The Orchard

The Orchard by Yochi Brandes, 381 pages.


This fictional account of the life of Rabbi Akiva and the sages and Rabbis living in the first and early second centuries is engrossing and makes the remote past come to life. Brandes does a great job of telling a story that feels real, with a good sense for these historical figures as characters and with a setting that is believable. We read as the Sages and leaders of Israel have to contend with the longstanding disputes between the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Nazarenes. Rabbi Akiva, who started formal study of the Torah in his forties is at the center of the later stages of these struggles, ending with the Bar Kakhba revolt against the Romans, and is, along with his wife, Rachel at the heart of this book. Renowned Rabbis of the era, Rabbi Elisha, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Tarfon, Rabban Gamaliel also play central roles in the narrative.

Many Seconds into the Future: Ten Stories / John J. Clayton 181 pp.

So much for preconceptions. This is an author I had never heard of, published by Texas Tech University Press, part of their Modern Jewish Literature and Culture Series.  I would never have picked this up off a display table (the cover art and overall packaging are not appealing), but the stories were truly lovely.  Seemingly narrow in scope - upper middle-class, middle-aged men, mostly, at turning points in their lives, seeking authenticity.  Sounds boring.  But they had a brisk directness and keen insight that was refreshing.  My favorites were "Getting out in One Piece," a celebration of the impact of an eccentric aunt on her nephew, struggling to escape a dysfunctional family, and "Reading to Jacob" in which an agnostic man mourns the loss of his observant younger brother.

It's to Clayton's credit that he handles a topic nearly guaranteed to provoke my gag reflex - that of the comfortable man who can't keep certain parts of his anatomy to himself - with sensitivity and even cleverness.