An exalted cast of characters gathered in Whippany last week: Moses met Leah and complained about his treatment at the hands of her sons, who teased him; Pinchas, a tired former slave who wanted to go back to Egypt, debated Miriam; and a young Yitzchak asked Hagar why he couldn’t play with Ishmael.

The biblical reunions were arranged not by divine intervention but under the guidance of Naomi Less, director of education and training for Storahtelling, an acclaimed Manhattan troupe that teaches Torah to modern audiences through dramatic adaptations.

The characters, actually 25 local religious school teachers and directors engaged in dramatic exercises, were participating in a Jan. 11 seminar offered by the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life on the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany. The goal of the day’s work was to learn how to bring the techniques of Storahtelling into local classrooms.

Partnership officials said the seminar was part of a larger effort to encourage experiential education in the area. In describing the strategy, Partnership director Robert Lichtman said the aim is “to create a balance of formal and informal educational experiences throughout the community.”

He noted that Less not only put the teachers through the exercises but also broke those exercises down into methodological pieces. In that way, said Lichtman, Less “can leave and these people can, through a multiplier effect, embed the methodology in the community. We don’t have to rely on Storahtelling to come into the community all the time to perform. It’s the difference between fishing and teaching someone how to fish.”

Storahtelling was created in 1999 by educator Amichai Lau-Lavie and other musicians and artists as a vehicle for reinterpreting and promoting the study of Torah. It uses the tools of “bibliodrama” – improvised reenactments of Torah texts – in synagogues and schools. As Less put it, “Storahtelling is where literacy meets art.”

Storahtelling performed locally most recently in September at the launching of the Jewish Learning Center at Congregation Beth El in South Orange. In that setting, two Storahtelling performers probed what it must have been like to cross the Red Sea, wondering whether to go forward or return to the lives they knew as slaves in Egypt.

Although one educator, who declined to comment, spent most of Friday’s session working on a needlepoint, most of the teachers appeared thoroughly engaged. Less urged them to get deep inside their characters through a series of pointed questions.

	Miriam – Rivka Nelson, a teacher at Congregation Beth El in South Orange – meets a tired Israelite – Rabbi Pinchas Klein of the Mount Freedom Jewish Center in Randolph – who isn’t so sure taking part in the Exodus will be better than going back to slavery.