The Abe Mezrich Torah Collection
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Tu Bishvat, Jewish Poetry Month and a taste of Parshat Beshalach from Ben Yehuda Press
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Words for a Dazzling Firmament
In his third book of poetic Midrash, Abe Mezrich breathes new life into the first third of the Torah.
“It would have been enough if Abe Mezrich only wrote midrashim (creative re-interpretations/rediscoveries of the Torah); it would have been enough if he only wrote poems; it would have been enough if he only wrote Zen koans. How fortunate are we that he has given us a work combines all three! Mezrich is a cultivated craftsman— interpretively astute, sonically deliberate, and spiritually cunning.”
—Zohar Atkins, author of Nineveh
“Direct and accessible, Mezrich’s midrashic poems often tease profound meaning out of his chosen Torah texts.”
—Yehoshua November, author of God’s Optimism
“Abe Mezrich cuts straight back to the roots of the Midrashic tradition, sermonizing as a poet, rather than idealogue. Best of all, Abe knows how to ask questions and avoid the obvious answers.”
—Jake Marmer, author of Cosmic Diaspora
Shavuot and beyond Torah sale
🌄 HERE IS OUR SHAVUOT SALE🌄
25% off on all our Torah titles (preorders too) & free US shipping!
https://www.benyehudapress.com/product-tag/torah/
Includes a recent Jewish Book Award winner… and also many of the books you can read about in our parsha series!
We’ll thread a bit…
(If you are wondering about our Pride sale, we’re also going to have one like last year, but it will launch after Shavuot. 😺 A very festive time!)
So! Torah!
#TorahInATimeOfPlague edited by Erin Leib Smokler now comes with the Jewish Book Award stamp on the cover 😻
All the history, theology, personal and scholarly reflections on TORAH + PLAGUE ⤵️
The Torah is often considered a document by and about men. But women have been there at the dawn of Jewish history, and since then, as spiritual leaders of many kinds.
Jill Hammer and Taya Shere write about The Hebrew Priestess, richly sourced:
Would you like a book for the young readers in your home that brings each week’s Torah portion up close?
An Angel Called Truth & Other Tales from the Torah retells classic stories from kids’ point of view –
We had an earlier thread specifically about this book, with excerpts, illustrations & more –
We also have books really quite not for children.
The Comic Torah: Reimagining the Very Good Book by Aaron Freeman and Sharon Rosenzweig does not shy away from the blood, the gore and the sex in the original 🙀
Truly a GRAPHIC novel
Here is a relatively more all-ages excerpt, but no less provocative!
Would you like poems? Would you like parsha poems?
We have some, with more in the works!
Sue Swartz tackles the emotional arcs of the five books of Moses –
I always feel fond of reading nuclear anything into the Bible, so here is a small excerpt featuring the priests…
(We’ve posted quite a few more excerpts from this book & you can find them by carefully searching our parsha threads!)
We are probably one of the foremost publishers of Torah poetry (and now we are also venturing into Talmudic poetry), so let’s take a look at some more –
Abe Mezrich writes poetic midrash on the parsha, with two volumes now available & a 3rd coming!
Here is the other volume:
https://www.benyehudapress.com/books/the-house-at-the-center-of-the-world/
You have one about sacred space, one about sacred community, and the third will be about bricks.
(no, REALLY)
(okay, not JUST about bricks)
For something very different, Isidore Century writes about the parsha and about New York Jewish life, sometimes simultaneously!
Coffee & bagels are involved. Yes, in the books of Moses. What would Mother say?
(We all know what Mother would say)
We also have serious books. Yes, we do.
Wrestling Jacob is one of those awesome backlist finds. This book exists & no one told me? (Here I am telling you!)
An intensely psychological take on Jacob & his family, with in-depth textual analysis –
We actually want to post a new excerpt from this one soon, but we’ve had some already… Here is something about who Jacob REALLY fights when he fights the angel.
(I can’t believe that was in the Bible! And in the absolutely plain sense meaning of the text!)
Another book that gives you that sense of discovery about what’s REALLY in the Bible is Esau’s Blessing from Ora Horn Prouser!
It takes a look at the disabled people in the Torah (and there are many of them)
Here we had a thread about Esau, and his extremely relatable struggles with leaving his hunting equipment at home.
I also must add this from the Psalms (ok, the Psalms were not given at Mount Sinai, but!) –
If you’re interested in something mystical, but at the same time want to do something… you can quite literally WALK through the Torah with Rabbi Shefa Gold –
This book presents the Torah – divided up into each weekly portion – as a spiritual journey that you yourself can take.
Every parsha has a challenge and a blessing… and yes, there are exercises!
Find your inner priest, it comes with cool clothing –
Torah can be greatly enjoyed in company.
If you’re looking for something to be discussed around the Shabbat table all year, you can try this book of matched Torah / Mishnah / Gemara tidbits!
Here is an interesting detail from Genesis –
Sometimes you want what you can’t have.
Here is the Book of Genesis without the letter E!
This only makes it more interesting…
“a lipogram — a text that avoids a particular letter — offers the virtues of discipine and restraint.”
Yes, but how do you say “Let there be light?”
(Click through and it’s actually on the book’s profile page)
However, sometimes what you want to have might already be at your fingertips.
We have not one, but two books about bibliodrama –
https://www.benyehudapress.com/books/bibliodrama-bundle/
Explore the Bible by acting it out! 📖 🙀😽😼😻
And to finish the thread, we also have a Bible-themed preorder.
Noted Jewish atheist Lawrence Bush examines the parsha in American Torah Toons 2 – with both commentary and art!
Here is our announcement thread, with an excerpt – and some LSD…
Order away!
We guarantee that the books will not arrive before the holiday, thereby not disturbing your cheesecake preparation.
(But you will get them soon after, and Torah learning never ends… 😽 )
Because we started this sale relatively close to the holiday, it will be open for about a week, and then we can do our Pride sale too 😺
Originally tweeted by Ben Yehuda Press | Shavuot sale pinned! (@BenYehudaPress) on June 2, 2022.
Chanukah and Black Friday sale!!
Happy upcoming Chanukah to our beloved readers – this year it starts VERY early. We have joined our Chanukah events to our Black Friday and Cyber Monday events!
Our big seasonal sale is here:
Order any two books from our catalog, get a third free! No need to put in a coupon code this time, the sale is automatically applied to your order from our website.
There is one caveat: the shopping cart can’t combine preorders with regular orders. We are working on fixing this issue!
If you have trouble choosing, we have some book ideas for you on Twitter:
Amazon has also put some of our books on sale:
- Monologues from the Makom: Intertwined Narratives of Sexuality, Gender, Body Image and Jewish Identity edited by Rivka Cohen, Sara Rozner Lawrence, Sarah J. Ricklan and Rebecca Zimilover
- Between the Mountain and the Land Lies a Lesson: Poetic Midrash on Sacred Community by Abe Mezrich
- The House at the Center of the World: Poetic Midrash on Sacred Space by Abe Mezrich
We don’t know for how long Amazon will offer this deal, so make sure to check it out now! These are Amazon associate links and we get paid some additional commission if you purchase books after clicking on them. (Amazon pays royalties to us after the cover price, so don’t worry about taking advantage of their price drops.)
Parsha post: Lech Lecha
Our discussion of this week’s Torah portion will include ….
- How to space a Torah scroll
- How to listen to your kid
- How to fight demons with a sword?!
As usual, we pick three interesting and informative tidbits from books we published, to explore the Torah portion this way. Yes, demon-fighting really will be included… But first, spacing a Torah scroll. While we do publish science fiction, this is not in the sense of “ejecting into space”. But rather, how to space the lines of text in the scroll…
We learn about this from TORAH & COMPANY by Judith Z. Abrams. This book matches some Mishna & Gemara to each Torah portion, so that the Mishna and the Gemara will provide some company and the Torah portion won’t be so sad all by itself.
For this week’s Torah portion, one of the Gemara bits picked by Abrams is from the BT Bava Batra 163a. This explains how you should space Hebrew text (not just in the Torah, but also in contracts and the like).
How much space should be between two lines of writing? Rav Yitzhak ben Elazar said: As much, for example, as is required for the writing of lech l’cha (Genesis 12:1 and Genesis 22:2) one above the other.
BT Bava Batra 163a
(There are also further opinions in the Gemara, but the alternate solutions don’t have to do with the weekly portion.)
Abrams explains:
The Gemara here is discussing how much space must be left between lines of text in a document. Note the illustration:
Of all the Hebrew letters, lamed extends the furthest upward and the letter chaf sofit extends the furthest downward. Therefore, scribes are directed to leave enough room to accommodate the possibility of lech l’cha appearing on two lines, one directly above the other.
What do you make of the symbolism that lech l’cha extends in the furthest directions up and down? Can you find any significance in the fact that the words appear identical in the Torah?
Next up, we have a tiny but thought-provoking poem for you, from the upcoming THIRD volume of poetic midrash by Abe Mezrich! You can find the first two books here.
Listening
by Abe Mezrich
God names Yishmael, Abraham’s son,
for the act of hearing a cry.
Then God names Abraham Father to All.
To father a world, first you must father listening.
______
Genesis 16:1 – 17:5
I just really like this – and also it makes one think, how did that work out for Abraham and Yishmael? (Not so well?) What this implies about our own childrearing is an exercise that’s left to the reader.
Now we get to the demon-fighting part (yes, I know you were waiting) (We are here to provide you high-quality demon-fighting content)
This next section is from Rabbi Jill Hammer’s THE JEWISH BOOK OF DAYS. Which has something for each day of the Jewish calendar that relates to that day. It was also a finalist for the Jewish Book Award, and you might see why…
This time around, I picked something from the upcoming week. Cheshvan 11 (check it out in your calendar!) is the anniversary of two famous Biblical figures passing.
(I could call it a yahrtzeit, but that might be SLIGHTLY anachronistic, given that this was before Yiddish was invented…)
Some of you probably know about Rachel’s anniversary, but do you know that this is also Methuselah’s anniversary? Yes, the guy who lived for 969 years. Rabbi Hammer found you a lesser-known midrash about his prowess with a sword.
This is from the Midrash Avkir, which only survives in fragments. (Seeing some of the fragments, the universe probably couldn’t withstand it existing as a whole, I would say.)
Let’s see how Rabbi Hammer summarizes it:
One Jewish legend about Methuselah is that he was the first to learn how to fight demons. By fasting for three days while standing in a river, Methuselah obtains the power to write God’s name on his sword. He then uses the sword to smite the demons who afflict humankind. The eldest demon, Agrimus, comes to Methuselah and asks him to desist killing the demons; in return, Agrimus gives Methuselah the name of every demon. Using the names, Methuselah banishes the demons to the far recesses of the ocean (Midrash Avkir).
The darkening autumn is a time of reflection and, for some, of depression or regret. Yet when we learn the names of our demons, they no longer have power over us. It is interesting that Methuselah uses a body of water as a place to send the demons. Water, a symbol of the unconscious, represents the place we must go at this time of year to discover ourselves.
We wish all of our readers a good occasion to go and discover ourselves, like Avraham went (lech lecha – go to yourself). Hopefully not in the company of demons!
If you liked this, you can check out our other parashah posts too.
Parsha time! Ha’azinu
This week’s thread about the weekly portion will tell you how to fasten yourself to G-d. (Duct tape optional)
🌄 HA’AZINU 🌄
In which Moses sings a lengthy song and is then told about his impending death. (We warned you.) There’s also a big rock!
Even though we’re just before Sukkot, a happy occasion, this parsha has a lot of rather grim commentary – because this is where G-d tells Moses that he’s going to die, and not be allowed into the Land.
A discussion of death follows, not all of it as peaceful as Moses’. As usual, we will pick 3 tidbits on the portion from books that we published. And we’ll begin with the one NOT about death. It involves fastening 🩹
The first piece is from Abe Mezrich’s collection of poetic midrash on the later books of the Torah, BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE LAND LIES THE LESSON.
Hold the World Together
1.
The people of Babel fear they will scatter across the world.
They build a great tower from the valley where they live, up to Heaven.
This, they think, will hold them in place;
will hold them together.
But God disbands them.
Far later God relays a speech for Moses to share.
In it, God calls Heaven and Earth to witness His words–
*like storms upon the vegetation*.
To remain a people on the Land, God says, follow God.
2.
In Babel they thought earth and sky and each of us
are separate things.
It would take a structure to connect them
for us to stay together.
But God tells Moses: Heaven and Earth and the people
and our lives with God
— they are already part of one fabric:
a single fabric beneath the One God
Who rains from the sky to the grass.
3.
If you want to hold the world together,
do not invent a new structure to hold it up.
There is no need. It will not work.
Look to the fabric of God.
Fasten yourself to it.
The endnote specifies that this piece was based on Genesis 11 and Deuteronomy 31:16-32:2,44-47, the latter from our weekly portion.
For our next detail, we picked something from Torah & Company, a book by Judith Z. Abrams that finds a matching detail from the Mishnah and the Gemara for each weekly portion! (Demonstrate your erudition over Shabbat dinner!)
In his song, Moses offers a beautiful image of God as a rock:
“The Rock! His deeds are perfect; and all His ways are just.
A faithful God without sin: righteous and straightforward is He.” (32:4)
There is a longer story in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Avodah Zarah 17b, that features this quote.
(A warning that this will be grim.)
The Romans then brought up Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon and they said to him:
“Why have you occupied yourself with Torah which the emperor had forbidden under penalty of death?”
The rabbi said to them: “Thus the Lord my God commanded me.” At once they sentenced him to be burnt..
As he went out from the tribunal he accepted the righteousness of the Divine judgment. He quoted, “The Rock, His work is perfect; for all his ways are justice.”
They took hold of him, wrapped him in the Scroll of the Law, placed bundles of branches round him and set them on fire. Then they brought tufts of wool, which they had soaked in water, and placed them over his heart, so that he should die slowly.
( 😱 )
His daughter said to him: “Father, alas that I should see you in this state!”
He said to her: “If it were I alone that was being burnt it would have been a thing hard for me to bear. But now that I am burning together with the Scroll of the Law, He who will have regard for the Plight of the Torah will also have regard for my plight.”
His students said to him: “Rabbi, what do you see?”
He said to them: “The parchments are being burnt but the letters are flying free…”
The executioner said to him: “Rabbi, if I raise the flame and take away the tufts of wool from over your heart (so your death is quicker and less painful), will you assure me that I will enter into the life to come?”
The rabbi said to him: Yes.”
The executioner said to him: “Then swear unto me.”
He swore to him that he would enter the world to come. The executioner immediately raised the flame and removed the tufts of wool from over his heart, and his soul quickly departed.
The executioner then jumped and threw himself into the fire. And a heavenly voice went forth saying: “Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon and the executioner are destined for life in the world to come.”
When Rabbi heard it he wept and said: “There are those who acquire eternity in one hour, and then there are those who acquire eternity over many years!”
*
Whew! That’s a difficult story in more senses than one. For instance, why was Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon so certain he could make such an offer?
Judith Z. Abrams also has some discussion questions for us –
“Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon accepts his fate serenely. What does that image mean to you? How could you experience “the letters flying free” in your life? “Is there a qualitative difference between the eternal life acquired in an hour, or that acquired over the course of a lifetime? Which is easier? Is it fair to employ a “shortcut” in this matter?”
And the last one is also about death and mourning, but in a less abrupt manner…
It is a poem from Maxine Silverman’s SHIVA MOON: Poems from a Year of Mourning, published by our Jewish Poetry Project imprint.
In this piece she talks about her father’s passing, and relates it to the passing of time in the Jewish calendar and the history of the Jewish people in the Torah…up till and including the passing of Moses and Aharon.
(We already talked about Aharon’s death here!)
What I Learned So Far
When Ellen says my poems these days seem one seamless Kaddish,
I hear she understands the six months
before my father died were raw keen k’riah.
How June’s visit home I see his death
forming in the air he breathes.
Why every evening I call him
until there’s nothing left to say,
until all that remains–the sheer
pleasure of his company.
Elul. He weakens before my eyes,
no shofar blast required.
Tishrei. We daven
repetitions to dwell in meaning: who shall live
and who shall die, who in the fullness of years
We cross into wilderness, a new year,
pillar of fire before us, the old, the weak, the infirm
to the rear, Amalek plucking them one death
at a time.
Reservations for December.
My father says, “Come right now.” and I do.
A way is made.
Gathered to his people,
a story old as time.
Thank you for following along, and we hope we managed to offer some things to think about. Before Sukkot and partying (we will have something about Sukkot and partying, too!)…
Also make sure not to miss our INTENSE discourse on the size of Nineveh in the Bible, earlier today.
Between the Mountain and the Land Lies the Lesson
In his latest book of poetic Midrash, Abe Mezrich breathes new life into the last third of the Torah. This third act, beginning with Moses sending spies into the Land, becomes the setting for poetry that fully engages the mind and the heart.
With clarity and beauty, Between the Mountain and the Land is the Lesson explores fundamental Jewish questions: What does it mean to be sacred? To be a community? And, especially, what does it mean to be a sacred community that both flees from and longs for Revelation?
Three new books of poetry Jewish poetry from Ben Yehuda Press
Ben Yehuda Press is proud to present:
Three new books of Jewish poetry
The House at the Center of the World:
Poetic Midrash on Sacred Space
In his piercing debut collection, The House at the Center of the World, poet and scholar Abe Mezrich offers a series of beautifully composed short insights on some of the most elusive passages of the Torah: the second half of Exodus, the entirety of Leviticus, and the beginning of Numbers. At once powerful close readings of the text and deeply spiritual literature, these roughly seventy short pieces “carry ethical implications all the way from the ancient era right to the present day” (Dan Friedman, Managing Editor of The Forward). “Direct and accessible,” these poems “remind us that our Creator is forgiving, that the spiritual and physical can inform one another, and that the supernatural can be carried into the everyday.” (Yehoshua November, author of God’s Optimism)
More information….
we who desire
Poems and Torah riffs
From Genesis to Deuteronomy, from Bereshit to Zot Haberacha, from Eden to Gaza, from Eve to Emma Goldman, we who desire interweaves the mythic and the mundane as it follows the arc of the Torah with carefully chosen words, astute observations, and deep emotion.
“we who desire began as daily writing practice, a poem on the weekly Torah portion. I refined, edited, slashed, leaving only those words that tell a story, the real story of creation and covenant, liberation and desire. Especially desire. I have turned it and turned it for decades, this manual of instruction, this text that called me into forever. Turned it until the words felt right, until I was able to admit its hold on me. Fire and splendor. Fire and splendor.” —Sue Swartz
More information….
Open My Lips
Prayers and Poems
“Rachel Barenblat’s latest offering is truly beautiful – moving, ethereal, grounded, accessible and profound. Her words will nourish the journeys of anyone who opens the book’s pages, connecting the deeply personal to the larger currents of time and life to the Source Within and Beyond Us All.”
— Rabbi Wendi Geffen, North Shore Congregation Israel, Chicago IL
The House at the Center of the World
“According to the mystics, the Torah was engraved with black fire on white fire. These poetic midrash too.” – Jay Michaelson, author of The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path
In his piercing debut collection, The House at the Center of the World, poet and scholar Abe Mezrich offers a series of beautifully composed short insights on some of the most elusive passages of the Torah: the second half of Exodus, the entirety of Leviticus, and the beginning of Numbers. At once powerful close readings of the text and deeply spiritual literature, these roughly seventy short pieces “carry ethical implications all the way from the ancient era right to the present day” (Dan Friedman, Managing Editor of The Forward). “Direct and accessible,” these poems “remind us that our Creator is forgiving, that the spiritual and physical can inform one another, and that the supernatural can be carried into the everyday.” (Yehoshua November, author of God’s Optimism)
