These poems take the reader on an imaginary journey through the great Jewish thinker’s life, revealing a man who embraced the secular world while retaining his identity as a Jew. The title refers to the 25 life-size apes Mendelssohn was forced to buy as a married Jew under Frederick the Great. “A brilliant cycle of poems.... A shining poetic monument to a unique individual.” — Moshe Dor, poet and journalist