A review by brianlokker
Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red by Harry Kemelman
4.0
In Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red, Rabbi David Small accepts an offer to teach a course in Jewish Thought and Philosophy at Windemere Christian College in Boston. If you’ve read any of the books in the Rabbi Small Mysteries series (this is the fifth), you know that this is right up the rabbi’s alley. He believes that a rabbi’s primary role is to be a teacher.
He is disappointed to discover that most of his students enrolled in his class because it’s considered an easy A. What’s more, the majority of the students regularly cut the Friday afternoon session of the class. In order to overcome his frustration, he has to work harder than he expected to engage the students.
Things take an unexpected turn when another professor is found dead after an explosion. The police suspect some of Rabbi Small’s students of planting the bomb, but the rabbi doesn’t agree that the facts support the official position. As he has done in the past, he applies his Talmudic reasoning skills and his acute powers of observation to help solve the case.
Listening to Rabbi Small expound on Jewish thought is one of the best aspects of the books in this series, and this one is no exception. Teaching at a (nominally) Christian college provides an opportunity for him to teach his students about some of the differences that he sees between Judaism and Christianity. He is very respectful of Christianity but quite naturally prefers the Jewish approach.
He tells his students that “‘Christianity is … other-worldly, heaven-oriented, while our religion is this-world oriented. We oppose what is evil in the world and enjoy the good things, spiritual and material, it has to offer.’” “‘Christianity is a very pleasant religion. It offers a number of highly desirable responses to questions that have beset man down through the ages. He fears death and finds life too short, and the church offers him a world after death with a life everlasting. All we can offer in that respect is the hope that he will live on in his children and in the memory of his friends.’” When a student questions the benefit of that worldview, he says, “‘It doesn’t permit us to dodge problems, but it does help us to solve them, if only by recognizing they exist.’”
Maybe this explains why Rabbi Small takes such an interest in, and is so good, at solving crimes.
I’ve been enjoying the books in this series, and Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red is no exception. I did guess the identity of the perpetrator quite a while before it was revealed, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. It’s a pleasant mystery story (to the extent that any story involving murder can be described as “pleasant”) with interesting insights into Jewish thought and culture added to the mix.
He is disappointed to discover that most of his students enrolled in his class because it’s considered an easy A. What’s more, the majority of the students regularly cut the Friday afternoon session of the class. In order to overcome his frustration, he has to work harder than he expected to engage the students.
Things take an unexpected turn when another professor is found dead after an explosion. The police suspect some of Rabbi Small’s students of planting the bomb, but the rabbi doesn’t agree that the facts support the official position. As he has done in the past, he applies his Talmudic reasoning skills and his acute powers of observation to help solve the case.
Listening to Rabbi Small expound on Jewish thought is one of the best aspects of the books in this series, and this one is no exception. Teaching at a (nominally) Christian college provides an opportunity for him to teach his students about some of the differences that he sees between Judaism and Christianity. He is very respectful of Christianity but quite naturally prefers the Jewish approach.
He tells his students that “‘Christianity is … other-worldly, heaven-oriented, while our religion is this-world oriented. We oppose what is evil in the world and enjoy the good things, spiritual and material, it has to offer.’” “‘Christianity is a very pleasant religion. It offers a number of highly desirable responses to questions that have beset man down through the ages. He fears death and finds life too short, and the church offers him a world after death with a life everlasting. All we can offer in that respect is the hope that he will live on in his children and in the memory of his friends.’” When a student questions the benefit of that worldview, he says, “‘It doesn’t permit us to dodge problems, but it does help us to solve them, if only by recognizing they exist.’”
Maybe this explains why Rabbi Small takes such an interest in, and is so good, at solving crimes.
I’ve been enjoying the books in this series, and Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red is no exception. I did guess the identity of the perpetrator quite a while before it was revealed, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. It’s a pleasant mystery story (to the extent that any story involving murder can be described as “pleasant”) with interesting insights into Jewish thought and culture added to the mix.