Customer Reviews

Because God Loves Stories: An Anthology of Jewish Storytelling

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It is said that when three Jews have a discussion they will have at least four opinions, so there may not be any such thing as a Jewish outlook on, or philosophy of, life itself. But if there is, Because God Loves Stories captures its flavor. This is a collection of tales, memories, family stories, and anecdotes -- most of them short, and all of them fascinating -- that captures the tension and conflict between demanding the sweetness of the ideal world from God (who should certainly understand it the way WE do) while grudgingly, cynically, and mockingly accepting the frequent bitterness (or at least the tartness) of reality. It is a collection that shows how one can see humans as made in the image of God while still being fallible, troublesome, and even sinful, and that shows Jews loving God while being poignantly aware of the disappointments in much of His work, and letting Him know about it.

I have given copies of this book to my (Jewish) father who is as easily impressed as all Jewish parents -- and he loved it and reads the stories to friends he visits in a Jewish nursing home. They love them. I have also shared the stories with the non-Jews of a library literary discussion group to which I belong, and they have loved them. So, nu, what are you waiting for? Buy the book already. It's not like it costs so much money; the pleasure will be worth the few pennies you spend.

What a joy to read this anthology! In a world where the media is constantly on our nerves with the ever-going show of human misery, to read this set of stories is a therapy. It makes you laugh, it makes you wonder, it brings you closer to God and His creation, it revives a deep-rooted "jewishness" that we seldom are aware off or have simple forgotten. It makes you feel like a child savoring his favorite ice cream: when it is finished, he cries out for more!

I was not impressed in the least by this collection, for several reasons. First, a great deal of introductory material is offered--discussing the context of the contributor's life and works--generally at the expense of the material per se. Second, the material is weighted toward anecdotes and away from folktales, myths, legends, and other traditional literary forms. Third, with so much coverage devoted to the modern period--where Judaism has all but unraveled into bits here and nits there--any sense of continuity of cultural momentum is sacrificed altogether. The author endeavors to give us a realistic taste of such crucial institutions as the American Yiddish theater but ultimately fails to do so in any cogent manner. Indeed, to any reader who is familiar with the corpus of Jewish fantastic literature, the material is as repetitive in places as it is lightweight in others. You should most definitely take a "pass" on this work and instead stock your library with important collections by Sadeh, Frankel, and Schwartz. For the more scholarly material that hearkens of the Hasidic era, stick to Patai: both Schwartz (in this particular context) and Buber are stand-out disappointments.

The idea of the anthology is a good one, though I wished it had included more stories about 'Eretz Yisrael' which is after all the center of Jewish yearning for generations. The work focuses on American- Jewish stories and storytellers, although of course many touch upon Old World experiences. The storytellers themselves come from a variety of walks of life, some being professional storytellers, some well- known Jewish cultural figures and some being ' everyman' . The stories often have a folk quality about them, and are often entertaining, and instructive.
However the stories also point up the difference between stories which are stories in the street, anecdotal stories, and stories which are more complex literary creations. In this I think stories of the folk kind cannot possibly have the kind of aesthetic value that for instance a written story of Bashevis Singer might have.

Because God Loves stories is a excellent collection of Jewish stories from ancient times, through the Holocaust to modern humor. Not knowing many Jewish people, I was delighted to learn about Jewish culture and history.

Following is a story which illustrates that every culture has its Mendels:

Another time Mendel was walking down the road when a stranger came up to him and said, "Take this Yankel." Then he punched Mendel. Mendel fell to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground he began laughing. The stranger said, "What are you laughing about? I just punched you. I knocked you to the ground."

Mendel looked up and said, "The jokes on you, I'm not Yankel."

I recommend this book to all those who love literature and those interested in learning about Jewish history and customs. It's a great gift for shut-ins.