Ariel Sam­son: Free­lance Rab­bi is a hilar­i­ous and thought-pro­vok­ing nov­el that draws us into the world of a Black Ortho­dox rab­bi in his late twen­ties liv­ing in Brook­lyn. Ariel Sam­son acci­den­tal­ly becomes an inter­net TV per­son­al­i­ty, revi­tal­izes a local shul — which is then burned down in an attempt on his life — pub­licly chas­tis­es a local politi­cian for wear­ing black­face for Purim, and — in his spare time — tries to find his bash­ert.

Described as a semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal sto­ry by the apt­ly named author, MaN­ish­tana, the wild­ly orig­i­nal nar­ra­tive and autho­r­i­al voice illu­mi­nates the world of Amer­i­can Jews of col­or, a group that has recent­ly received atten­tion, but oth­er­wise was long invis­i­ble to oth­ers. Imag­ine A Con­fed­er­a­cy of Dunces set in mod­ern Brook­lyn with New York hip­sters and a hos­tile rab­binic estab­lish­ment, and you’ve almost got it. But not quite.

The author’s self-reflec­tive voice makes this nov­el work. Some­times sim­ply fun­ny and, more often than not, wise-crack­ing to the read­er, MaN­ish­tana paints intense pic­tures of the lives of dif­fer­ent Black Jews, such as one woman can nev­er for­get her race:

Because when she [did], some­one at a kid­dish hand­ed their dirty plates to her because she was the help, obvi­ous­ly. Because she and her hus­band got stared down when they walked into Judaica shops. Because when enter­ing a new syn­a­gogue peo­ple asked her what coun­try she was from just because she wasn’t white, and assumed she was Ethiopi­an sole­ly because she was sim­ply black. Because some­one lit­er­al­ly called her ​“exot­ic” as a compliment.

White Jews could for­get that they’re white, but she wasn’t ever allowed to for­get that she wasn’t.

Or this din­ner-table conversation:

So, Ariel, where are you from?

Brook­lyn.

No, I mean, like your background.

Oh, that! Well my back­ground is most­ly in Eng­lish and Sec­ondary education.

But you’re like a con­vert, right?

No. No, I’m not.

Wow. Born Jew­ish? Amaz­ing! From Ethiopia, yeah??

No —

I love Ethiopi­an Jews. Every time I see one it’s just so cool.

But Ariel Sam­son is not a polemic. At one point, Ariel imag­ines his father’s reac­tion to his bris: ​“That unbreak­able cord pierc­ing through time, brown­er than any­one thought it has the right to be, all obey­ing that pri­mor­dial Jew­ish com­mand­ment.” Amid the humor, pro­found moments like these high­light Jew­ish val­ues, knowl­edge, and under­stand­ing. You’ll find your­self think­ing about them long after you’ve stopped laugh­ing and put the book down.