A Guest Post by Dr Harold Goldmeier
The Life and Times of Rabbi Akiva ben
Yosef
50 CE to 135 CE
A BOOK REVIEW OF
THE
ORCHARD
Yochi Brandes with
Translation by Daniel Libenson
Gefen Publishing
English-language copyright 2017
ISBN: 978-229-930-7
Judaism has no heroes except God.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are mortals in Jewish tradition renown for accepting
and spreading monotheism. They lived according to Torah values in an age
dominated by whim and unbridled passions.
None is more a hero than
Moses. Yet, sins and petulance prevent
Moses from entering the Promised Land despite being the only human to see the
face of God. Jewish heroes must
demonstrate to the people an unwavering faith in One God and willingness to lead
their people and die for them if need be.
Popular Israeli novelist Yochi
Brandes tells the life story of Akiva in an intriguing fiction format
frequently from the point of view of women in his life The Orchard. Akiva is destined to become one of Judaism’s heroes,
but Brandes does not treat Akiva with kid gloves. Brandes portrays Akiva overly
devout, and willing to sacrifice his children to a life of abject poverty. His
wife must go to the marketplace and sell goods. She is so lonely she laments
feeling like an agunah, while Akiva is away for years, living “in the bubble of
Torah. Nothing interests him.”
What is a novel without intrigue
and Brandes does not disappoint. Akiva is thrust into a tenacious web of power
struggles between rabbis, an angry rich father-in-law and the daughter who
defies him to marry Akiva, internecine fights dragooning Akiva to choose sides
between rabbis who are his mentors, friends, chevrusas and scholars he admires.
Prestiege and power are on the line for winning control of houses of learning
that set the path for Jewish philosophy, hermeneutics, exegesis and precepts
for eternity.
Then there is living under the yoke
of Roman occupation, the spreading “message of Jesus to the Romans. Crowds of
(Jews) flocked to him. That’s what brought about his end. The mass appeal of
the Nazarenes is a threat to the empire, then and now.”
As early as page 19, Brandes lets
readers feel the love Akiva has for God in an erogenous exchange with his wife
and lover. She visits Akiva in his solitude while living in a cave learning the
secrets of Torah and fomenting a love of God. She constantly pushes Akiva to
become the giant Torah scholar she knows is his potential:
“I move closer and sit down beside
him, my legs touching his. He takes my hand and places it in the hollow into
which the water is flowing. My fingers are on fire, a shiver runs down my
spine…We sit for a few moments without speaking. I lean my head toward him. I
watch him, not wanting the silence to end. But he makes that odd statement
again: ‘I love God.’ My throat tightens. I never before imagined that a person
could be jealous of God. Feel the silence, Rachel.” She is relentless wanting
Akiva to learn the Torah, and takes the opportunity to compel in the pursuit.
In a climax the turning point in his life, Rachel persuades Akiva, to let Torah
“penetrate into your heart. He smiles, and the smile reaches his eyes. I know
that I have done it.”
Akiva pays the price for the Jewish
rebellion with a chilling description of his torture and death. Despite all
odds it is Akiva who lives in history as a Jewish hero, his name revered
throughout the ages for he believed “The State of Judea will live in security
from the desert in the south to the Lebanon in the north,” with the Roman
defeat by Bar Kokhba.
On a final note, some readers may
recall the controversy surrounding a two-volume book, Making of a Godol, published in 2002, and authored by Rabbi Nathan
Kamenetsky. The book was about the life of his esteemed father. The book was
banned in the Orthodox world and pulled. Leading rabbis condemned it being
disrespectful to the lives of rabbinic leaders, because it shared tidbits about
them reading newspapers, Russian books in his father’s youth, a “sore loser” at
chess. The book humanized his father.
I can imagine what these 21st
century censors might do if any of them read The Orchard. Brandes might face demonstrators outside her home, or
even death threats for her realistic presentation of the life of Rabbi Akiva.
These censors still argue today against the vision of Akiva asking, “What led
Rabbi Akiva to drag the nation of Israel into a pointless and unwinnable war?”
------------------------------------------------------
