Mazel Tov and Love!

Ah, fun with rabbi! Why do people poke fun at the Jews? Bernard Malamud’s The Magic Barrel seems to do just that. Leo Finkle is studying to be a rabbi. A marriage counselor tells his that he has to get married before doing so. So, Finkle begins a quest to find the perfect woman to be his wife. It all seems like The Bachelor to the modern reader. Maybe, it sounds like Cinderella. At first, Finkle cannot find the right girl for him. None of them seem to measure up to the standards of being a rabbi. To make a long story short, the barrel where he had his options becomes magical and helps him pick out the right girl. Finkle finds the right girl at long last after he sends photos of women that another marriage counselor sends him. Turns out, the girl that he falls in love with is the daughter of his first marriage counselor. That really seems awkward there. The marriage counselor is now going to be his father-in-law. The whole story seems cute to me. The student just wants to find love so that he can become a rabbi. The story ends with this line, “Around the corner, Salzman, leaning against a wall, chanted prayers for the dead.” (Pg. 2297) That does not have a good sign attached to it. But who can say? The reader just has to use their imagination there.