Seven Blessings: A Novel [Hardcover]

Ruchama King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2003

The closed, secret world of matchmaking in contemporary Israel provides the titillating pivot for a story of uncommon proportions. In Ruchama King's skillful hands, Seven Blessings maps out the complicated lives of five expatriate women and men whose search for a soul mate, in many ways, mirrors their search for God.

At the center of this fascinating novel is Beth, who at age thirty-nine longs to be married but despairs she ever will be. When she finally meets the man of her dreams, he has what she believes to be an insurmountable flaw. Can she overcome her repugnance in order to forge a new life? Binyamin, a talented painter and student, lacks the humility to identify a worthy wife. He strains the matchmakers' patience until his search for perfect love finally becomes ridiculous, even to himself. Tsippi and Judith, the matchmakers, are stumbling themselves, with marriages that need propping up. In this land of miracles, seeking the right match, whether between singles, husband and wife, student and teacher, or man and God, becomes a quest that opens the Bible to us in a new way.

Rich characters, an intriguing setting, writing that offers unique nuances, and ultimately a story that keeps you turning the pages all combine to introduce a remarkable newcomer. Seven Blessings redefines the Jewish experience, with a story that will ring with truth for anyone who's ever considered getting married.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two Orthodox Jewish matchmakers strive busily to marry off their neighbors in this bustling debut novel set in modern-day Jerusalem. Tsippi, who works the counter of her husband's grocery store, is always on the lookout for promising single shoppers, even as her own marriage begins to show signs of wear. Judy, a glamorous mother of six, fits in her matchmaking around her studies at a yeshiva for women, where she is taking Torah classes, looking for deeper meaning in life. Both take a stab at setting up 39-year-old Beth, a staunchly independent Orthodox woman from the U.S. who has gone on more first dates than she can count. Now her possibilities are beginning to dwindle, and to make matters worse, she is troubled by a crisis of faith. When Tsippi sends her on a date with Akiva, a house painter and student of the Torah, Beth is hopeful, but Akiva is afflicted by a disconcerting twitch. A date with arrogant Binyamin, one of Judy's clients, is even more discouraging. Binyamin is a handsome American artist, a newcomer to observant Judaism, but none of the women he dates are good enough for him: as he puts it, "A beauty, dammit, that's what he wanted. Attractive wouldn't do." King tracks the dating fates of Beth, Akiva and Binyamin, but pays equal attention to their spiritual searching. Her attention to minor variations in levels of orthodoxy makes the book a sociological study of sorts ("he went to a very religious black-hat hareidi yeshiva, yet from the look of him he seemed two steps removed from that world"), but her richly detailed descriptions of Jerusalem (the reader can almost smell the falafel frying) and her sympathetic characters make this a fully realized novel.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"While the machinations of matchmakers have long been a staple of fiction, King's evdebut novel puts a fresh spin on the subject....King's portrayal of a religious community is as warm and engaging as any in contemporary literature. Her characters jump off the page and into the hearts of her audience...charming, spiritual tale."--Library Journal

"A gentle evocation of love and faith in Jerusalem's Orthodox community....King then seems, like a Jewish Jane Austen....Much of the story's strength rises from King's generous description of Jerusalem....A tender enlightening debut that, urban setting aside, reads like a comedy of provincial manners."--Kirkus

"Two Orthodox Jewish matchmakers strive busily to marry off their neighbors in this bustling debut novel set in modern-day Jerusalem...her richly detailed descriptions of Jerusalem (the reader can almost smell the falafel frying) and her sympathetic characters make this a fully realized novel."--Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (August 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312309155
• ISBN-13: 978-0312309152
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fabulous Novel That Will Touch Your Heart!, August 19, 2004

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Blessings: A Novel (Hardcover)

According to the Talmud, Rev Yehuda taught that 40 days before a male child is conceived, a voice from heaven announces whose daughter he is going to marry, literally a match made in heaven! In Yiddish, this perfect match is called "bashert," a word meaning fate, destiny - or one's soul mate. Ruchama King has written a gem of a novel about a woman and two men in search of their "besherts." These three lonely people are Americans, all observant Jews, who have moved to Jerusalem to make new lives for themselves. After years of unsuccessfully searching for the "right one," they decide to seek help from two local matchmakers.

Beth, approaching forty, is attractive, extremely independent and very conscious that she is one of the few women her age who does not wear a head covering - a sign of marriage. She has never been touched, nor kissed, by any male other than her father. And her biological clock keeps reminding her that her prospects are dwindling with every tick. Akiva is a sensitive, spiritual, appealing man, with a debilitating twitch which he sees as a blessing. And Binyamin, a handsome, charming, narcissistic artist, gets blacklisted by all Jerusalem's matchmakers because he seeks perfection in his mate. All three long for an end to their loneliness.

The matchmakers and their husbands don't exactly live in a Garden of Eden. Tsippe, is a holocaust survivor married to a man whose life she saved in the concentration camps. She yearns for passion and romance from her husband, whose head is always in a book. Judy, a beautiful former rebbetzin, feels that something important has disappeared from her marriage. Her husband, who used to be a Torah scholar, is now an exterminator and Judy misses aspects of her old life.

"Seven Blessings" is much more than a story about the search for a mate. All of Ms. King's characters seem to be striving for a close connection with another being, to balance their universe, and this search is directly related to their quest to connect more intimately with God. I am struck by a conversation between Judy and a group of women studying Torah. They are talking about the creation in Genesis - whether God created woman only for the benefit of man. They study a commentary from Rashi which basically says that "this state of man being alone is not good for the universe. It's a cosmological statement. This aloneness is not good for the world. Woman was not created to complement man but to complete the world."

Ruchama King's prose simply flows along at a graceful pace. Her characters are three dimensional and very real. She is an extremely perceptive person, and I found the novel to be very funny at times, and at others it touched my heart. Although we are offered a peek into the lives of Orthodox Jews, one does not feel voyeuristic at all. And the beauty of the Torah and Talmud shines through every page. But you definitely do not have to be Jewish to enjoy this book. I have lent my copy to several friends and they have all loved it. "Seven Blessings" is a universal story.

JANA

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic of American Jewish Literature, December 20, 2004

By 

Robert Avrech "Robert J. Avrech" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Blessings: A Novel (Paperback)

Something is happening to Jewish literature. Something very good. The old, tired voices are, at last, being replaced by a new generation of authentic Jewish writers. In the past, Jewish American novelists could be counted on for their cooly polished prose, yet their world view was deeply nihilistic and almost always anti-religious--often bordering on a kind of Wahabi secularism. The work of writers such as Roth, Bellow, Mailer, is infused with a hatred of traditional Judaism. Roth's childish fixation on the unattainable shicksah registers to contemporary Jewish youth like prehistoric drawings. Mailer's sexual fixations are merely crude and ugly. Bellow is simply professorial. Yawn. Naturally, the cultural elite elevated these mediocrities to heroic levels. A few great writers refused to go along with this cultural self-loathing: Chaim Grade, Cynthia Ozick, and for their efforts they were often marginalized.

Ruchama King is one of a new generation of Jewish American writers who are not embarrassed by traditional Judaism. Her voice is literary without resorting to fashionable cynisim. Nor does she define her Judaism as based on victimhood. No, her characters are unabashedly proud of being Jewish. And Ms. King's love for them makes this first novel a joy to read from beginning to end.

"Seven Blessings" is an amazing novel. In prose as sharp as a diamond Ms. King dissects the lives of observant Jews in Jerusalem and their heart-breaking search for love. Ms. King's characters do not go to bars or clubs to hook up; these men and woman, modern in every way, choose to follow the age-old tradition of using a matchmaker to help move the process of along.

The mark of great storytelling is simple: Do you care about the fate of the characters? And in the end, do you feel that your life has been enriched. To all these questions I give a resounding yes. I recommend this fine novel not only for Jews but for people of all faiths and races; for in the details of the lives that Ms. King writes about, you will, no doubt, recognize your beliefs and your eternal search for love.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yentel in the 21st Century, March 23, 2004

By 

Nancy R. Katz "NancyK18" (NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Blessings: A Novel (Hardcover)

In the show and movie, Fiddler on the Roof, one of the songs includes the words, "A blessing on your head, mazel tov, mazel tov! To see your daughter wed, mazel tov! mazel tov!" I feel safe in saying that parents all over the world feel blessed when their children marry and take their place in society as a happy couple. But what of the women and men who reach middle age and haven't found their soul mates? And what if this society not only insists on marriage but that the couple be fruitful and multiply? Enter the world of Seven Blessings by Ruchama King which is set in Israel among Orthodox Jews. Readers of this book will quickly be entranced as I was by the unmarried men and women in this book along with the time honored profession of matchmaking.

Among the matchmakers we meet are Tsippi, a mother and grandmother who has survived the concentration camps and who seeks greater contact with her studious husband. Then there is Judith, an American born woman who is married to a Rabbi and who would like to able to study Talmud like her husband. The two women's efforts at this time are solely concentrated on Beth who at 39 has moved from America to Israel when her father died. Alone in Israel, Beth is painfully aware that time is running out and soon even the matchmakers won't be there to help her. When she is introduced to Akiva, she wonders if this will be her last chance.

This was a thought provoking book which I highly recommend. King's descriptions of the prospect of being forever single in a married world are illuminating. And if we are captivated by Beth's plight, we also feel for her matchmakers. Gone is the frivolity of the matchmakers portrayed in movies such as Fiddler on the Roof and other films or books. In Seven Blessings the matchmakers are presented as hardworking and well intentioned women whose job it is to match people and see them married according to the laws of Moses. Even the title is well chosen as it refers to the seven blessings recited in Hebrew during a wedding ceremony. I also enjoyed the vivid descriptions of Jerusalem which has me longing to return to a country I have visited in the past. I found this book to be a blessing and look forward to another book by this talented author.