Rabbi Daniel Brenner

Author’s note: This short re-telling was developed when I had the wonderful pleasure of being part of a Purim celebration at Brooklyn Bowl with the Phish cover band Uncle Ebenezer and a group of actors from The Rock and Roll Playhouse. A sold-out crowd of 300 plus folks (kudos to Mike and Wendi at Because Jewish!) danced along to the story and watched four costumed actors pantomiming the parts of the King, Vashti, Esther, Haman, and Mordecai. In the city…

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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…

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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….

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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…

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A few years ago, I was fortunate to work closely with a Conservative Rabbi, Benay Lappe, who spent her years at JTS in the closet. I learned about the enormous pain that she went through as she had to hide her identity. She chose JTS beacuse she wanted to learn talmud, to be in an environment that cared about Jewish law, and to be part of a movement that valued tradition. I am sure that there are others like Lappe,…

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