Koren's New "Graphic Novel Bereshit" Featured with Jordan B. Gorfinkel on JM in the AM

And this is America's one and only Jewish moments in the morning radio program heard on listeners sponsored digital radio around the world webc.com on the nominal network and of course on the beloved NSN app. We've got Gorf with us live via telephone. Jordan B Gorfinkle who is a graphic novel series creator. We're going to talk about that this morning for Coen Tanakh. He's manager of Batman DC comics. He's a Jewish link cartoonist. He's available at jewishcarttoarton.com. And Gorf brings his skills to your shoo and your community around the world. He's not only a scholar in residence, he's a visual scholar in residence with programming for adults and uh kids and people of all ages. Be in touch with Jordan B. Gorfinkle. The following email address, Jewish [email protected]. Jewish [email protected]. and he's got some dates in October and November where he's available for schools, events, synagogues, etc. He is also responsible for the brand new Coren Maggererman Tanakh graphic novel edition entitled Brahe. It's volume one, the beginning. It includes Paras Bracius and Paras Noah. And Gorf told me when I saw him on Wednesday, it was Wednesday, right? He told me he told me that uh if you order it in the US today, tomorrow, you could have it before Parsha's braces, which is amazing. It's a great addition to the uh all the para series that are out there. Jordan Borfinkle, a happy to you and welcome back to JM in the AM. Boerto and Mazaltovadar and Gorf wished us a mazletov literally live and in person just hours after uh Amalia Esther was born because as we were driving to Chicago we stopped in Cleveland. I called Gorf to get directions here and there. Find out what there is to do in Cleveland for about an hour especially when it comes to eating dinner during sukus. And he was not only helpful, he actually bicycled over to the restaurant, presented me with the brand new Magerman Tanak graphic novel, Bra Sheet. He autographed it for me. Many of you may have seen his uh greeting that he wrote in the book on social media. It was all over his channels and platforms. And here we are after getting the inperson Maztov from Gorf. He's speaking to us from Cleveland, Ohio this morning. Mazalto to you because it it can't be easy in general. The one thing I can speak to is writing a book and it's a difficult process and obviously it takes a long long time but when you are going into the detail to put together a graphic novel about two very interesting complicated and voluminous partios I mean braces bracious and no are full with so much material to put all of this into graphic novel cartoon form is simply amazing. You must be thrilled that it's finally out there and available to the public. As we say in Muny, borrow hashem. >> Is that what they say? Is that my Indiana or my New York? I don't know at this point. >> Indiana. >> It is Indiana. All right. By the way, got to Chicago safely. Gorf, just wanted you to know. Everything went well. >> Well, we texted each other. So, I had assumed that uh if for some reason you had broken down on the side of the road, then you had a nice job in Muny, Indiana. >> Correct. And you would have been my first call, by the way, if I broke down on the side of the road. >> And I would have bicycled to Muny, Indiana to join you. And believe me, I uh I believe that you've been an amazing friend all these years. All right, tell me about this. I mean, this obviously needs tremendous support. It needs, you know, somebody out there from Coen who believes in this concept and feels that it's really important educationally. Tell me about the beginning of this beginning of volume one, the beginning, braces and Noah. Well, George Lucas is my rebby and famously George Lucas created Star Wars now episode 4 and then worked his way back to episode 1. And the reason is because he didn't have all of his team together yet by episode 4 and he couldn't do everything that he imagined he wanted to do. So he started with something that was manageable and then went back to the beginning. So we started as a proof of concept with the Passover Hagada graphic novel and after that Coren approached me and said we we need to do more of this and you can't handle you can't handle everything and we are going to partner with you to be able to give you the support and team that's necessary in order to do a graphic novel version of Tanakh. Now the reason I say version of Tanakh is because this is not an adaptation. Our raisin detra is that our system is that we put the actual mikra the actual text the words of the Torah on one side of the folio. A folio is the fancy name for two pages side by side in a publication and on the other side is the Merman English translation fused with the narrative art with the graphic novel art on the other side on the other page. And together what we were doing is what we like to call the new midrash which is essentially what I believe Rashi Rambam Rambam Ramban etc would have done if they had had these tools available to them and that is to bring the Torah back to life again in all of its authenticity all of its authoritiveness its scholarship. We'll get into the scholarship aspect in a minute or so. and of course all of its amazing depths, its text, its subtext, and most of all, just make it fun and accessible for everybody. And >> and and just to to go backwards for a moment, the when you released Yona and you released Esther, that also is along the same lines what you do with the Hagata, correct? I mean, that those would really be this would be a prequel to those if you think about it in that way, right? Those are Naveim and Kuvim. That would be a you know, those would be works you've already released to the public and now you're going back to the beginning. >> Correct. We're going back to the beginning. But of course, the way Torah works and as as we say in the Passover Hagada graphic novel, we are all capable of being scholars. We are not a top-down uh religion. We don't have a pope as it were. We are bottom up, which means that we all ha have the responsibility to learn. We all have the capability of doing it, including uh a guy who was raised on Batman. And uh I I went to a variety of different Jewish day schools and yeshivas and everything else. And that's my background. But I'm kind of a Jewish mut. Moved around a lot when I was a kid. Had all kinds of different experiences in terms of my schooling. And the one thing that was a constant then was I used to run past the shelf of Sarim and head right to the shelf of comic books. And funny enough, it's come full circle because now I'm taking all of that institutional knowledge that I gained as a as a a very imaginative, sedentary kid who was reading a lot of comic books and graphic novels and went to Jewish day school. And you know, that's my peanut butter and chocolate. I'm combining them together. >> I don't like condemning or or putting down the other path. Um, you know, the the the Batman path is quite a legitimate one, a very interesting one, and obviously, you know, a fascinating pursuit. Does this give you even more satisfaction, or are you at an age maybe where this where you see the value of this even more than in the DC comics? >> Oh, all all of the above. And God forbid, I'm not denigrating that path at all. Uh and in fact uh last night Rabbi Binyaman Blau who's the moradatra of Green Road Synagogue where I attended a fantastic uh simas Torah uh he was talking about which is something that resonates for me as well that there's 70 phases of Torah and everybody finds their own window into it and as I was going to say before and that's my path and everybody has their path And when when I w when I go around and I am uh honored to be a speaker in a community, my motto is make Judaism your superpower. And what I'm showing is this was my path into Torah. And I go into real details about how we use the visual narrative style to illuminate Torah in all of its splendor, all of its incredible detail, beauty, mort, and everything else. And I encourage people likewise to find their path and to find a way for them to take what their core competence is, what their occupation, their preoccupation may be and bring that to Torah because indeed we all are infusing Torah into our lives every single day. So they the I'll give you a little bit of Torah here. So the dvar Torah that he gave was we we and I just said this a short while ago. I'm sure many of us did. We say the braha of learning Torah in the morning. So the question is well you know when when you're saying a for example you're washing your hands and you need to then not have a heck not have a break until you actually say the mozzy because the mozzi is the object of that braav that blessing. So likewise when you're saying the bra of Torah in the morning if you're not learning Torah right away and you're going to work for example dropping off the kids what have you then how is it that not a heck? How is it that you're not breaking it? Well, the answer is you are engaging in Torah all day long. Even if sometimes it is behind the scenes, as it were, because you're so infused with it that you're bringing it into every aspect of your life. And if there's something that I can do that I can bring to this world, God willing, it's that kind of enthusiasm and that kind of inspiration. >> All right. I Jordan Borfinkle is with us. I'm assuming again that the the two best ways to get information and to actually order the book would be co-enpub.com. ko rnpub.com co-endpub.com or Jewish cartoon.com I assume also has information about the brand new book and the reason I'm emphasizing this now is because a lot of people would love to have this at their shabas table this shabas and here's their opportunity I mean you couldn't have been on a better day this is the first time that we read bracious this morning right in Israel they already read it shabas afternoon but for us in diaspora the first time we read it is this morning and bracious volume 1 is now available folks make sure It's on your Shabas table. Both adults and kids will love it. For this Shabas, go to coenpub ko renpub.com or jewishcarttoon.com for further information about Gorf and about the book. Now, it's a visual. It's hard unless one's on the Zoom call with us. It's hard to you know actually uh you know describe what you've done with all these scenes. So, we'll pick a scene or two and you will describe it. But I I want to go back for one second to the other point. braces and no as I pointed out I mean it's obvious to anybody who's familiar with the paras are really full with so much stuff and there's so much to talk about write about draw about etc but there are a couple of chapters in braces the Noah that one might argue are uh I don't want to say god forbid boring but you know tell you know the the uh the lineage of the of humanity and the number of years that people lived and who their children were not not the most interesting thing just something that's necessary to be in the para so you could have chosen to pick and choose the mikra to pick and choose the sukim that you wanted to highlight because of the more interesting parts of the para but you insisted as you said earlier to do the entire thing one gets the entire safer para of braces one gets the entire para of Noah am I making too big of a deal of this or was this going on in your head about how to handle it >> oh no I like it keep going >> go ahead no I what I mean is you're you're entirely accurate And >> you struggled with it a bit. Exactly what to do. >> Well, I you're supposed to struggle with it. Uh but the struggle is made easier because of the support of our amazing uh donors and sponsors of the book. The Magriman Tanakh is titled that because the Magriman family is overseeing the entire Tanakh version that we are embarking on. Yes, folks. We are trying to create an entire Tanakh version of, excuse me, an entire graphic novel version of the Tanakh. >> And that could be that could be interesting. That could be an endless number of volumes. >> Yeah. Well, not endless. Uh, God willing, we'll be around for a long time to be able to do this, but there there certainly has to be a limit on it. But we do have a plan. >> It's going to be it's be a large collection of volumes. >> It'll be a large collection. Right. We we we divide up safarim and volumes. So within bish for example we project that there will be six volumes and we have our brishet noak track which is the beginning I'm working on abraham right now then we'll do each talk and then yakov is three books etc and at the same time we're also working on a na'vi track so we're building teamim which will have two volumes and onward and uh to get a little bit off track and then I'll I'll get back on to your question about this particular volume we have two amazing teams that are working on production one is the scholarship team and one is the creative team and they work hand in hand. Corin uh as uh President Matthew Miller has said to me several times uh you you can't throw well he probably hasn't said it this way but I'll put it this way you can't throw a stone uh within 2 kilometers of the grand offices in Jerusalem without quote unquote hitting this is why it's a bad metaphor but without without hitting uh a Torah scholar or for that matter an academic scholar because for us we're trying if we're going to draw this if we're really going to make this a version of the Tanakh, then just like you can't quote unquote make up stuff for Torah, you can't make up stuff for visualizing the Torah. You have to know what the clothes look like and what the weaponry looked like and what the places look like. I mean, geography is so important. We when when you have a vista, you can't just make up, oh, there, you know, here's some random hill and it looks like Thailand. No, you can go there and see what these places look like. So if we're going to do this, we've got to get this right for two reasons. One is because we have falty to the original. We have incredible loyalty obviously to the original. The second reason is we know there are a lot of armchair scholars particularly in Tene New Jersey where you're usually placed that will throw many rotten tomatoes at us if we get it wrong. So I I would much rather get it right and be welcomed without the tomatoes. So, we have these two teams and then we have a creative team which is made up of the the gold standard of graphic novel artists and designers because we're designing all of the historical figures. These aren't characters, these are historical figures. And to do that and have it be consistent throughout the entire Tanakh version, the entire Tanakh series means that we have to establish everything. Now, and I was going to say before Torah is cyclical also. How do you how do you determine what something means in Torah? Well, you look somewhere else in Torah to figure it out. So I'm doing a right now and I'm for example learning that some of the midrashim are connected to stuff that happens in chauffeim and it happens that I am now in the middle of drawing the story of gidon which then reflects back on a midash for Abraham and I won't spoil it right now for you folks and and I'm thinking oh my gosh so that means that in the story for gidon I have to make sure to draw things in the same pose and the same design or somehow or visually interrelate with Abraham so people will get it. And that kind of cyclical thinking, that kind of um of uh what's the word I'm looking for? Uh uh holistic holistic planning is so key to what we're doing in making it not only successful on a volume byvol basis, but a series basis as well. And I didn't answer your question yet, but go ahead >> folks. Order it now. Uh brace sheets volume one, the beginning. Go to jewishcarttoon.com. Go to co kenpub.com kenpub.com. Especially if you want it on your Shabas table for this coming Shabas Shabascious. Um, all right. Feel free to answer the question in the context of this. You got to choose a scene for us. It's a visual. Can't do everything obviously, but we got to give people a taste of what's going on here with the graphic novel. As best as you could describe, give us one of the scenes, one of the stories from Racius and Noah that you went ahead and highlighted. I know all of them are highlighted, but you get my point. and how you approached it from a graphic novel standpoint. >> Okay. So, I'm gonna answer a question with a question in the Jewish way, which is while I'm as answering your other question, I want you to flip through and find a page just at random, whatever whatever appeals to you, and then we'll do what you suggest. So, your question before was we chose to depict everything including the quote unquote boring parts. And for me, that is in fact both the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity with what we're doing because the quote unquote boring parts have so much story to them and so many levels of interest that I am eager to get to the the lineage and the other parts that you may just try to pass through quickly if it were just text. You see, bringing visuals, authentic and authoritative visuals to this means that we can bring everything to life. >> Even even the the the son of this one and the age of this one conversation. >> Oh my gosh. Everything is so intertwined and everything is so important. The it truly you do not realize when we say not a word is wasted in Torah. You don't realize it until you have to visualize it. Because I thought, oh, you know, the lineage, great. So, we'll do it in a page or two and then we'll move on and we'll spend a lot of time on the stuff that you're more familiar with. The the Tava, the ark, and the migdal Bavl, the Tower of Babel, and the the creation of the world told famously through Rab Salvich and in two different versions, Adam Olive, Adam one and Adam 2. Then, we'll focus on all that stuff. And then as our scholars are are are are putting us through I let let me put it this way. I I'll finish the thought and then I'll put it this way. As they're putting us through the education process of understanding just how important everything is, we realize we can't just blow this off. >> We can't just pass by it and and knock it off in a in a page or two of of of uh of something that isn't going to appeal to people. We have to show people how everything that I've just described so far is equally, if not more, applicable to the lineage pages and all the other charts and lists and nonnarrative parts and uh Okay. So, have you chosen the section? >> I I have a feeling you enjoyed doing chapter 3 immensely. >> Uh chapter 3 is the nash, the serpent, and it's a you know what it is? My initial reaction as I look at it, it's a combination of dramatic and frightening. It is a and I and I wonder if you did this on purpose that you know as she's going ahead and and taking the fruit and getting set to eat it and I'm referring of course to Eve. As she's taking it and getting set to eat it, there's a relatively frightening scene. There's a there's a uh a dramatic atmosphere that you are painting as if this is really a lifechanging experience which we know it in fact was. Tell me about chapter 3. >> Uh well, let's dig into it together. First of all, what page are you on so that those of us who have the graphic novel can follow along. >> At the moment, I'm on page 63. >> Wonderful. And for those of you who do not yet have the Brachet graphic novel volume one, you can revisit this podcast with the graphic novel, which I encourage you to do and get a little bit of insight. And by the way, people ask me all the time, how come there are no footnotes? How come there are no explanations? There's no study guide. There's no teacher guide. The answer is because I want people to have this process of discovery on their own. And there's so much midash and paranut built into every single panel. Panel is what we call the individual frames that if I spoon feed it to you, then you're not going to, as I said before, discover on your own all of the different possible explanations and understandings and depth. All you have at the end, but it's it's interviews like this where you actually get to do a little bit of a deep dive. >> Gor press for time. Tell us about chapter 3. >> Chapter 3. Uh yeah, but when are we finishing up? Just so I know how to >> a couple of minutes. >> Oh well, okay. In that case, chapter three is when Kava has to uh decide is she going to eat the fruit or not? And then she of course famously gains knowledge from eating theat to vara. And I in uh the reason why I say tovara withadat is often we just call it the sadat is because there is going to be a a binary uh uh awakening that she's going to experience. So my first challenge is all right what what does the fruit actually look like? And we know famously is it a red apple? And we have what we call roasted eggs, not Easter eggs, secret little uh tidbits that we we build in subtextually. We call them roasted eggs in honor of Pesak. So a roasted egg is how did I work in the famous red apple? If what Eve is eating is not a red apple, then you know I got to get it in somewhere. So look for that folks. So what does it look like? What does the process of knowledge that is contained within this fruit look like that it can be activated? What does it look like when she finally takes that bite and what is her emotional state and how do we uh dramatize that in artwork? Uh and then finally when she has that first bite of fruit, what does she do immediately after that? And for that matter, what does theat look like in the context in the context of gan beaden? And notice I'm saying be aen, not gaden. It is the garden in uh uh gone be aen in Eden. Uh it's not the garden of Eden and that's geography. So then where does the garden sit geographically in the world because we got to draw this and we got to show people where it is. So how does this work and on and on all these sorts of questions. So we found very interesting ways I won't spoil it for you right now of and of depicting all this. And you should know by the way folks this is one page and the Hebrew for this one page is vatik mupio vata three words an entire page that's how much depth and text and subtext and fun we can have with Tanakh and we hope that you will join us on this journey with the break sheet volume 1 and of course as we continue through the rest of Tanakh God will >> am I right that you purposely created some type of what seems to be a frightening dark atmosph atosphere when she decides to eat it. Is that on purpose? >> I I prefer to call it a suspenseful >> right >> atmosphere. And the reason is uh people presume falsely that because we're dealing with a medium that has illustrations, it must be for little children. >> And uh you know, one of my frustrations, and I I'm going to put this out there, folks. Uh store owners, we deeply appreciate you supporting this product, and we're so thankful for you. I know you're going out on a limb a little bit because this may feel a little uncomfortable to some people that we're visualizing Tanakh, but I can tell you and hopefully you're hearing this from the way that I'm discussing it. We're doing a very mature version of this. This is as relevant and as authentic a version of Tanakh as one that does not have pictures in it. So, please don't put it in your preschool section. uh the the you know I don't know what the uh the the the early children's books for Torah are called that's not my area but when you put it side by side with them you're uh um it's difficult for adults who will really benefit from this as well and also families uh uh parents and children sitting side by side. It's difficult for them to discover this and we want everybody to benefit from this of all ages. So, as we say, it's child-friendly but not childish. >> Hey Gor, it belongs in the front window. That's where it belongs in the Judeaic histories. The Coen Magaran Tanak graphic novel. It's Bray Sheet volume one, the beginning. Brace and Noak. We're strongly suggesting everybody have it on your Shabas table this week. It's done by Jordan Borfinkle. Shout out to Yel Nathan as well and to the entire team that you cited earlier. Uh go to jewishcarttoon.com or go directly to the Co-En website and order it now. kenpub.com kenpub.com. Gorf is available in both October and November for selected dates to come to your community and speak at your jewel. His presentation is not only a scholar and residence presentation. It's a visual presentation includes programming for adults and kids. You can be in touch with him at the website jewishcarttoon.com or by emailing emailing him directly jewishcarttogmail.com. Jewish [email protected]. Gorf, a pleasure seeing you last week. Mazalt on the release with this project. It's really amazing. >> Thank you. And my final words are thank you Corin for supporting this. This is a project that is leagues beyond anything that any of us imagined we would ever be doing. And their support, their encouragement, and all of the team members they're bringing to the table. uh the the the uh bait midash table are so cherished and appreciated and uh thank you to my entire team. Thank you to Malcolm for supporting me over the years. And for those of you who may be a little bit confused, wait a minute, Gore graphic novels. I thought you did Jewish ac capella. Uh let me tell you that I am still involved in Jewish AC capella on the side as well. Uh I have the Yuds and Cole Zimra in my portfolio as it were. And the Y studs in particular are an amazing Menchi group of singers whom you want to bring to your community for concerts and for Shabbat occasions. Shabbat events. >> Thanks so much. Thank you. >> Thanks so much, Gore. For a pleasure. More coming up. Keep it right here, folks. You're listening to a Monday morning edition from Chicago at JM in the AM.