All I Ask

A Novel He's brilliant, he's talented, he's privileged. But Yanky Kleiner is about to abandon his shining future in the halls of the beis medrash and pursue a career as an architect. His mitzvah observance has become cold and mechanical, and his once-robust faith is tortured by questions and doubts. Now that disturbing evidence has surfaced about his role model and the chassidus he always revered, how long can he keep up his act? He's misunderstood, he's unwashed, he's penniless. But Lulu, a homeless beggar living on the edges of Jerusalem's neighborhoods, has different goals for his young friend Bugi. He wants to see Bugi gainfully employed and comfortably housed. As he skirts the inner circle Bugi has formed, can he bridge the chasm formed by long-ago wounds? All I Ask brings us into the dark refuges near Jerusalem's bus station, the life-changing lectures of a watchmaker who knows the secrets of the human spirit, and the battlefield of the human soul. By Ruti Kepler