The author is a female rabbi in Paris. There are very few women rabbis, and few progressive (called “liberal”) rabbis at all, in France. Horvilleur is the co-leader of France’s Liberal Jewish Movement. This little book was written in French and is now translated into English.
She writes as a progressive religious leader trained to see and help with the suffering of others, but who now — since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequently unrelenting attacks of Israel against the people of Gaza and the West Bank — finds herself in the uncomfortable position of having to defend the Jewish people.
Each chapter is organized and told as a conversation with someone or something, including “With My Pain” (ch. 1), “With My Grandparents” (ch. 2), “With Jewish Paranoia” (ch. 3), “With Israel” (ch. 9), and “With the Messiah” (ch. 10). There are teachings of Torah (Jewish scripture study) combined with cultural references and smart discussions of essential issues.
This is a book for peace, unity, and listening. Often, the author admits to simply not knowing what to say (see the excerpt accompanying this review).
There are frank discussions of antisemitism and how those in civil authority are often unhelpful. For example, Horvilleur recounts a conversation with one of her congregants: “The police knock at the door of my apartment, and they say: 'Ok, what if you took that Mezuzah that’s hanging there down straightaway? And if not, couldn’t you perhaps change the name on your mailbox?' “
The author wrote this book a long time ago, now. First it appeared in France, and then it was translated into English, publishing in the United States early this year. So she does not have the opportunity to reflect on the horrors of what has continued to happen in Gaza over the last twelve months or so. Nevertheless, in the chapter of “Conversation with Israel” she looks at the biblical account of the founding of the people Israel and compares this to the modern State of Israel; she writes, “In my understanding, Judaism is never a matter of might. This doesn’t mean that it is condemned to weakness, but rather that it is strong in its ability to invent itself again out of vulnerability.”
She goes on, presciently: “I am not naïve. I know perfectly well why [Israel] is obsessed with force. You would have to be ignorant both of history and psychology not to understand.” And yet she questions whether the people Israel “can hear the lesson of being faithful” to their beginnings with all the might and force that now guides the Jewish state. She concludes: “I don’t know what name the winner will bear, or even if he’ll have one. What will he have learned from his might?... Where will he find the wisdom, from everything in him that knows itself broken, to construct a just society?”
