A Blessing on the Moon

Discussion Points

1. Why do you suppose this book is titled A Blessing on the Moon? What is the significance of the moon?

2. Chaim's adventures all take place in the afterlife and he believes in the World to Come. What is the World to Come and how does his belief affect his journey?

3. What can a character who's dead accomplish in a novel that a comparable character who's living cannot?

4. Chaim and Ola have an unusual relationship. Describe the nature of that relationship and what it means to each of them.

5. Chaim meets a man who identifies himself as the soldier who shot him. At one point Chaim says to him, I could suffocate you! Instead he helps him. Why does Chaim take care of him?

6. On page 196, Chaim wishes for something momentous, something extravagant, something along the lines of Ola's ascension but without the gaudy theatricals. Does he get his wish? Compare the appearance of Jesus and Mary to Chaim's vision at the end of the book.

7. Is the Ida Kaminski who is registered at the Hotel Amfortas Chaim's first wife, or another Ida Kaminski? Why do you think the author chooses not to answer this question in the narrative?

8. In spite of everything that has happened to him, Chaim seems to keep his faith in God. In the last part of Chaim's journey, however, he at first resists accompanying the two Hasids in their search for the moon. Is this because he has lost his faith or does he hold on to his belief to the end of the book?

9. How does part one of the book address the personal; part two, the collective; and part three, the cosmic or universal?

10. Many novelistic treatments of the Holocaust have been published over the years. How do the works of first generation survivors contrast with the Holocaust literature now being published by the new, younger generation of writers?

Recommended Reading from Joseph Skibell

So many important Jewish books are now available in English, paring down a list to recommend was not an easy task. But here are a few remarkable books of stories, philosophy, and history from the Jewish tradition:

In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov, translated and edited by Dan Ben-Amos and Jerome R. Mintz

Meeting with Remarkable Souls: Legends of the Baal Shem Tov, by Eliahu Klein

Nine Gates to the Chasidic Mysteries, by Jiri Langer

To Heal the Soul: The Spiritual Journal of a Chasidic Rebbe, by Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, translated and edited by Yehoshua Starrett.

Shivitti: A Vision, by Ka-Tzetnik 135633

The Place Where You Are Standing Is Holy: A Jewish Theology on Human Relationships, by Gershon Winkler with Lakme Batya Elior

Jewish Views of the Afterlife, by Simcha Paull Raphael

9 Mystics: The Kabbala Today, by Herbert Weiner

The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, collected and translated by Daniel C. Matt

Winner of the Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Foundation Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters; and the Steven Turner Award for a First Book of Fiction, Texas Institute of Letters. Chaim Skibelski was a successful businessman, father, and husband before he was killed along with all the other Jews from his small Polish town during the Holocaust. Instead of peacefully resting in the World to Come, Chaim is left to walk the earth, wounds and all. On his journey Chaim unexpectedly finds hope, compassion, and renewal beneath the human propensity for destruction. A fabulous tour de force in the tradition of Jerzy Kosinski's THE PAINTED BIRD and the work of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Joseph Skibell's first novel, A Blessing on the Moon, received international acclaim. He was the recipient of the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Steve Turner Prize for First Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. He teaches at Emory University.