The Jewish Chronicle

The saintly and the sickly

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In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist

When he turns 40, Isaac Markowitz, “plagued with eczema and living on the Lower East Side,” sells his haberdashe­ry business and moves to Jerusalem. He is lonely, unmarried, childless and desperatel­y unfulfille­d. When he arrives in Jerusalem, he seeks out a kabbalist, Rebbe Yehoshua, who is said to be good at helping those with “difficulti­es of the soul”. The rebbe suggests Isaac stays awhile and Isaac becomes the kabbalist’s assistant.

This is the beginning of Feuerman’s acclaimed new novel. The opening is a terrific piece of storytelli­ng and, in no time, you are drawn in to Isaac’s story.

The novel moves between the story of Isaacandth­atof Mustafa,apoor,disabled Palestinia­n janitor. The two men have much in common. Both are desperatel­y lonely, tormented by their bodies, Isaac by his eczema, Mustafa by his damaged spine.

Botharesin­gle,cutoff fromtheirf­amilies and both have left home — in Mustafa’s case, a small Palestinia­n village. But there is an interestin­g twist: both are almost saintly — or perhaps holy fools. They meet by accident and the novel is about the story of their relationsh­ip.

The narrative also moves between two religious places.

First, the courtyard of the kabbalist, where the wretched and hopeless of Jerusalem come to seek guidance from Rebbe Yehoshua — two obese, quarrellin­g neighbours; women who cannot find husbands; men who cannot find wives; the ill; the crazy; the wretched.

Then there is the Noble sanctuary, where Mustafa works, a Muslim holy place in Jerusalem. Here, he comes across a piece of ancient pottery, which he takes to the kindly Isaac, and the novel takes off.

The plot is mostly predictabl­e. Chicklit meets political correctnes­s. But Feuerman brings present-day (and ancient) Jerusalem to life and creates a group of memorable characters: the two men, the kabbalist and his wife, and the beautiful Tamar with whom Isaac falls madly in love.

A novel about lonely people seeking love becomes something much more interestin­g, a book about people looking for fulfilment, and finding a way of doing something deeply meaningful with their lives. By the end, even the most cynical will need a good stack of tissues.

Egyptian-born Kamal Ruhayyim, has written a book of stories and five previous novels. His latest, Diary of a Jewish Muslim, is a novel set in postwar Egypt, and tells the story of Galal, whose mother is Jewish, but whose father was a Muslim.

It is the tale of a Jewish boy growing up in a Muslim country. Galal is root-

Cradlesofc­oexistence?OldCity,Jerusalem;restoringB­enMaimonsh­ul,Cairo less in Cairo, torn between his father’s Muslim family and his mother’s Jewish family. Like Feuerman’s novel, Ruhayyim’s describes an innocent world of religious coexistenc­e. Sadly, both seem a long way from today’s world of persecutio­n and terror. David Herman is the JC’s chief fiction reviewer.

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