A Bride for One Night: Talmud Tales by Ruth CalderonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sadly, although it is one of the foundations of modern Judaism, many non-Orthodox Jews only have the vaguest notion of the contents of the Talmud. Not only are there rabbinic arguments over fine points of law that tend to freewheel into surprising tangents, but there are also many wonderful stories, seventeen of which have been collected by Israeli scholar Ruth Calderon in A Bride for One Night.
Since as with many biblical narratives, Talmudic discourse can be notoriously terse (only one of these stories is longer than a page), Calderon, after providing the original text, gives her own expanded version of the story, often from the point of view of a minor or marginalized character. She then includes a section called “Reflections,” which delves into the deeper meaning and context of the story. Along the way, not only do we (unsurprisingly) meet many rabbis, but also their wives and children, Roman matrons, the Angel of Death, and several humble Jews, including one teacher who, due to his care for his students, outranks one of the greatest rabbis of his generation in the eyes of God. Calderon is also not shy of tackling some of the stories that are most problematic for modern readers, such as those that seem to denigrate women, and is able to suggest fresh ways of looking at them. A Bride for One Night, while short, provides an excellent combination of classic commentary and modern interpretation, without doing violence to the original stories, that will hopefully inspire readers to explore more of this intriguing genre of Jewish literature.
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A version of this review was originally published in Chai Notes, the monthly newsletter of Congregation Shir Shalom in Amherst, NY.
