Isaac Markowitz is a forty-three-year-old hab­er­dash­er from the Low­er East Side who feels unful­filled and moves to Jerusalem. Isaac had almost mar­ried, almost become a rab­bi, and almost formed a school of his own. He winds up as the assis­tant to an elder­ly rab­bi and his wife, who do kind­ness­es for the array of unfor­tu­nate peo­ple who loi­ter in their court­yard seek­ing help. Isaac befriends Mustafa, a crip­pled cus­to­di­an who is an out­cast to his fam­i­ly, and Tamar, a young Amer­i­can woman who feels like an out­sider after mak­ing aliyah and becom­ing obser­vant. Mustafa works clean­ing the Tem­ple Mount and picks up ancient shards hid­den with­in the rub­bish. Red-head­ed Tamar rides a Ves­pa through Jerusalem and wants to find the per­fect mate. Mustafa is drawn to the court­yard of the rab­bi with ques­tions about the kohan­im – Jew­ish priests. These char­ac­ters have brush­es with crim­i­nals and the police and fear the Waqf as they get involved with antiq­ui­ties. With gen­tle nudg­ing from the rab­bi and reb­bet­zin, and through his work help­ing oth­ers, Isaac slow­ly comes into his own, real­iz­ing his self worth and find­ing mean­ing in his life. This book has a slow enjoy­able rhythm rem­i­nis­cent of a tra­di­tion­al folk­tale. The char­ac­ters are lik­able eccentrics and the author describes Jerusalem beau­ti­ful­ly. Although this read­er antic­i­pat­ed a hap­py end­ing, a few twists kept the plot inter­est­ing and didn’t disappoint.