JANUARY 27 • 2022 | 51

thinking do not often con-
sider what Kanye West did 
when presenting an award 
to Taylor Swift at the 2009 
Video Music Awards — 
interrupting her presenta-
tion to imply that Beyonce 
deserved the award. Levine 
judges Kanye West’s opinion 
correct — Beyonce deserved 
the award — but the action 
inappropriate. 
Levine uses this incident 
to illuminate the complex 
Talmudic discussion of a 
Kohen who seizes the agri-
cultural tax that the farmer, 
by law, must donate to a 
Kohen of the farmer’s choice. 
If the court allows the Kohen 
to keep his ill-gotten gains, 
the farmer loses his right to 
choose a recipient, a right 
that perhaps should have no 
significant value. The farmer 
must not get paid for choos-
ing one Kohen over another. 
Still, the court does extract 
the tax from the Kohen, 
according to Tosfos, as 
explained by Levine, because 
“grabbing is simply not the 
appropriate course of action.” 
 
Many writers could evoke 
pop culture and sports to 
illustrate Talmudic dis-
cussions and still write 
desert-dry prose. Levine’s 
jazzy, improvisational and 
eccentric diction succeeds in 
conveying his meaning while 
inspiring an amused smile or 
even a good belly laugh. 
But this book is not for 
everyone. 
One limitation comes 
because Levine sprinkles his 
text with a generous supply 
of Hebrew and Aramaic 
terms and names, transliter-
ated in Ashkenazic pronun-
ciation. 

Levine assumes his reader 
has at least some level of 
familiarity with the terms of 
Jewish law, with the sages of 
the Talmud and later contrib-
utors to rabbinic literature. 
A second limitation comes 
from the opposite direction: 
Some people who know 
which end of a Talmud is up 
have kept away from popu-
lar culture. They might feel 
lost or offended by Levine’s 
examples. 
The final limitation: Your 
reader has to have a sense of 
playfulness. I would not ask a 
somber person to try to read 
this book.
But, if you can navigate 
through a little Talmud, 
know some sports or pop 
culture and have a sense of 
humor, do yourself a favor 
and get a copy of Are You 
Sure? While you are at it, get 
some as presents for other 
folks who fit the description. 
This is a happy book. 
Reading it makes me smile. 
One aspect of the book, how-
ever, inspires sad thoughts. 
In a few years, the 
Talmudic analysis will still 
come across as fresh and 
accessible; anyone who stud-
ies Talmud would find them 
useful. By then the references 
to sports and popular culture 
may have become as obscure 
as anything in the Talmud; 
people might need detailed 
historical notes to make any 
sense of them at all. 
The legal analysis in this 
book will retain relevance for 
decades, while other parts 
might become incomprehen-
sible. Maybe that will create 
opportunities for future 
scholars. 

IF ONLY LIFE WERE AS EASY AS PIE
IF ONLY LIFE WERE AS EASY AS PIE

MUSIC HALL • MARCH 15-20, 2022

MUSIC BY SARA BAREILLES
(“LOVE SONG,” “BRAVE”)

ON SALE NOW

BroadwayInDetroit.com | Ticketmaster.com | Box Office

Groups (10+) BroadwayInDetroitGroups@theambassadors.com (subject: Waitress) • OC - March 18 - 8:00pm

Love Lift US Up

Opens Tuesday February 1-13, 2022 Fisher Theatre
BROADWAYINDETROIT.COM | TICKETMASTER.COM | BOX OFFICE

Groups (10+) BroadwayInDetroitGroups@theambassadors.com (subject: An Officer and a Gentleman)
OC open-caption performance February 6 at 7:30PM