Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Peninnah Schram demonstrate the oral tradition in practice. The collection challenges, adapts, and celebrates traditional notions of love and marriage in Judaism, juxtaposing aggadah and halakha ( Jewish law) with personal and cultural stories. Sasso and Schram make their book as accessible as possible to anyone interested in storytelling.

Storytelling, Self Society Journal

Schram and Sasso, in a synergistic collaboration of storyteller and rabbi, have created an engaging compilation of Jewish love letters and love stories. Beginning with tales about the love relationships of biblical couplings (from biblical accounts, many interwoven with rabbinic midrash), the book also includes Jewish folktales about courtship, fascinating love letters by Jewish historical figures (including between Alfred Dreyfus and his wife Lucie), and a diverse collection of contemporary stories of meeting, love, and marital union. The collection highlights both the differences and the commonalities between contemporary love and marriage, and unions from ages past. In part a celebration of modern, romantic love, this book is also about the covenantal relationship between members of a couple (gay as well as straight), as well as love’s subtleties, conflicts, and hardships. The book concludes with a chapter designed to help a couple to write their own love story. Likely to appeal to a broad range of readers, the book is will be of particular value to those celebrating a wedding or anniversary (one’s own, or that of a friend or family member).

Publishers Weekly

To some, love stories can be boring, repetitive, and unrealistic. Not so with these stories. The editors collect tales from the Bible, folklorists, and contemporary sources to provide a tapestry of tales that remind us that love is love, and it can grow in surprising places. Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike will appreciate how the love stories are grounded in Jewish identity but in a way that covers a multitude of relationships, whether between two women or in an arranged marriage. From Miriam standing up to Moses and being revered for her wisdom to a woman whose first meeting with her husband convinced her he was a jerk, the stories in the collection repeatedly return to the theme of bashert, or destiny: God is in his heaven, and he is making matches. It’s a sweet reminder that every love story is as special as the individuals who make it.

Booklist

Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage is a must-have addition for any Jewish library, not to mention the perfect gift for any Jewish engagement or wedding. . . .Buy the book. Read the book. Then take the authors’ advice and pen your own family’s love story.

Jewish Post & Opinion

Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage offers a treasury of tales that speak to the tenderness and passion, difficulties and blessings of love. Jewish tradition overflows with love stories from the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash. Folktales continue the tradition, and contemporary writers highlight the way their faith and love interweave and enrich each other.

The Jewish Leader

The volume presents both familiar love stories and the unusual—ranging from the better-known biblical Song of Songs to love letters from a husband showing appreciation for his wife's ordeal during childbirth. The stories inform those who have little knowledge of Judaism, and deepen the understanding of those who are already familiar with its tenets. Well-researched in archives and libraries, and well-documented, the material here is full of different voices. . . .[W]hat makes this book truly a treasure is the sharing by the authors of the most intimate feelings in their own lives. . . . It is clear that both authors are loving and loved. The reader feels loved as well. In fact, he or she might think, 'These authors are so concerned about me that they included instructions for writing my own love story.' What a rich volume for anyone and everyone.

Jewish Book Council