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Imagining "The Orthodox" in Emuna Elon's Heaven Rejoices: Voyeuristic, Reformist, and Pedagogical Orthodox Artistic Expression

What does it mean to be religious in a secular, western, modern society? Emuna Elon's novel, Heaven Rejoices, engages this question through a story of two intertwined love affairs: one thwarted—a previously orthodox mother's youthful unconsummated love for a future rabbi and leader in the settler community, and one realized—her orthodox daughter's love for his son. This paper first identifies three categories of cultural expression among orthodox Israelis—reformist, voyeuristic, and pedagogical. The paper then examines how the novel, a pedagogical artifact, simultaneously captures the ambivalences and tensions embedded in the contemporary orthodox experience and suggests a resolution that hinges on a differentiation between "orthodox", "ultra-orthodox", and "secular". I conclude that in its attempt to chart purportedly clear boundaries between these social categories the novel partakes in broader cultural negotiations between orthodox traditionalists and reformists about the face and future of Israeli orthodoxy.