The Story behind the Story: A Talk with Yair Weinstock

Posted on July 22, 2010 by goldys

 As the author of many bestselling novels, including  Gordian Knot and Blackout, Yair Weinstock knows how to use the power of words to tell a gripping, unforgettable story. And as a collector of true tales, author of the popular Tales of the Soul and Once Upon a Story series, he knows how transformative (and entertaining!) a true story can be.
With the release of his newest book, Once Upon a Story 2, I asked Rabbi Weinstock to tell me a little about his stories.
And he told me a true story…

“I once wrote a story about a certain Chassidic rebbe who had a son who went off the derech, despite all his father’s efforts. After the rebbe died, he came to his son in a dream, telling him that if he didn’t do teshuvah he would be punished.
“The rebellious son laughed at the dream, even though it was repeated a few times. Finally, he had another dream. His father, the rebbe, told him he had no choice but to punish him, and he threw a heavy branch on his son’s legs. ‘You didn’t do teshuvah,’ the rebbe told his son, ‘and for seven generations your sons will limp.’
“And, indeed, the rebellious son awoke, and from that day forward he, and his children, walked with a limp.
“Not long after the story appeared, I got a call from a stranger in Petach Tikvah. ‘My father, and my grandfather, limp,’ the man told me, ‘and I do not. And do you know what: I am the eighth generation descendant of that famed rebbe. Rabbi Weinstock,’ the man continued, ‘I am a completely secular Jew, but after I read that story, I put on tefillin for the first time.’”

Stories, wonderful Jewish stories, are in Yair Weinstock’s blood. “My father was always full of stories,” he remembers. “Even when I was small, I would listen as he told them over to the older children. And then I would hear stories told over by the Chassidim of Lelov, at melaveh malkahs, rosh chodesh gatherings, and just general ‘after-davening’ talk.”
Now, he adds, after so many hundreds of his true stories have delighted tens of thousands of readers, the stories find him. “Readers call me, send letters,” Rabbi Weinstock says. “I see tremendous siyata d’Shmaya: just when I need a story, someone tells me one!”

And that is the story behind the story.

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Posted on December 10, 2009 by goldys

“The Stories Find Me”:
A conversation with Rabbi Yechiel Spero

As I read through Rabbi Yechiel Spero’s newest book, A Touch of Inspiration, what amazes me most is the variety of the stories. This is his thirteenth  book and the stories are still fresh, unusual, and, yes, totally inspiring. The people he introduces us to are incredibly varied: a banker in Haifa, a “kid-at-risk” in 19th century Europe, a rabbi in a Staten Island ice-cream store,  a bestselling author (yes, it’s Rabbi Spero himself!) on a lecture tour.
Let’s hear what this beloved author has to tell us about his stories.

ArtScroll: Thirteen books, hundreds of stories! Where do you find them?
Rabbi Spero: Stories surround all of us; every day there are new ones. Most often the stories find me. Whenever I am writing, I have the siyata D’Shmaya to find more.  Many people email me their stories. I once leafed through a 50-year-old Jewish textbook that my mother had used in high school. The pages were brittle, but the story I found in it was magnificent.

ArtScroll: Your stories all touch the hearts and souls of your tens of thousands of readers. How do you choose them?
Rabbi Spero: The moment I hear a good story I write down the highlights so that I don’t forget it. After that, I share the story with others. Sometimes I think I have a great story but the audience might not agree. Almost always, I will defer to them.

ArtScroll: What makes a good story great?
Rabbi Spero: One secret of a good story is to find the underdog and rally the reader to root for him.  And a story without a lesson is no story at all. Stories are meant to teach us, we have to think about the story and reflect on its message.

ArtScroll: Do you have any personal favorites?
Rabbi Spero: A story about the Stropkover Rebbe, which appears in A Touch of Inspiration. The Rebbe survived the concentration camps with nothing. No family. Nothing but a few scraps of paper. On them were the names of men who died in the camps, with witnesses testifying to their death. He saved them so that he could help their wives remarry if they survived. Picture the scene: a man with nothing but a few scraps of paper. For himself, he has nothing. But for others he is prepared to do anything. Living for someone else. Isn’t  that what life is all about? That’s a beautiful story!

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The Public and the Private Man: Rabbi Sherer: The paramount Torah spokesman of our era

Posted on November 16, 2009 by goldys

Last week, when the biography of Rabbi Moshe Sherer went to press, the excitement in the ArtScroll office was palpable. Many ArtScroll staffers had personally known Rabbi Sherer, who led Agudath Israel of America for over four decades, and who was arguably the most effective Jewish lay leader of his time. They had experienced firsthand his warmth and caring; they had seen his rock-like dedication to the principles of emunas chachamim and selfless service to the Jewish people, as well as his wisdom.
Capturing both the achievements and the personality of a man as talented, energetic, and multi-faceted as Rabbi Sherer was a challenge – and a pleasure, says author Yonoson Rosenblum, biographer of such luminaries as Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, and Reb Elimelech Gavriel (Mike)  Tress. Reb Yonoson interviewed over 100 people before beginning to write. He spent hours poring over Rabbi Sherer’s thousands of letters, memos, and notes, as well as boxes of transcripts of the “aides-memoire” that he dictated at the end of every event-filled day. “Rabbi Sherer had an eye to the future and a sense of history – a biographer’s delight,” says Yonoson.

Rabbi Sherer was at home in many worlds. He was the servant and confidant of great Torah sages and a friend and adviser of people in the highest echelons of power, but he was attentive to the needs of the humblest Jew. Much that we take for granted today was shepherded by him through Congress and the courts. Even more: He rescued Torah life from the American melting pot, and helped build it into the vibrant and growing entity of today.
In this beautifully crafted biography we learn about both the public and private Rabbi Sherer. We meet those who inspired him and shaped him: his mother; his mentor, Mike Tress; and two generations of gedolei hador. We get an inside look at governors, mayors, and legislators — even Presidents. We go behind the scenes of the legal battles to strengthen Torah life and secret activities to rescue Jews in danger.

This is a book of history, but it is much more; it is a life-transforming work. As Yonoson Rosenblum says, “No one can read this book and not know what his responsibility is to each and every person, and each and every Jew, that he meets.”

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Mothers to Mothers: The story behind the stories

Posted on October 22, 2009 by goldys


In Mothers to Mothers, author Julie Hauser looks at mothering through the eyes – and voices –  of thirty different mothers, as well as experts in chinuch and childrearing. Below, Julie talks about how this remarkable new book came to be:

As part of my studies, I participated in a research project focusing on mothering. My task was to interview two Orthodox Jewish mothers with more than five children each.  I was a newlywed with no idea how rich the mothering experience could be.
One of the women, a rebbetzin, said that when she was a young mother she enjoyed camaraderie with women her own age, but for serious advice she looked to older, more experienced mothers who had already been there. That observation planted a seed that didn’t begin to take root until I became a mother myself.

I’d looked, but couldn’t find books about the experience of being a frum mother. I found excellent Jewish books about discipline, chinuch, communication, etc. But there was nothing about the identity of the Jewish mother. The secular books available were incomplete without Torah hashkafah, without an understanding of our unique culture, and without a spin of positivity and Jewish growth. I enjoy listening to people and I have access to a large variety of people.  So I took on the challenge to write a book like that myself!

The interviews:

I really loved the moments when I saw women begin realizing things about their own selves, and watching them appreciate themselves in new ways, prompted by the thoughts my questions spurred.
 
I loved hearing the hashgachah pratis stories, and I loved joining other women in their homes, following them around while they made rugelach, folded laundry, prepared for Pesach, or just sipped tea in their homes or mine. I felt like a fly on the wall, a fly with a mission.

What surprised me most was that certain people whom I would have never suspected told me they experienced PPD- postpartum depression. Out of more than 30 women whom I interviewed, 4 of them told me they had experienced it! That’s a pretty high percentage. That’s why I felt it necessary to include the separate section on PPD, including their personal accounts as well as resources for help for the condition.
 
Putting this whole book together has been an absolute pleasure, eye-opener, and huge growth vehicle for me, both as a mother and as a Jewish woman.

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In The Spirit of the Maggid: The Wait is Finally Over!

Posted on December 5, 2008 by mzjerusalem

Six years is a long time to wait for something you really want. It’s been a long six years for the tens of thousands of readers of Rabbi Paysach Krohn’s famous “Maggid” books, as they impatiently awaited still another unforgettable collection of true stories by the “American Maggid.” 
Now the wait is finally over: In the Spirit of the Maggid, seventh in the bestselling series, is finally here.
So what took so long?
“It’s not that I was sitting around doing nothing,” answers Rabbi Krohn, with the trademark warmth and humor that have endeared him to audiences throughout the world. In that time Rabbi Krohn authored Traveling with the Maggid, a magnificent, full-color coffee-table size book that takes the reader on a memorable journey through Eastern and Central Europe’s Torah centers. He produced three interactive CD-ROMs on the yeshivas and communities of Eastern Europe, with Chananya Kramer of Kol-Rom Multimedia, as well as an interactive CD-ROM on “Meah Brochos” and “Designer Perfect: The miraculous workings of the human body,” all available from ArtScroll. He delivered hundreds of speeches and, of course, as one of New York’s preeminent mohelim, was constantly busy with brissim.
And, he adds, he was busy collecting material for this new book.
Just take a look at Rabbi Krohn’s passport, and you’ll see why In the Spirit of the Maggid is like no other book of its kind. The passport is thick with “supplementary pages,” bearing stamps and visas from country after country. No wonder, then, that, as he says in his introduction, the stories come from “Australia, Baltimore, Chicago…” and down the alphabet through “…Vienna, Williamsburg, Yerushalayim, and Zichron Moshe.” (The only letter missing is an “X”!)
But this is no travelogue; this is a collection of stories that touch the heart and inspire the soul. There are stories of sages whose names are as familiar to us as our own and stories of anonymous heroes whose exploits leave us breathless. Stories that shock and surprise, stories that ignite our determination to be the best people we can. These stories take us inward, into our own lives; they take us outward, as we learn from others. And they take us upward, strengthening our connection to the One Above.
At last, In the Spirit of the Maggid is here. And it was well worth the wait.

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Inside ArtScroll – Rosh Hashanah Resources

Posted on September 5, 2008 by sandersny

All New Zichron Hena Machzor for Rosh Hashanah

New Hebrew-only Machzor: Through the years, ArtScroll has produced several High Holiday Machzorim, yet there has been a demand for a Hebrew-only Machzor with halachos and instructions in English.  Now this need is filled with the release of the new Machzor Zichron Hena (Ashkenaz), which offers many of the familiar features of the popular Hebrew-only siddur, including a crisp, modern type font, Scriptural sources cited, attractive page layouts, high quality paper and a durable binding.  Light in weight yet complete in content, this will become the new Machzor of choice for many.  The Machzor Zichron Hena has also been published in a version with all instructions in Hebrew.  Visit our online Machzor Shop to see all the various editions and binding options available for your next machzor.

Selichos: ArtScroll offers several versions for davening Selichos, including Nusach Lita Ashkenaz and Nusach Polin, available in full and pocket size editions.  Selichos: First Night is a small, paperback volume priced under $3.00. 

Insight and Inspiration: For general reading in preparation for the New Year, ArtScroll recommends Rosh Hashanah: It’s Significance, Laws, and Prayers, by Rabbis Avie Gold, Hersh Goldwurm, and Nosson Scherman. With an anthologized commentary drawn from Talmudic and traditional sources, this brief, single volume presents the essence of Rosh Hashanah in language and perspective satisfying to today’s intellectually curious Jew.  The celebrated Yad Avraham Mishnah Series offers a brilliant and complete one-volume commentary on the tractates of Rosh Hashanah, Yoma, and Succah.  Other engaging texts include Days of Awe: Sfas Emes by Rabbi Yosef Stern; The Festivals in Halachah by Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, offering an analysis of the development of the festival laws, as well as his Treasury of Chassidic Tales – Festivals. Children love to read Rosh Hashanah with Bina, Benny, and Chaggai HaYonah by Yaffa Ganz. 

Over 150,000 copies sold!

New! A superb introduction!

Holiday Outreach Tools – As a public service to the Kiruv community, ArtScroll distributes two excellent books by outreach professional Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf. Both are well-suited to introduce inquiring Jews to the beauty and power of the High Holiday services.  Published by K’hal Publishing, the first is the classic Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur Survival Kit, which has sold over 150,000 copies. Rabbi Apisdorf explains, “It’s like having a friend next to you explaining the what and why of the services in clear, enjoyable language.”  His second book is the just published Beyond Survival: A Journey to the Heart of Rosh Hashanah, Its Prayers, and Life. A perfect companion to the Machzor, it leads the reader along a path of discovery and personal growth as one progress through the prayers, with a special commentary to unlock the depth and significance of the Amidah.

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See Inside Susie Fishbein’s Kosher by Design Lightens Up! Coming Nov. 17

Posted on September 3, 2008 by sandersny

Get a sneak peek inside Susie Fishbein’s next amazing cookbook project, scheduled for release on Nov. 17th! Click the book image to view an online 16-page sampler.

Filed under: Coming Soon, Movers and Shakers, New Releases | Leave a Comment »

Sampler Uploaded of Crafting Jewish – Must See!

Posted on September 3, 2008 by sandersny

Click on the book image to view a 16-page sampler of Rivky Koenig’s Crafting Jewish, scheduled for release Nov. 12. 

Filed under: Coming Soon, Movers and Shakers, New Releases | Leave a Comment »

Inside ArtScroll – Week of Sept 1 08

Posted on September 1, 2008 by sandersny

Elul is the month of drawing near Hashem in advance of the Yomim Noraim.  Just in time for this reflective, introspective season, ArtScroll brings to your attention several significant resources, some nearing completion now. 

Praying With Fire Vol. 2:  The first volume of Praying With Fire launched a revolution in tefilah that is sweeping Jewish communities across North America. Vol. 1 inspired tens of thousands to invest just five minutes daily to season their prayers with greater fervor and intent – and it’s working!  In Vol. 2, author Rabbi Heshy Kleinman helps deepen our connection to Hashem.  A motivating and practical book, Praying With Fire 2 emphasizes many vital aspects of praying with increased kavannah – intent – while offering wise guidance to have our prayers accepted before Hashem. 

 Interlinear Viduy / Confession: The Viduy, a major component of the Yom Kippur prayers, is not to be said lightly.  To make your Yom Kippur davening more lucid, ArtScroll has published the Viduy/Confession in the patented Interlinear format that has made learning and prayer more meaningful for so many.  This thin volume is easy to keep close at hand for use during the Yom Kippur service.  For added enrichment, the Interlinear Viduy/Confession includes an overview commentary and insights based on Chazal & the classic commentators.  

Teshuvah – Are You Ready?: Rabbi Yissocher Frand has produced two stirring audio CD’s to illume the mind and stir the soul as Rosh Hashanah approaches.  Disc One – U’teshuva U’tefilah – explores aspects of the Yom Kippur davening, beginning with the curious practice of annulling our vows.  Disc Two – Midas Ha’tznius: Not Just for Women – is a brilliant clarification of the subject of modesty which, as Rabbi Frand explains, is less about fashion and much more about a basic way of life for men, women, and the community at large.

 From the Maggidim of Yesteryear – Volume 1: Bereishis – The role of the maggid in Jewish life has always been distinct.  Often nomadic, these masterful wordsmiths travelled widely, entertaining and instructing whole communities through stories, parables, and life lessons designed to inspire greater devotion to Torah living.  In The Maggidim of Yesteryear –Vol.1, we are treated to a rare view of the weekly Torah portion through the lips of such stellar maggidim as Rabbi Benzion Yadler, Rabbi Sholom Schwadron, Rabbi Shabsi Yudelevitz, and Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky. Spoken to Jews of generations past, their wisdom rings down through time to bring us renewed strength and sensible guidance to surmount our modern challenges.

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Author Interview: After 20 years, Avner Gold launches a riveting new series!

Posted on August 12, 2008 by sandersny

“Superb! An intense novel about raw courage in brutal times.”

Q – Avner Gold, you wrote a series of eight novels, historical fiction really, which captivated the Jewish world twenty years ago. This week you’re inaugurating a new ArtScroll series with the release of The Long Road to Freedom. Where’ve you been?

A – I’ve been busy with other projects but it was time to pick up where we left off.

Q – What’s the theme of The Long Road to Freedom?

A – It’s set in 17th century Spain. The story is about a young prisoner, Sebastian Dominguez, who’s awaiting his fate to be decided by the Inquisition. He’s the son of a hidden Jew – a Marrano prince really — who, some readers will recall, was burned at the stake, while the rest of the family went into exile in Paris.  This is a fast moving story with well-developed characters. It’s filled with kings, rabbis, ministers, generals, bishops, even dwarfs – and some real serious villains. Though the storyline is fictional, it’s anchored in real historical events. The plot is exciting and the Jewish content and values are absorbing.  Readers will likely become quite attached to the personalities and their adventures.

Q – Is there a sequel planned after The Long Road to Freedom?

A – Yes. I’m halfway through it now.  It’s called Scandal in Amsterdam. The setting moves to the flourishing Jewish community in the capital of the Dutch Republic, where religious freedom and opportunity are no guarantees of safety and security.

Q – And beyond this there’s even more planned, yes?

A – Correct. The goal is to publish a new book every few months, eventually arriving at our own day. We’ll deal with a great many fascinating issues and lessons from Jewish history from the 17th to the 21st century.

Q –Why do you think your style of fiction has become so popular?

A – I put a great amount of effort into forming characters that evoke emotional responses while informing the mind.  It’s a delicate balance. People tell me the personas are very credible. Readers say they actually feel what’s happened to our people through the historical settings in which the fictionalized plots unfold.  Also, I take a subtle, discovery approach to the lessons that readers will derive from the plots, while carefully pacing the action to complement the story, not to overwhelm it.

Read an excerpt from The Long Road to Freedom HERE.

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