Roberta Sterman Sabbath is director of religious studies and visiting assistant professor in the English Department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Sabbath’s erudite chapters are appealing and well written. Overall, she effectively challenges that secular Jewish expression detracts from practicing and preserving legitimate Jewish belief and practice. Her charge that earthly life is inspired by action more than awe is challenging and enables infinity to conjoin with the actual in the Jewish view of the “sacred body.”

• Chapter 1. Biblical Emigrants: Human Agency in Eve, Abraham, SarahChapter 2. Sexuality, Martyrdom, and Suicide in the Talmud: Life Force and Death by ChoiceChapter 3. From Hekhalot to Kabbalah: Accessing the Body of GodChapter 4. Wonder and the Jewish Enlightenment: False Messiahs, Philosophers, and Social Justice Chapter 5. Twenty-First Century Narratives of Jewish Identity: The Schlemiel and the Messianic in Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Nicole Krauss’s Forest DarkChapter 6. Twenty-First Century Epic Theater and Eclectic Choreography in Margot Mink Colbert’s Ballet Transit(ion): Emigration Transformation

Roberta Sterman Sabbath is director of religious studies and visiting assistant professor in the English Department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Sabbath’s erudite chapters are appealing and well written. Overall, she effectively challenges that secular Jewish expression detracts from practicing and preserving legitimate Jewish belief and practice. Her charge that earthly life is inspired by action more than awe is challenging and enables infinity to conjoin with the actual in the Jewish view of the “sacred body.”

• Chapter 1. Biblical Emigrants: Human Agency in Eve, Abraham, SarahChapter 2. Sexuality, Martyrdom, and Suicide in the Talmud: Life Force and Death by ChoiceChapter 3. From Hekhalot to Kabbalah: Accessing the Body of GodChapter 4. Wonder and the Jewish Enlightenment: False Messiahs, Philosophers, and Social Justice Chapter 5. Twenty-First Century Narratives of Jewish Identity: The Schlemiel and the Messianic in Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Nicole Krauss’s Forest DarkChapter 6. Twenty-First Century Epic Theater and Eclectic Choreography in Margot Mink Colbert’s Ballet Transit(ion): Emigration Transformation

Roberta Sterman Sabbath is director of religious studies and visiting assistant professor in the English Department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Sabbath’s erudite chapters are appealing and well written. Overall, she effectively challenges that secular Jewish expression detracts from practicing and preserving legitimate Jewish belief and practice. Her charge that earthly life is inspired by action more than awe is challenging and enables infinity to conjoin with the actual in the Jewish view of the “sacred body.”

• Chapter 1. Biblical Emigrants: Human Agency in Eve, Abraham, SarahChapter 2. Sexuality, Martyrdom, and Suicide in the Talmud: Life Force and Death by ChoiceChapter 3. From Hekhalot to Kabbalah: Accessing the Body of GodChapter 4. Wonder and the Jewish Enlightenment: False Messiahs, Philosophers, and Social Justice Chapter 5. Twenty-First Century Narratives of Jewish Identity: The Schlemiel and the Messianic in Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Nicole Krauss’s Forest DarkChapter 6. Twenty-First Century Epic Theater and Eclectic Choreography in Margot Mink Colbert’s Ballet Transit(ion): Emigration Transformation