Genres Mélange Deuxième: Humor, Word Play, Personae, Sonnets, Art, Fiction, Memoirs, Reconstructing Judaism, Reviews, Interpretation, Genealogy

By Edward R. Levenson

Genres Mlange DeuximeHumor, Word Play, Personae, Sonnets, Art, Fiction, Memoirs,
Reconstructing Judaism, Reviews, Interpretation, Genealogy contains, besides Art, writings in
ten different categories, at least six of which are clearly genres. Many categories contain
respective elements of others. This work, a sequel to Edwards Humor and More and Genres
Mlange, features the innovations of Prompt-Based Pieces (comprising exposition, fiction,
and memoirs), Genealogy, and a Literary Memoir. The writings in the book range from
Scripture to Talmud to Shakespeare to discussion about modern authors. The book features guest
contributorswife Reva Spiro Luxenberg Levenson, brother Robert Levenson, daughter Aliza
Levenson, sons Judah and Benjamin Levenson, friends Joe Bruno and Jack Cohen, and mentor
Rabbi Sylvan Kamens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984537508

Edward R. Levenson

Edward/Eddie grew up in Roxbury and Brighton in “Boston Proper” (that is, within Boston’s city limits), Massachusetts. After graduating from Boston Latin School, he received undergraduate degrees in Jewish Education and Classics (Greek and Latin Literature) and graduate degrees in Ancient and Jewish History, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and Educational Administration. He taught Hebrew Language and Jewish History in college and Hebrew Scriptures in graduate school before he retracked into teaching Latin and Social Studies in high school. He relocated in 2015 from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Delray Beach, Florida, where he has been fulfilled, in retirement, in a second career as a writer. In these last five years he has published three anthologies and four multi-genres books. His Personae of Ed: Literary, Psychological, and Spiritual is in the works. A newlywed of four years to prolific writer Reva Spiro Luxenberg, he has edited eight of her books. He is a proud member and officer of our Kings Point Creative Writers Club and Kings Point Writers Club Supplementary, considering them models for emulation.

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Genres Mélange Deuxième

Humor, Word Play, Personae, Sonnets, Art,

Fiction, Memoirs, Reconstructing Judaism,

Reviews, Interpretation, Genealogy

Edward R. Levenson

Copyright © 2018 by Edward R. Levenson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2018907569

ISBN:                  Hardcover                  978-1-9845-3753-9

                            Softcover                     978-1-9845-3751-5

                            eBook                          978-1-9845-3750-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/27/2018

Xlibris

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Introduction and Acknowledgments

I will now be uncharacteristically brief─which, dear readers, I know you won’t believe until you see it. The reason is that I am chomping at the bit to submit this book and to start putting together my next ones.

Genres Mélange Deuxième is my third multi-genres collection. The medium has generated (no pun originally intended) a vast outpouring of my creativity. In my retirement from teaching I am a new writer to start with anyway, let alone in Humor, Poetry, Fiction, and Reconstructing Judaism (the new name for the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement).

I am enormously grateful to my publisher Xlibris for its production quality and for the motivation it has given me to write and keep writing. You will see my sonnet to this effect.

I owe a boundless debt to my wife Reva Spiro Luxenberg (Reva Spiro Luxenberg Levenson when I’m good) for her great love, support, and writer-collegiality. Our sharing and her profound influence on my life is apparent everywhere.

The book contains a new section Prompt-Based Pieces. The Creative Writing Workshop of the Wiseman Center featured assignments based on prompts. Chapters in other sections may have originated from prompts as well, but the ones in this section reflect the unique stimulation they provided.

Reva and I belong to a second writing group, the Kings Point Creative Writers Club. We appreciate all members of each group for their helpful critiques of our writing.

Guest contributors have responded to my call. They are Reva; brother Rob; three of my children─Judah, Benjamin, and Aliza (my favorite daughter); friend Joe Bruno, my high school and college friend Jack Cohen; and Rabbi Sylvan Kamens. Readers will readily agree that their pieces considerably enhance the appeal of the book. They amply demonstrate that no one is an island unto itself.

I anticipate a composite index two books hence, if not sooner─but possibly later.

Heartfelt thanks to one and all!

Pro Xlibris Meque!

(To Xlibris and Me!)

Mi nove liber generum primus Mélange¹

Inter alios meos haud sui generis²

De Xlibris³ gloriam ad maximam suam

Bonum mundi summumque et felicis auctoris.

My first "Mélange"-named genres mix is here,

Among my other books not that unique,

Cheers, Xlibris, for your greater glory

And the greatest good of all and happy author.

My gratitude to Xlibris unbounded

For will to write and pride in its production,

Unusual a tribute to one’s self-publisher,⁴

But heartfelt all the more to one and all.

Asot sfarim harbeh eyn qets⁵ ─LO sof davar.⁶

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, God be willing.

More books! To life! L’ḥayyim!⁷ It’s very thrilling!⁸

Edward R. Levenson’s

Genres Mélange Deuxième

Table of Contents

Dedication Poem Pro Xlibris Meque! (To Xlibris and Me!)

Section One─Humor

Eve Gives Birth, by Reva

On Humor in the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures), by Rabbi Sylvan Kamens

Three Quips

All Paid Up

Section Two─Word Play

Surviving Tests

AUM

Preparing to Grapple with a Poem of Judah

Reva’s Catalogues, 2018

To Burke

Less is Indeed Less

Two Southern European Phrases

Scrabble Serendipity

Section Three─Personae

New Personae

That’s How I’ve Always Done It─a Dialogue Between Two Personae

Section Four─Sonnets

Still at Sinai

My Man: Anniversary and Valentine’s Day Sonnet, by Reva

Aliza and Benjy

My Family─Children

Awaiting Judah’s Drawing

Proud

Madder

The Primordial Beginning

Section Five─Art

Dancing Dolphins (painting by Reva)

Prancing Horse (ceramic piece by Reva)

Breezy Butterflies (painting by Reva)

Perching Parrots (silk-painted scarf by Reva)

Love Grows Here Sprinkler (ceramic piece by Reva)

Figure Study #2 (drawing by Judah)

Spot (drawing by Judah)

Section Six─Fiction

Save the Turtles─a Joy

Awaiting Latin School

Silver Jewelry in Mexico

The Nazirite’s Vow

Section Seven─Memoirs

I Was a Thief

My Public Health Journey─the Beginning, by Rob

The Philadelphia Eagles and Me

My Father, His Cats, and Moby Dick (Literary Memoir), by Ben

What a Wedding! by Reva

Feminism, Intersectionality, and Me

Irma Not So Douce

Chats with Waitresses

Section Eight─Prompt-Based Pieces

Great-granduncle Yehudah Aryeh (Fiction)

Disillusionment with Mexico (Memoir)

A Voice I Had Heard Before Awakening (Semi-Fiction)

Cheating (Exposition)

I Won’t Contest the Divorce (Fiction)

Driverless-Car Considerations (Exposition)

Midas (Fiction)

My Trip to the Moon (Fiction)

Section Nine─Reconstructing Judaism

Correspondence with Rabbi Deborah Waxman

The Red Heifer

Reconstructing Judaism on Chosenness

Kabbalat Shabbat Service, Kol Ami

Section Ten─Interpretation

Notes on Tractate Nazir, dappim (folio pages) 11a, 18b

Atsamot M’ḥullalot

Fool

In the Time of the Butterflies, CLOSE READING, by Aliza

Swear More

Iyov Recovering Well

Feeling Jewish: (a Book for Just About Anyone

Paper Podium: the Voice of Affinity

Section Eleven─Reviews

Are You Being Served?

Gornisht Helfen (It’s No Use)

Section Twelve─Genealogy

Why I Do Genealogy, by Jack Cohen

Progress in the Search of the Elusive Cohen Gene

Possible V-E-R-Y Early Link to Maternal Family Line

Section One─Humor

Eve Gives Birth,

by Reva Spiro Luxenberg, Ed’s wife

Adam and Eve settled into a cave in the new land. There were no fruit trees and Adam worked hard planting seeds. He waited many months for anything to grow. He and Eve got to know each other well in the cave in which they lived. And I do mean know in the biblical sense. Months later Eve’s stomach swelled to enormous proportions.

Evie, I don’t understand how you’re getting so fat from the small amount of food I’m providing for you, Adam said.

I’m not getting fat. I think there’s a person inside of me because I feel kicking in my stomach.

How will you get the person out? Adam asked with a perplexed look.

I think he’ll come out when he’s ready, all by himself.

Adam scratched his head. Will he be our size?

He better not be, said Eve, throwing her hands up in a gesture of despair. I hope he comes out soon because I don’t like looking this fat.

From which orifice will he come?

How do I know? I hope he doesn’t emerge from my nose. He probably will come out of my mouth. He better taste good or I won’t have any more children. I think next time you should carry the child.

Two moons passed until one night in the cave Eve woke up with a sharp pain in her abdomen.

What’s that noise you’re making? Adam said, as he rubbed his eyes.

Eve pulled at her long hair. It’s called ‘screaming.’ I think the person isn’t going to come out of my mouth; in fact, I’m sure the person is coming out the wrong way.

But everything turned out okay except that Eve had pulled out all her hair and had to cover her head with a kerchief made from eucalyptus leaves. She decided not to have any more small people or know Adam any better, so she moved into an adjacent cave.

The baby leaked a lot, but he smiled and was so sweet that Adam and Eve named him Sugar Cane, later shortened to Cane. The Bible spells it C-A-I-N, but that’s another mistake.

The days passed quickly with Eve cooking for Adam and Cane. She cleaned their caves and made their clothes. Adam was busy planting and later harvesting the produce.

After Eve’s hair had grown back, she forgot the pain she had when she gave birth to Cane and had another son two years later who she named Able, because he was able to sit up faster than Cane had been.

Cane grew up to be a farmer. Able was extremely neat, never wanting to get his hands dirty with soil, so he became a shepherd. He tried to teach his sheep to talk but was unsuccessful.

One day it came to pass that Cane brought onions and pineapples and put them on a huge rock, offering them to the Lord God as a sacrifice. Now Able saw what Cane had done and he took his best sheep with the softest wool and put it on top of the same rock.

God looked at both sacrifices and spoke to Cane. An onion is good when fried but it is not one of my favorite vegetables. It makes man cry when he slices it. Pineapples are sweet but they are hard for man to cut. Your brother Able has brought me a prime example of a sheep and I prefer his sacrifice to yours.

Cane was enraged. His eyes blazed with the evil passion of jealousy. He took a rock and struck Able on the head with it, and Able died.

God saw the evil that Cane had done and asked, Where is your brother Able?

I don’t know where he is. Am I my brother’s keeper? Those were his exact words. He was a real bad dude. And God was the first detective in the world trying to elicit a confession from the guilty party.

When Cane didn’t confess, God said, What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. And now you will be cursed. When you till the ground, it won’t yield her strength. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer.

Believe it or not, Cane started to weep. Is my iniquity too great to be forgiven? He really used the word iniquity, not wickedness or evildoing. If I can say anything good about Cane, the man always had a good vocabulary.

On Humor in the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures),

by Rabbi Sylvan Kamens

My teacher Dr. Mordecai Kaplan of blessed memory was often quoted as saying that there is no humor in the Tanakh. While it is true that there is little of funny ha-ha or out-loud laughing, there are a number of events that are filled with irony, satire, and sarcasm. Rabbi Milton Steinberg wrote a little book more than sixty years ago called Certain People of the Book. A few examples from this book will make