Review--Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage: Folktales, Legends, and Letters

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Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage: Folktales, Legends, and LettersJewish Stories of Love and Marriage: Folktales, Legends, and Letters by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A delightful treat (it would make a perfect Tu B'Av gift [http://bit.ly/2bCQSNe]) about love and marriage, highlighted by letters between lovers, and lovely people sharing tales of their courtships. It starts, of course, with the first couple matched by G-d, Adam and Eve, and follows Jewish tales of love and marriage down through the Bible, the Rabbinic Period, folktales and more up to modern times. There are stories from the Shoah and stories from Israel, stories of rabbis who marry one another, and stories of soldiers who don't come home. The book is inclusive, with stories of love that cross gender lines.

The People of the Book are also the People of Romance, sometimes with a little nudge from a friend, a mother, or even with heavenly intervention. After all, when Rabbi Yosi was asked what God has been doing since the six days of Creation, the answer was, "Matching couples."


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