Humour in the Rabbinic Literature

GALUS AUSTRALIS: Counting Teeth: Humour in the Rabbinic Literature (Simon Holloway).

Part One: Is it Okay to Laugh?

Q: Why did Queen Esther merit to rule over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Persian empire?

A: Because she was descended from Sarah, who lived to the age of 127!

Okay, so it’s not a particularly funny joke, I’ll grant you. It appears in the midrash to Esther (Ester Rabbah 1:8), and is said by Rabbi Akiva to a room full of sleeping students in an effort to get their attention. According to Rabbi Chanokh Zundel, in his 19th century commentary on Midrash Rabbah (Etz Yosef, ibid), it was Rabbi Akiva’s way to speak “words of jest” (מילי דבדיחותא) in order to keep his classroom focused.

The tradition of telling jokes in order to better deliver one’s message is not only of great antiquity but possesses a fine rabbinic pedigree as well. The Talmud is replete with instances of lexical levity, and most of them are funnier than Rabbi Akiva’s Esther joke. I would like to provide something of a catalogue (though it is far from exhaustive) of jokes within the Talmud, and to cap it off I would like to share with you a few of my favourite examples from the world of mediaeval rabbinic humour.

[...]

The catalogue of jokes is coming in the next installment. Lol.