Words is an archive of the various creative projects that I am working on that are meant to be spoken – plays, stories, poems, speeches, and the occasional joke.
Shabbat Shalom. First off, I want to express my gratitude to three men who made it possible for me to wake up in Minnesota. Lon Rosenfeld, who called me in my office in New York and said that I had to come. Rabbi Kravitz, who welcomed me to the bima and to Minnetonka with open arms, and my friend from college Donovan Hart, who let me crash on his sofa. Donovan is not Jewish – but he and his wife…
KADOSH BARUCH HU Open my lips, I whisper, closing my eyes to look for you. But all I see is the inside of my eyelids, screen of the 19 inch black and white television of my childhood, the knob stuck on a channel that doesn’t come in. And yet, I turn to you. Not turning really, but I back-float and you hover above me, I am staring out the window of the train at the seagulls and the passing mounds…
The Rabbi of Pinsk and the Wise Wagon Driver The Rabbi of Pinsk was a man of moderate wealth, and he had enough money to hire a servant to drive his horse and buggy to Pichniev. The servant was a very poor man, who dressed only in rags, his feet wrapped with burlap because he had traded his shoes for food during a moment of destitution. He was hungry, and the rabbi noticed that he had nothing to eat for…
Author’s note: Top Ten Jewish Folktales is a writing project that I’ve been working on to retell my favorite classic Jewish folktales.Enjoy! The Holy Ark One Shabbat, Rabbi Levi saw a poor and hungry man weeping in the back row of the synagogue. That afternoon, the Rabbi had lunch with a very rich man. They drank, and then the rich man said: “Rabbi, I have to be honest. I buy many things but I use them and am not satisfied….
Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner April 25, 2012 Twenty-two years ago, as a bright-eyed college graduate, I was deciding between studying in a Yeshiva around the corner from my cousins’ house in Crown Heights or going to Suburban Philadelphia, where I knew absolutely no one, but I could study with Art Green at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. I wish that I could say that I wanted to study with Art because of his scholarship in chassdiut. Or that I was enamored…
Israel’s “leading blogger” Shmuel Rosner interviews Rabbi Daniel Brenner about the Book of Exodus. Here’s more about Rosner.
By Rabbi Daniel S. Brenner Chelm’s rabbi, Reb Dovid, was not a tall man. To reach the top row of his bookshelf, he had to stand on a crate, and on top of the crate he had to put another crate. One morning, as he was deep into his studies, he went reaching for a book on the top shelf to look up a word in his dictionary, and “Crash!” He flew off the crates and landed head first on…
Eating the New Year The ram’s head, My great times great grandfather would eat, To welcome the new year with words “May we be the head and not the tail!” But you, my son, Dip apples into honey, And did you remember to say “To make for us a good and sweet year?” At first we wished for abundance. Your great times great-great grandfathers tillers of soil, (that was our side of the curse) greeted the new year with pumpkins…
To my friends in the rabbinic world and those amazing souls who are not rabbis but are preparing for the high holidays, I’m going to be posting the many poems I’ve penned for those alternative readings at a new blog… www.highholidaypoems.blogspot.com Enjoy! And drop me a line if you use one in your service!
This is an adaptation of a parable from the Maggid of Dubno (Rabbi Jacob Kranz) “Once there was a wealthy man who wanted to protect his fortune so he hid his wealth in different places in his house. He died before telling his young son where he had hidden the money. After the father’s death, the son lived in the home but he had no work and he had little to eat. He grew increasingly desperate and one day was…