The Retrospective

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In Hebrew, the title of this book is Hesed Sefaradi. Hesed (with a guttural h) eludes precise translation and connotes compassion, kindness, love, and charity; a fair equivalent is the Latin caritas. Sefaradi means “Spanish” but also “Sephardic,” referring specifically to Jews whose ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492 and more broadly to “Oriental” Jews from Arabic-speaking countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The double meaning helps the reader get the picture.

ONLY AT MIDNIGHT, when they arrive at the massive, stark stone-paved plaza, bare of any statuary or fountain, its only ornament a boundary of heavy iron chains, does the director sense that his companion’s anxiety is finally beginning to wane. By the time two silver-haired bellmen hurry down the front steps of the former royal hospice for pilgrims, now the Parador hotel, the actress, who made the trip at his request, is beaming with gratitude. But after the luggage is collected, their host, undeterred by the lateness of the hour and obvious fatigue of his guests, insists on hauling them to the heart of the square so they may marvel in the stillness of the night at the famous cathedral, between whose yellowed towers saints and angels stand erect, as if in their honor. In strange but fluent English he recites the names of its builders and luminaries, taking personal pride in the size of the square that draws throngs of believers, determined to prove to his guests that the holiness of the place they have come to is in no way inferior to the holiness of the land from which they came.

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