Live from Right Here, it’s OMGWTFBIBLE!

If you just read the article on OMGWTFBIBLE in the Times of Israel and are looking for my versions of Torah stories “with a hearty dose of cynicism, humor and wit,” you’re in the right place! Welcome! You can listen by heading to the iTunes store or right here in this blog post. If you’re a completist, I suggest you start at the beginning, with Genesis. You can do that in the Episodes section of the site or with the giant playlist I’ve put in this post.

On the other hand, maybe you want to start with the most recent episode (with Y-Love), which is available right here. And stay tuned, because the next installment of Vaera (the Y-Love episode) is scheduled to go up today on Jewcy and tomorrow everywhere else!

Listen to Episode 19 on Jewcy

This is totally what Pharoah looked like back in the day.

Episode 19 is now available on Jewcy!

This month, Rabbi Joshua Yuter joined me as we read chapters 42-44. When we started, Joseph was stuck in jail. By the end of the episode, through some very unlikely dream analysis, Joseph ends up running the show in Egypt. Along the way, Rabbi Yuter and I discussed an Orthodox approach to Biblical criticism, what Pharaoh’s birthday parties must have been like, and alternate analyses of Pharaoh’s dreams.

Here’s my attempt to modernize the interpretation of those dreams:

At that point, people saw dreams as either telling about a thing that had happened, reflecting a thing that’s going on right now, or as predicting the future. And people immediately say “OK what does this dream predict?” Which is not something that we do. Now we tend to think of dreams as reflecting a vulnerability, reflecting our unconscious. So I thought about that and tried to figure out what, if we were to use that kind of analysis, what Pharaoh’s unconscious might be saying.

What was Rabbi Yuter’s analysis? Listen to find out. But not here! Head on over to Jewcy.com to listen there, the ONLY place on the Internet you can get new episodes of OMGWTFBIBLE. Until tomorrow.

OMGWTFBIBLE is Getting Jewcy

jewcy_heart_omg_RGB 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

Please Don’t Watch Princesses: Long Island

Oh god. Oh god. What is this mess? Please don’t watch this ever.

Please do read Stephanie Butnick’s thoughtful review on Jewcy.

And definitely watch Sarah Silverman’s father get mad about the word “JAP.”