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April 2, 2004
Obsession with matchmaking
Author's debut novel is a passionate story about the Jewish homeland.
LISA HADDOCK SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Passionate. That word defines Seven Blessings, the debut
novel by Ruchama King. The critically acclaimed book (St. Martin's,
2003) – set in 1980s, pre-intifada Jerusalem – is a love
letter to the faith that King cherishes. That passion fuels a compelling
story about the search for love – of God, Torah, life, soulmates
– in the land of Israel.
Seven Blessings tells the story of ordinary religious people
in the spiritually charged city of Jerusalem: matchmakers and singles,
bus drivers, grocers, lingerie merchants, rebbetzins, Torah scholars
and mystics.
"When we think of Jerusalem lately, the images that come up
are of death and despair. And yet the people I know living in Jerusalem
– family, friends – are going about their lives with a
grace, a richness – and even joy," said King.
"Of course, we should be aware of the terrible things Israelis
are going through. They are fighting our battle – the battle
against Jew hatred – for all Jewish people, everywhere. But
that battle doesn't have to eclipse who and what Jerusalem is. Jerusalem
is life," said the Passaic, N.J., resident, whose background
reflects some of the diversity of Jewish life. King grew up in a
religiously observant home with an America-born Ashkenazi father
and a Morocco-born Sephardi mother.
Just as the Torah itself does not shy away from the flaws of its
characters, King points out, she also wanted to be realistic. She
portrays the beauty and the flaws of the community she loves with
poignance and humor.
"People hear 'matchmaker' and their minds turn to farce –
caricature – Yenta, the local busybody. These are not Fiddler
on the Roof characters from a distant, nostalgic haze. These
are flesh-and-blood people – lovable, hatable."
Back in the 1980s, King spent nine years in Jerusalem, where she
studied and taught Torah, volunteered with the disabled, and thrived
on the spiritual energy of the city regarded as the centre of the
world. In fact, she gained much of the inside knowledge for her
book during the two years she lived in the home of a matchmaker.
"She told me her secrets of the trade. She critiqued yeshivah
scholars – their hair, their beards, their glasses, and they
listened. She took young women by the hand and decked them out so
they looked nice.
"Sometimes I thought these couples continued dating each other
just to have this woman tinkering in their lives," said King.
The author describes matchmaking as a national obsession in Israel
– and a natural extension of the belief that all Jews are responsible
for one another.
"You can't go 10 feet without bumping into a matchmaker....
Bus drivers and postal clerks get involved. Everyone does. After
the Holocaust, every couple that comes together, every family formed,
is cause for national celebration."
King's knowledge of Torah and matchmaking pays off. She uses her
characters' relationships with God and religion as a litmus test
for the difficulties they have in their intimate relationships.
Her matchmakers are well-drawn characters who face problems of their
own. Judy, the wife of a rabbi who now works as an exterminator,
misses the trappings and honors of being a rebbetzin. Tsippi, a
Treblinka survivor who makes matches as a way of getting even with
the Nazis, yearns for a romantic connection with her husband, who
spends most of his time with his nose buried in the Talmud. Yet
both women lay aside these hurts to help make the all-important
match.
"I don't think people realize how much of a psychoanalyst a
matchmaker can – or even must – be," said King.
And the single Jews she portrays also have their problems. Beth,
a 39-year-old American, is afraid to hope that she's met the man
of her dreams, even as she struggles with religious questions. Akiva,
a 41-year-old Canadian, is plagued by wild spasms that frighten
away prospective mates. Binyamin, a 42-year-old American artist,
is so fixated on superficial physical perfection that eventually
the matchmakers refuse to set him up – until he grows up.
King said she also wants readers to go beyond the basic question:
Will these characters find true love?
"Matchmaking and romance are the perfect camouflage for thornier
issues. Along the way, you can slip in a little Torah, a little
God, a little coming to grips with the dark side of your own soul
and self," said King, who has a master of fine arts from Brooklyn
College.
After her own struggles as a single in a Jewish world that so highly
values marriage and family, King is a happily married mother of
four. Her husband, Yisrael Feuerman, has been a big supporter of
her ambitions.
"He is an excellent writer with a background in modern psychoanalysis....
I cannot imagine a husband who could be more supportive: on the
both the literary, emotional and financial end," she said.
For now, King is pleased that she's broken into the literary mainstream.
As for her future literary plans?
"I don't know what will be, but I'm growing more aware of what
compels me to write." She pauses as her dark eyes grow pensive.
"I grew up with a skeptical eye toward religion and spirituality,
and at the same time I was captivated by it. I was inside and outside
at the same time. That's why I write. I'm in touch with that tension."
Lisa Haddock has been a professional journalist for 17
years. She is former religion and values editor at the Record in
Hackensack, N.J.
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