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Making It Our OwnA fine day in Hollywood. Two white-robed and bearded gentlemen enjoy luncheon on the terrace of a movie studio commissary, when a third similarly dressed fellow in a fright wig stands on a nearby table and begins to rant about what evils will befall our errant kind.…Read more

Nobody Ever Hearkens!Three gentlemen have gathered on the terrace of an outdoor café. Two enjoy thimble-size cups of thick, sweet coffee. The third, a wild-eyed, raggedy-bearded fellow, stalks around among the tables, barely limiting his exhortations to his companions, which may explain why the café across the boulevard is having a particularly busy afternoon.…Read more

Weaned on a Pickle?And these are the rules that you shall set before them. (Exodus 21:1). The ghosts of two gentlemen walk together through an olive grove near the Temple. One, Hillel, takes a deep breath of the fresh air and smiles for that reason, or for no reason at all. The other, Shammai, walks with hunched shoulders, his mouth pursed tight as if he were weaned on a pickle.…Read more

Prophet and Loss StatementA small consulting room. The Nile is visible through the window. A gentleman in white pleated skirt, khepresh headdress with cobra, and lapis collar lies on the couch as he recounts a dream. He punctuates the conversation with the swish of his flail, a jab of his scepter. Seated just behind his head in an early iteration of the Eames lounge chair and ottoman, a gentleman in a handsome multicolored robe.…Read more

Friendly Persuasion‘And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) Rashi comments: “He ‘took’ him with kind words and persuaded him to enter.”…Read more