A handful of eyeballs glare up at me from the floor. I’ve painstakingly stuck dozens of other eyeball stickers to my face—painted to look like a skull—to my hair, and my clothes, all in an attempt to embody a character covered in a million all-seeing eyes. But some of them are already flaking off before I can even record my lines for this episode of Jewish Lore Reactions. Being side-eyed by inanimate objects is stressing me out…but in this case that’s okay, as anxiety is the exact right vibe for the character I am portraying.
In this episode, I’m retelling an ancient Jewish story from the Talmud about the Angel of Death, Malach HaMavet—a figure who is one of God’s most dreaded, busiest, and overworked employees, struggling to find a healthy work-death balance. Honestly, who can’t relate in some way? In this economy??
Jewish Lore Reactions is a digital short-form video series exploring the meta-narratives, stories, and epic collective world-building of the Jewish people. It’s researched, written, and gleefully retold by me, with support from the Community Creative Fellowship, a partnership between CJP and JArts, now part of The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture.
Jewish storytelling is filled with characters who fascinate me—Ashmodai, King of Demons, his (maybe) half-brother King Solomon, Agrat and her biker gang of destroying angels, shapeshifting Elijah the Prophet, Serach Bat Asher, the undying personification of Jewish memory, dybbuks, golems, and, of course, the Angel of Death (who is out of bandwidth for anything at the moment). While many of these figures first appear in texts like the Tanakh and Talmud, their stories continued to evolve across the Jewish diaspora through midrash, legends, folklore, rituals, art, and song. This sprawling, interwoven narrative reflects the incredible, extended, collective world-building of the Jewish people.
Jewish Lore Reactions is my way of celebrating Jewish stories, peoplehood, and creative resilience.
Here’s the process:
- Research: I dig into primary sources, anthologies, and gather insights from experts to uncover stories both familiar and new.
- Writing: I follow a four-step methodology to retell Jewish texts in my own voice. This includes weaving intertextual references from history, world literature, pop culture, and personal experiences into the tale. I explore the core story, but my main goal is to highlight the characters or groups that are often overlooked, especially women. In my retellings, female characters are not known as “so-and-so’s daughter” or “Ploni Almoni’s wife.” Here, they have their own names, and interiority.
- Reflection: I consider what the storyteller(s) hoped to convey—what values or emotional truths are embedded in the story? What message does it send to the audience? What do I, as the current storyteller, want to surface?
The process of encountering and learning the text is vital to the storytelling journey. I’m thrilled to share this aspect of the experience with the Greater Boston Jewish community through talks and workshops, as part of this fellowship.
The symbolism in each episode, and the series as a whole, is packed with “afikomen” (I refuse to call hidden references in Jewish stories “Easter eggs.” C’mon!) The series backdrop shows Ashmodai’s kingdom, The Mountains of Darkness. The three angels Senoi, Sansenoi, and Semangelof, tasked with hunting THEE Demon Queen Lilith, flit in miniature across the backdrop. In each character costume are nods to their traditional representations: Serach Bat Asher is represented by a lyre, Ashmodai by his signature fabulous claws (a nod to demons in Judaism having chicken feet), and Agrat with badass fiery flame sunglasses. King Solomon’s magic ring is his powerful emblem. The skeletal choker of Ufrut, a demon princess who made the unfortunate (but relatable) mistake of marrying an absolutely TRASH human man (who refused to grant her a get, a Jewish divorce,) foreshadows the dramatic, violent, and triumphant female rage-filled denouement of her story.
Once I film an episode, I send the footage to my editor. LOL JK I am the editor! I add special effects and sound design, each character with their own distinct sound. Agrat is accompanied by the sound of a jig being danced over rooftops. Serach Bat Asher by the soft strum of a lyre. Ashmodai’s presence crackles with fire and a deep rumble like a Balrog, and Death speaks with a quiet ASMR rasp.
When the video is complete, my social media manager (still me) designs the cover art and posts the episode across all my platforms and waits, squeezing a skull-shaped stress ball, for the audience’s response. Will people love it? Will they meet a new character or understand a story or idea in a new light? Will they be inspired to learn these stories themselves, and retell them in their own way? This is my hope. So gather ‘round the phone screen, my friends, or come to an event in person. I’ve got so many stories to tell.
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