Six Memos from the Last Millennium

"Creative, learned, and playful, Six Memos From the Last Millennium illuminates Talmudic tales and personalities with clarity and wisdom." -- Rabbi David Wolpe, Temple Sinai, and author of David: The Divided Heart "In Six Memos, a master storyteller, who has authored extraordinary works of fiction, applies his storytelling skills to tales from the Talmud, unpacking them with rare sensitivity and artistry. We learn with Skibell to pay close attention to what is said and what is unsaid. Written with color and wit, this book is an exercise in the pleasures of reading." -- Jacob L. Wright, Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Emory University, and author of David, King of Israel, in Biblical Memory "In Six Memos from the Last Millennium, a master storyteller takes on stories of the masters, bringing to modern life the millennia-old stories of the Talmud. Skibell discerns in those stories motifs and strands of thought that join the apparently disjointed, propelling the mini-narratives into our modern mindset with clarity and depth. I finished Six Memos reading and thinking-maybe even living-more deliberately and intelligently." -- W. Mark Lanier, founder, Lanier Theological Library, and author of Christianity on Trial: A Lawyer Examines the Christian Faith

The critically acclaimed author of A Blessing on the Moon, The English Disease, and A Curable Romantic explores stories from the Talmud, one of the most sacred Jewish texts, to discover the modern wisdom in these ancient tales.

A thief-turned-saint, killed by an insult. A rabbi burning down his world in order to save it. A man who lost his sanity while trying to fathom the origin of the universe. A beautiful woman battling her brother’s and her husband’s egos to preserve their family. Stories such as these enliven the pages of the Talmud, the great repository of ancient wisdom that is one of the sacred texts of the Jewish people. Comprised of the Mishnah, the oral law of the Torah, and the Gemara, a multigenerational metacommentary on the Mishnah dating from between 3950 and 4235 (190 and 475 CE), the Talmud presents a formidable challenge to understand without scholarly training and study. But what if one approaches it as a collection of tales with surprising relevance for contemporary readers?

In Six Memos from the Last Millennium, critically acclaimed novelist Joseph Skibell reads some of the Talmud’s tales with a storyteller’s insight, concentrating on the lives of the legendary rabbis depicted in its pages to uncover the wisdom they can still impart to our modern age. He unifies strands of stories that are scattered throughout the Talmud into coherent narratives or “memos,” which he then analyzes and interprets from his perspective as a novelist. In Skibell’s imaginative and personal readings, this sacred literature frequently defies our conventional notions of piety. Sometimes wild, rude, and even bawdy, these memos from the last millennium pursue a livable transcendence, a way of fusing the mundane hours of earthly life with a cosmic sense of holiness and wonder.