He’s the author of more than 100 books about subjects including Jewish rituals and law, Jewish sexuality, and prayer, but Toronto-born Rabbi Ron Isaacs’ latest book targets a different audience.

Rabbi Isaacs, the rabbi emeritus of Temple Shalom synagogue in New Jersey, where he served for the past 40 years, is the co-author of Farmer Kobi’s Hanukkah Match, a Chanukah-themed children’s book that also provides lessons on the Jewish values of welcoming guests, and compassion for animals.

“I never dreamed about doing a children’s book until I found out about a member of my congregation, Karen Rostoker-Gruber, who I didn’t know that well, and I didn’t know that she was a writer,” Rabbi Isaacs said.

Rostoker-Gruber is an award-winning children’s book author and humorist, who has produced six picture books and four adult humour books. She is also a ventriloquist and performs with Maria, her puppet, in schools and libraries.

Rabbi Isaacs said that after speaking with her about writing children’s books, he asked her if she’d consider working with him to write one.

“I asked Karen to show me things she’d written that had been rejected, just to get an idea of some of the books that she wrote other than the ones she published, which were short animal books,” he said.

“There was one about a farmer that I found intriguing because the farmer had animals that could speak, and I read the story and I re-read the story and I said, ‘I think you could take the bare bones of the plot and turn it into a Chanukah story without a whole lot of effort.’”

The story is about a young, single farmer on a moshav in Israel, who is preparing for a Chanukah date, with the help of his farm animal friends.

In an effort to impress Polly, who Farmer Kobi hopes will be his perfect match, the enthusiastic animals dote over their guest, offering her food and doing their best to make her comfortable, to no avail.

At the end of the story, which is peppered with animal-related puns (“eggz-actly” and “baa-baa ghanoush”), Polly leaves in a huff, which disappoints Farmer Kobi.

But there is a happy ending.

“Of course, this other character, Ruthy, shows up with a flat tire and you have to kind of imagine what happens, but she has her animals in the car, and she’s invited in.”

Although the story is built around the holiday of Chanukah, the main lessons demonstrate how guests and animals should be treated.

“It does have Chanukah baked into it, but one of the main underlying themes is how you treat a guest, and how hospitality to guests works, and how both the guest as well as the host have obligations to each other,” he said.

“In this case, the guest who was the farmer’s date, did not appreciate the fact that there were animals sitting at the table and was very rude to them. The animals could’ve gotten into a verbal fight with her, but instead, tried to calm her down by making her feel better, and offering to take her coat, and offering her food. They did everything they could to be accepted by her and she was still not happy with it, slams the door and walks out.”

Rabbi Isaacs said he hopes this isn’t the last children’s book he gets published.

“We actually have another Farmer Kobi book that we wrote for Passover… whether it will get published or not remains to be seen, but it’s a really funny one,” he said.

“We have ideas for a Haggadah for families and it’ll have a lot of funny stuff in it. We’re still working… it is a lot of fun working with her so I hope this is just one of many books.”

Farmer Kobi’s Hanukkah Match, published by Apples and Honey Press, is available for order from Amazon.ca.