{"product_id":"9789659262618","title":"The Idiom and the Oddity","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe critic George Croly (18\u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e Century) asked a colleague if he had read a certain book and being told that the chap had reviewed it Croly replied, “You mean you read the books you review, I never do that it could establish a prejudice.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnce upon a time a Jew in a Polish shtetel went looking for a tutor to become a heretic (\u003cem\u003eapikorus\u003c\/em\u003e)  Upon being told that he would have to go to Warsaw to find a bona fide heretic and being recommended to Yossel the Heretic, the would be intern took off on his journey.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithout a classified he went searching in the more likely places to find Yossel: the university, the state library, the museum, the concert hall.  He could not find him and it began to snow. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLooking to escape the snow he wandered to the Jewish section of Warsaw and came to a tiny one room synagogue (\u003cem\u003eshteebel\u003c\/em\u003e), and upon entering he found an elderly Jew sitting and studying a folio page of the Talmud in the traditional chanting style.  After exchanging a few pleasantries lo and behold that was Yossel the \u003cem\u003eapikorus\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“What do you want of me?” Yossel\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I would like to study to become an \u003cem\u003eapikorus\u003c\/em\u003e under you.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“What do you know” Yossel\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I have read Plato, Aristotle.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Yossel nodded no, our searcher thinking he meant someone more modern continued,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Schopenhauer, Nietzsche.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“No I mean here,” Yossel slapping at the Gemara.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I haven’t studied Talmud at all….”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Then you are ignorant, go home and study and then come back to me. Someone has to know what it is that he is rejecting!”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHere is such an expedition and exploration, of one young would-be seeker steeped in the joyous magic and mystery of being a Jewish American, yet hauntingly seeking out and simultaneously dodging American Jews and that Jewishness within.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AB Ruth Associates","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47141114904816,"sku":"9789659262618","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9789659262618_p0.jpg?v=1763686524","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9789659262618","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}