Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry

Excellence in genre-writing should not be taken for granted. Kemelman's work is as smooth as butter. It is economical. He is a master at writing to give the reader understanding of his rabbi's mores and those of the temple congregation of the Conservative branch of Judaism. In terms of an extra fill-up of tribalism and atmosphere, there is the fact that the setting of the stories is coastal Massachusetts, portrayed aptly and excellently. Barnard's Crossing is a place of small tradespeople and on-the-make owners and managers of rather substantial businesses in the technology sector. The central character is a dreamy, scholarly, traditional sort of religious leader hailing from a family of rabbis. David Small's relationship with the president of the temple board is rocky. Schwartz is a middle-aged architect who has felt thwarted in the pursuit of his professional activities. David's experience as the son of a rabbi positions him to deal with difficult members of the congregation. Judaism emphasizes good behavior, morals, ethics, and there is little alcoholism. There is also reverence for elders. Isaac Hirsh is dead and his connection to Ben Goralsky, the owner of an electronics firm, is not clear. Hirsh's wife wants to have him buried in the temple cemetary. David supports her wish. Alcoholism and the possibility of suicide are matters of importance to the plot. It seems that Hirsh, a mathematician, may have made a mistake in computing causing the stock in Goralsky's company to rise in value in the belief that a new and simpler formula had been discovered. The crime takes place on the Day of Atonement. The mystery has to do with the story of the scapegoat.

I am not a big fan of detective novels, but I read Harry Kemelman's SATURDAY THE RABBI WENT HUNGRY with pleasure because in addition to a mystery/murder plot (which, OK, may not have been the trickiest I ever read)he surrounded the story with a lot of Jewish lore, cultural details of a synagogue's inner workings, and--for me--familiar local detail. It certainly helps to be from Marblehead when you read Kemelman stories because, for the most part, that is where they are set. Like any good author or cinematographer, Kemelman presents his characters and the locale as a pastiche of several individuals and locations, but as he lived in this town for close to 50 years, Marblehead is undoubtedly the fount of most of his inspiration; the source of his observations of human life in a small Yankee town suddenly settled by a considerable Jewish population. The story moves along very well with asides to explain various Jewish traditions and customs. This may have been geared to a different time and generation, when the Jewish religion was still strange and foreign to many Americans on the East Coast. Certainly Kemelman's characters like to use phrases like "you people" and "your Yom Kippur", phrases that I have not heard in many, many years. Times have changed. But this story still stands as a monument to its times, to that period when New England Christians and Jews were still getting to know one another. If you know or want to know a New England town with its various characters, pressures, and patterns, if you want to read an enjoyable story with a Jewish background, then be sure to read this book.