Does God Have a Big Toe?: Stories about Stories in the Bible

This is one of my favorite books to read aloud in my k-3 (Quaker) Sunday school class. Marc Gellman's language just captures the interest of the kids. (The pictures are nice but unnecessary.) He tells wonderful stories with messages that speak on many levels. The youngest kids just enjoy a good story with great word pictures, while the older children realize that much more is being said.

This is a delightful book either to give to your child, to read together with your child, to read yourself, or to refer to when you are asked that age old question, "Does God have a big toe?" The answer Rabbi Gelman gives is very sensible, "...God is not a person. God is special and invisible and wonderful and is the creator of the universe. God has made each of us in God's image. But God is not a person. And that is why God does not have a big toe."This is a collection of 20 `midrashim' (plural for `midrash' or a story which is told about a story which appears in the Bible to illustrate a moral, i.e. a fable). The author explains all about `midrashim' in a Note at the beginning of the book in a style suitable for children. One handy feature of the book is that in the table of contents, each `midrash' is provided with the biblical citation from which the story is drawn. It is divided into two sections, one titled "Adam's Animals", the second "Does God Have A Big Toe?" and with a prologue about Genesis 1, the story of creation. Richly endowed with a half dozen illustrations by Italian primitive artist Oscar de Mejo, this book delights both the eye as well as the intellect.There is a old Jewish saying, "Words from the heart speak to the heart." These words come from the heart. If you have an open heart they will speak to your heart.

I wish that all of us could have a friend who can bring to life the dry Bible stories we think are no longer pertenant in our modern world. Mark Gellman could be that friend. His retellings of these familiar stories shed new light on man's relationship with God and creation. They are a great starting point for discussions with children and give adults reasons to spend time with some of the scriptures that we think we already understand well. The illustrations by Oscar de Mejo are also provocative and lend new insights into what could be tired old stories. It is sad that the Jewish tradition of midrash is not more accepted in the Christian tradition. Looking at the New Testament in creative new ways (without being condemned for being untrue to the exact word of the scriptures) might give followers of Jesus a better understanding of the their own traditional stories. Rabbi Gellman has a gift for allowing us to participate in these stories as insiders, rather than readers in another time and place. This is a must have if you want to cultivate an interest in the Bible and our relationship with our God--whether with children or adult seekers.

I used this book as a teaching aid in a Conformation class of pre-teen girls. It provided an additional alternative to the very patriarchal Genesis creation stories, in addition to helping them learn to think "outside the box" about scriptural stories in general. The girls loved the book and so did I. I've also heard some neat sermons based on the stories from this book. Grown-ups love it, too.

Gellman's book is a humorous introduction to "Midrash", Jewish stories ABOUT bible stories. (Note these aren't the actual bible stories.) This book was a definite favorite of my 4th grade Hebrew School class. Very funny and also gently educational.