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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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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Hear Rabbi Nosson Scherman’s Holocaust History Series Online

Posted on August 25, 2008 by sandersny
Rabbi Nosson Scherman

Rabbi Nosson Scherman, General Editor, ArtScroll Mesorah Publications

Rabbi Nosson Scherman, General Editor for ArtScroll Mesorah Publications, is an authority on the history of the Holocaust.  Many years ago, Brooklyn-based Dial-A-Shiur featured him in a series of extensive audio lessons accessible over the telephone.  Through an agreement with the Torah Communications Network and JewishWorldReview.com, this series is being excerpted in short 6-12 minute segments which you can hear in streaming audio.  Click HERE to access them.  Start at the bottom of the list to hear them in sequence.

ArtScroll has published many significant books on this sensitive and difficult chapter in modern Jewish history.  Click HERE to review the many moving biographies and other volumes dealing with the Holocaust.

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Three Weeks – Nine Days – One Purpose –

Posted on July 10, 2008 by sandersny

This approaching fast of Shivah Asar b’Tammuz signals the onset of the Three Weeks, a time to remember tragedy and exile, but also for personal reflection and rectification. Many ArtScroll volumes strengthen that spiritual and moral aspiration.

One of the earliest (1976), authored by Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz and Rabbi Nosson Scherman, is Megillas Eichah, with an anthologized commentary that elucidates Yirmiyahu Hanavi’s lamentations on the Churban. Subsequently (1992), ArtScroll published Tishah B’Av, which incorporates Tishah B’Av sources, a digest of the laws, the history of the period from Tanach and Chazal, and much inspirational commentary on the day. Many readers say this book helps them prepare not only for the Three Weeks, but for the month of Elul and the Yamim Noraim.

Tractate Gittin vol.2 (55b-58a), in the Schottenstein Edition, elucidates the passages detailing the tragedies of the Churban. On Tishah B’Av many learn the Book of the Iyov/Job. Last year (2006), ArtScroll published Rav Schwab on Iyov, in which Rav Shimon Schwab zt”l brilliantly illuminates the profound messages of this very difficult book of Jewish scripture.

For the Tishah B’Av service, ArtScroll offers a complete siddur, available in Ashkenaz and Sefard versions, which includes the Kinnos, with translation and commentary by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer and Rabbi Avie Gold. This work makes it possible for everyone to understand the very difficult and very moving Kinnos.

To help children grasp the message of the Three Weeks, Yaffa Ganz created Tishah B’Av with Bina, Benny, and Chaggai Yonah. Engagingly and enjoyably, it teaches the major historical themes of the Three Weeks.

May this year bring the fulfillment of the prophecy that these days will be transformed from sadness to joy.

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Breakthrough New Halachic Series for Daily Living -

Posted on June 13, 2007 by sandersny

Rabbi Simcha Bunim Cohen’s popular books on the laws of Shabbos and Yom Tov have clarified complex questions of halachah for tens of thousands of Jewish homes worldwide. Last week, ArtScroll published the first volume in Rabbi Cohen’s much-anticipated new series on the Laws of Daily Living. Heralded as a “Kitzur Shulchan Aruch for our time”, this comprehensive volume provides a clearly delineated halachic guide which examines: Morning Routines, Preparations for Prayers, Tallis, Tefillin, the Berachos, Amen, and Pesukei Dezimrah. Dedicated by the Taub family of Lawrence NY, this significant new text is already generating strong and positive feedback from scholars and lay readers.

Filed under: New Releases, Non-Fiction | Leave a Comment »

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