Jewish Folk Tales

Kristen Kersey and Peninnah Schram

The Jewish people are known as “the people of the book,” but we also have a long tradition of oral storytelling.

Early in the Torah, Moses explains to the Israelites how they will recount the story of the Exodus to their children before they have even left Egypt: “In days to come, when your child asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.’” (Exodus 13:14).

Storyteller and BJ member Peninnah Schram explains that “taking a storytelling approach to life review makes our heritage and history vital because it gives context. When a generation can empathize with its ancestors’ feelings, share their ideas and sorrows, the lessons of their lives will live on.” Jewish folk stories such as “The Apple Tree’s Discovery” and “The Scratched Diamond” can be found in numerous iterations throughout the Jewish world (read these stories, as retold by Peninnah Schram, at www.bj.org/folktales).

“God looked down at the apple tree and said gently, ‘Have patience, little apple tree.’”

Rosh Hashanah, Schram writes, is a holiday that focuses on the oral experience. The prayer Barukh She’amar tells us that it is through God’s words that the universe came into being: “Blessed is He Who Spoke, and the world came into being — blessed is He. Blessed is He Who maintains creation; blessed is He Who speaks and does…”

It is through the sound of the shofar, “that distinctive all-encompassing sound,” that we begin to awaken our hearts and stir our souls. For Schram, the sound of the shofar and the words of the storyteller are intricately linked.

“There is no substitute for the dramatic sound of the shofar and the sound of the human voice chanting prayers and also telling stories. It is the sound of the human voice that transmits learning and memory. It is through the voice, a person’s exquisite

“Instead of seeing the scratch in the diamond as a blemish, the young diamond cutter had seen it as the stem of a rose.”

musical instrument,” she explains, “that the words create technicolor worlds that remain long-lasting memories.”

The themes of the holiday are illuminated through the stories collected by Schram, such as justice, teshuvah, forgiveness, selihot, and the power of tears and prayer, to name just a few.

Rosh Hashanah is a prime time to share stories because it is a time when multiple generations gather together to talk around the dinner table. The opportunity to share

To read these two folk tales, please visit www.bj.org/ folktales

stories with a captivated audience without phones in hand is rare, and according to Schram, should not be missed.

“There is always a time for telling stories,” she writes, “and there is always a story to fit the time. Storytelling not only reflects but perpetuates life. Rosh Hashanah is that right time to tell stories, listen to stories and share our lives through stories.”

We invite you to read these stories, which come from Jewish communities around the world and which engage the themes of the High Holy Days, and to share them with those seated at your table (or seated at their own tables and brought to you by the power of Zoom) this year.