Daily Archives: June 5, 2007

Definition #3 really does it for me.

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Brocha holds the braided candle, and Isaac says the prayer marking the end of Shabbat. After he says the last words, Hamavdil ben kodesh lihol, Nina asks, “What do you think is the best translation for that?”

“Blessed be he who separates the holy from the profane,” Isaac says.

“The sacred from the secular,” puts in Elizabeth.

“The transcendent moment from the workaday world,” suggests old Rabbi Sobel in his quaverying voice.

“Mm.” they pause around the smoking candle.

–from “Kaaterskill Falls” by Allegra Goodman

Fiction: “Kaaterskill Falls” by Allegra Goodman

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I think I picked up this paperback after Goodman’s more recent book “Intuition” started being reviewed all over the place. And as to why I decided to read it now, I guess Michael Chabon’s latest got me in the mood for random outbursts of Yiddish (and/or Hebrew) and explications of Talmudic law!

The plot was somewhat meandering (no big climax at the end) and predictable — surely all intelligent people must struggle at one time or another with belief and the irrationality of restrictive religions — but the intelligence and integrity of the writing kept me interested.
Elizabeth was a wonderfully written character, I really enjoyed thinking through her thoughts.

And if you yourself are now in the mood for some yiddish, how about a list of ways to incorporate Yiddish into bedroom talk, via Josh Berg, a friend of a friend.

Fiction: “Pippa Passes” by Rumer Godden

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Un petit roman about a young ballerina who goes to Venice and blossoms. Sweet and light. But pretty inconsequential.

If you are interested in reading Rumer Godden, an author of some renown although you don’t hear much about her these days, I highly (HIGHLY!!) recommend instead both “In This House of Brede” and “China Court” both of which are easy to obtain, in my experience, at any decent-sized used bookstore.

I’ve told you this before, but FYI the author is the namesake of Bruce & Demi’s child.

On Reuniting.

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You know, it takes time. You can’t just have coffee and expect… There’s just so much to work through. Trust has to be built again on both sides. You have to learn if we’re even the same people we were, if you can fit in each other’s lives. It’s a long important process…
Can we just skip it? Can you just be kissing me now?

-Tara, BtVS, 6:18 “Entropy”