God Laughed

Humor has had a profound effect on the way the Jewish people see the world, and has sustained them through millennia of hardships and suffering. God Laughed reviews, organizes, and categorizes the humor of the ancient Jewish texts-the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and Midrash-in a clear, readable, and accessible manner. These works have influenced the Jewish people in many ways, and all are replete with humor and wit. Inevitably, this oeuvre of Jewish humor has itself influenced generations of comics, as well as genres of humor. The authors use examples of Biblical humor from several broad categories, including irony, sarcasm, wordplay, humorous names, humorous imagery, and humorous situations. Because their primary purpose is not to entertain, but to teach humanity how to live the ideal life, much of the humor in the Talmud and the Midrash has a single purpose: to demonstrate that evil is wrong and even, at times, ludicrous. This may help explain why approximately 1,500 years after its closing, the Talmud is still such a fascinating work.

Hershey H. Friedman

Preface Acknowledgements Part I: Introduction 1 Studying Jewish Humor 2 A Word on the Sources: Biblical, Talmudic, and Midrashic Literature Part II: Heavenly Humor 3 Does God Have a Sense of Humor? 4 Biblical Humor: From Irony, Sarcasm, Wordplay to Humorous Imagery 5 No Match for God: Satan as Trickster Part III: Humor in the Talmud and Midrash 6 Humor in the Talmud and Midrash: An Overview 7 Recurring Characters and Themes 8 Satire, Irony, and Self-Deprecating Humor 9 Sarcasm 10 Exaggerated Imagery and Other Hyperbole 11 Wordplay: Puns, Acrostics, and Riddles 12 Humorous Sayings and Remarks 13 Allegories, Parables, and Fables 14 Talmudic Tales 15 Humorous Cases and Other Absurdities Part IV Conclusion 16 Is There a Jewish Sense of Humor? Appendixes Appendix A: Important Dates In Jewish History Appendix B: The Time Periods of the Talmudic Sages Appendix C: The Sages and Their Generations Appendix D: Classic Commentators Appendix E: Mostly Punch Lines, an Index of Jokes Notes Bibliography Index