|
Turbulent Souls, Stephen Dubner.
The Hearst Book Group of Canada, 1999
Review
Turbulent Souls, Stephen Dubner
Kabbalah, the system of Jewish mysticism, teaches the concept
called "gilgul", or return of souls. This teaching suggests that
some Jewish souls "lose their way" and find themeslves in non-Jewish
bodies for several generations, through forced conversions, pogroms,
rape, and so on. But eventually, this theory says, the Jewish
soul "comes home" to a Jewish body through conversion. Thus, a
sincere "ger"- Jew-by-choice- is not really a new Jew. They are,
in effect, simply returning the lost Jewish soul to its Jewish
bodily container- this time, theirs.
Does this concept work in reverse? What happens when a Jew is
drawn to another faith? Conversion out of Judaism is a painful
topic, one dealt with powerfully and poetically in Turbulent Souls.
Dubner traces the passionate conversion of both his parents to
Catholicism during the war years, and then unwinds the story of
his own "gilgul", his own trip back to Judaism as the son of observant,
religious Catholics who had once been Jews. Needless to say, it
is a complex and layered story, and Dubner is an excellent writer,
well equipped to tell the tale as a personal journey. Along the
way we meet the Jews who, through their own straight-forwardness,
help him understand his roots. He replants those roots himself,
from his own free will, and the result is the reuniting of two
sides of a family who have not spoken to each other in thirty
years.
Turbulent Souls is fine reading, and leads the reader to probe
more deeply their own journey either away or back again to Judaism,
and to ponder their own soul's manifestation of its Jewish roots.
EG |
|
