{"id":82011,"date":"2020-10-25T10:36:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T08:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=82011"},"modified":"2020-10-25T10:36:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T08:36:22","slug":"a-novel-interpretation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-novel-interpretation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Novel Interpretation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"82011","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":79518,"related_cahpter":"597","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"David\u2019s wink\r\n\r\n","content":"

In writing my novel<\/span> Father of the Bride of Frankenstein<\/em> <\/span>I decided that Frank \u2013 the reanimated groom \u2013 would be marrying into a Jewish family and that, as part of the process, he would undertake a conversion. It generated some of the humorous situations the characters find themselves in, and also gave me a source for the details I could use to build the characters. The interesting challenge for me in writing it was to make the father, the narrator of the story, less knowledgeable about Jewish matters than I am.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one scene Frank and Samantha prepare a Shabbat dinner \u2013 not a common occurrence for her parents \u2013 and get into a discussion of how Frank\u2019s lessons are going. Frank shares his favorite reading from the prayer book.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is from Psalm 30. We say this every morning. \u2018What profit is there if I am silenced? What benefit if go to the grave? Will the dust praise you?… You transformed my mourning to dancing \u2026\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We all looked at him. He looked back at us. \u201cDon\u2019t you see?\u201d he asked\u2026 \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0 about me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I chose Psalm 30 because I always found the rhetorical questions it poses to be wryly amusing. As part of a service given over to heaping praise on the Creator, it\u2019s a moment that seems to be saying, \u201cHey, You seem to like our worship service. Won\u2019t be able to do it when I\u2019m dead. Maybe You should keep me around for a while.\u201d The psalm is attributed to David, but to me it sounded more like Groucho Marx or Woody Allen, the latter of whom said, \u201cI don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Given that having a sense of humor is considered a defining characteristic by many Jews, it seems odd that the examples of humor in the Bible are few and far between. It\u2019s usually limited to the story of Balaam\u2019s ass and, perhaps, some parts of the Book of Esther. So as a writer and reader of humorous prose I treasure Psalm 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

I like to think that David is winking at us.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Frank, they ask him what his rabbi thinks of his novel interpretation. The smile left Frank\u2019s face. \u201cHe said we\u2019d need to study further.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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