 — Czech, Dutch, English, Hungarian, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 17
- ASINs
- 13