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    If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
    If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
    If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
    Audiobook9 hours

    If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir

    Written by Ilana Kurshan

    Narrated by Dara Rosenberg

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    **WINNER of the 2018 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the 2018 Sophie Brody Medal for achievement in Jewish literature**
    **2018 Natan Book Award Finalist**
    **Finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies**

    The Wall Street Journal: "There is humor and heartbreak in these pages...Ms. Kurshan immerses herself in the demands of daily Talmud study and allows the words of ancient scholars to transform the patterns of her own life."

    The Jewish Standard: “Brilliant, beautifully written, sensitive, original."

    The Jerusalem Post: "A beautiful and inspiring book. Both religious and secular readers will find themselves immensely moved by [Kurshan's] personal story.”

    American Jewish World: “So engrossing I hardly could put it down.”

    At the age of 27, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, Ilana Kurshan joined the world’s largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for “daily page" of the Talmud, a book of rabbinic teachings spanning about 600 years and the basis for all codes of Jewish law. A runner, a reader and a romantic, Kurshan adapted to its pace, attuned her ear to its poetry, and discovered her passions in its pages. She brought the Talmud with her wherever she went, studying in airplanes, supermarket lines, and over a plate of pasta at home, careful not to drip tomato sauce upon discussions about the sprinkling of blood on the Temple altar. By the time she completed the Talmud after seven and a half years, Kurshan was remarried with three young children. With each pregnancy, her Talmud sat perched atop her growing belly.

    This memoir is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turning page after page. Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud, shedding new light on its stories and offering insights into its arguments―both for those already familiar with the text and for those who have never encountered it. For people of the book―both Jewish and non-Jewish―If All the Seas Were Ink is a celebration of learning―through literature―how to fall in love once again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 18, 2018
    ISBN9781721333042
    If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir
    Author

    Ilana Kurshan

    Ilana Kurshan is a graduate of Harvard and Cambridge. She has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem, as a translator and foreign rights agent and as the books editor of Lilith magazine. Her writing has appeared in Tablet, Lilith, Hadassah, The Forward, Kveller, The World Jewish Digest, Nashim, and The Jewish Week. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and four children. Ilana is the author of Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights? and If All The Seas Were Ink.

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    Reviews for If All the Seas Were Ink

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    • 4/5
      After an unexpected divorce, Conservative rabbi's daughter Ilana decides to embark on Daf Yomi--the cycle of daily Talmud study. Over the next 7 1/2 years, she completes the Talmud, embarks on a new relationship, marries, and has children. The memoir is organized by the tractates of the Talmud, and like that work, the organization in each chapter is a little loose as she dips between discussion of the tractate, her life, and other religious and literary digressions. But she's a good writer, and the detours are interesting.

      (I also realized she's from my hometown, which was funny.)
    • 4/5
      Ilana Kurshan's memoir recounts the seven and a half years she spent doing daf yomi, the cycle of reading the 37 volumes of the Talmud, and how that experience interwove with the other events that happened in her life during that time. Kurshan begins studying in the wake of her divorce to her husband of only a year when she is feeling at a loss, uncertain about her life in Israel (which she moved to for her ex-husband) and her career. By the end of the study cycle, Kurshan is in a different job, married, and has three young children. Observing her journey and the insights to her faith she gains through reading the Talmud was fascinating for this reader and I enjoyed immersing myself in the life of someone whose experiences are so different from my own.