The Rabbi and the Widow

Romance and philosophy combine in this engaging, imaginative tale of a grizzled LSU professor Rabbi Baraq Broulliette and Sara, widowed when her husband of 25 years died of cancer and still finding her new single life baffling.

Their story, told by four who love them, brings varied viewpoints to the same problem:  Being alone and searching.  

Sara, seeking comfort from the religious faith of her childhood, meets Baraq whose own difficult times had left him alone in a world of university teaching, scholarship, and Jewish worship.  Throughout a year of counselling, the rabbi and the widow become fast friends, as each finds solace from grief, loss, illness, and the death of cherished loved ones. 
 
How can the rabbi and the widow handle the delicate and mystifying effects of their mutual trust in each other? Can the grizzled rabbi and the lovely widow remain friends? Or will their relationship be a temporary detour on the road back to wholeness and perhaps new romantic possibilities? 

The story takes surprising twists as it winds towards a conclusion that neither one could have foreseen.

Dr. Isbell holds four university degrees and a Diploma in German literature, including a Ph.D. in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University (1973), where he studied ancient near eastern and biblical languages, literatures, and linguistics under Cyrus Gordon, Hebrew Bible with Nahum Sarna, and Cuneiform languages with Ernest R. Lacheman. 

He is an original member of the translation committee of the NASB (The New American Standard Bible), completed in 1971.

Both a Rabbi (1973) and a Cantor (1970), he has served congregations in Kansas, Connecticut and Louisiana.

Born in Marksville, Louisiana, Dr. Isbell grew up as a native speaker of Cajun French, graduating from Crowley High School in 1962. Dr. Isbell's taped Cajun French interview (2018) is in the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History. He's fluent in other modern languages, including Hebrew, continental French, Italian, German, and Yiddish. 

His academic career began in 1972, at the University of Massachusetts.  Dr. Isbell taught at two graduate theological seminaries before coming to Louisiana State University. He has taught numerous languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Aramaic, and Akkadian cuneiform), as well as a broad range of courses in Bible (history, literature, and theology), rabbinic thought, and anti-Semitism.  

Since 1997, he's taught at Louisiana State University, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies (Director of Jewish Studies, 2002-2007).  In 2017, he was a Delta Zeta sorority "Favorite Professor" and awarded by Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity for "Excellence in Teaching."  LSU honored him at the "Innovation & Technology Commercialization" Showcase (2016) for his book, How Jews and Christians Interpret Their Sacred Texts: A Study in Transvaluation.  

He's a member of the Association for Jewish Studies, Biblical Archaeology Society, Central Conference of American Rabbis, National Association of Hebrew Professors, and the Society of Biblical Literature.