As a young boy in Jersey City in the 1950s, Lipa Wallerstein's whole world consists of his father's small synagogue on the bottom floor of their ramshackle house. With no Jewish friends nearby and a family that doesn't take much interest in him, Lipa finds himself alone more often than not- but always in the company of his fertile imagination- and his one burning ambition: to study from an old set of Mishnayos left by his grandfather, a great tzaddik. But when he opens a volume and peers at the page, he cannot understand a word it says.
His zeide always taught him: When you learn Torah, you must see the tzaddikim whose words you study standing right before you! And so, Lipa pleads, "Rabbi Ovadiah Bartenura, please come and teach me the Mishnah".
It isn't long before a whole new world opens up for Lipa. It is a world of Torah, and a world of great peril. A world where ravenous hunger rages in Jerusalem and danger looms over the blue-green waves of the Mediterranean and an awful calamity takes place in Vienna...
And then, one lonely summer's day, Lipa discovers an injured pigeon and returns it to its rooftop nest. Thus ushers in a new chapter in Lipa's life, with results that shake Heaven and earth. For Lipa has come upon the immense mystery of Little Fleigel, and the repercussions of it couldn't be more astounding...
The Shul Boy, told over in classic Gottesman style, is a novel that will touch you, excite you, and enthrall you. As with all of his books, the author weaves truth with fiction, deep-set reality with stunning fantasy, to create a heart-stopping and exquisite novel. Enter the world of Lipa Wallerstein, and allow the adventure to begin...
By Meir Uri Gottesman
