Tai

Book

A Magical Tale And
A Book That's Positively
For The Dogs

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

The Day The Rabbi Disap-
peared by Howard Schwartz, with
illustrations by Monique Passicot
1 (Viking, $15.99).

1 The Blessing of the
I Animals, story and pictures
1 by Michael Rosen (Farrar,
Straus, Giroux, $15).

I

Michael Rosen is an
I absolutely delightful illustrator.
1 His pictures are charming,
just wonderful, And with his
writing in this book, he man-
I ages an almost unimaginable
feat: he offends virtually
everyone.
He makes a Holocaust survivor
sound petty, a Reform rabbi sound
like a nitwit, a cantor sound senile
and as for those who believe that
human beings and animals are,
I well, not exactly on the sameleve
— why these folks are just plain
insensitive.
The story concerns a Jewish boy
named Jared who wants to get a
blessing for his dog, Shayna. It's time
for the neighborhood St. Francis Festi-
val, where the local priest will bless
all the animals and everyone will
enjoy a potluck dinner and parade.
Jared naturally knows about St. Fran-
. i cis — "how. could anyone not know
about St. Francis?" the book asks —
(just in case you don't: he's the
I Catholic Church's patron saint of
1 animals), but apparently Jared
knows virtually nothing about his
I own faith since he spends days try-
1 ing to figure out if Shayna should
1 receive the blessing.
At his congregation, Jared talks to
his teacher, Mr. Goldfarb, a Holo-

"

1

1 What a gem of a book.
This is a collection of mysterious and
enthralling Jewish stories. Each is a
magical tale to complement a holi-
day, including Purim, Shavuot, Shab-
1 bat and Yom Kippur. Not only are
1 there disappearing rabbis, you'll learn
about mystical candles, paradise and
an enchanted - menora.
Each story is brief, a page or two,
and followed by very interesting infor-
1 mation about the holiday and where
,
tnesstory came from, about relevant
history and the real people who fig-
: ure in the tale.
Howard Schwartz, a professor at
1 the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is
I known for his many Jewish folklore
1 anthologies and other works. As with
each of his previous books, The Day
The Rabbi Disappeared is a collection
you will love.

caust survivor, who promptly
chides him, "It is not good to
use the word 'dog' with the
word 'Jew.' In concentration
camps, the Nazis called us 'Jew-
ish dogs. -
So Jared turns to his rabbi,
who (mercifully) responds fairly-
sensitively that dogs are
already part of God's world,
that they do not require any
special blessing.
(Incidentally, it's difficult to dis-
cern this family's affiliation. They
go to a temple, do not keep
kosher or observe
Shabbat in any
way, yet their rabbi
always wears a
yarmulke and later
another rabbi, not
at this temple, is
said to offer the
not-so-Orthodox"
view.)
Jared's mother's sis-
ter, "Aunt Cynthy,"
has children that
attend a school where "they experi-
ence a few Jewish and a few Christ-
ian holidays ... and they also give up
certain foods during lunch to honor
Muslim Ramadan." They also share in
the Chinese New Year, and in the
Buddhist Water Festival ... when the
class has a water fight in the parking
lot with hoses and waterballoons
and giant squirt guns.
Aunt Cynthy advises Jared other-
wise. By all means, she says, get the
dog a Catholic blessing!
Another rabbi ("he's the Reform
rabbi" the mother tells Jared) says
ared that he should do whatever he
wants.
By now, your head is prObably
reeling.
Most of all, you really don't care if
this boy gets his dog a blessing or
not. You just want them gone, gone,
gone from your life.
Incidentally, Jared decides not to
take Shayna for the blessing, but he-
does participate in the parade.
Somebody, get this family a
therapist.

I

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