THE THIRTY-THIRD HOUR
Mitchell Chefitz
Griffin Trade Paperback
Fiction
ISBN: 0312303238

Former Rabbi Moshe Katan takes center stage again in Mitchell Chefitz's second novel, THE THIRTY-THIRD HOUR, which is the story of a community exposed to a new way of practicing their religion and a catastrophic morals charge against Katan.

Rabbi Arthur Greenberg is the leader of "Temple Emet, the largest Liberal Jewish congregation in greater Miami." He is preoccupied and worried about a hearing that will either allow the synagogue to build and expand, or not. In the middle of this mind numbing tension, he must spend a Memorial Day weekend, alone in his office, evaluating the "evidence" against Moshe Katan, who is accused of molesting a young autistic boy.

The Rabbi has been given a collection of videotapes, audiotapes and a journal that he must get through in only thirty-three hours; then he's expected to make his plea before the building commission and also render a decision about Katan's behavior before the complainant goes to the police to report the alleged crime.

But Moshe is an old classmate, albeit out of touch with Greenberg for twenty-five years. As memories of their earlier friendship surface, Arthur is torn between old loyalties and the scandal brewing under his nose. Who, he asks, is to blame for the violations chronicled in the piles of evidentiary materials if not himself? "The fault was mostly his … he professed no serious interest [in the program] … he was satisfied with a polite response [to the occasional query into how the program was proceeding] … there had been no need for him to do anything more than be polite."

Less than halfway through viewing and listening to the tapes, Rabbi Greenberg perceives Moshe Katan as a cult leader. He is clearly an enigmatic free thinker whose freewheeling and unconventional approach to Judaism is rooted in both the Torah and the Kabala. His mission is to bring families together to "act" their religion in order to fully understand to whom they pray and why. He encourages the adults and children to ask questions about what they read in bible stories and the sacred texts. This is threatening to even the most liberal of Rabbis like Arthur Greenberg.

At the same time Katan is a sexy, eligible widower who sends out pheromones in the same seductive way flowers send out fragrance. Of course his eligibility doesn't go unnoticed by some of the eligible and not so eligible women in the congregation. He, however, seems far more interested in the children, especially Daniel who suffers from a rare form of autism.

Overall Rabbi Greenberg's "awakening" and "consciousness raising" arise from the objectivity he brings to the task of hearing and watching how Katan teaches the families in the Havura (study group). Through the hours of focused attention on all of the "evidence", Greenberg begins to understand his own life, his own shortcomings, his own devotion to his calling and his own gifts.

Chefitz presents all of this in a very interesting, thought provoking narrative that provides readers an opportunity to re-examine their own beliefs. The Bible stories as acted out by the members of the Havura are wonderful to re-read in this form. They adapt themselves to discussion within the frames of the novel and overflow into the reader's life for further exploration.

Readers do not have to be Jewish to grasp the essence of THE THIRTY-THIRD HOUR. This novel will appeal to anyone interested in Bible study; traditional and alternative approaches to interpreting Bible stories; the social and spiritual fulfillment that comes from belonging and that springs from commitment to religious study; and the lessons one can learn from opening themselves to new ideas.

   --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

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