The Shabbath Lion [СУББОТНИЙ ЛЕВ]

Description

By Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rash

When Yosef’s widowed mother receives an inheritance, the 10-year-old offers to travel across the dangerous desert from Algiers to Egypt to collect the money. The caravan owner refuses to stop travel on the Sabbath and Yosef, who could never disobey the laws of the Sabbath, elects to stay in the desert by himself. Come, 0 Sabbath Queen, and bring peace and blessing on thy wing, Joseph prays with all his heart, and he is sent a magnificent tawny lion who guards him and leads him triumphantly to Cairo. Commentary on the customs of Jewish Sabbath celebrations are appended at the back of the book. Fieser’s paintings with their purple-tinged clouds, stylized faces and green skies evoke a mythical past, but the didactic text, which insists on the importance of keeping a promise and obedience to religious laws, may limit the book’s appeal.

About the Author:

Howard Schwartz is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has published three books of poetry, and several books of fiction, including The Captive Soul of the Messiah and Adam’s Soul. He has also edited a four-volume set of Jewish folktales, which includes Elijah’s Violin & Other Jewish Fairy Tales, Miriam’s Tambourine: Jewish Folktales from Around the World, Lilith’s Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural and, most recently, Gabriel’s Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales. He has also edited three major anthologies: Imperial Messages: One Hundred Modern Parables, Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets (with Anthony Rudolf), and Gates to the New City: A Treasury of Modern Jewish Tales. His recent book, Reimagining the Bible: The Storytelling of the Rabbis, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award for 1999. In addition, Schwartz has also published ten children’s books, including The Diamond Tree (with Barbara Rush, which won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in 1992), Next Year in Jerusalem: 3000 Years of Jewish Tales (which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Aesop Award of the American Folklore Society, both in 1996), A Coat for the Moon (with Barbara Rush, which won Anne Izard Storyeller’s Choice Award for 1998 and the 1999 Honor Title of the Storytelling World Awards, and The Day the Rabbi Disappeared: Jewish Holiday Tales of Magic (which won the National Jewish Book Award and The Aesop Prize of the American Folklore Society for 2000). His major book, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, won the National Jewish Book Award for 2005 in the category of Reference. Schwartz lives in St. Louis with his wife Tsila, a calligrapher, and his three children, Shira, Nathan and Miriam.