The Sacrifice Of Tamar
After being raped by a Black man, Tamar Feingold, a recently married, Orthodox Jewish woman, hides her shame and brings up the child of the attack as her husband's son, but the past returns to haunt her after her son marries and fathers his own child
Read More
From the author of Jephte's Daughter and Sotah comes The Sacrifice of Tamar, a powerful novel that examines with unflinching honesty the dark heart of racism and the surprising capacity of the human spirit to soar above its sordid consequences.Tamar Finegold is twenty-one years old, a happy, chaste young bride in one of Brooklyn's insulated ultra-Orthodox enclaves, a community not unlike Crown Heights. As the wife of a rising young Rabbi and Talmud scholar, her status is assured, and she commands the respect and envy of her neighbors and friends. This staid, predictable life is brought to an abrupt end when she is raped by a black man who enters the apartment where Tamar is caring for her sister's baby.Rather than risk the unbearable stigma that would result from telling the truth, a stigma Tamar fears would not only destroy her standing in the community but her marriage as well, she silently hides her shame, finding solace in her unsuspecting husband's loving arms. However, Tamar's confused, expedient decision explodes into an incalculable moral dilemma when she discovers she is pregnant and cannot be sure who the father is.Faced with impossible choices, she turns for help to the two best friends of her childhood: Hadassah, the beautiful, wayward daughter of the great Kovnitzer Rabbi; and intelligent, worldly Jenny, whose widowed mother sent her to a girl's yeshiva simply to avoid public school. Together, the three friends relive past struggles with issues of moral choice, religious belief, racial tolerance, and human kindness.In the end, Tamar makes the only choice she can, praying that she will never be forced to face the consequences. And it seems as if her prayers have been answered until a shocking, undreamed of turn of events brings her carefully balanced world crashing down, forcing her into a final, inevitable confrontation with the truth. It is a confrontation that will expand her narrow horizons, creating the need for heartbreaking sacrifices and allowing for the unexpected triumph of the human spirit.
Read Less