The world recently lost one of its longest-lived royals, with the laying to rest of the Queen of England. People forget that Judaism has its own history of monarchs. Of course, there's the King of Kings – but even before Elvis there was also the Big G. And in between, until a couple of millennia ago, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel had their own mortal monarchs – including the reign of a queen! And when she reigned, it poured.

Here are a few of their more obscure or absurd stories – the kinds they usually skipped in Sunday School even, for those who didn't skip Sunday School. Though if school hadn't skipped stories like this, fewer students might have skipped school.

Rear Pew Mirror is the longtime humor column in Southern Jewish Life magazine (sjlmag.com), though by contractual stipulation you can't hold it against them.

#JewishHumor #Monarchy #KingdomOfJudah #Ataliah #Queen

The Talmud teaches that comedy works in threes. For the third time, we've got an episode based not on my Rear Pew Mirror humor column, but on my actual yes-they-let-me sermon from Thanksgiving, Shabbat Yom Turkey (November 26, 2022). Once again, lightning didn't strike and the synagogue's insurance coverage remains intact.

It's about Thanksgiving. It's about the Torah reading that week, Toldot, from the birth of Jacob and Esau through Jacob's fleeing after taking the birthright and blessing of the first born. It's about multiple meanings, the space between sides, and using things responsibly. It's about the commentary of an Eighteenth Century rabbi from Venice who actively used wordplay and didn't wear a kippah. It's just a bit about Star Trek, Billy Joel, Victor Borge, and the Alabama Crimson Tide. It's about twenty-eight minutes.

Confused? You won't be after this episode of the Rear Pew Mirror podcast.

Rear Pew Mirror is the longtime humor column in Southern Jewish Life magazine (sjlmag.com), though by contractual stipulation you can't hold it against them.

#JewishHumor #Thanksgiving #RearPewMirror #YomTurkey #Toldot #Patriarchs #Matriarchs #MosheChafetz

Faster than you can rename your Chanukiah to Chanukleah in honor of the recent successful test of nuclear fusion, and just in time for Chanukah, Hannukah, Channukkah, or however search engines will find this... This exciting episode delves into the special Chanukah dishes added to the traditional Chinese-food Seder on December 24th when the eternally moving-around secular calendar makes this delectable dinner overlap Chanukah, as it does this year. 

Also, here hear the true story of what actually lasted eight times longer than it should have – the real Maccabean miracle that happened there.

Rear Pew Mirror is the longtime humor column in Southern Jewish Life magazine (sjlmag.com), though by contractual stipulation you can't hold it against them.

#JewishHumor #Chanukah #Hannukah #RearPewMirror #Maccabee #Latke #ChineseFood

As Thanksgiving nears and turkeys are begging us to Eat Mor Chikin, or even Mor Cowz, it's a fine time to reflect on all our fine feathered friends. Birds of prey aren't kosher, yet praying is always kosher, so what gives?

Find out this and little else as you hear how college football, the Torah, several classic rock icons, synagogues, Edgar Allen Poe, and Star Trek can all relate to each other within the same seven minutes.

How did the biblical icons we learned about in religious school first hook up? Couldn't religious school have taught us that instead? And what can we learn from them about dating today.

In honor of Tu B'Av (sometimes known for its secular variant on February 14th), we answer these questions and less. Yes, it's just in time for Yom Kippur, but Tu B'Av and Yom Kippur are uniquely related. How is that possible? Listen and find out...

Sandals have a long, fascinating history dating back to biblical times.

However, due to a typo in some paperwork, this episode instead delves into biblical scandals. If you want a normal exploration, listen to the Torah. We look at the notorious and lesser-knowntorious scandals as they'd be portrayed in modern times – a gateway drug to exploring them in more depth.

If you're going to listen to anything about scandals today – and it's hard to avoid – this is the alternative you'll actually enjoy!

The World Games arrive in July (2022). 3,600 athletes. 100 countries. Over 30 of "the fastest growing sports in the world."

A few sports are different for every World Games. Some are considered and don’t make it.

This episode is about a variety of Jewish sports that didn't make it, partly because they were never considered. 

They might not be right for the World Games, the Olympics, or even the Maccabiah. Yet. But if they're good enough for ESPN18 – "The Chai" then they're good enough for your listening enjoyment for the next nine minutes. 

You might even go gaga over some of them.

Banning books has gotten trendy. Again. To remove literature that's considered ocularly odoriferous, the bans roll on. 

Fortunately, this episode not only reviews many subjects that some deem offensive, it provides a time-saving way to ban all these subjects quickly and with little effort – since time is sacred to folks sparing themselves from the hours that reading can take, even when they don't have to sound out all the words.

For the second time, we've got an episode based not on my Rear Pew Mirror humor column, but on my actual yes-they-let-me sermon from the first day of Passover (April 16, 2022). It's a special one, as it was my first sermon in my hometown since my bar mitzvah. They let me back in, and didn't kick me right back out.

Also, instead of being about any of the many Passover-related things in the Passover Torah reading, it's about another subject entirely. In fact, it's entirely about "the other" – the Eirev Rav, the mixed multitude, making their only named appearance in the entire Bible. And about football. And Star Trek.

Hear how close I teetered to causing a lightning strike on a sunny spring day. And how any image you conjure of "sermon" ain't what people get from me. 

Confused? You won't be after this episode of the Rear Pew Mirror podcast.

In late March and early April, Jews everywhere brace themselves for a major religious occurrence that happens around this time every year: The start of baseball season.

It's also when the weekly Torah readings reach the book of Leviticus, which has as much story as a one-sentence novel. What do baseball and Leviticus have in common? Sacrifices. And almost nothing to do with Passover.