When he retired from Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Jonathan Miller was a serious man.

He had officiated more than 1,000 funerals and written a book of eulogies and thoughts on life and death.

These days, the rabbi is a comic novelist.

Miller is returning to Temple Emanu-El on Friday night and Saturday to help celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown Friday night and marks the start of the Jewish High Holy Days, which will conclude with Yom Kippur on Sept. 25.

Miller has written a book called, “Take My Dog: A Southern Detour Through the Apocalypse,” which was inspired by a true incident in which an evangelical Christian called Miller and asked him to take care of his dog in the event of the Rapture, an end-times scenario when some Christians believe they will be snatched up directly to heaven.

After all, if Christians are snatched up in the Rapture, who’s going to take care of their dogs?

“It’s religious comedy with a touch of Stephen King,” Miller jokes. “It defies genre.”

As a rabbi in the South, Miller had to learn the ways of college football fandom and how to navigate in a world where evangelicals who believe in the Rapture are the predominant faith group. Miller tackles all that in his novel.

“Southerners will understand it and laugh at it,” said Miller, who now lives in Bethesda, Maryland. “It’s a primer for Yankees.”

The novel explores some history with a backstory on a lynching that happened after World War I, “that nobody talks about,” Miller said.

“It starts off a little darkly,” he said. “Nobody talks about the ugly stuff. Everybody keeps secrets.”

With that, he explores a spiritual truth shared by most religions.

“Every debt must be paid,” Miller said. “That’s a theme in the book.”

Following an odd turn of events, fifty dogs are brought to the synagogue to be taken care of.

“The rabbi’s a hero,” Miller said. “He’s on the JumboTron at Bryant-Denny Stadium.”

The rabbi also goes through personal and professional struggles. “The temple president gunning for him,” Miller said. “The rabbi is losing his family, losing his job.”

The rabbi’s father, a Holocaust survivor, serves as a beacon of humor.

“There’s a lot of parody and goofiness in the book,” Miller said.

While it’s set in the fictional towns of Cumberland, Alabama, and Brookhill, Mississippi, “Birmingham readers will recognize a lot of Alabama landmarks,” Miller said.

“This is supposed to be a fun read,” Miller said. “No hidden message. After years of doing sermons, eulogies and serious articles, this is the opposite of that.”

In 2016, Miller had done his first book, a collection of 70 eulogies he’d written, along with reflections on life and death. It was called “Legacy: A Rabbi & a Community Remember Their Loved Ones.”

While there are serious topics afoot in the novel, Miller try to focus on having fun.

“The serious things in life have a lot of humor attached to them,” he said. “There’s a lot of football in the air (in the novel). There are two contact sports in the South: religion and football. Football is funny. Religion is funny.”

Miller, who was rabbi at Temple Emanu-El from 1991 until he retired in 2017, has been meaning to come back and see friends for a while.

He was followed at Temple Emanu-El by Rabbi Adam Wright, who has been encouraging him to return for a visit.

“Adam really has been pushing me to come back for the High Holidays, when the big crowds come,” Miller said. “It’s rare for successors to want their predecessors to come back.”

He couldn’t resist “the graciousness of the invitation,” he said.

While Wright will be conducting services throughout the High Holy Days, Miller will join him for Rosh Hashanah services only.

“While Birmingham is no longer my home, the people are still my people,” Miller said.

See also: The meaning of life, and death: Rabbi reflects on legacy during High Holy Days

Rabbi Jonathan Miller announces retirement