The Orchard Paperback – March 1, 2018 by Yochi Brandes (Gefen Publishing House)

I was told about this book years ago but was finally happy to see it in a language I enjoy reading. The translation was really well done. I was surprised that I liked it so much. Who would think a bunch of rabbis thousands of years ago would be so interesting. This is one of the most crucial periods in Jewish history. This period was the end of Israelite cult practices and the birth of Judaism as we know it today. It was this small period of time that the Jews gained a practicing religion but lost their homeland. This book is not at all just for Jews. It dives deeply into the bare beginning of the Jesus movement and clarifies the first perception of Christianity to the Jews of Judea. It also shows how G-d's commandments and the written text because accessible to all.

The pace of the book is very good (in other words, the way I like it) and she highlights clearly the most important parts of the history at that time. What we know today she was sure to keep to the facts but what we do not know, Brandes was very generous with the fiction. It would help to understand a little about the period or in parallel look online (Wikipedia) to read if certain subjects are not clear or what is based on fact or what was made into creative fiction.


This spellbinding historical novel by celebrated Israeli author Yochi Brandes tells the story of the venerated yet enigmatic Rabbi Akiva, placing him in the context of his contemporaries, the Sages of Jewish tradition and of early Christianity. Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Ishmael, Rabban Gamaliel, Paul of Tarsus, and many others become flesh and blood in this stunning interweaving of biblical and Talmudic lore into a page-turning read.

At the heart of the novel is Rabbi Akiva and his complicated relationship with his wife Rachel, who meets him as a forty-year-old illiterate shepherd, marries him against her father's wishes, and compels him to study until he becomes the nation of Israel's greatest sage. Rabbi Akiva's innovative method of interpreting Scripture provides his people with a life-giving elixir after Rome's destruction of the Second Temple, but also fuels the lethal Bar Kokhba Revolt, with disastrous consequences. The Orchard offers a brilliant narrative solution to the fascinating story of four sages who entered a metaphysical orchard: one died, one lost his mind, one became a hater of God, and one - Rabbi Akiva - made it out unscathed. Or did he?