Smashing the Tablets by Sara Lippmann

Smashing the Tablets by Sara Lippmann

Provocative new readings of biblical texts by major contemporary Jewish writers.

Finalist for the 2025 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Religion category

Lot's daughters rebel against their predatory father, Jacob wrestles an angel in a queer underground nightclub, Job arrives in the form of an avaricious former sorority girl-Smashing the Tablets presents a collection of provocative new readings of biblical texts by major contemporary Jewish writers. Behind this groundbreaking collection is the idea that foundational texts must be read anew or they become tools of conservatism and reaction. To achieve fresh readings, it is often necessary to step outside traditional modes of analysis, whether academic or theological, and to violate the conventions of storytelling and interpretation. By challenging dominant readings and identifying underrepresented characters and moments that have been "written out" of the biblical conversation, the essays, stories, and poems in this collection rupture assumptions, unsettle the reader, and give voice to the voiceless. The Bible in this collection is bent, recontextualized, queered, inverted, and smashed to pieces. Smashing the Tablets is one of the most significant Jewish literary collections in decades, a groundbreaking must-read for Jews and others interested not only in the Bible but also in identity, faith, and power.

"…Lippmann and Rogoff have compiled a truly excellent roster of writers whose work stands on its own, whether the reader is familiar with the source inspiration or notThere's something in Smashing the Tablets for everyone, whether you're a Hebrew school dropout dipping your toe back into Jewish commentary or a biblical scholar looking for new ways of seeing familiar parables. The writing in this anthology is wonderfully inventive and indeed as radical as the title suggests, reclaiming ancient narratives for a modern audience." — Jewish Women's Archive

"Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible is arguably the most exciting creative volume devoted to biblical narrative in years and brims with stunning scriptural and psychological insights … [it] is a triumph of the moral as well as aesthetic imagination and deserves a place in every Jewish library." — Jewish Book Council

"…[a] stimulating collection of unorthodox takes on Torah stories … The mix of approaches and tones makes for a thought-provoking reevaluation of biblical themes, exploring with particular care how power dynamics are negotiated and which characters are glorified or sidelined. It's sure to spark conversation." — Publishers Weekly

"Smashing the Tablets unscrolls the ancient into a congregation of brilliant, strange, and necessary voices. A glorious reminder of how marvelously undead the bible is—after all." — Sabrina Orah Mark, author of Happily: A Personal History-with Fairy Tales

"Filled with smart, funny, transgressive, thoughtful essays and stories by many of my very favorite Jewish writers, Smashing the Tablets is the best kind of anthology—the one you hold dear, pass around, and read again and again." — Lauren Grodstein, author of We Must Not Think of Ourselves

"Smashing the Tablets is irreverent and rowdy, furious and funny, inventive and learned. It reminds us that the old texts don't have to be read in the old ways—and, indeed, that revisiting them can help us see the present through new eyes." — Lily Meyer, author of Short War

"This book is the kind of art we need in this moment: radical, imaginative, and most of all unafraid. Shattering a thing can be an act of faith: we make space for that thing to reform. Smashing the Tablets teaches us this lesson twenty-four times, in twenty-four ways." — Shelly Oria, editor of I Know What's Best For You: Stories on Reproductive Freedom

Sara Lippmann is the author of Lech, Jerks, and Doll Palace. Seth Rogoff is the author of the novel The Castle and chair of Journalism and Media Studies at Anglo-American University.