365 DAYS PROJECT



2007   DECEMBER 5   #339

Morah Blanka - Stories Under the Mitzvah Tree

MP3:
The Beautiful Garbage Can (5:46)
The Little Chicken (7:17)
Squeaky's New House (7:43)
Hillel's Love for Torah (10:21)

This is probably my last contribution to the 365 Days Project, but it's a pip. This earnest quartet of Jewish children's stories plays like a grade-school pageant, down to the stilted performances from young children (and adults) and lone piano plunking out a near-constant underscore.

My favorite story has always been The Beautiful Garbage Can, in which a garbage can grows big and strong when little Chani won't eat everything on her plate. The story includes the deathless line, "Oh, my! What a beautiful garbage can you have!" Garbage Can's narration also includes the telling line, "What do you think of that? Let me tell you." And in Hillel's Love for Torah, the piano gets so dramatic that you actually start to fear for little Hillel's life. (SPOILER ALERT: He lives.)

There are at least two or three other Mitzvah Tree albums out there (and by "out there," I mean buried at my mother's house somewhere).

Please do not play on the Sabbath or Holidays.

- Contributed by: Corey K.

Images: Jacket Cover, Jacket Back, Label (front), Label (back)

Media: 33rpm vinyl album
Album: Stories Under the Mitzvah Tree
Label: House of Menorah and Torah Umesorah
Credits: Morah Blanka (Mrs. Blanka Rosenfeld); see Jacket Back for more credits
Date: 1973