Customer Reviews

Rebecca

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This book is really good. It was useful and very beautiful
like the others in the series.

I did have high hopes for this series: literal texts from the chumash, decent translations and compelling artwork. I bought two for my 5-year-old daughter: Lech Lecha (the story of Avraham and Sarah) and Rebecca (the story of Rivka).

I'm pleased with the quality of the books themselves, which are printed in full colour, on thick, shiny paper. And my daughter seems to like them (her middle name is Rivka - that's why I chose this one).

However, perhaps it's the stark nature of the Biblical text, or perhaps there's something else lacking: what is actually a fascinating narrative in this case just feels cold.

I will say up front that art is a matter of personal taste, and some people might love these books for Racklin-Siegel's distinctive style. But I've found I just don't like it. I find it artificial and in a few cases, just weird, as folks' eyes look like they're rolling about in the pictures, or, in one case, a winged angel of an unsettlingly "goyish" appearance flutters across the page at random.

There's also the annoying omission of a crucial step in this story: Avraham sends Eliezer to find a wife, then Eliezer devises a test: "if a girl comes and offers water to both me and my camels, I will know she is the one." Then, Rivka (Rebecca) comes out and fulfills this test to the letter.

Greengard's book omits this one important passage, so that Rivka's offer of water isn't the culmination of the story, but rather just another plot event. Eliezer does refer to his test later on, but it's not mentioned up-front, where it could add much-needed depth to the plot.

While I understand the importance of editing for brevity and plot, in the case of the Rebecca narrative, this omission plus a few others actually diminish the story's significance (finding a suitable wife & mother for the next generation) and, more importantly, the sense that the hand of God is guiding the narrative itself.

I guess conveying that is asking a lot (I suspect that's what the fluttering angel is meant to convey, but she just doesn't cut it for me), and it is possible to supplement this book with other stories, midrashim, etc., which I plan to do. But I was hoping something slightly grander would come through with these books - something that has, perhaps, been lost in translation.