Stories Category
Rosh Hashanah Morning 5780: A Midrash
Posted on October 2, 2019 Leave a Comment
After the Akedah: In Abraham’s Tent Two weary dust-worn travelers, elder and younger, wandered home into Abraham’s Tent, relocated to Kiryat Arbah. Sarah took one look at them both, and her kishkes knew. This had not been an ordinary journey from which father and son returned. So is the insight of a wife’s mind, such […]
MY GRANDMA LIL
Posted on September 11, 2018 Leave a Comment
A fictional tale in honor of Grandma Lillian and all the amazing mothering aunts in my life. Let me tell you about my Grandma Lil. She was the best cook in the world, well at least I thought so, and that thought was shared by many others. One day, my Grandma Lil thought she would […]
Open the Door: Towards the Future
Posted on September 30, 2017 Leave a Comment
A true story. Sort of. Grandpa Solomon put up the Mezuzah hanging it straight up-and-down. “Look Jacob. See how straight I place the Mezuzah. At Passover, we remember how in Egypt when we painted blood on the doorposts of our house God guarded us from the angel of death. The Mezuzah reminds us of that […]
Crowns and a Small Aleph
Posted on March 31, 2017 Leave a Comment
It is not just the stories and laws and words of the Torah that have meaning. We are taught that each-and-every letter, each crown or tagin on the letter, of the Torah is significant. “Rabbi Yehuda, quoting Rav, said: `When Moses ascended to receive the Torah he found God sitting and tying crowns to the […]
Come Forth O Bride: A CAMP STORY
Posted on January 6, 2017 Leave a Comment
IN HONOR OF JO-ELLEN UNGER Like an apparition, she came walking down the dirt road. A young woman making her way to a camp-site on a late Friday afternoon. Dressed in jeans and a colored, ragged t-shirt, her hair in loose curls. She stopped at Security. The young man and woman in the security box […]
An Old Story Re-newed/Re-Jewed for Halloween: The Rabbi Who Was Turned into a Werewolf
Posted on October 31, 2014 Leave a Comment
(This story has been adapted, shortened, and changed for re-telling. The original is from the Mayse-Bukh a collection of Yiddish folk tales published in 1602. A translation of the original story can be found in Joachim Neugroschel’s “Great Tales of Jewish Occult and Fantasy: The Dybbuk and 30 Other Classic Stories”.) A true story: Once a rabbi, […]
Rabbi Linda Joseph 