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Inside The Cover
Book Reviews
The
Biblical story of Jephte is in Judges 11-12:7.
Naomi Ragen weaves an intricate web of love, treachery,
despair, hope, and triumph in this fascinating story. Batsheva HaLevi is the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and
influential Orthodox Jewish American family.
Following ancient traditions, her father arranges a marriage to Isaac
Harshen, a handsome, brilliant Torah scholar.
Even before the marriage, she sees flashes of coldness in her prospective
groom, but passes them off as inconsequential.
She agrees to the match, and to living in Israel, far from
familiar faces and places. Batsheva, reared in the loving warmth of a devoted family, is
transplanted into a foreign world of strict religious customs and inflexible
family roles. Soon after the wedding, the dismayed bride realizes that
Isaac, steeped in tradition, seems to be more in love with a warped sense of
Godliness than he is with her. Isaac,
unable to relinquish his restrictive notions of propriety, grows colder,
harsher, and more brutal with his unhappy wife, until she takes their son and
escapes, in an apparent suicide. The story grows tense as Batsheva surfaces in London,
rebuilds her shattered life, and at last stands trial before the Beit Din in
Jerusalem. Her eventual victory is
the triumph of truth, in the face of an evil that seems to have all the answers...
except the right one. This
story is about the interplay of love, justice, and religious obligation.
Ragen’s love of God and Judaism shines through, even as she questions a
system that sometimes places the appearance of purity above the joy of true
worship. This book explores areas
that most religious people avoid. Refusing
to accept pious assumptions and dogma, she invites readers into her mind and
heart as she digs for genuine, personal religion. Jephte’s
Daughter,
based on a news story in a Jerusalem newspaper, explores domestic violence
within the context of ultra-religious Jewish homes. In powerful, clear language, Ragen examines inflexible
customary roles of men and women in the Haredi community. More than a story about one woman’s experience, Jephte’s
Daughter is a tribute to the resilience of women everywhere.
As a domestic violence specialist, I recommend this book to professionals
in human services and religious fields, and to anyone who just likes a delicious
story! Visit the author’s website at www.naomiragen.com. ORDER THE BOOK BY CLICKING HERE. Andrea and her husband Charles live in the mountains of western North Carolina, with three cats and a shaggy black dog. God has blessed her with good health, many interests and a loving family, including four children and five grandchildren. She's a freelance writer and a community educator for a domestic violence agency. |
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Jephte’s
Daughter
