The Thirty-third Hour - Hardcover

Saturday. Midnight. Rabbi Arthur Greenberg has 33 hours to clear or condemn a colleague accused of a heinous sexual offense. Brenda, an attractive widow and the mother of an autistic son, is the source of the accusation, which concerns Moshe Katan, an associate from Arthur's days at the seminary, whom he had invited to conduct an experimental family programme at the synagogue. Arthur has until 9am Monday to review the programme's tapes and Brenda's journal to try to figure out what actually happened and find a way out, if there is one. The reader becomes judge and jury as Arthur reviews Moshe's teachings, from the moment of creation through the Garden of Eden, the flood of Noah, the Tower of Babel, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brother, Moses and the Ten Commandments. Under pressure of this process Arthur is transformed, and perhaps the reader will be as well.

Mitchell Chefitz, the founder and director of The Havurah of South Florida, lives in Pinecrest, Florida.