{"product_id":"fools-kabbalah","title":"Fool's Kabbalah","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the ruins of postwar Europe, the world's leading expert on the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism goes on a hair-raising journey to recover sacred books stolen by the Nazis . . .\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the end of the Second World War Gershom Scholem, the magisterial scholar of Jewish mysticism, is commissioned by the Hebrew University in what was then British-ruled Palestine to retrieve a lost world. He is sent to sift through the rubble of Europe in search of precious Jewish books stolen by the Nazis or hidden by the Jews themselves in secret places throughout the ravaged continent. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe search takes him into ruined cities and alien wastelands. The terrible irony of salvaging books that had outlasted the people for whom they'd been written leaves Dr. Scholem longing for the kind of magic that had been the merely theoretical subject of his lamplit studies. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSteve Stern's \u003ci\u003eA Fool's Kabbalah\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel featuring numerous real-life historic figures, reimagines Gershom Scholem's quest and how it sparked in him the desire to realize the legacy of his dear friend, the brilliant philosopher Walter Benjamin. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt the heart of that legacy was the idea that humor is an essential tool of redemption. In a parallel narrative, Menke Klepfisch, self-styled jester and incorrigible scamp, attempts to subvert, through his antic behavior, the cruelties of the Nazi occupation of his native village. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Menke's efforts collide with the monstrous reality of the Holocaust, we see--in another place and time--evidence that Dr. Scholem, in defiance of his austere reputation, has begun to develop the anarchic characteristics of a clown. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Fool's Kabbalah\u003c\/i\u003e intertwines the stories of these 2 quixotic characters, who, though poles apart, complement one another in their tragicomic struggles to oppose the supreme evil of history, using only the weapons of humor and a little magic.","brand":"Steve Stern","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46336455508204,"sku":"9781685891657","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9781685891657.jpg?v=1743680545","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/fools-kabbalah","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}