By
– May 25, 2012
Like the smooth stones in one of his stories, Mitchell Chefitz offers ten small polished tales designed to coax readers to reflect on their approaches to themselves and others. The story of four diverse people who have gathered over a period of time to hear tales told by their spiritual guide frames the book. Listeners become speakers as they explore the Jewish folktale of the master archer who discovers a fool who paints bull’s eyes around arrows so that they appear to be perfect shots. When the group considers the possibility that the wind which pushes an arrow slightly off course symbolizes all that keeps the archer from finding certainty, Chefitz’s storyteller points out that living with uncertainty has its own beauty. Characters in the storyteller’s book of tales which follow are folktale-like, settings universal, informed by Chefitz’s “Jewish- flavored imagination.” An arrogant law officer is cursed to have to say a new blessing every day; an angry man transforms into other things until he becomes himself again, only wiser; a fortuneteller is helped by a friend to see beyond his own sadness. Half of these stories were drawn from Chefitz’s two mystical novels. Recommended for light, gentle spiritual guidance and encouragement.
Sharon Elswit, author of The Jewish Story Finder and a school librarian for forty years in NYC, now resides in San Francisco, where she shares tales aloud in a local JCC preschool and volunteers with 826 Valencia to help students write their own stories and poems.