Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage

August 31, 2015
Rabbi Sasso and storyteller Schram, in a synergistic collaboration, have created an engaging compilation of Jewish love letters and love stories. Beginning with tales about the love relationships of biblical couplings (many interwoven with rabbinic midrash), the book also includes Jewish folktales about courtship, fascinating love letters by Jewish historical figures, and a diverse collection of contemporary stories of meeting, loving, and joining in marriage. The collection highlights both the differences and the commonalities between present-day and past experiences of love and marriage. In part a celebration of modern, romantic love, this book is also about the covenantal relationship between members of a couple (with same-sex couples explicitly included), as well as love's subtleties, conflicts, and hardships. The book concludes with a chapter designed to help a couple to write their own love story. Likely to appeal to a broad range of readers, the book is of particular value to those celebrating a wedding or anniversary.

August 1, 2015
To some, love stories can be boring, repetitive, and unrealistic. Not so with these stories. The editors collect tales from the Bible, folklorists, and contemporary sources to provide a tapestry of tales that reminds us that love is love, and it can grow in surprising places. Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike will appreciate how the love stories are grounded in Jewish identity but in a way that covers a multitude of relationships, whether between two women or in an arranged marriage. From Miriam standing up to Moses and being revered for her wisdom to a woman whose first meeting with her husband convinced her he was a jerk, the stories in the collection repeatedly return to the theme of bashert, or destiny: God is in his heaven, and he is making matches. It's a sweet reminder that every love story is as special as the individuals who make it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)