Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm

It's Infrastructure Week as the Tsar's government plans to build a new train station just outside of Chelm. Who will get the contract? (This version is from the scripted adaptation of the prose tale, both found in the book.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Only in Chelm does a thirteen-year-old child's speech require critical acclaim. This story was loosely inspired by Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound," which we highly recommend! From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

It's the world's first ox-less ox-cart! Who better to test it than Boris the Balagoola? From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

The United States Armed Forces need help, and they turn to a modern descendant of the Wise Fools of Chelm in this Passover holiday parable. Featuring Tony and Emmy winner Hal Linden, and with great thanks to Nancy Sullivan. (If you don't believe in the solution to the problem...try it for yourself.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

All are welcome, but seating is limited. You gotta have a ticket. (Notes: "Good Yuntif" is English/Yiddish and is a general holy-day greeting; and "tisha b'av" is a real date, it means the ninth day of the Hebrew month Av, but in slang it means "the Twelfth of Never," it'll never get here.) (This tale comes a bit early, in preparing for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in September of this year--but take this as a cautionary tale, because it never hurts to plan ahead.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Hearing and listening are not the same thing. (A mensch is a good person; it is a high compliment to call someone a mensch.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

With the Wise Fools in charge, things may not run smoothly even in the afterlife...especially downstairs. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Contact your travel professional for details about the luxurious Chelm River Cruise. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Family dynamics--in Chelm. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

An epic battle: Boris the Balagoola versus a strange, three-legged fowl! No one--not even the author--recalls what prompted the conversion of a regular story into this poem. But here it is. Some help, here: tsuris=trouble, halavai=hooray, mishuga=crazy, luchen kup=hole in the head (idiomatically); verklempt=discombulated, a mess! From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Walinchyne the Poet--a Wise Fools love story. Or love-story-adjacent, anyway. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Some people have hearts of gold. Other people...not so much. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

If the little village of Chelm (remember, we're in the mid-1800s here) is going to host the Olympic Games, some ways of raising the funds are better than others. (Note: to "kvetch" is to complain.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Hark! Is that a cannon I hear? From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

A horse is a horse. Of course. (Of course? Maybe not in Chelm.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. (No Balagoolas were harmed in the making of this episode.) (Kvetch means complain.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

The best candidate for Mayor of Chelm is exactly who you think it is. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

What if Boris the Balagoola was granted one wish? (Bupkis means "nothing." And a pogrom is "an organized massacre of helpless people," which, sadly, the Jewish villages of the time period of our tiny village too often endured. But we promise that this story is not a "downer.") From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

We present the winner of Chelm's annual Chanukah "Lying Contest," a celebration of the Festival of Lights. Couldn't hurt for you to know that a "handeler" is a wheeler and dealer...and tsouris means "trouble." Happy Chaunkah! (Or Hannukah. Same thing.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Even a Wise Fool knows some tricks. From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

In Chelm, "learned" (you know, the two-syllable version, "LEARN-ed") doesn't always mean as wise as we might think. [Note: as the book's introduction explains, Mendel the Messenger, despite his speech impediment, is as beloved and "normal" as his fellow Chelmites; it is just a part of who our friend is.] From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

In sports, and in life, teamwork matters, even in Chelm, where the Wise Fools live. Perhaps especially in Chelm... (A yeshiva is a school for Jewish study.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Boris the Balagoola--the original "difficult customer." [A pupik is a bellybutton, and we trust you to know that latkes are potato pancakes.] From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Change is good. Sometimes. (There's a Hebrew term in the middle of the story, referring to the lead character's late wife, that means "may she rest in peace.") From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

After 60+ years of marriage, a midnight-snack request must be honored. Special guest performer Rena Strober! www.renastrober.com Recorded LIVE on September 26, 2022, at the Rosh Hashanah celebration of Bayit Shelanu, courtesy of Rabbi Jan Goldstein, who also appears briefly as the Narrator. https://www.bayitshelanu.org/ From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

In Chelm, sometimes a good deed comes with a twist. (A bialy is similar to a bagel; round, but instead of a hole all the way through, it has a depressed middle that is filled with onions or poppy seeds or both.) From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

A recession had hit Chelm, the tiny village where the Wise Fools lived. How was Boris the Balagoola going to find a job? From "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," available on Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle. https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y

Introducing "Tales of The Wise Fools of Chelm," a weekly podcast based on the book of the same name. The podcast launches officially on October 22, 2022. The book: https://amzn.to/3VpWj7y