Ray Kohn

JEWISH TALES UNTOLD are 56 Jewish tales that whirl the reader through fantastical stories, sci-fi, mythic, shocking and funny; a mysterious Tzadik shares philosophical thoughts and famous Biblical characters speak.

Peep behind what may have really been happening in celebrated Old Testament events; join the brilliant Tzadik by the fast-flowing river; and enjoy the metaphysical whistle stop tour of imaginary yet familiar lands whose extraordinary characters entertain and intrigue.

Tales include some that are uncomfortable and disturbing; some are memorably comic; some are wonderful flights of fancy; some contentious or tragic. But it is hard to escape the essentially Jewish perspective of the storyteller even when he departs from what his background demands how he should write. Instead, let him take you with him on untrodden paths from where you are invited to see many of our and others’ traditions differently.

Jewish Tales Untold gives you three books in one. The first has celebrated Biblical personalities telling us what really happened, what they did and thought. They include Noah and his family, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob’s extensive family, Moses, Samson, David and Goliath, the angel Gabriel, Daniel, and the brothers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, true Christian pilgrims, the Devil, God and the seraphim. You meet them all and are invited to see the Bible in a new light - more human, more realistic, more relevant to our everyday lives.

The second is a fantastic set of tales that reveal the hopes and fears that all of us share in imaginative accounts through sci-fi, comedy and myth. In this book we visit far-off planets with very familiar issues, astonishing angels and some who are not at all angelic, beautiful but deadly royalty, the wealthiest man on Earth, a phenomenal chef, Buddha, a recollection of ancient myths and imaginary and not-so-imaginary wars. This book contains much Jewish good humour as well as some serious subjects.

In the third we meet the enigmatic tzadik - a Jewish sage - who describes the Universe in which we live, and the issues that confront us all once we question what we are told. Conversations cover time and relativity, Plato and philosophy, music and creativity, politics and heroes, choice and free will, and the significance of the Shabbos candle. This book addresses the experiences that we think are happening and our hopes for the future.