Laybe Lazar’s Courtyard by Chaim Grade is the second narrative in Rabbis and Wives, which was shortlisted for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, albeit I could not find it on The Greatest Books of All Time site at all, never mind seeing it near the top…you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT and other prestigious lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html

 

Laybe Lazar’s Courtyard by Chaim Grade is the second narrative in Rabbis and Wives, which was shortlisted for the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Literature, albeit I could not find it on The Greatest Books of All Time site at all, never mind seeing it near the top…you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The GOAT and other prestigious lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html

 

8 out of 10

 

I have enjoyed the first part https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/10/rebbetzin-by-chaim-grade-is-first.html of Rabbis and Wives, called Rebbetzin, and the second novella, Laybe Lazar’s Courtyard follows the same pattern, if not ecstatic, I have been pleased to immerse in this place, I need to amend that, it was not an immersion

 

There are similarities, which may even make sense, we have the book under the title which may have to describe all three narratives contained therein, though I have to see how the last, The Oath, will develop, in Rebbetzin, we have this ambitious wife, who makes her husband move from their small town, abandon his position…

Only to demand more from him: https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/games-people-play-by-eric-berne.html Games People Play by Eric Berne is a classic of psychology and I thought that we have a reverse in Rebbetzin, partners in couples blame the other for something they had not achieved, but the rabbi is put to work by his spouse here

 

“Rabbi Yoel Weintraub had not been able to hold down a pulpit. He told his wife a rabbi must be able to say if it is not kosher, it is not kosher. But he did not have the heart to forbid so many things…’ Therefore, he leaves the small town, and he is no longer the Rav, moves to Vilna, in the courtyard of Laybe Layzar where he is a porush

However, he will not be able to stay out of ‘other people’s businesses, and even worse, their life is so hard, while he is studying the Torah, the rebbetzin has to try and sell eggs, and then chicken, so that they have something to eat, they have no income now, the porush even suggests he must try and sell fish in the market, a terrible idea

 

Enemies https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/enemies-love-story-by-isaac-bashevis.html by Isaac Bashevis Singer has some similitudes, albeit the conflicts, rabbis are in New York this time – Rabbi Yoel Weintraub has to interfere in the life of the community, when he sees injustice, Reb Heskiah Teitelbaum is a rather negative character

He keeps his family under his tyrannical rule, makes the elder daughter lose her husband, does not allow the middle one to marry the one she loves, because Heskiah insists he has to arrange the matrimony, and the youngest, Itka is involved in a scandal

 

The Paradox of Choice https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-paradox-of-choice-by-barry-schwartz_30.html is another psychology classic, and we find from it that there are two kinds of people, satisfizers, Yoel in this case, and maximizers, Heskiah, the latter is expecting perfection, and he is not going to get it, maybe he will relax somewhat, under the influence of the porush, but for quite a long time, there is tension, the intransigent father rejects any attempt to make peace, to allow his family to be happy

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