There were only few basic facts I knew before: a very sophisticated and somehow closed community (mostly indirect or direct observations from my Brooklyn life), including in relation with the other Sephardic groups.
The big merit of the author, the descendant of a long line of rabbis from Aleppo, currently teaching at a yeshiva near Jerusalem is his ability to recreate a tradition and forgotten history through literature. The three novellas of the book are subtly teaching us of the culture and religious traditions of the Syrian Jews through literary accounts built with historical mystery and a style reminding the old religious tradition of story telling. The plot is not always well managed, but your curiosity is aroused enough to meditate and to increase your eagerness to find out more about those communities and the ways in which they succeeded in including the contemporaneity to the tradition. You will find many elements of the religious writings, including the piyuttim and many talmudic sources. For those unfamiliar with the language and the terms, the English edition is providing an explanatory glossary at the end of the book.
It is a special book, with a special story of a valuable community. I wish I had the occasion to learn more about.
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