An immanent avalanche of Jewish books
There are so many fascinating characters in Jewish storytelling. Elijah the Prophet. Serach Bat Asher. Ashmodai, King of the Demons. King Solomon. Agrat, and her Gang of Destroying Angels. Lilith. Dybbuks. Golems. The overworked Angel of Death, and his inept intern Chad. They might appear first in Jewish tradition in texts like the Tanach and Talmud. But their adventures continue through Midrash, legends, folklore, ritual objects, art, and song.
Welcome to Jewish Lore Reactions, a spinoff from Daf Reactions, that follows these characters through space and time, tracing the sprawling evolution of their stories across the Jewish diaspora in an incredible, extended chain of imagination: The collective narrative world-building of the Jewish people. This series is born from my wish to show my heartfelt appreciation for, and celebration of, Jewish stories, peoplehood, and creative resiliency.
In creating this series, I read many books (a selected list is below) and received guidance and feedback, both creative and scholarly, from some of the most incredibly brilliant people in their fields. Thank you in particular to: The Digital Storytellers Lab (including Creative Director Sarah Lefton, Program Director Janine Okmin, the Maimonides Fund, and my fellow 2024 Fellows), Sarah Benor, Hadar Cohen, Ian Coss, Jesse Kellerman, Ilan Kogan, my extremely supportive chevruta Geo Poor, Rabbi Shais Rishon, Blake Robin, Dr. Galit Hasan-Rokem, Dr. Sara Ronis, Rabbi Sivan Rotholz, Dr. Francesco Spagnolo, and Jack Zaientz (known online as Adne Sadeh: Jewish Monster Hunter).
Deepest personal gratitude to: Eve E., for her friendship and storytelling trope deep-dives, Diane P., who appears in every backdrop I make in the form of a butterfly, David P., without whom I would never have begun creating my own content, Hannah A., for her sympathetic ear and knowledge of ancient myths, Janet P., for instilling in me a love of Jewish storytelling (and for letting me abscond with many of her Jewish folklore books,) and my father Steve Anzovin, Z”L, who read The Lord of the Rings to me when I was 4, and gave me his love of fantasy literature and imaginative world-building. Thank you, I guess, to my incredibly obnoxious but deeply beloved dog Sansa, for demonstrating what demonic possession could look (and especially sound) like. And to Ronin Z., ani l’dodi, v’dodi li. Lastly, thank YOU, the viewers, for watching and listening to these tales! I hope you enjoy them!
Episode Source Guide:
Will The Real King Solomon Please Stand Up? Part I
Wanna hear a shocking cautionary tale about identity theft between Ashmodai, King of the Demons and the Biblical King Solomon? That also somehow involves a ✨MAGIC WORM✨?! Gather ‘round the phone screen, and let me tell you the story...
Main sources: Talmud Bavli - Brachot 6a, Gittin 68, & Demons in the Details (Ronis)
Will The Real King Solomon Please Stand Up? Part II
Solomon has been resoundingly yeeted, but will a shocking report from the harem lead to Ashmodai being, um, de-feeted? The drama continues!
Main sources: Talmud Bavli - Brachot 6a, Gittin 68, & Demons in the Details (Ronis)
Agrat and the Destroying Angels
Meet Agrat, demon queen and mother of Ashmodai, who rolls deep with a squad of 180,000 angels of destruction in an intersectional coalition of mutually supportive absolute menace! 👑😈💃
Main sources: Talmud Bavli - Pesachim 112b, Yalḳut Ḥadash, Keshafim, 56, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 77, No. 306 (Oct. - Dec., 1964), pp. 295-314, & Demons in the Details (Ronis)
This is a fairytale about a demon-human divorce. A horror story about what happens when Ashmodai’s daughter, Ufrut, marries an unworthy fuckboy. Doom shall befall the faithless man who dares to make an agunah (a chained woman, unable to escape her marriage) out of a demon princess!
Main sources: Folklore 42 - The Tale of the Jerusalemite (Translated by David Stern and Avi Weinstein), Demons in the Details (Ronis), and a Yemenite version of the story in The Book of Jewish Women’s Tales (Barbara Rush).
A note on naming: The Tale of the Jerusalemite does not name the villain’s first wife, nor the demon princess. The name Ufrut comes from the Yemenite variant, and Chava is a nod to Chava HaRishona, the first Eve. In many Jewish stories, the women are not named. I made a point to reverse that, so women and demons get names, but human men do not.
Our story of Ufrut, demon princess and daughter of King Ashmodai continues. Her oathbreaking POS human husband has made her an agunah, a chained woman. And now, it’s time…for REVENGE. (Justice, but also revenge.)
Main sources: Folklore 42 - The Tale of the Jerusalemite (Translated by David Stern and Avi Weinstein), Demons in the Details (Ronis), and a Yemenite version of the story in The Book of Jewish Women’s Tales (Barbara Rush).
***If you or someone you care about is in need of agunah/gett resources, please check out this list of organizations that can help.
The Jewish Lore Reactions Reading List:
A Big Jewish Book: Poems & Other Visions of the Jews From Tribal Times to Present, edited by Jerome Rothenberg
A History of Jewish Costume, Alfred Rubens
A Treasury of Jewish Folklore: Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs of the Jewish People, edited by Nathan Asubel
Book of Fables, translated and edited by Eli Katz
Cultures of the Jews: A New History, edited by David Biale
Demons in the Details: Demonic Discourse and Rabbinic Culture in Late Antique Babylonia, Sara Ronis
Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash, edited by Tamar Biala
Elijah and the Rabbis: Story and Theology, by Kristen H. Lindbeck
Gabriel’s Palace, by Howard Schwartz
Gates to the Old City: A Book of Jewish Legends, by Raphael Patai
Jewish Art Masterpieces, edited by Iris Fishof
Jewish Blues: A History of a Color in Judaism, by Gadi Sagiv
Jewish Folktales, by Pinhas Sadeh
Jewish Folkways in Germanic Lands (1648 - 1806), by Herman Pollack
Jewish Life in Art and Tradition, by Yehuda L. Bialer
Jewish Magic and Superstition, by Joshua Trachtenberg
Jewish Wisdom, by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
Leaves From the Garden of Eden, by Howard Schwartz
Lilith’s Cave, by Howard Schwartz
Mimekor Yisrael: Selected Classical Jewish Folktales, collected by Micha Joseph Bin Gorion, edited by Emanuel Bin Gorion, prepared by Dan Ben-Amos
Music in Jewish History and Culture, by Emanuel Rubin and John H. Baron
Reimagining the Bible: Storytelling of the Rabbis, by Howard Schwartz
Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women, by Isaac Jack Lévy and Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt
Sefer Yitzirah: The Book of Creation in Theory and Practice, by Aryeh Kaplan
Tales of Elijah The Prophet, by Peninnah Schram
Tales of the Neighborhood: Jewish Narrative Dialogues in Late Antiquity, by Galit Hasan-Rokem
The Book of Jewish Women’s Tales, by Barbara Rush
The Book of Legends/Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash, edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, & Mysticism, by Geoffrey W. Dennis
The Jewish Story Finder, by Sharon Barcan Elswit
The Last Demon, Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Legends of the Rabbis, by Judah Nadich
The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, by Glückel of Hameln
The Passover anthology, by Philip Goodman
The Purim Anthology, by Philip Goodman
The Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, by Howard Schwartz
The Yom Kippur Anthology, by Philip Goodman
Traditional Jewish Papercuts: An Inner World of Art and Symbol, by Joseph & Yehudit Shadur
Voices of a People, by Ruth Rubin
Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature, by Galit Hasan-Rokem
Yenne Velt: The Great Works of Jewish Fantasy & Occult, edited by Joachim Neugroschel
Yiddish Folktales, edited by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich