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If All the Seas Were Ink: A Memoir Kindle Edition

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 391 ratings

**WINNER of the 2018 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the 2018 Sophie Brody Medal for achievement in Jewish literature**
**2018 Natan Book Award Finalist**
**Finalist for the 2017 National Jewish Book Award in Women's Studies **

The Wall Street Journal:
"There is humor and heartbreak in these pages...Ms. Kurshan immerses herself in the demands of daily Talmud study and allows the words of ancient scholars to transform the patterns of her own life."

The Jewish Standard:“Brilliant, beautifully written, sensitive, original."

The Jerusalem Post:"A beautiful and inspiring book. Both religious and secular readers will find themselves immensely moved by [Kurshan's] personal story.”

American Jewish World: “So engrossing I hardly could put it down.”

At the age of twenty-seven, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce,Ilana Kurshan joined the world’s largest book club, learning
daf yomi, Hebrew for“daily page” of the Talmud, a book of rabbinic teachings spanning about six hundredyears. Her story is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriageand motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turningpage after page. Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tourof the Talmud. For people of the book—both Jewish and non-Jewish—If All theSeas Were Ink is a celebration of learning, through literature, how to fall in loveonce again.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

"I have now read the book three times ... If All The Seas Were Ink got me through a difficult year." ― Adam Lenson, Medium

"Rich and evocative.... By the end of Kurshan’s enchanting and illuminating memoir, we feel that we have come to know her as intimately as we have come to know the Talmud." ―Jonathan Kirsch,
The Jewish Journal

“Piercingly intelligent...Riveting...What Kurshan has produced is entirely novel.”―
The Times of Israel

“It takes a brilliant intellect to study the Talmud the way Kurshandoes...
If All the Seas Were Ink provides a true and clear exampleof text study that benefits the soul as well as the mind.”―The Christian Century

"An elegant, engaging and daunting tale of the many paths of human passion...This delightful and deep story of life made me feel as if Kurshan and I had several leisurely dinners together, or had met regularly at a cafe." ―Rochelle L. Millen,
Hadassah Magazine

"Gripping." ―
JewishMediaReview

“Kurshan… writes beautifully about the complexities of love, loss, shame, growth and the things that matter. .. For her, the ancient pages are alive with ideas, and in them she finds both light and a new lightness of spirit.” ―Sandee Brawarsky,
The Jewish Week

"Valuable for its lessons, whether one is religious or not." ―
Southern Jewish Life

“[Kurshan] is a gorgeous writer, emotionally honest and perceptive…She has written a beautiful and inspiring book. Both religious and secular readers will find themselves immensely moved by her personal story and the raw courage of the journey she has undertaken.” ―Elaine Margolin,
The Jerusalem Post

"I am loving this memoir...[Kurshan] writes like nobody’s business." ―Jeffrey Salkin,
Religion News Service

"From the moment I picked up
If All the Seas Were Ink, I was not able to put it down...Highly recommended... No background in Talmud is needed to appreciate Kurshan’s intriguing story. When you turn the last page, you will walk away feeling talmudically enriched and already hoping for a sequel." ―Rabbi Judith Hauptman, Lilith Magazine

"[A] magnificent new memoir." ―
Forward

"Kurshan’s intellectual dexterity and emotional vulnerability make this a gripping, smart read." ―
Kveller

"There is humor and heartbreak in these pages...Ms. Kurshan immerses herself in the demands of daily Talmud study and allows the words of ancient scholars to transform the patterns of her own life." ―
The Wall Street Journal

“Lyrical and erudite. … Kurshan’s memoir gives us insightful contemporary readings of talmudic passages while demonstrating how life can accrue added richness when set against the backdrop of the Talmud.” ―Sarah Rindner,
Jewish Review of Books

"[Kurshan] became one with the Talmudic lessons, seeing them everywhere and applying them to being a Jew and a mother in the modern era." ―
The JC

"Engaging...a compelling read, especially for―but certainly not limited to―students of the Talmud." ―
The Jewish Exponent

“Clever and witty… Kurshan is a fabulous writer; her clarity and simplicity propel you along almost unaware that you’re reading…So engrossing I hardly could put it down.” ―Neal Gendler,
The American Jewish World

"Delightful...The most enjoyable feature of the book is the brilliant and creative integration of the daily Talmudic folio Kurshan studies with experiences of her life." ―Jeffrey L. Rubenstein,
The Lehrhaus

"What makes Kurshan’s memoir unique is her explication of the text...this is an introduction by someone who is trying to live both with and in the text." ―Beth Kissileff,
Tablet Magazine

"Uniquely beautiful...an amazing feat." ―
The Jerusalem Report

"Intriguing." ―
Kirkus Reviews

"The splendidly written book is made all the more compelling by Kurshan’s willingness to share her vulnerabilities. .. This book was a great surprise to me, and one of my favorites of the year." ―Howard Freedman, The Jewish News of Northern California

"[A] brilliant, beautifully written, sensitive, original new book." ―Joanne Palmer,
The Jewish Standard

"An important, interesting and often light-hearted book." ―David E.Y. Sarna, Jewish Link of New Jersey

"Kurshan weaves together intensive Talmud study with personal pain, work, spiritual seeking, and literature
." ―NJ Jewish News

"Kurshan committed herself to the Daf Yomi...she reports on how this daily discipline brought humor and wisdom and insight into her life." ―Rabbi Jack Riemer

"If All The Seas Were Ink is a book about passion of many varieties―romantic passion, religious passion, aesthetic passion, but above all else, passion for knowledge. The word scholarship is too tame to do justice to Kurshan’s wild passion for the written word, whether the word is found on a page of Talmud or in a sonnet of Wordsworth. The blend of her loves makes for a rich and fascinating life, which makes for a rich and fascinating book." ―Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

"If All the Seas Were Ink
is such a moving memoir. Kurshan's portrait of everyday life in Jerusalem enriches her recounting of connecting to centuries of intellectual curiosity and conversing with bygone generations. How wonderful to explore this great volume with such a sensitive and thoughtful guide." ―Susan Isaacs, author of Long Time No See

"
In this deeply personal and often hilarious story, Kurshan shows us how the Talmud’s thousands of strange and demanding pages become a conversation about how best to live one's life in an imperfect world. Kurshan awakens us to our imperfect world’s hidden magnificence―and to the power of literature to inspire human resilience. A stunning, gorgeous memoir." ―Dara Horn, author of The World to Come

"With this memoir, Ilana Kurshan enters the exclusive club of daf yomi learners, a club that was, for generations, restricted to men. Hers is a stunningly original voice in the world of Torah and the world of literature. Go run and read this book." ―Ruth Calderon, author of
A Bride for One Night

"When a woman as incredibly well-read as Ilana Kurshan commits herself to studying the Talmud daily for seven-and-a-half years, the results are mind-expanding, both for her and for readers of
If All the Seas Were Ink. An utterly original book." ―Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of Jewish Literacy, Rebbe, and A Code of Jewish Ethics

"An intimate and eloquent portrait of a young woman’s passionate loves and fears… Kurshan writes as a woman of (as she puts it) ‘Dickensonian sensibilities:’ clinging to her privacy while exposing her vulnerability, seeking the resonances between her mind, soul and body, and revealing an acutely sensitive intelligence, a wry self-awareness, and an active sense of the absurd.
" ―Avivah Zornberg, author of The Murmuring Deep

"Kurshan's beautiful prose weaves the trials and tribulations of her personal seven-year journey together with the Talmud texts she's learning. I applaud, and am awed, by this moving and remarkable memoir." ―Maggie Anton, author of
Rashi's Daughters

About the Author

Ilana Kurshan is a graduate of Harvard and Cambridge. She has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem, as a translator and foreign rights agent and as the books editor of Lilith magazine. Her writing has appeared in Tablet, Lilith, Hadassah, The Forward, Kveller, The World Jewish Digest, Nashim, and The Jewish Week. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and four children. Ilana is the author of Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights? and If All The Seas Were Ink.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06VV16XZX
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press (September 5, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.8 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 391 ratings

About the author

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Ilana Kurshan
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Ilana Kurshan is the author of If All the Seas Were Ink (St. Martin's Press, 2017) and Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights (Schocken, 2005). She has translated books of Jewish interest by Ruth Calderon, Benjamin Lau, and Micah Goodman, as well as novels, short story collections, and children’s picture books. She is a regular contributor to Lilith Magazine, where she serves as the Book Reviews Editor, and her writing has appeared in The Forward, The World Jewish Digest, Hadassah, Nashim, Zeek, Kveller, and Tablet. Kurshan is a graduate of Harvard University (BA, summa cum laude, History of Science) and Cambridge University (M.Phil, English literature). She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and four children.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
391 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the memoir insightful and personal. They describe the pacing as spectacular, moving, and creative. Readers praise the writing style as magical and straightforward. The memoir is described as a tale of heartache and humor.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

50 customers mention "Insight"50 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the author's insight into her personal experiences and reflections. They find the book insightful and engaging, revealing the author's unique ability to connect Talmudic learning to her personal life. Readers describe it as an erudite yet intimate account of her learning and experience.

"...There are countless passages in the Talmud and elsewhere extolling the supreme merits of learning; in a famous passage, when the Rabbis are debating..." Read more

"...It deepens and enriches both your sense of an ancient people who have lost an intimate connection to their ruler and that of a young divorcee in the..." Read more

"...Ilana Kurshan is not only very intelligent but is also such a gifted and knowledgeable writer who is obviously capable of conveying highly personal..." Read more

"...accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud, shedding new light on its stories and offering insights into its arguments both for those already..." Read more

23 customers mention "Pacing"23 positive0 negative

Customers find the memoir's pacing captivating and engaging. They describe it as a beautiful tapestry of life told in an imaginative, creative way. The author's thoughtful and honest writing style is appreciated. Overall, readers find the memoir thought-provoking and inspiring.

"This memoir will stay with me for a long time. It's just so beautiful and smart and inspiring and honest...." Read more

"...The open part of my heart was pleased by Kurshan’s artfully crafted words but the closed part was threatened by discussion of Talmudic passages and..." Read more

"...This concept is FASCINATING. It's so distinctively unique and full of excitement...." Read more

"Kurshan's memoir is wise and beautiful, accessible and imminently readable. I really loved it...." Read more

22 customers mention "Writing style"22 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing style. They find it thought-provoking and inspiring, with straightforward prose that reads like a novel. The author is described as knowledgeable and skilled in using words to convey emotions, characters, and situations. Readers appreciate the author's humor, wit, and personal insights expressed through her writing.

"...is not only very intelligent but is also such a gifted and knowledgeable writer who is obviously capable of conveying highly personal information..." Read more

"Kurshan's memoir is wise and beautiful, accessible and imminently readable. I really loved it...." Read more

""If All the Seas Were Ink," is a richly-textured, well-written and emotionally touching memoir...." Read more

"...what true depth feels like, how history can seem endless, and how careful language can shape our moral capacity to sanctify life." Read more

8 customers mention "Humor"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the memoir humorous at times. They describe it as a tale of heartache and humor, love and loss, marriage, and family.

"...between my world and the author’s: her quirky, shticky, humorous insights...." Read more

"...This memoir is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by..." Read more

"...I LOVED IT and her humor tid bits throughout... She inspires me even more to expedite our aliyah; after 23 visits I pictured every place she spoke..." Read more

"After spending my week swimming in Ilana Kurshan's lush, funny and aspirational memoir, I'm already itching to wade in again -- pencil in hand to..." Read more

6 customers mention "Talent"6 positive0 negative

Customers praise the author's talent. They find her ability to capture a range of perspectives impressive. The book is described as an extraordinary memoir about an extraordinary individual.

"...Ilana Kurshan is not only very intelligent but is also such a gifted and knowledgeable writer who is obviously capable of conveying highly personal..." Read more

"...Love her title, though! Beautiful, is it a quote from a poem?" Read more

"...Ilana is brilliant, matching authors and poets alongside Talmudic rabbis...." Read more

"This was the most amazing, down to earth memoir of a fascinating young woman who finds her way through the bumps in life through a former men's only..." Read more

A personal female story interwoven with Talmud Study
5 out of 5 stars
A personal female story interwoven with Talmud Study
I enjoyed reading this personal female story interwoven with Talmudic study and stories. The book about how the author relates to her Talmudic studies during phases of your 20s, early marriage and early motherhood. She connects her personal experiences and reflections with her Talmudic studies and her studies impact how she views her own life and experiencesThe book's major triumph is the author's ability to share a female experience of Talmudic study.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2017
    This memoir will stay with me for a long time. It's just so beautiful and smart and inspiring and honest.

    A little background is necessary. Daf Yomi (a page a day) is a practice that's been around for about a century but become very popular in the last ten. In doing "daf yomi," a participant reads one "page" (it's really a folio page which is equal to about 3-4 pages a day usually) of Talmud a day until she finishes the entire thing in seven years. Reading the entire Talmud is a monumental accomplishment. It's massive. It's often compared to a sea, as it's deep and wide and can be both refreshing and overwhelming.

    So, Kurshan takes the brilliant step of telling her life story during the seven years she was doing daf yomi. How wonderful. In less intelligent and empathetic hands, this could have been robotic or cold. Or it would have felt tremendously forced. There are so many pages of Talmud which one would be hard pressed to connect to one's life. But Kurshan does it. Each chapter of her memoir is named after one of the Tractates of the Babylonian Talmud.

    I was initially temped, upon finishing the book, to think, boy, Kurshan was pretty lucky. A lot happened to her during the seven years she studied the daf. But that's not what happened. In the book's last few pages, Kurshan explains that she started doing daf yomi in the first place because her life felt unmoored; she was looking for something constant, some center. The Talmud became that center. You have to read it every day of your life for seven years whether you want to or not. What happened, as I would imagine happens whenever we read literature or history or poetry is that her study and her life became entwined in a way that makes book nerds like me (and Kurshan) very happy. So in the best possible way, Kurshan's life informed her understanding of what she read every day in Talmud, and conversely, her reading that day made her interpret reality through a lens she wouldn't have otherwise had.

    I'm not saying this to brag; reading is like breathing for me. I'm a lifelong learner in a fundamental way. IDEALLY, everyone would be no matter what one's philosophical, ideological, political or spiritual bent. But the rhythms of Jewish observance provide ample opportunity to make this ideal a reality. There are countless passages in the Talmud and elsewhere extolling the supreme merits of learning; in a famous passage, when the Rabbis are debating which is more important, deeds or study, the "winning" argument winds up being study---because study LEADS to deed. I bring this up merely to suggest one of the reasons I LOVED this book: I felt like I was encountering a kindred mind and spirit. Kurshan takes her spirituality, her poetry, her family, her mortality, her country, her food, her exercise very seriously; indeed, she inspires me because ALL OF THOSE INFORM ONE ANOTHER. I strive towards accomplishing this in my own life.

    What a book!
    74 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2017
    A great memoir shows the author on a journey from one point to another. This book does that and more – it took ME on a journey from one point to another. You see, it was challenging for me to start reading Ilana Kurshan’s story. I was intrigued and wanted to learn about the life of a young, American Jerusalemite, but I was put off by the whole Talmud thing.
    I started learning “gemara” in fifth grade and didn’t stop for the next twelve years. I studied in a yeshiva high school, spent a year studying in Israel and then four years in an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva in Baltimore. I was immersed in Talmud and talk about the centrality of Talmud. And even before I left Orthodoxy years later, Talmud came to have only negative associations for me: the pilpulistic discussions that more often than not descend into a spiral of absurdity, the oppressive judgmental reality of “halacha”, the impossible to fulfill ideal of never-ending-learning.
    So I started reading with a heart that was at least half-closed. The open part of my heart was pleased by Kurshan’s artfully crafted words but the closed part was threatened by discussion of Talmudic passages and what they would arouse in me. That closed part began to open when I realized that familiar topics were presented in ways I’d never encountered before. The author often approaches Talmud from a literary perspective (not oppressive or triggering for me) and when she does view the learnings through a theological or spiritual lens, it is always with a humanistic grounding. This was thoroughly refreshing and enabled me to reframe Baba Metzia and Yoma and Gittin and allow them back onto the bookshelf of my life.
    Even more rewarding than the fresh perspective on the Talmud is the way Kurshan weaves Talmudic lessons into her inner world. If in the past I experienced Talmud as constricting, I now found it to be expansive. Talmud, the way author teaches it, opens a path into her rich inner world.
    It was at a time in her life that the author was freshly divorced that the daf yomi cycle was up to the tractate of Yoma. Kurshan was studying about the period of time after the destruction of the first Holy Temple and before the building of the second. She compares her state-divorced-to that of the Jews in between the first and second temples, not knowing if there would be a second chance. This equation feels organic and believable. It deepens and enriches both your sense of an ancient people who have lost an intimate connection to their ruler and that of a young divorcee in the twenty-first century.
    In parts of the book that I enjoyed less- few and far between- it felt like the balance was slightly off and the text was more Talmud lesson than memoir.
    One aspect of the writing served as an especially strong bridgehead between my world and the author’s: her quirky, shticky, humorous insights. One day while swimming laps she was reviewing the week’s Torah reading in her mind. She imagined a swimming pool divided into seven lanes. In each lane swimmers would be taught one of the seven parts of the Torah portion. “Torah reading is also known as ‘leyning’…and so each ‘lane’ would double as a ‘leyn’. ”
    I had always thought that this silly kind of thinking resided exclusively in the feverish minds of under-showered, tzitzes-flying yeshiva boys, like I used to be. Again, how refreshing to find this (unusual!) connection to a Harvard and Cambridge educated literary scholar!
    It’s been said that a great memoirist finds “the universal in the singular, and vice versa”. Ilana Kurshan’s enchanting writing pulls you into her singular world and expands your universe.
    13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Howard Ganz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on November 8, 2017
    Excellent book.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Leah Rauhut-Brungs
    5.0 out of 5 stars Kurshan is a scholar
    Reviewed in Germany on July 28, 2019
    If all the seas were ink, is called a memoir, but it is so much more it is a book that shows you the way to and into the Talmud. An amazing writer like Kurshan understands it so perfectly well to make you "greedy" for more to know and to learn. She is a born scholar. I will treacher this book, it is like a diamond for me
    One person found this helpful
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  • Goldele Rayment
    4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and meaningful
    Reviewed in Australia on December 13, 2017
    I really enjoyed the way to classic Talmud was woven into they authors life in real and relatable life situations. She handles the conflict between out dated biblical concepts and modern ones well
    One person found this helpful
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  • Clare Thorpe
    2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating study in compulsive and obsessive life patterns.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2018
    I read this book for a Daf Yomi study group. It was meant as an inspiring journal of an individual woman’s study. Instead it reads as a case study of sublimated eating disorders, body distrust and OCD. She admits she’s a “compulsive” studied and revels in it, which is fine. It’s just not very helpful for the rest of us.

    Her disordered thought patterns leak into her attitude to pregnancy (her body “serves her well” by not developing stretch marks) birth, (she boasts about drug free labour as if it’s a morally better way to give birth) female creativity (only women who give birth are “like the creator”)

    Funny that in talking about “the Arabs” she lives near she fails to notice that they’re all in service and menial jobs.

    I could have read all this happily had she not shown that she values “the poet” as more important than “the gatekeeper”. Not every can be or wants to be an author. That doesn’t make what we do any less valuable.

    So all in all this is a gushy and self indulgent romantic fantasy written by a woman with a lot of privilege.
    4 people found this helpful
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