A commanding debut and a poignant coming-of-age story about a devout Jewish high school student whose plunge into the secularized world threatens everything he knows of himself.
Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention.
Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant—especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother’s death.
Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future—one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends.
Mesmerizing and playful, heartrending and darkly romantic, The Orchard probes the conflicting forces that determine who we become: the heady relationships of youth, the allure of greatness, the doctrines we inherit, and our concealed desires.
When Aryeh (Ari) Eden leaves ultra Orthodox Brooklyn for Modern Orthodox Florida, his whole world is turned on its head. He’s introduced to parties, girls, pushing boundaries and being encouraged to do that and so much more. For the first time in Ari’s life, he has friends and places to go but its not what he thought it was going to be. When Evan starts coming up with ideas for the group to try, Ari realizes that this new life might not be all that he thought it would be. Especially when he starts to lose a lot.
I am beyond in love with this book. When I started it I wasn’t sure if I was going to love it because I haven’t read many books that fall under literary fiction. But I am so beyond glad that I read this one and that I own a copy of it, I spent majority of my time reading this book with a pen in my hand so that I could underline different quotes and write my notes in the margins. I probably am reading very deeply into things that might just be meant to be taken at face value, but this is the first book I have ever read where I was able to truly grasp the symbolism and the philosophy.
Before you continue reading this review, please know that this one is FILLED with spoilers. I will be doing what is basically a full analysis of the novel, pulling it apart piece by piece. I will be spoiling a lot of the story in this one. If not the entire book will be spoiled as I go through this review. This is also going to be super duper long, so I’m really sorry for that. I just have a lot to say. I have also posted a non-spoiler review, so if you don’t want to be spoiled please go check that one out.
As soon as you start the book, you are met with the basic overview of the story of Pardes (the Orchard) from the Gemara (the Jewish Talmud) https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380344/jewish/Four-Who-Entered-Paradise.htm you can read more about it here.
The story is about four different holy men, who enter the Orchard, according to a commentary on the Gemara, Rashi, they ascended up to heaven which they were able to with the use of meditating over a special name of G-d. And when they went to this Orchard, when they got there each man was impacted differently. We have Ben Azzai, who died when he saw it, Ben Zoma who looked and was harmed, which according to Rashi means he lost his sanity. The next two are Elisha Ben Avuya who after this event is referred to as Acher. When Acher viewed the Orchard, he became an apikores (a heretic) and then Rabbi Akiva who entered and exited the Orchard peacefully. This is very important to keep in mind when reading the story, because the boys that Ari meets, each one of them represents one of these men.
When I read this, I was reading it through three different lenses. I was reading it as someone who like Ari and his friends, went to Modern Orthodox Yeshiva Day Schools my whole life, is someone who now works as a Jewish educator and then as someone who works in Kiruv (kiruv means to bring close, which is working with Jews in the Jewish community who are looking to grow in their Judaism in different ways.) Since I am familiar with the world that Hopen introduces us to I loved being able to pick up on things that I don’t think I would have if it were taking place in a different world.
Ari is naive, almost to a fault. He has dreamt his whole life so far about getting out of Brooklyn and finding something that makes him happy, when he enters what is supposed to be the glittering world of being Modern Orthodox he is still searching and hoping he’ll find it.
In the very beginning of the book, there is a scene where Amir and Oliver and everyone else are in the car together. They are talking about the fact that being Orthodox has depth and all their different feelings about being Orthodox. We see Oliver and Amir butting heads a lot, they enjoy making jabs at each other. One line that really stuck out to me was when Amir says
“Say whatever you want” Amir said, rubbing his exposed shoulders, “but just because you’re too shallow or too stupid or too, I don’t know, too depraved to appreciate the complexities of Orthodox life doesn’t mean it doesn’t have depth.” (page 45-46)
This reminded me of an article that came out when I was in high school, of someone telling the Modern Orthodox world that its the lazy way out of being a religious Jew and it’s not an ideal way of life. I remember being livid, how could someone tear my community down like this? I found this quote to be a very important thing for people who aren’t acquainted with our community, might not be able to see the depth that it has. They might only see the outside, the what to some might look like the shiny exterior. It's so easy to get lost in the fact that it looks like our community is constantly buying things: new clothing for the holidays, food for the holidays and shabbos, books for our holidays and different things. Yes, a lot of it seems physical but everything represents a deep spiritual meaning.
A few pages later, Ari and his parents are sitting at the shabbos table, during their first shabbos in Florida, eating when his dad starts asking questions about the Parsha (the weekly Torah portion.) He starts talking about why the Jews wanted a king and his mother says that its because the Jews wanted to be like everyone else. His father responds saying that its “a great sin, forgetting who you are.” This is foreshadowing Ari’s downfall throughout the novel the closer he gets to his friends that he makes in his new community. We watch as Ari moves from the Yeshivish boy from Borough Park that he was to a Modern Orthodox teen and then to someone his parents and even himself can not recognize.
About one hundred pages into the book we have Ari's first one on one meeting with Rabbi Bloom, right away as an educator and someone who works in Kiruv I wanted to steer these kids far away from Rabbi Bloom. While it is very normal at the Modern Orthodox schools for our teachers to become close confidants and people we have strong bonds with throughout our lives. I have some teachers from my schooling that I still call regularly, not as often as I should but still. Rabbi Bloom's interest in Ari, Oliver, Amir, Evan and Noah is too much. He is too involved in their personal lives and he is too obsessed with them. I think that either Ari or Rabbi Bloom could be the Orchard, I don't think that the Orchard necessarily has to be a place. This is something I will touch upon when I get to the last chapter of the book in this review.
I think one of the reasons Ari is so drawn to Rabbi Bloom is because he shows Ari what he could be. He is a well educated and religious man which to Ari almost seems like something he can't be. He has never been introduced to people who are educated and religious, except for his own mother. I loved his mother very much and I loved the relationship between the two.
In this meeting with Rabbi Bloom, he hands Ari his own admissions essay that he wrote for Kol Neshama. In the essay he talks about wanting happiness and quotes a Gemara that talks about how we need to dream about happiness even if we aren't happy and we should be constantly chasing happiness. We see this in Ari throughout the book, he makes ideas in his head that certain things will finally make him happy and he spends the whole book chasing happiness which I think is also part of his downfall.
Evan is also a big part of Ari's downfall. In truth, Evan is at the root of everyone's downfall. After loosing his mother, Evan has developed an almost obsession with finding a way to avenge the death of his mother and find out it wasn't in vain. One of the things I was taught as a student in high school was from my Bible teacher who taught us "If you start to question everything G-d does, you will never find an answer that satisfies you and you will lose yourself." And that is what is happening to Evan, he is loosing himself as he tries harder and harder to understand what has happened. I believe that Evan is supposed to be representing Ben Zoma in this retelling.
Evan and Ari are discussing Moshe Rabeinu (Moses our Rabbi, the holy Moses from the Bible) and we are taught that Moshe was on a level that no one else was able and will be able to interact with G-d the way Moshe did. Evan says that "You see God and you're destroyed." I found this to maybe allude to at the end of the book, when they experience that acid trip and see what I think to be in Kodesh Ha'Kedashim (the Holy of Holies, which is the inner most sanctuary of the Holy Temple that only the High Priest is allowed to enter on Yom Kippur.) Evan seems to have the desire to tempt fate and play with pushing the limits of mortality.
A few pages later, when Evan leads the walk out we see that he has a charismatic personality that makes everyone trust him. He is the perfect personality for a cult leader. There is a passuk (a passage) that is written out in Hebrew before the walk out happens. I can not tell you the joy I felt reading the passuk and being able to translate it, I have never read a book that has Hebrew in it until now and it made me so happy. The passuk is from Shemos Perek Yud, Pasuk Gimmel (Exodus line three, chapter ten) and its a conversation between Moshe, Aaron and Pharoh in Egypt. Moshe and Aaron are telling Pharoh something that G-d had told them which is "How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let My people go, and they will worship Me." This is G-d telling Pharoh through Moshe to let the Jews out of Egypt, to stop enslaving them and let them be free people. I found this to be fitting as I read the book the week before Pesach (the Jewish holiday of Passover) will be starting.
When Evan has the walkout, he lights a bush on fire. He tells everyone to allow the burning bush to be their "divine voice." This moment juxtaposed with the conversation that Ari and him have about Moshe, and then him hanging the passuk on the wall in school, all show how desperate Evan is to be important and to be able have control.
Right after this moment, Ari says "I remember the white circles in Evan's eyes, the smell of burning shrubbery, wisps of smoke rising heavenward." This shows us that its Ari retelling this story.
The fact that Sophia and Rabbi Bloom stood far away, show that they know just how unhinged and wild Evan is.
When Ari and Rabbi Bloom meet again after Evan's walkout, we see that Rabbi Bloom has been trying to pit Evan and Ari against each other almost to see who would outsmart the other. Both boys are smart, hungry to learn more and also so damaged in different ways. At the end of the meeting Rabbi Bloom warns Ari, telling him, "Do be careful who you follow into the dark." When the boys are on their camping trip towards the end of the book, we see them go into that cave. He knows Ari is going to follow Evan even though Ari knows so much better.
The shabbos Ari's parents go back to Brooklyn and his friends show up, we see Ari very out of his element. He sees the temptation to break shabbos and be like his friends, but he also knows deep down that its not whats right. When he wakes up and sees Sophia, she tells him "I believe I've emphasized this previously, but you can't let them overpower you like that." She knows that Ari is not strong enough to hold his own when it comes to these guys.
Ari's relationship with Sophia is one that is slightly confusing. I have a feeling she really is only with him because he seems like the safer version of Evan, she's always going to love Evan and she's always going to be tied to him whether or not she wants to. We see throughout the novel that Ari is similar to Evan even though he really doesn't want to be. Ari builds Sophia up to be someone she isn't, putting her on a pedestal. No matter how hard Sophia tries, she will always have a part of her heart that belongs to Evan and he will always be important to her no matter what. I think that's really hard for Ari because to him being similar to Evan is a horrible way to be.
I love that we meet almost everyones parents, which show us how their kids have turned out the way they have. Amir's mom is a fierce sephardic mother who only wants whats best for Amir. I love the way she talks with him and his friends when they are all in the car together. I love how she has no patience for Oliver.
Throughout the second half of the book we watch Ari and Kayla develop a relationship that starts as her tutoring him and slowly it evolves to something more. First, I loved seeing my name in a novel especially since she wasn't just a random one off character, she was someone that we interact with a lot in the novel. Second, Kayla deserved so much better than Ari Eden. She can do SO MUCH BETTER THAN HIM. If Ari weren't so obsessed with finding a way to stay with Evan, he should have dumped Sophia for her because she was such a better choice. I think she knows that Ari is going to end up in a huge mess and wants to try to help him stay as the naive, sweet boy he is and not this jaded, unhappy man he seems to be turning into. In a different world, Ari and Kayla would be perfect together but not this one. He is stringing her along, she really likes him even though she knows she shouldn't and he doesn't even appreciate her friendship. Kayla can see Ari for who he really is and she knows that the way Ari is behaving isn't who he really is.
Throughout the book we see Ari change and I really think it's a story of his downfall. We see his father start to withdraw, not liking the man Ari is becoming and trying to hold onto his old world in Brooklyn as much as he can. Ari's mom is really starting to love being an intelligent and frum (religious) woman, when she comes from a world that didn't seem to let her be both. Unlike Ari's dad, Ari's mom is more involved to an extent as to who he is becoming. Ari seems to think that him and his mom are a team against his father, which comes to light in an argument that him and his mother have later on in the book. I think she can already tell that Ari is loosing himself. They are talking about the fact that they are different, they are intellectuals. And she tells him "But if any of that comes at the expense of seeing my one child give up crucial parts of himself? I won't want any part of it ever again." She can tell that Ari is slowly loosing himself and becoming someone she doesn't recognize.
While Rabbi Bloom is not my favorite character, I love that he encourages the boys to question. So many times people think that being a religious Jew means not asking questions and just jumping in blindly. But he shows the boys that asking questions is a critical way to grow in your relationship G-d.
On page 221, Rabbi Bloom asks the boys what they know about the story of Pardes, which this story is based on. As he explains it, he goes into different areas of Jewish thought that I don't think people know enough about. He discusses how there are four different types of knowledge in the world. I actually learned a lot about the story of Pardes from this explanation that Rabbi Bloom gives to the boys. When Rabbi Bloom is explaining each holy man who entered Pardes (the orchard) even starts to speak up when he talks about Ben Zoma, the fact that Ben Zoma went crazy when he left the orchard. Evan responds with "Could be a fair price," Evan said quietly, "for learning the secrets of God." Evan's obsession with knowing G-d and His abilities is what leads to his downfall. He is so hungry for the secrets of G-d that he is willing to overlook any and all pain that it could cause him or the ones around him.
As Rabbi Bloom is explaining Ben Zoma, he is explaining how Ben Zoma led others astray. We watch Evan try to pull his friends away from being religious. He is successful in a way with Ari. I believe that Ari is Acher (Elisha ben Avuyah), as when Rabbi Bloom explains why Acher became an apikoreis (a heretic). Ari wants to know why and Rabbi Bloom says its because he started valuing human actions over spiritual heights which is something that we see Ari becoming more and more focused on.
The discussions the boys have with Rabbi Bloom about why they do certain mitzvos (commandments) are deep and so interesting, they remind of conversations I have had with the teens I work with.
There is a conversation between Sophia and Ari when she says "how sometimes we have to walk through the slope of darkness to get back into the light." Now that I have finished this book and have had time to think about it, I think this alludes to the end of the book when Ari sees his old friend Shimon from when he was living in Brooklyn and seeing him awakens something in Ari that has been dormant for a long time. I will touch more on this when I get to that part.
When the boys go down to Key West for winter break, we see Ari start to lose more of himself than he was in Zion Hills. He stops wearing his yarmulke and starts eating non-Kosher food, it doesn't seem like it's something he wants to do but he is so desperate to fit in with everyone else. I just want to shake him by the shoulders and hug him and promise that he will be okay. I want to save him from Evan.
Ari doesn't want to be who is he either. He says "I was not the person I had been, nor was I the person I'd hoped to become when I left Brooklyn." He's starting to really lose the innocence he had and he sounds like he wants it to stop.
During the last one hundred and fifty pages of the book, Evan becomes truly unhinged. He becomes obsessed with the Zohar (https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380596/jewish/What-Is-the-Zohar.htm) to learn more about the Zohar you can click the link above! The Zohar is THE kabbalistic text written by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, we are taught that one shouldn't learn the Zohar unless they are a man over forty years old. This is because the different ideas that are brought into this book are so intense that not everyone can handle them, if someone who doesn't have the proper understanding of Torah starts to learn this it could cause intense damage to them in different ways. Evan Stark is a great example of someone who starts learning the Zohar at the wrong time in his life and it causes him to lose his mind.
When Evan tells Rabbi Bloom that he's started learning the Zohar, Evan kinda lets out that the reason he has been so obsessed with understanding everything is again due to the death of his mother. He is so obsessed with finding an answer for everything which can be very dangerous.
Evan uses the seventy two letter name of G-d that we are never ever supposed to use. He is trying to play G-d, hoping in some way he can create something special. As someone who practices Orthodox Judaisim, Evan's spiraling out of control terrifies me.
Evan becomes more and more unhinged, scaring his friends and those around him. Amir is smart and knows to stay more detached from everything that is going on and Ari on the other hand can not stop himself, he is enthralled with all that is Evan Stark.
There is a scene where the boys go to psychic, everyone but Evan knows this is such a bad idea. He summons Shmuel Ha'Navi, Samuel the Prophet. Again, Evan is just doing all of these things we shouldn't do just so he can find the answers. For someone who is so obsessed with gaining a higher spiritual level and getting closer to G-d, his actions are pushing him further and further.
I found it interesting that the two Jewish holidays that we really see in this book are Yom Kippur and Purim. We are taught that Yom Kippur, is a day that is K'Purim like Purim. These are two of the holiest holidays. Ari shares his love for the holiday, how he gets to be someone else. In their meeting with Rabbi Bloom before Purim, they are discussing the holiday and how it really seems like a purely physical holiday. On Purim we dress in costumes, give gifts of food baskets, we drink alcohol and eat huge meals. The day really seems like its all about feeding the physical. And Rabbi Bloom says to them "Both days, in aspiring toward maximal holiness, demand rituals that defamiliarize the world as we know it so that we can give ourselves to creativity and godliness." With Yom Kippur, we spend the entire day in Shul (synagogue) we pray to G-d and in order to feed our spiritual we deny our physical body any pleasure. It almost would seem to everyone around that Purim is all about feeding the physical and ignoring the spiritual, but really it's about feeding the physical in order to elevate the spiritual also.
At the Purim party, Remi confuses Ari for Evan. This to me symbolized the moment that Ari has truly fallen from grace. He has lost whatever has made him seem different than Evan. The passuk that goes through his head is "Ha'Yadaim yidei Esav, V'Hakol kol Yaakov." The voice is the voice of Jacob but the hands are the hands of Esav. This is from Berieshis (Gensis) when Yaakov (Jacob) tricks Yitzchak (Isaac) into giving him the the bracha of the bachor (the blessing of the first born) instead of Esav. Ari has been thinking he's different than Evan, but in reality he is exactly like him.
Ari and his father have a conversation where at the end he tells him "Strive to be human where there are none." This to me means that Ari has the opportunity to end up like Rabbi Akiva, leaving the orchard unharmed but he can't seem to be able to find his way there.
Ari makes the mistake of going on the boat with Evan. He shouldn't have. But in this scene we have learned so much about Ari and Evan. Evan desperately wants to be able to control things and Ari hates that Evan brings out parts of him that he hates more than anything. Evan talks about story of Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, who brought a strange fire on the mizbeach (the altar) at the Mishkan (the Tabernacle). It almost seems as if he (Evan) wants Ari to be a Korban (a sacrifice). I was very proud of Ari when he tells the judge that Evan put his life at risk, it shows us that even though Ari has changed so much there is still something rooting him to who he really is.
During the last part of the book, when the boys go on their trip and everything changes Ari is hesitant to go and he knows bad things are going to happen. The whole time I wanted Ari to not show up, keep himself and his friends home and let Evan go alone. He is not to be trusted. The name of the place that they go is called Horeb, in Hebrew that is Chorev and Chorev is another name for Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) where G-d gave the Torah to the Jews. We see in this I guess you could call it adventure, that Ari really truly has the ability to be good and stay away but the pull is too strong. Before the LSD and the different drugs hit, Evan says
"Divine madness" Evan said. "That's what I want." Evan has been trying so hard this whole time to become Ben Zoma.
When the drugs hit, I think they experience the Bais Hamkidash (the Holy Temple) and I think there is symbolism of the foxes and the ultimate redemption. When Ari is giving his ticket to see a film, he's told he's going to be watching a film that to me seems like it's going to be a film of his life. We are told that one of the different interpretations of what happens when a soul goes to Gehanim (a type of Hell but not Hell in the way the media seems to explain it) you have to sit and watch a film of your life.
When Noah died, I cried. Noah was one of my favorite characters. He was sweet, kind, a good person and funny. He was the first real friend Ari has ever had and he liked Ari even though he wasn't like them. Noah is Ben Azzai, he dies on the spot. The fact that Evan killed him made me want to throw up. It broke my heart that Ari and Amir slowly drift apart, if anything I think they should have stuck together and become closer.
I hated that Rebecca didn't believe Ari. And when she says "Because you weren't who you were supposed to be, Ari, you turned out to be-" She pulled at the end of her hair. "Everything changed once you came into our lives" This line made me feel like maybe Ari was not only Acher but also the Orchard. This shows that Evan was able to be a successful Ben Zoma, he led Ari astray and he went full on bonkers.
I really wish we got to know Amir more. He was an amazing character, our Rabbi Akiva.
When Evan burns the model of the Beis HaMikdash (the Holy Temple) its the final act of showing that nothing matters anymore. The fire spreads to the school, and the fact that Sophia was in there shows us that Evan truly doesn't care about anyone other than himself. And I believe that Rabbi Bloom created this monster. He created Evan, he pushed him to boundaries he shouldn't have.
In the Epilogue, when Ari sees Shimon for the first time since he lived in Brooklyn, I want to believe that this moment is a catalyst for Ari becoming religious again. He talks about how it awakens something inside of him and he feels happier than he has in years, I like to think that here is when Ari realizes that he needed to leave being Frum, try to see if he could find himself in a different world and then realize he needs to come back. I think this is also shown when he says "I missed my childhood in Brooklyn more intensely than I ever had before." I hated that he barely talks to Amir anymore, I love the redemption that Oliver gets. I love that he finds meaning in something he didn't find so meaningful before, its a great difference from the beginning.
Also, I'm assuming the she that Ari was with for over a year was Sophia and I hate that she still has some hold on him.
I think that last line is showing that both Ari and Evan want to return to being Frum in some way. Ari because he misses the meaning and the enjoyment he had in front of him, and his parents. And for Evan, I have no clue why he wants to return. That community destroyed him and he didn't get any of the answers he wanted.
Okay, wow. I can not believe I have written over 20k words on this book. This is by far one of the best books I've read in a very long time. If you like literary fiction, dark academia and philosophy I highly recommend this one.