Judah the Pious

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award: A novel of a Polish king and a rebellious rabbi, “full of sudden delights and mocking humor” ( The New York Times ).   The Polish monarch has outlawed a portion of the Jewish funeral rite, and none of the community’s lawyers, judges, or scholars will come forward to defend the custom before the crown. Only one man dares challenge the sovereign: the spindly old Rabbi Eliezer of Rimanov, whose eccentric habits conceal the mind of a dreamer and the cur