Sotah A Novel [Paperback]

Beautiful, fragile Dina Reich, a young woman in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox haredi enclave, stands accused of the community's most unforgivable sin: adultery. Raised with her sisters to be an obedient daughter and a dutiful wife, Dina secretly yearned for the knowledge, romance, and excitement that she knew her circumscribed life would never satisfy. When her first romance is tragically thwarted, she willingly enters into an arranged marriage with a loving but painfully quiet man. Dina's deeply repressed passions become impossible to ignore, finding a dangerous outlet in a sudden and intense obsession with a married man, with terrible consequences. Exiled to New York City, Dina meets Joan, a modern secular woman who challenges all she knows of the world and herself.

Set against the exotic backdrop of Jerusalem's glistening white stones and ancient rituals,Sotahis a contemporary story of the struggle to reconcile tradition with freedom, and faith with love.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1) The Sotah was a woman accused of adultery who had to go through a purifying ritual to prove her innocence, or ascertain her guilt. Read Numbers 5, 11-28. How do the events in Sotah parallel the biblical ritual? What is Dina Reich guilty of? Does she reach purification, or teshuva?

2) Female family relationships are very important in Sotah. Describe the relationship between Dina and her sisters, the girls and their mother.

3) Joan opens Dina's eyes to the greater world, but Dina open's Joan's eyes and her heart to many things this modern woman is equally ignorant of. Describe their relationship and what they teach each other.

4) In the beginning of Sotah, we encounter Dina Reich as a young girl. In the course of the story she matures and changes. How would you describe the kind of transformation that takes place in her?

5) The word sift describes a pivotal concept in Sotah. Can you describe when the word is used, and what it mealƒœ