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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do the rabbis of Makor do with the Law, the directives delivered by God?
(a) Write them down on library walls.
(b) Enforce them.
(c) Change them.
(d) Study and interpret them.

2. What happens when Abd Umar and his army reach Makor?
(a) Makor's leaders are imprisoned and the people are enslaved.
(b) A bloody battle ensues and most of the residents die.
(c) Abd Umar signs a treaty with Makor's religious leaders.
(d) There is no military resistance, and only two are killed.

3. What is Father Vilspronck's role in the book's final chapter?
(a) Help with the analysis of the basilica uncovered at Makor.
(b) Identify relics from the castle uncovered at Makor.
(c) Remind Cullinane of the Irish lady who loves him.
(d) Help Cullinane win the heart of Dr. Vered Bar-El.

4. Of the four members of Rabbi Eliezer's family, which ones survive and find refuge?
(a) The rabbi and his son.
(b) Only Rabbi Eliezer.
(c) Rabbi Eliezer and his wife Leah.
(d) The rabbi and his daughter.

5. When the ten Jews in Rabbi Itzik's congregation decide to stay in Safed and tell the other Jews to leave, what is their response?
(a) They refuse to go and stay to fight.
(b) They laugh and ask the rabbi for some food.
(c) They kick the rabbi and his congregation out of town.
(d) They go just outside the city walls and hide.

Short Answer Questions

1. Abd Umar does not advocate violence and strives to capture Makor:

2. When Menahem wants to marry Jael, daughter of Rabbi Asher, what does the rabbi do?

3. While the Gottesmanns and other Jews sing sustaining songs at Safed, what does Rabbi Itzik do?

4. In "Twilight of an Empire," who is the ruler of Tiberias, a city that is called Tubariyeh in 1880?

5. When do the Crusades end?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the chapter "Rabbi Itzik and the Sabra," the reader meets Vered Bar-El in her youth. Describe who she is and what she does in this chapter.

2. Where are Vered Bar-El and John Cullinane as the chapter "The Tell" opens?

3. In Safed, why does Rabbi Itzik of Vodzh decline to join the Jews who are singing in preparation for battle prior to the city being turned over to Arab rule?

4. Describe the trip Volkmar the Eighth takes with his young son.

5. Summarize the state of Makor when Christianity prevails in the region around 313 C.E.

6. Explain what the rabbis determine in "The Law" about what really bonds the Jewish people.

7. In 1948, what does Isidore Gottesmann plan to do after the British leave Palestine?

8. Who is the leader of Tiberias, known as Tubariyeh, found along the Sea of Galilee in 1880 C.E.?

9. Why does the shoemaker Rabbi Zaki feel that he, his wife, and their family must leave their city of Podi, Italy?

10. How does the author show both the desire for peace and the volatility of Makor and its surroundings in the chapter "The Fires of Ma Coeur"?

(see the answer keys)

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