Torah Obscura Radio Hour

Your wandering narrator drifts through surreal encounters—from a clarinet-playing Mustard Man and wetsuited healers to ritual bathhouses and crypts—while undergoing mystic aquatic therapies and searching for meaning in old songs and books. Through visits to mikvahs, boneyards, and desert memories, he unravels connections to past mentors, a mysterious patron named Jake the Protector, an...

This episode blends humorous and mystical reflections on "surviving apocalypse," offering improvised survival tips, warnings about enslavement to machines, and encounters with The League of Metaphysical Escape Artists. Interwoven are personal memories of a friend’s death and memorial, vivid dream-visions, and teachings about the mechanism of reunion and rebirth—the ambrosial assembly o...

An irreverent, autobiographical address to the Academy of the Dream Society: the narrator recounts decades of spinal surgeries, chronic pain, and the surprising atrophy of his gluteus maximus, and explores attempts at recovery from TENS therapy to further repairs. Woven through the medical narrative are playful metaphysical digressions, vivid local scenes like Gracie's Harbor, and reflections on c...

Chapter 13, "Morpheus Deferred," follows Jacob's teenage journey from high-school wrestling and drug-fueled misadventures to uneasy commerce with the Dream Society. As he travels to Herefordshire College and confronts inner voices and a lingering sense of derealization, the narrative traces his loss of identity and the haunting pull of the Ghost Fortress. Interspersed is an interlude of the older...

An off-kilter memoir episode about a summer in the ‘Ghost Palace’ where young Jake Isakson drifts into the Dream Society’s underworld—initiation rituals, petty crime, and the slow creep of possession reshape his life. Set against family fractures and reckless strategies, the chapter maps a purgatorial detour that reveals how choices, karma, and lost bearings steer a life aw...

A surreal, darkly comic episode following a narrator through dreamlike assassinations, Dream Society rites, and strange encounters—blending ritual, humor, and haunting imagery as the Academy’s proceedings unfold.

In Chapter 10, the narrator pedals the strange, aromatic Broadwalk of the Bardo with a companion named Ken of the Travelers encountering third-eyed denizens, on his wobbly bardonic vehicle. Reflections on identity in a dreamlike waiting room. The episode wanders through digressions about shoes and shoe-throwing, failed teaching jobs and janitorial work, and the slow, ambiguous lessons, with a side...

In Episode 9, “The Piyyut of the Djinn,” opening chapter of "The Proceedings of the Academy of the Dream Society," the narrator and his beloved arrive at the Academy of the Dream Society and encounter the mysterious Registrar who admits them only with a cryptic password, from a piyyut tied to a rain-making djinn, Af Bri. Surreal initiation rituals, probing examinations, and intimate en...

Author and narrator Michael Diamond (as Boss Joey/Jakie) continues the Torah Obscura Radio Hour in Book 2, taking listeners into the Interworld — a surreal, dreamlike bardo where memoir, myth, and satire collide. Through encounters with the Dream Society and shifting memories, the episode blends autobiographical reflection, mystical lore, and dark humor while exploring initiation, suffering,...

In the explosive finale of "A Mobster's Midrash," "Chapter 8: Armageddon," chaos reigns as the Kings of Zion prepare for the Battle of the Bands in Atlantic City. Haunted by visions of ectoplasmic cows and prophetic utterances, the band navigates internal conflicts, mounting threats from rival bands, and bizarre supernatural elements. Amidst artisanal pot dealings and music rag rumors, the band's...

Welcome to the clandestine world of Zion, a hidden encampment nestled in the greenway of Northern Jersey, just a stone's throw from Princeton University. Here, a wacky band of academic dropouts and nonconformists gather to grow weed and make music. Hades, the first charismatic leader, rules the nocturnal assembly of misfits with a genial smile and an eye for pranks. Together with his companions, W...

Emmett the shamus reveals the history and metaphysical mechanics of the ritual of self-nullification, an epiphany he achieves whilst walking the canal with his buddy Stretch. Then he shifts the reader's focus to Atlantic City's history as a premier seaside resort and mobster hangout. Along the way, Enoch's origin story, the nullification of his self in the service of the Interworld. The narrative...

Moishie, Brother A, and Auntie Mim have gone underground where they ply the hallucinogenic tea trade in Babylon. Auntie Mim's secret brew is sold in clubs and coffeehouses with hushed whispers and discreet ads. The story unfolds with the formation of a new band under the watchful eye of Delivery Boy and Fat Face Sandalphon, The Judges, who navigate their way through a transformed music scene. The...

Magic and intrigue captivate the diverse assembly that gathers under the hallucinatory spell of Mount Sinai Hospital. Visions of revelation and synesthesia entrain the imagination of Moishie Levy and his irrepressible Tribe. Through shared epiphanies and mysterious divinities, the intricate web of cultural appropriation and ownership leads their souls unite in spiritual commensalism. The narrative...

Emmett the shamus unspools the thread of the treacherous and enigmatic world in which he finds himself in Chapter 3 of 'A Mobster's Midrash'. After being sideswiped by a mysterious truck from 'Eye on the Throne, LLC', our investigator takes a deep dive into the realm of the concrete. As Emmett winds us through the digressive world of his intellect, the listener gets a glimpse of what makes him tic...

Moishie and his mixed multitude navigate a surreal nocturnal journey, a caravan of over 600 souls on a mystery-filled highway escape. Dangers loom in a strange encounters along the way, the line between dream and reality blurs. Moishie’s band takes a roundabout route to shake their tail. It's a tale of mystery, layered with mythical encounters and primordial fears, a path illuminated by the...

Listen. It's the 411 from Emmett the shamus at the club in "A Mobster's Midrash." "Chapter One: Bones" sets the stage for a the upcoming Battle of the Bands. As a roadie in the 'ecclesiastical' world, the world of the gatherers of souls, our narrator offers a unique, side-eyed perspective on the surreal performances and clandestine operations that unravel in vape-filled halls and shadowy nightclub...

Michael Diamond reads A Mobster's Midrash, a surreal noir retelling of biblical and mythic stories set in the 1970s–1980s worlds of music and organized crime. Across clubs, Jersey highways, union shakedowns, and psychedelic concert caravans, the narrator tangles with mobsters, resurrected deities, and musicians to reframe archetypes like Isis and Osiris in a comic, cosmic exploration of sacred and...