I had a nice email chat with Sarah Lefton and Matthue Roth of G-dcast. I remember seeing the first episode of G-dcast that Sarah had put together at the first ROI120 conference in Jerusalem in 2006. The assembled audience of young Jewish innovators was very impressed by what Sarah had put together and I have to say that I am pleased that Sarah had the fortitude to make her vision come to fruition. My questions are in italics. Enjoy!

First of all, mazel tov on finally getting G-DCast out there. I know Sarah, that you went through a number of trials and tribulations getting the resources together to make this happen. Was it worth it?

Sarah: Oh hells yes. It is a relief to have it living OUTSIDE of my head.

One thing that is definitely interesting is watching the response – so far – play out exactly as expected. We are getting a lot of intense interest from educators who want to use the curriculum in their classrooms. We am seeing enthusiasm from fairly well educated Jews. What remains to be seen is if it is interesting to people who don’t know these stories already. Actually, an ex-Mormon friend of mine who,
in her own words, “hates God,” agreed to put it on her Facebook page, which is sort of a small triumph maybe?!

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This week’s Parsha is Noah, which was my Bar Mitzvah Parsha. The inimitable Matthue Roth, ROI120 alum, author, musician and G-DCast Educational Director is the voice behind this week’s G-DCast. Matthue notes that Noah was “Righteous in his generation” – the only person so cited by the Torah. Some people say that the fact that everyone else on earth was a douche makes Noah’s righteousness that much more awesome because he didn’t have the support and company of other righteous individuals. Others however say that he was righteous in comparison to all the other assholes around him, meaning, not soooo so righteous. Matthue adopts the latter position because Noah didn’t plead with God to save the people (like Abraham did re. the people of Sodom and Gomorrah) nor did he expressly warn them about the impending flood.

To this he juxtaposes the story of the raven and the dove. After the flood, Noah released the raven to see if there was dry land anywhere. The raven I guess saw some trees and never came back. Noah then released the dove which came back bearing an olive branch to let everyone on the Ark know that the flood waters had receded. Thus we see the true nature of righteousness – it isn’t enough to do exactly what God commands and nothing more. In order to be truly righteous, one must also act with care, consideration and compassion towards others, even if they are total douchebags.

Thanks G-DCast. Thanks a lot. Now I have to be nice to douchebags.

Check out G-dcast to find out.

Sarah Lefton, Jewlicious Festival presenter in 2005, creator of Jewish Fashion Conspiracy, and all-around Jewish doer in the Bay Area, has launched her latest project, G-dcast.

G-dcast is a place to watch cartoons based on the story Jews are reading in the Torah each week with a different narrator. At four minutes a week, it has a low commitment threshold. New episodes drop Mondays.

G-dcast is an ambitious project. Each week includes a 2-3 page resource guide for teachers, with episode synopsis, Torah portion highlights, insights and questions. This week’s portion is Bereshit.