Rabbi Gabrielle Ignites a Tempest (40 page)

"These new prophets trained in schools to
become the interpreters of Divine will. Fragments from Cave XII at
Qumran show us a monastic lifestyle based upon the examination of
sacred texts, the recitation of prayer, and the practice of bodily
hygiene. I know this is a radical departure from the classical
view. Many clerics, who have become comfortable with their sacred
texts, will throw up their hands and denounce me. They believe that
the Holy Writ, once canonized in time and place, is forever
immutable. But see for yourselves, in the first century of the
Common Era, the institution of prophecy underwent significant
changes."

***

That evening after a long series of
celebrations, Itamar told Gabby how proud he was of her and asked,
"Are you exhausted?"

She nodded that she was. "But I'll
recover."

"It's not necessary. After what you've
accomplished, you can glide for a while. Put yourself on autopilot
and relax."

"Oh, no, Iti. That's not me. This isn't the
end of my project, but just the beginning. I've got work already
cut out for me for the next few years. And it's going to be more
challenging than anything I've ever done."

He appeared surprised. "I can't imagine."

"The fragments will soon be displayed in the
Shrine. People will learn about a small school in the wilderness
that had a tremendous impact on western civilization. But they
won't know exactly how tremendous until the Holy Father reveals the
most important document of all. We're under oath not to disclose
what we know and I plan to honor my word. But that doesn't oblige
me to keep silent about what happened at Ein Arugot. My job now is
to create a climate of understanding so that some day the Holy
Father will voluntarily release the Yeshu fragment."

"It will never happen," Itamar declared.

"Who knows? If people start talking about how
God communicates with them, how prophecy really works, not the
gibberish they learn in Sunday school, then someday the Pope may
see his way clear."

"Not in our lifetimes."
"Yes, Iti, in our
lifetimes. You can bet on that," she responded with a teasing smile
that rippled her cheeks with the deepest and most irresistible
dimples he had ever seen. Having just witnessed how she had plunged
into an adventure far over her head and somehow prevailed, he was
willing to imagine that perhaps she was right.

POSTSCRIPT

Human deeds are sown for future generations
to harvest. To feed our curiosity and to learn from whence we have
come, we are destined to dig up our past, knowing it is no easier
to ferret out events from yesteryear than to write an accurate
history of one's own life.

The very observation of a human event changes
it forever. Thus, what results from our attempts to unearth the
past inevitably evolves into story.

THE RABBI GABRIELLE SERIES

Book I: Rabbi Gabrielle's Scandal

Rabbi Gabrielle, a young female rabbi in
Washington DC, is called upon to defend an accused rapist in court,
imperiling her career. She must negotiate a hostile climate both in
her synagogue and in the community, while attempting to live a
normal life as an attractive, unmarried woman. Here is a chance to
have an internal look at the life of a clergywoman in a profession
that has long been a man's proprietary domain.

Book II: A Kiss for Rabbi Gabrielle

Rabbi Gabrielle succeeds the senior rabbi a
Congregation Ohav Shalom and in this new role must perform a
funeral for her favorite Bar Mitzvah boy, now a young man recently
murdered in a remote Washington DC park. This death brings her to a
ghetto high school where the victim coached its struggling tennis
team. An avid tennis player herself, Gabrielle attempts to keep the
tennis team going and, because the police are unable to apprehend
the murderer, investigates the crime. This brings her into conflict
with Washington's thriving gun trade. Pursuit of the killer thrusts
Gabrielle into the nation's spotlight, exactly where she doesn't
want to be.

Book III: Rabbi Gabrielle's Defiance

Rabbi Gabrielle continues her personal and
professional odyssey, this time toying with running for a seat in
Congress. In the process she becomes entangled with a Korean
computer geek who operates a successful on-line political campaign
website for underfunded, unknown candidates. At the same time her
congregation has lost a child burned to death in an accident
lighting Hanukkah candles. Gabrielle must grapple with accusations
against her talented but sensitive associate rabbi for
unprofessional incompetence and a nasty law-suit leveled against
Ohav Shalom. Arson is the subject and Rabbi Gabrielle becomes a
hound dog on scent, all the while wrestling with a new romance in
her life.

Book IV: Rabbi Gabrielle Commits a Felony

A prized Torah scroll is stolen from Ohav
Shalom. The FBI determines the event to be a "Hate Crime" and
initiates an investigation. But Rabbi Gabrielle unearths clues into
the theft that lead in another direction. While intensely active in
her daily rabbinical duties, her attention is drawn back 65 years
to the origin of the stolen Torah in the Ukraine. The discovery
brings this liberal rabbi into conflict with the powerful and
well-organized Orthodox Jewish community in New York. Internecine
warfare between Jewish denominations must be pacified before Rabbi
Gabrielle can return to her post at Ohav Shalom.

Book V: Rabbi Gabrielle Ignites a Tempest

Rabbi Gabrielle takes leave from her
rabbinical duties to pursue a doctorate in biblical studies at the
University of Chicago. She is summoned to Israel by the Director of
Antiquities in Jerusalem when her scholarly live-in boy friend
cannot be found to help investigate the robbery of a newly
discovered cave at Qumran, site of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. In
the search to find him, Gabrielle becomes aware of her friend's
involvement in this robbery and while attempting to shield him,
gets swept into a cloak and dagger intrigue involving the Catholic
Church and the Government of Israel.