Friday the Rabbi Slept Late

This is a charming portrait of a Jewish community. Rabbi David Small is not quite thirty. He is to use the Din Torah method of settling an argument between two members of his congregation and angers an influential member of the temple board of directors in the process. His contract renewal is jeopardized as is the gift the board members were considering of granting him, a cash payment of about ten percent of his first year salary. Small fears there is no role for him in a modern Jewish community since he is not a go-getter. He had sought the role of a traditional rabbi. Jacob Wasserman cautions David to give the community a chance. Wasserman had been instrumental in starting a Hebrew School and afterwards the synagogue. Now there are over three hundred families to serve and a lot of differences of opinion. Rabbi Small is not imposing. Wasserman selected him among the applicants for his courage and conviction, not for his abilities, he had none, as a dynamic executive. Small knows the congregation needs him. The body of Elspeth Bleech, a servant hailing from Nova Scotia, is found on the temple property. After assisting the police, the rabbi does have his contract renewed, although David questions the means since he feels that he has gotten in through the back door. To counter rising anti-semitism in the community, the leading selectmen ask the rabbi to participate in the blessing of the fleet, an event the chamber of commerce dreamed up several years earlier, (Barnard's Crossing has a number of yacht clubs). Small refuses, explaining that prayers in Judaism are rarely petitionary. It turns out that the rabbi has nearly the powers of ratiocination of a Sherlock Holmes.

Throughout the series, Rabbi David Small has his own problems. There is always a battle to whether his contract is renewed or not, and he's often in conflic with social or political desires of his congregation. The contrast is that Rabbi Small does deeply care, but in his own way. He cares deeply about justice and Jewish law, and follows his own ethics and beleifs. If he feels his congregation is off track, he tells them, and opposes things no matter what the cost might be to himself. Don't get me wrong; he very well might have been the wrong Rabbi for the community. In many ways, he was suited to a different age. Temples, like churchs and other social clubs, have needs and desires. Rabbi Small was kind of a throwback to a different age, and may not have been the right man for that community. It's easy to see how a principled man like Rabbi Small would not fit in; when he took a stand it was for a reason, and he wasn't much for bending a little to make a friend or save his job. Over the course of the books it's also shown he has an affinity for younger jews, best described in Monday the Rabbi Took Off. During a Sabbath dinner, he argued on points with a college student. Afterwards, the student told his father he liked Rabbi Small. They may have disagreed on issues, but Rabbi Small neither pandered or lectured him - he treated him like an adult worthy of respect. Rabbi Small's first adventure found himself as a suspect - because the murder victim's purse was found in his car. Suspicion shifted away to him to one of his flock, but the Rabbi pointed out things in his member's favor - which went right back at him. What he showed was an unwaring bias for the truth - as well as logic and interpretation of the facts. He even told the police chief that just because he was a Rabbi didn't mean he should throw out his common sense. If there is a weakness to the book, it was that the mystery was too easy to solve by the reader. The same thing which triggered Rabbi Small's suspicions was the same flag which led me to the correct solution. Still, it was a fun book, and a great introduction to a great series of books.

I found Harry Kemelman's Friday at a library while looking for something else. I read this book "way back when" and remembered enjoying it. On a whim, I checked the book out and it sat for a while before I decided to take a look at it. I finished it in two sittings. Is it an intellectual masterpiece? No. Is it damned entertaining? Absolutely! I plan to visit the weekdays with Rabbi Small beginning very soon. If you've never read this series, do so. If you read it a while ago, read it again.

There's no need for me to recap the story- others have done it already. I do believe that some reviewers of this book, and other books in the series , have missed the point. Rabbi David Small is not a detective who enters a crime scene, recreates the events in his head and presents the police with the killer. He is a student, and a teacher. He is a man who has trained himself to think "outside the box" as the term is now. That is how he manages to lead the police to the criminal.Another fantastic element of these books is the insight into the Jewish religion. As a gentile (and Protestant Christian) I may not agree with all of the rabbi's beliefs, but I can, and should, respect them. In a foreward to the new editions The late author explained why he began writing about a rabbi who was often in conflict with his congregation. It was because many people of his faith were not aware of the rich heritage or the historical purpose of the rabbi. His agent liked the book but thought he should add a mystery element to it. Thus was born the crime solving rabbi. Do these stories move with the speed of an Agatha Christie yarn? No. They don't even try. Kemmelman tells stories about people- the crime is often secondary. Are they charming and entertaining? Oh, yeah.This is the book to start with. Then hang out with the rabbi on every day of the week. Then SOMEDAY. Then ONE FINE DAY. Then on THE DAY THE RABBI RESIGNED. Then on THE DAY THE RABBI LEFT TOWN. Your only regret will be that Mr. Kemmelman only wrote 11 Rabbi Small mysteries.

A book you cannot stop reading. Rabbi Small is in trouble (as always). He finds himself in the middle of a murder case, and on the other hand his job is in danger too. Fortunately his brilliant brain is still working, the murderer is found just in time. He can keep his job, so the readers can wait to the new misteries.