No human event is more personal than death, no solitude more chilling. Nathaniel ben Ezra, too young to be barmitzvah, tries to diminish the suffering of Jesus Christ by offering him a goblet of orange juice, which results in an incident affecting his entire life. Nathaniel loves his own father, and cannot comprehend how the God of Israel could have been so ready to sacrifice his own son, or what could possibly be gained from permitting it. He feels contempt as well as hatred for such a god, who also drinks in so many prayers without heeding them. Nathaniel believes that God is a cosmic...