The Sacrifice of Tamar [Paperback]

Naomi Ragen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 20, 2010

Tamar Finegold is twenty-one years old, the happy, beautiful bride of a rising young Rabbi in one of Brooklyn's insulated, ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.  Having married the man of her dreams and taken her place as a wife—and hopefully soon-to-be mother—in her community, Tamar feels as though the world is at her feet.  But her secure, predictable existence is brought to an abrupt end when she is raped by an intruder.  Fearing the unbearable stigma and threat to her marriage that could result from telling the truth, Tamar makes a fateful decision that changes her life forever.  Her feeling that she did the only thing she could under the circumstances explodes when years later a shocking, undreamed of turn of events finally forces her to confront her past, once and for all

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Returning to familiar terrain in her third novel (after Jephte's Daughter and Sotah), Ragen again examines the lives of ultra-orthodox Jews and the severe consequences that can befall even the most faithful when they take a serious, albeit human misstep. Most of the story takes place in a Brooklyn neighborhood resembling Borough Park, although, as in her previous books, dramatic fanfare occurs in Israel, too. Pious Tamar both adores and is in awe of her warm and brilliant husband, Josh. She is looking forward to an intimate evening after her ritual visit to the mikvah (here Ragen offers a tediously detailed description about Jewish conjugal laws), but that evening she is raped by a black man. She does not tell her husband about the attack, and when she discovers she is pregnant, she does not abort the fetus, because she is not sure whether the rapist or Josh is the father. In trying to make the reader understand why Tamar would choose silence and sustain the pregnancy, Ragen flashes back to Tamar's youth, particularly her relationship with two friends who play pivotal roles throughout her life: Hadassah, the beautiful, rebellious daughter of the neighborhood's primary religious leader, and Jenny, who comes from a secular background but easily adapts to Orthodox observance. The interplay between the girls as they take tentative steps into the secular world of the late 1960s provides some charming scenes, and the final chapters prove moving and dramatic when later consequences of Tamar's deceptive silence shatter her family's life. While Ragen is an able storyteller and handles dialogue deftly, her plots are becoming hackneyed. It's an insular and provincial world that she has chosen to portray, and here she adds little that is new or eye-opening to the reader.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ragen (Jepthe's Daughter, LJ 12/88) continues to describe life in the ultra-orthodox Jewish communities of the United States and Israel. After being raped, Tamar, the young wife of a brilliant rabbi, chooses to conceal the crime. Soon, she discovers that she is pregnant and wrestles with a moral decision she is ill equipped to make. "What's not nice we don't show" is the modus operandi of Tamar's world, a creed to which she adheres until 20 years later when she must step forward or see innocent lives destroyed. The author paints a picture of a rigid, unyielding people for whom true tolerance and understanding is a luxury only the most saintly can afford, and she juxtaposes the more worldly modern orthodox as a positive alternative. Although Tamar is not a truly lovable heroine, and her transformation is difficult to accept, the author's fluid writing and fascinating descriptions of an exotic community will make this an attractive title for public libraries.
--Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1 Reprint edition (July 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312570228
• ISBN-13: 978-0312570224
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, Ragen's best so far!, October 15, 1997

By 

Harold L. Laroff - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacrifice Of Tamar (Hardcover)

The "Sacrifice of Tamar, not unlike the author's other two books, "Sotah" and "Jepthie's Daughter" takes place in an insular ultra-othrdox community. "Sacrifice of Tamar" centers mainly in Brooklyn and later moves to Isreal. In the opening chapters Tamar is raped by a blackman and later, the same night, has sex with her own husband. She becomes pregnant and is very concerend that the child may be the rapist's. (She keeps the attack a secret from all but her two closest freinds.) Later she is relieved when the baby born to her, a boy, is white. There's is suffuicient foreshadowing to predict some of what that might occur in years to come when her own son marries and his wife is pregnant with his child. Her characters in this book, Hadassah, Jenny and the Klovitzer Rebbie are believeable and likeable characters. Ragen writes with such authority it's almost as though she has witnessed much of what occurs in her books as good writers write from experience. The books is out of print and her other two novels are difficult to find in my library system owing to their popularity and not ther scarcity. Having read all three in recent weeks I am looking forward to her 4th, due very soon. Another book, "Romance Reader," by Pearl Abraham is also about insular Orthodox communites. Although not very well writen it too is worth searching out in your library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read, December 19, 2006

By 

Gary Selikow (Great Kush) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacrifice of Tamar (Readers Guide Editions) (Paperback)

Tamar Finegold has a secure and predictable life , as wife of one of Brooklyn's leading ultra-orthodox rabbis , but when she is violently raped by an intruder , all of this is thrown into turmoil.
She turns to two childhood friends , but keeps the secret from her family , until years later , a strange turn of events forces her to confront her past.

Naomi Ragen's books deal with the struggle of Jewish communities and the various threats and dilemmas that face them.
I had previously read The Covenant and The Ghost of Hannah Mendes.

This book shows both the tranquility and beauty of religious life and the dilemmas faced. It is beautifully written and shows how Tamar deals witht he trauma of her rape by an intruder and how her life and that of her family develops, as well as that of her two friends, one who has wisely embraced all that is good in Judaism , and one that has divorced herself from her roots.
A very compelling and easy read , that gives us a rare insight into ultra-orthodox communities and their ways of being and thinking.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reading this book was a spiritual experience..., October 8, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sacrifice of Tamar (Mass Market Paperback)

I read alot. I love books. If I own them, I can't part with them. If I borrow them, I want to own them. If I check them out, I hate to return them. This is a book to own, and keep, and reread. It's a book to learn from and ponder. This book is smart, beautiful, sad and perhaps, particularly touched me as a mother. I really thought about the struggles of these characters...I was deeply moved by the richness and detail of them and the lives they lead. And that may be the key...even those of us who consider ourselves religious, or pious, or devout, or spirtual do not really wrestle with things...at least not like Tamar does.