Stories to wake you up: wisdom tales and Jewish stories with Yaakov Nadler

A well known “Jack”tale about a foolish boy who listens to his mother but misses the context. He is so foolish that eventually he earns a sack of gold for taking a sad princess out of her spell of sadness.

A compilation of 3 tales about the importance of real life experiences. followed by a teaching in Pirkei Avot which encourages one to continue the learning outside of the halls of study.

My 1st grade Rebbe was a talented musician, artist and most importantly, a story teller. 1986 was a long time ago but I still remember how I felt after hearing Rabbi Burston’s stories. Here is a link to his work: http://www.rabbiburston.com

A true story! Based on an article by Rabbi Pini Dunner in the Tablet magazine: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/amazing-yabloner-rebbe

A king is on a mission to answer his existential question…he doesn’t want to miss the moment when it arrives:“when is the most important time of my life?” He is disappointed that the master tells him to plant turnips. It ends up being the most important time…the now. A similar lesson to the dark story: “Finding Happiness: the wolf and the Stupid”. The credit goes to

3 Rabbis in the Talmud with 3 different encounters with magic. When Yanai uses “Magic” to get back at an innkeeper it backfires on him. Real or not the series of stories seems to tell us to keep away from magic and stick with what is real. Based on the commentary of Shmuel Faust Agadata: Stories of Talmudic Drama Devir 2011.

Elisa Davy Pearmain has an outstanding book: Doorways to the Soul: Fifty-two Wisdom Tales from around the World Doorways to the SoulWinner of the 1999 Storytelling World Honor Award for Anthologies. (3rd Printing). She recommend spending a week on each story. Here I am giving you 2 of them in one short episode!

A poor immigrant is rejected from a janitorial job because he Doesn’t know how to read and write. Instead of falling in despair, he decides to become an entrepreneur. When asked by a Banker offering him a million dollar loan: “I can’t even imagine what you would be if you knew how to read and write: “he responds that he would be a simple janitor.

3 tales about the prankster who was able to score a meal by outsmarting the more fortunate.

The yeshiva is going to close down they seek the miracle of a Wise Rebbe. He tells them that the Moshiach lives in their Yeshiva. They start being kind to each other and the Yeshiva is saved!

As the Yiddish saying goes: “Mit Moach night Mit Koach”. More brain less force gets the job done.

This tale I Hanukafied a classic folktale.

the teaching of R. Simcha Bunim Peshischa : הרופא לשבורי לב if our heart is healed by G-d, why would the end of the פסוק be relevant ומחבש לעצבותם our heart is healed, why would we need our bandages to be changed? He answers that G-d heals us by allowing us to recognize that אין דבר שלם כלב נשבר. The heart remains broken (and bandages are in order) but we become complete by our recognition that br...

The “wise” people of Chelm are fooled again and again by believing the absurd sales pitch of a fraudster.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Futerfas known informally as Reb Mendel, was a famous Chabad Mashpia and Chossid. He spent many years in the Gulag where he collected stories to help him learn lessons in serving G-d. this story is about a “snow” bird who is saved by a fox who takes a dump on him. אז מען ליגט אין דרעק וואס זינגסטו! 3 important life lessons!

I spent many hours trying to understand the lesson of this deep story. A solider/fixer needs his fake wooden sword to be authentic (metal). He prays that his sword turn to wood and he saves himself. Rav Shagar sees in this story the Matrix: the fixer is Neo, the hacker.

A collection of 3 tales about heaven and hell…The angels came to G-d asking to start rebuilding Hell, G-d said that there is no need, we will use the current heaven as the new hell and create something entirely new as heaven. (BInyamin Shvili)

A tale by Rabbi Nachman about A Jew who falls for Kaptzan Pasha’s trick. The king decrees that he should deliver a letter to the executioner saying “throw this man in the fire” on the way to deliver the letter he is asked to do a Mitzvah and he asks Kaptzan Pasha to deliver the letter. The executioner kills Kaptzan Pasha and the Jew is saved and returns to solve the kings advisor.

A medrash: Eliezer serves justice to the wicked judge of Sedom.

Evil returns to the evil.

The mouse is told it’s only a mouse problem and his animal friends have no empathy for him. The importance of Unity as in the story of Ovadyah who saves 100 prophets.

A servant in an attic, sees what looks like a useless rope, he doesn’t realize the importance of the rope. We often need to see more than what’s in front of us.

A falcon losses his life stoping the dehydrating king from drinking water. The king then discovers that the falcon was trying to save the king from being poisoned! At times we only see what’s in our frame of vision. We don’t have Birds Eye view.

In a quest to live forever, The evil king was duped into taking his own life. Retold from Dr. Jorge Bucay’s book Mi Atah.

An old Jewish tale about a man who gave up on a pile of gold to keep Shabbat. He finds one coin after Shabbat which eventually saves a merchant captured by pirates. As Achad Haam famously said: “More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.”