One of my Torah Monologues has been published in a new collection of stories by The Jewish Women’s Storytelling Collective: The Rooster Princess and Other Tales, Monkfish Book Publishing, September 2025. My contribution takes the viewpoint of Miriam after God punishes her for criticizing Moses.
Other stories range from adaptations of traditional Jewish folktales to original fiction to memoir, and they all feature female protagonists. The book is available at powells.org, bookshop.org, and Amazon.com.
A Love Affair with Torah
At the turn of the millennium I fell in love–with the Torah. Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield (of blessed memory) showed me how to find deeper meanings beneath the Hebrew sentences, and I discovered a new world.
I had to explore this world as a writer, so I began writing and delivering Torah monologues, first-person stories imagining what the characters in the Torah were thinking. Then I learned Biblical Hebrew so I could find out what might be going on behind the English translations. In 2009 I started sharing my own translations and commentary in a blog … which I moved to WordPress in 2012.
Every week I post an essay sharing my own insights about the weekly Torah portion. (See BLOG tab above.)
Meanwhile, I went to ALEPH’s two-year Davennen Leadership Training Institute in 2008-9, and led many services at P’nai Or of Portland. In January of 2012, I completed another two-year training program and became a maggidah, professional Jewish storyteller and preacher. Naturally I have also been teaching classes, both Torah study and creative workshops. After all, the Hebrew word torah means “teaching”.
What a blessing to spend so much of my time doing work I love!
I am currently writing a book on the moral psychology of the characters in Genesis. Eventually I hope to get back to writing novels—both finishing the fantasy trilogy I wrote years ago, and writing about the life of Moses’ wife, Tzipporah. I’m bursting with ideas!
I am available to deliver Torah monologues, tell stories, teach, and lead services. E-mail me at melissatzp@gmail.com.
Questioning Torah 