The Blessings of a Broken Heart is a monologue adapted by Todd Salovey from the book of the same name by Sherri Mandell, whose 13-year-old son Kobi (Yaakov) was murdered in Israel along with his school chum, Yosef Ishban. The two boys had played hooky on that tragic day in 2001 to hike up into the hills bordering their kibbutz, only to be attacked by stone-throwing assailants who were never caught or identified. The noted L.A. actress Lisa Robins performs the monologue in commanding and spell-binding fashion, taking the audience deep into the heart of Mandell’s story. It’s a dark story, of course, one that is saturated with sadness and loss, death and evil. The suddenness and savagery of her son’s death devastated Sherri, left her bereft and angry for the longest time. It also made her question her faith, her belief in a just and caring God. How she managed to fight her way out of the darkness and recapture her love not just of Judaism but life itself is instructive. The counsel of various rabbis and Torah readings helped a bit, but what really made a difference was the support she got from her community, especially a group of mothers who had also lost children in terrorist attacks. Their humanity and empathy lit a flame of hope in her, helped put her on the road to recovery and healing. As one of the mothers told her, “If we put our broken hearts together we can make a new heart.” Because Sherri was able to find her way into the light again — with the aid of her husband and three children — she could assert that “evil exists so that we can do good.” She could also believe, for perhaps the first time, that the Messiah will come one day, bringing redemption with him. Robins’s superb performance is deftly-directed by Salovery, who also uses Tom Jones’s video and music bits to good effect.
