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Heather M

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Heather M is currently reading

How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air, #3.5)

by Holly Black (Goodreads Author)

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Apr 28, 2022 11:54AM

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The Golem and the Jinni (The Golem and the Jinni, #1)

by Helene Wecker (Goodreads Author)

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Heather M said: " Still on the first 60 pages. Not to be "that" Good Reads reviewer, but while the story has a great premise (a golem of Jewish folklore and jinni of Islamic folklore ending up in New York in 1901), as a lifelong Jew and Jewish Studies minor in uni I j Still on the first 60 pages. Not to be "that" Good Reads reviewer, but while the story has a great premise (a golem of Jewish folklore and jinni of Islamic folklore ending up in New York in 1901), as a lifelong Jew and Jewish Studies minor in uni I just encountered a passage that COMPLETELY pulled me out of the book and I wanted to get it off my chest before I continue:

As you well know, the story opens with an unpleasant Jewish young man asking an old kabbalist scholar to make him a golem for a bride. Around page 60 (of like 550), we learn the old kabbalist's backstory:

He studied to be a rabbi in his youth, until he had a dream at age 19 where he entered paradise but heard a deep voice saying "you do not belong here" and cast him back out to the cold hard earth. He woke up thinking he MUST be damned, so he gave up his rabbinic studies, left home, and decided to throw himself into vice and sin--lie, cheat, steal, sleep around, pick fights, go to prison, study forbidden arts, etc. He figures after all his "innumerable sins" (they're really not that bad--small potatoes in Judaism) he MUST be destined for "the fires of Gehenna" (which I had to look up since that's not a thing in Judaism), and figures since he's bound for eternal torment in the afterlife anyway, then he might as well extend his life with dark magic and make the most of his life here and now.

And it's like, a) That's so James Joyce, b) It's SUUUCH a CATHOLIC/Christian mentality!

Seriously, Judaism doesn't give a shit about sins or damnation the way Christianity does.

Helene Wecker seems to think Jewish rabbis must be like Catholic priests in there's this demand for internal moral purity to get an eternal reward or avoid an eternal punishment in the afterlife, and if you fall short even by a tiny amount then you're PERMANENTLY DAMNED, and since you're damned anyway you might as well throw away everything good in your life to indulge in vice and sin that makes you miserable and the people around you miserable.

And that's just the OPPOSITE of Judaism!

Seriously, it's funny to me how the old kabbalist scholar keeps thinking, "Since I'm bound for the fires of Gehenna [not a thing in Judaism] anyway I might as well make the most of the here and now." Because that's just what Judaism already teaches!!

Most Jews don't have strong beliefs about the afterlife. Some rabbis had theories, but they were few and far between and remain a low priority for most Jews. (I had to look up "the valley of Gehenna." Apparently that's a real valley in Israel where the Kings of Jersulam were said to sacrifice their children in fire--nice guys--and some rabbis theorized it's where wicked souls went when they died, while others theorized it's a "waiting point" for to souls about to reunite with God. Helene Wecker must have read the Wikipedia article and thought, "Oh, that must be the Jewish equivalent of Hell." I PROMISE YOU, it's not common or prevalent in Judaism. I'm 30 and just heard of it.)

Jews are told to live by God's laws b/c it gives a sense of purpose, fulfillment, tradition, community, and because it's a mitzvah (equal parts commandment/blessing). Because God's laws are full of teachings on how to get along and teat each other well and make life better in the here and now.

The old kabbalist scholar's weird fixation on moral purity, sin, and damnation is SOOO out-of-place in Jewish teachings and culture. Like, it's amazing to me how he keeps waxing melodramatic about his "innumerable sins" before he even started his kabbalist studies (BTW, Kabbalah is also a respected philosophical field, not the Jewish equivalent of "~FORBIDDEN MAGIC~!"), and his terrible sins were, like... petty shoplifting and sleeping with one girl. Those are such small potatoes in Judaism. It's like, "Okayyy... apologize and make amends to the people you wronged, and you're square."

It's especially asinine how he kept describing how MISERABLE he felt leaving home, sinning, and doing hard labor for low pay, and any sane rabbi would be like, "THEN DON'T FUCKING DO IT, YA DINK! If it's against God's law AND it makes you miserable AND you don't have to, then WHY ARE YOU FUCKING DOING IT?! No one told you to leave home, no one told you to hang out with goyim who beat you up for being a Jew, no one told you to do scut work for low pay so you felt compelled to steal bread. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANY OF THIS, so why are you doing it?!" And if he gave that stupid dream about how he's damned, they wouldn't just blow off

Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I'll keep reading and I hope the rest of the novel will make up for it. IN that case, I'll gladly delete this review and give a more favorable one. ...more "

Apr 05, 2021 04:49PM · see review