Episode 5 guest Esther Werdiger once submitted a whole bunch of cartoons to the New Yorker. It’s true. She did. And then she never heard back. If you know Esther’s style, you know that she usually tells longer, more personal stories. So seeing her try to cram all of that into a single frame is very interesting. You can read them all at The Awl, but this one is my favorite:
I’m very excited to announce that Jewcy.com is now the Internet co-host of OMGWTFBIBLE. Starting with episode 19, recorded last night, new episodes will be available exclusively on Jewcy for a full day before they get released elsewhere. So if you want to get your OMGWTFBIBLE fix before anyone else does, point your browser to Jewcy.com in the week after each episode is recorded (Did I just say “point your browser?” What am I, somebody’s grandma?). Episode 18 with Ari Mandel is already up. Really, though, I’m just honored to be part of the blog network behind Jewcy, Tablet, and the Vox Tablet podcast.
As we geared up for this partnership, I sat down with episode 12 guest and Jewcy editor, Elissa Goldstein, to talk about the genesis (sorry) of the show and where it might go in the future. The whole interview is on Jewcy, but here’s a taste:
Where did the inspiration for OMGWTFBIBLE come from? How long do you think it will take to complete?
I find this question difficult to answer because I can’t really name one source of inspiration. To me, OMGWTFBIBLE is the merging of a few strands I was following at the beginning of 2012. I’d long been fascinated by how few people had read the Bible, let alone in the original Hebrew, and would sometimes drunkenly take a Tanach off my shelf and try to read the story of Tamar and Judah to people. In my stand-up, I started reading very loopy sci-fi stories I wrote when I was 9 and interrupting them with jokes about how silly they were. I had just learned about Mishnah Nazir and thought it was absolutely crazy and, for a week, was considering using the interruption story model for the Talmud: I’d project snippets of the Mishnah for stand-up audiences and translate them live, emphasizing their goofiness.
But then I realized I should go back even further.
– See more at: http://www.jewcy.com/jewish-religion-and-beliefs/omgwtfbible-comedy-podcast-david-tuchman#sthash.K2BIxb5s.dpuf
The stage for Esther’s pitch is set in Chapter 4 of the Megilla named for her. That’s when she learns, through Mordechai, of Haman’s plan of genocide for all the Jews in Achasuerus’ (or Xerxes’, if you’re nasty) domain. She’d like to petition the king to change his mind but, as she tells Mordechai, “any man or woman who goes to the king’s inner court without permission–there’s just one rule–they die.” It’s pretty clear her pitch is a risky one.
Esther goes anyway. After 3 days of fasting and market research (we can only assume), she enters the king’s inner court. Without permission. Achasuerus points his golden scepter at Esther, signifying he won’t kill her. Esther invites her husband and Haman to a string of parties, the second of which is her pitch meeting. When she finally pitches, in chapter 7, Esther demonstrates an intimate knowledge of her audience and the market context.
Every month, OMGWTFBIBLE snags some pretty great guests. But there’s never enough time in the podcast to discuss everything our guests our up to. In our Meet The Guest series, you can get to know our guests a little better than you will on the show.
*
Episode 19: Rabbi Joshua Yuter
Rabbi Joshua Yuter in no stranger to controversy. He serves in an official capacity as the rabbi of the Stanton Street Shul, a traditional synagogue that has stood in New York’s Lower East Side since 1913 and will host the recording of episode 19. Ordained in 2003 at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Rabbi Yuter is definitely an actual Orthodox rabbi. He also went to Yeshivat Har Etzion, a place I dropped out of.
Behold! Episode 18 of OMGWTFBIBLE with Ari Mandel is now available!!
This episode was recorded at A Gathering of the Tribes.
There are so many ways to listen to Episode 18!
You can listen using the embed above or here. OMGWTFBIBLE is now on SoundCloud! Explore our SoundCloud here.
You can also: subscribe in iTunes, subscribe via RSS, or listen via Stitcher!
What did you think of this month’s episode? What are your thoughts on Onanism? Did you have a weird experience with Rabbis and masturbation (hopefully not at the same time!)? Have anything you’d like to add on the whole Potiphar story? Let me know in the comments!
Hey, you! You know, that novel you’ve been working on for years? That beautiful work of art you threw your blood, sweat, and tears into? That business you built with your BARE HANDS? Continue reading
The American Bible Society has put together a list of the most and least “Bible-Minded” cities in the country. Topping the list is Chattanooga, Tennessee. The study also found that the Bible isn’t so well-loved in bigger cities. Only three of the top 25 Bible-loving areas encompassed more than a million households.
What about New York, where OMGWTFBIBLE happens? That’s all the way down at 89, only slightly more into the Bible than hedonistic Las Vegas. But you wouldn’t know it from seeing OMGWTFBIBLE live!
<h/t: Andrew Sullivan>
Behold! Episode 17 of OMGWTFBIBLE with guest Matthue Roth is now available!!
This episode was recorded at the Stanton Street Shul.
There are so many ways to listen to Episode 17!
You can listen using the video above or here.
YouTube link is here.
You can also: subscribe in iTunes, subscribe via RSS, or listen via Stitcher!
Happy shabbos.
Took long enough.
There is now, and has been for a whole month, a religion founded in order to worship our Lord and Savior, the one True Deliverer, his Worshipfulness, Yeezus West. For real. Yeezianity exists and you can join it simply by believing the five precepts:
1. All things created must be for the good of all
2. No human being’s right to express themselves must ever be repressed
3. Money is unnecessary except as a means of exchange
4. Man possesses the power to create everything he wants and needs
5. All human suffering exists to stimulate the creative powers of Man
Oh, and you gotta believe “that the one who calls himself Yeezus is a divine being who has been sent by God to usher in a New Age of humanity.”
Ok! Read more about Yeezianity in an interview with its anonymous creator here. Or check out the religion’s website. But don’t expect me to profess my faith or not. As the website says:
Our membership is entirely anonymous. We insist that all of our members do not disclose their beliefs to anyone except those they know also to be members. There is no differentiating trait or clothing or behavior that we use to identify ourselves. We could be anyone you know, from your mailman to the mayor of your city. Only a member possesses the ability to identify another member, and all members immediately know every other member once they have entered our Church.
OMGWTFBIBLE 
