Customer Reviews

The Temple of Hashem

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The author, Hyam Yona Becker succeeds in presenting a story
which could be embraced by an interfaith constituency. Fortunately,
the volume contains an extensive glossary of Hebrew terms to
instruct non-Jews. Important terms are Chumash, kipa,
minchak, mitzvah and others. With the glossary, an interfaith
readership is able to review the book and understand its contents.

The book opens in the midst of the main character dreaming of a
great escape from a squad of Palestinian commandos.
The main character, Shlomo Tzadok is an archeology professor at the
University of Tel Aviv who is contemplating Torah research on a full
time basis. The government calls upon him to join a small
expedition to an Israeli-partitioned part of Antarctica. Originally,
Tzadok is reluctant; however, he agrees to do so in order to help
a Jewish Eskimo named Enki. The Jewish Eskimo is described as
probably the only native born Inkachu, Eskimo to be circumcised in
all of Greenland. Ultimately, the team finds Enki
who leads them through ice caps into a hidden canyon where they
discover the Temple of HaShem.

Numerous passages describe the Temple of HaSham. i.e.

"He looked up at this magnificent structure, the Temple of HaShem,
which the Nfm clones had built for the Kilian religion during the past
4000 years. Its ivory towers sparkled in the late morning sun. "

[Library of the Temple]
" Unused for centuries and covered thick with dust an ancient archive
of scrolls lay upon rows of shelves awaiting his 20th century
archeological analysis...
Tzadok cautiously unrolled one of the parchments. These were
certainly much older than the Dead Sea Scrolls, yet better preserved."

The work has a touch of science fiction. i.e.
" What was your original mission? Just that. To plant the seed of
Torah in earthlings. "

The author succeeds in transcending other stories not far from these
themes. i.e. Chariots of the Gods, Raiders of the Lost Ark
I'm not certain whether or not he should have introduced science fiction into the book. Science fiction is best done by a specialist in the area ; such as, Isaac Asimov.

Nonetheless, the author succeeds in creating an interesting story
in the belles lettres style of writing. He succeeds in creating
enough adventure and suspense in the presentation to satisfy the
thirst of the readership. The Yiddish vocabulary enrichens the
presentation for non-Jews.

The work would be perfect for a general readership. The author
should attempt to get the book onto high school or collegiate required reading lists in order to increase sales and exposure of Israeli literature to non-Jews.

by Dr. Joseph S. Maresca