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ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

Around the Family Table: A Comprehensive
Bencher and Companion for Shabbat and Festival
Meals and Other Family Occasions by Rabbi Shlomo

JN

2/24

2005

32

Riskin. Published by Urim Publications
(www.UrimPublications.com). Copyright 2005.
$19.95. 216 pages.
At the Passover seder table, many families enjoy
having their own
Haggadot. Because
various editions are
1z ia# wt;
filled with different
Around the Family Table
commentaries, this
means readers can
contribute both
their own observa-
tions as well as
submit the remarks
contained in their
Haggadot.
In a word, it's
fun.
Now from Rabbi
with insights and Commentary
Shlomo Riskin
bt. 511101110 Ts ai
comes Around the
Family Table,
which is something
like a Shabbat (and
other holiday) ver-
sion of the Passover Haggadah. It has the traditional
Shabbat blessing after the meals, Eishet Chayil (A.
Righteous Woman'), and songs. It also features Rabbi
Riskin's commentary at the bottom of each page,
both his personal observations and compelling infor-
mation about the text.
In a word, it's great.
The wonderful thing about Judaism is that no
matter how much you know, or think you know,
there's always more to learn, because Judaism is so
vibrant it invites conversations and ideas and new
ways of looking at old favorites.
Most families who sing Eishet Chayil, for example,
likely do so as a tribute to the mother-wife's master-
ful job as homemaker. Rabbi Riskin notes, however,
that the song, in its complete form in the Book of
Proverbs, talks about much more than that.
"It is clear from the text," he writes, "that the bib-
lical view of the woman's role was not necessarily to
be fulfilled exclusively in the home; the woman
described here takes care of her household but is
likewise involved in business and agriculture as well
as the pursuit of wisdom and loving-kindness."
He also writes that in Sephardic homes, a custom
exists "for the husband and children to dance

Rabbi Riskin's book on
Shabbat, holidays is a gem for
the Jewish home.

around the woman of the house" while singing Eishet

Chayil.
You won't want to miss Rabbi Riskin's story of his
visit with Reb Shmuel, the bookseller in Meah
She'arim (in the section about Havdalah) or his
retelling of the Chafez Chayim's lesson on the value
of meeting a child's emotional needs (look for the
part on Pidyon haBen, redemption of the first born).

David finds rides throughout Italy and Germany and
finally makes his way to Denmark. All he has to help
him along the way are a compass, a bite of bread and
his desperate desire to continue.
I Am David is recommended for children aged 8-
12, and for the most part both boys and girls will
enjoy reading the book. Most memorable are the
passages in which the author talks about David expe-
riencing average, ordinary events most of us take for
granted — yet which to him are fresh and new
At times, the story does drag (some children may
describe certain passages as "too long") and, of
course, one must supply that most wonderful of
techniques — the willing suspension of disbelief (A
really nice Nazi guard? A boy who has never been
outside the death camps making it on his own?) —
to get through the entire book.

I Am David by Anne Holm. Published by Harcourt

Brace. Original copyright 1963. Paperback. $5.95.
239 pages.
I Am David is now out in theaters (having recently
won awards at several film festivals), which means
you're likely to see the paperback in book stores.
The story is actually not new It was first published
more than 40 years ago in Copenhagen with the first
English translation available in 1965, when it was
called North To Freedom.
The story focuses on a boy named David, 12, who
is a prisoner in a Nazi death camp. David has been
there for as long as he can remember, so he knows
nothing of the outside world.
A guard at the camp has been decent to David,
and one night the guard suggests a way the boy
might escape. The guard promises to create a diver-
sion so that David can climb over the prison wires to
freedom.
At first David is skeptical, but finally he decides to
try to escape and he
succeeds.
At the guard's
recommendation,
David heads north
to Denmark.
Journeying on foot,
David encounters
many adventures.
He saves a girl from
a burning building
and meets an artist
who tells him of a
friend who also has
a son named David
(yes, of course, it
will turn out to be
the same one).
Miraculously,

Kosher Parenting: A Guide for Raising Kids in a
Complex World:
Observations and
A =DE FOR RAISING RIDS IN A COMPLEX WORLD
Reflections of a Jewish
Day School Principal

by Herbert J. Cohen.
HERBERT CO EN
Published by iUniverse
Inc., Lincoln, Neb.
(www. iuniverse. corn).
Copyright 2004.
PARENTING
Paperback. $17.95. 196
pages.
Rabbi Herbert J.
Cohen introduces him-
self as a synagogue
rabbi, teacher,_ school
principal, a man who
has spent "much of his
time advising parents
and their children."
Apparently, all that work has taught him very little.
Some parts of Kosher Parenting are interesting
enough, and even valuable. Rabbi Cohen applies
ideas and values in the Tanach to parenting, and
often peppers his writing with true stories, which,
more often than not, focus on families who have
taken his advice and flourished.
Each section is brief, which means easy enough
reading. But small tidbits of guidance (Rabbi Cohen
advised a girl who felt "totally lost" to "become more
aggressive as a student, and to risk asking silly ques-
tions" and that did the trick) may be of little help to
parents.
All this aside, there are serious problems with
Kosher Parenting that have nothing to do with the
author's ego or benign advice. Key among these is
Rabbi Cohen's approach to discipline.
Leading child psychologists today, from Penelope

KOSHER