Review of Calderon, A Bride for One Night

H-JUDAIC:

Ruth Calderon. A Bride for One Night: Talmud Tales. Trans. Ilana Kurshan. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press; Jewish Publication Society, 2014. xx + 163 pp. ISBN 978-0-8276-1209-9; ISBN 978-0-8276-1164-1; ISBN 978-0-8276-1165-8; ISBN 978-0-8276-1163-4.

Reviewed by Daniel Rosenberg
Published on H-Judaic (September, 2014)
Commissioned by Matthew A. Kraus

Excerpt:

Her retellings are often gems, consistent with the best art of modern midrash of biblical texts, and compelling literary works in their own right. Her writing shows her to be a consummate and sensitive teacher who is deeply learned: in every paragraph of her retellings, explicit references to the full breadth of traditional Talmud study and history resonate to the mind’s ear of the classically and academically trained reader, and yet are presented accessibly and gently to the reader for whom this is the first encounter with them.

But the reviewer does have some reservations about the book from an academic perspective.

More on Ruth Calderon and her book is here and links.