Historically, midrashim are stories that explicate Bible stories; here, Rabbi Gellman tells 21 of his own modern, humorous midrashim in an attempt to share his love of the Bible and to help children listen to Bible stories with their ""ears and. . .heart and. . . mind and. . .soul."" Some of Gellman's stories are both splendid and witty, as when God searches for the right man to father his chosen people and the first interviews don't go well (""Now look, why don't you go to a good idol maker and have a nice sculpture made of your image, and then we can find a nice place to put it down where people can bow to it"") or when Enoch tries to blow a finn's horn to announce the new year and finds that it's as hard as trying to do good things and give up bad ones. But there are also stories that are more like shticks (e.g., one in which Moses is on the verge of realizing that he is a Jew and overhears a mother singing to her baby--in Yiddish)--or just plain silly: a thank-you note to God for leading the Jews to Israel is signed ""the kids."" Still, if Gellman's intention is to make children think about the stories and to keep the Bible vibrant and alive, he has achieved a real success here. De Mejo's stylized, jewel-like paintings, more realistic than his previous illustrations, make a handsome and appropriate contribution to the format.

-Kirkus Review

Stories about stories in Bible from Moment magazine

Does God have a sense of humor?

Well, it is said that people are created in the image of God, and the people I admire most seem to have a good, healthy sense of humor. So maybe so.

At least, I feel fairly certain that the book Does God Have a Big Toe? is an inspired book, and its author Rabbi Marc Gellman and illustrator, the painter Oscar de Mejo, indeed, have a sense of humor.

I can’t begin to convey their sense of humor without telling a whole story, and I mustn’t do that. So I’ll just have to give you a couple of hints.

The title story begins when a little girl asks a question: “Mommy, I have a big toe, and you have a big toe, and Daddy has a big toe. Does God have a big toe too?”

No one answers her question. She keeps getting sent along to someone else. Finally, the king answers by commanding the people to build a tower tall enough to see God’s big toe. And that’s how the Tower of Babel came about. You know how that story turned out, don’t you.

Or do you? In Rabbi Gellman’s story about the story, the people are all leaving Babel, all with their own language family. As her family's cart makes its way out of town, the child in her new language is quiet for a long while.

Then she says, “ Mommy, I have a belly button, and you have a belly button, and Daddy has a belly button. Does god have a belly button too?”

Oh, well.

The subtitle of his book is Stories about Stories in the Bible. Gellman says one way to help people understand Bible stories is to explain them. But that just never works very well. So a better way is to tell a story about the story.

Like this story about the story of the Tower of Babel. “A midrash,” he says, “is the Jewish name for a story about a story in the Bible." This book is his collection of modern midrashim.

My favorite is “Finding the Right Man.” I’m not going to attempt a summary in my own words. I’m just going to quote the first paragraph and the last paragraph, and leave you to guess what happens in between.

Paragraph #1: “Most people do not realize it, but God put in calls to other people before finally putting in a call to Abram.”

Paragraph #16 (the last one): “Right then God knew that the right man was going to the right place at the right time for the right reasons. God also knew that such things hardly ever happen.”

Does God have a sense of humor?

This book is probably about as close as we’ll get to building a tower where that question can be answered.

Midrashim? “It’s a way that the love of the Bible shines forth,” the author says in his note to the readers, “and lifts up children and their parents and whispers to them, ‘Listen to the words of the Bible! Listen to them with your ears and your heart and your mind and your soul.’”