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I love when I’m learning Gemara, Tanach, etc., and I find a good joke or sarcasm.
Does anyone have any favorites?
One of my favorites is when Eliyahu is addressing the נביאי הבעל on Har Carmel, and he starts mocking them with heavy sarcasm: “Scream louder, for he is a god! Maybe he is having a conversation, maybe he is busy, or using the bathroom, or maybe he is sleeping and he will wake up!”
I forget which Rabbi (Nodeh BeYehudah?) told a man who was having trouble with another man to lend him money and he’ll never see him again.
פסחים ט: אמר רבא וכי חולדה נביאה היא
Sitting down and Learning Torah is a very serious time and not a time for making jokes rather they are back from thousands of years ago or new current worthless Biden jokes. Learning Torah deserves its respect.
Save your jokes for when your talking with your friends and have fun enjoying then when its in the proper time. I.e.. Not on tisha Bav when its a sad day of mourning and destruction. Save your jokes then for the next day.
The Brothers said of Yosef, “Let us kill him…and then we will see what becomes of his dreams” (according to the Ramban – not Rashi).
RHZS
So now we see how we don’t make jokes on Torah like Yungermans said and the joke ended up being on the brothers of Yosef when he became a leader in Egypt.
על שלשה דברים העןלם עומד explains the Yalkut Hagershuni when it comes to three things people get up and leave, not having patience, a shiur, a long davenen and an appeal.
ברוך שבחר בהם ובמשהצם people are willing to listen to Torah and not marry into them as they are concerned with their parnasa,
Rabbi Yehuda’s view is מין בשאינו מינו בטל בששים אבל מין במינו אפילו באלף לא בטל if someone does things from desire, when one is sixty, will give it up but when doing it from minus, lack of belief even when one is a thousand, will not give it up.
The Chasam Sofer says Nedarim 81,1 on why the charban came שלא ברכו בתורה תחלה, when praising, they did not praise one first with one’s Torah knowledge but with one’s secular knowledge
שלך אי אתה רואה your own faults you do not see אבל אתה רואה של אחרים but see the sins of others ושל גבוה and specially the sins of the holy.
אין אדם רואה את נגעי עצמו a person does not see one’s own faults
כל הפוסל במומו פוסל one who faults, faults with one’s own faultsI heard from Rebbi in Wiener, Rav Holtzer, ztz’l שאל אביך ויגדך זקינך ויאמרו לך, when you ask your father and he does not know something, he will tell you, go to the zaida, the grandfather, who will tell you.
Hashem said to Moshe Rabbenu, מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו what are you are a chazan then the Jews come to me in shul but when you want to give the Jews mussar, they will leave.Shlomo Hamelech says יהללך זר ולא פיך others should praise you but not yourself. Some translate it as, others should praise you, ולא and if not, פיך, yourself.
I hear from the badchan, Rav Yaakov Miller, Shlita on פיה פתחה בחכמה ותורת חסד על לשונה, she starts her words with cleverness as the Torah of favor is on her lips. The man has a mitzva to learn, so has a yetzer hara, against it and he needs when learning with other men, to start with humor. However, women don’t have a mitzva, so she when learning with other women, does not need to start with humor.
There was a story where a rebbe gave Shalom Aleichem to someone who just finished shmonei esrei as he just arrived back from his trip.
We say at a siyum לא יחצו ימיהם ואני אבטח בך, they will not divide their days but I trust You. The Ben Ish Chai explains the Yitzchak Avinu argued that half of the time we are not sinning as we are sleeping. One who takes ribus, has a lack of trust in Hashem and sins also at night as his money makes money , so he cannot divide his life time days. However, I trust You and don’t take ribus, can divide my days.
Rebbe (Rebbi Yehuda Hanosi) had Bar Kappara a badchan around who kept him happy.
A rebbe said that בלק has the letters of ואהבת לרעך כמוך, so he was told that they don’t match. He said that when it comes to loving each other, we don’t have to be so exact. Even though the other person is not as close to you as you are to them, we should still love them.
“Was it for lack of graves in Egypt that you brought us here, Moshe?” This was klal yisroel’s (black) joke to Moshe at the Yam Suf. From here we learn that Jews always joke, even in the face of death. – Rav Hirsch z”l
In our Yom Kippur daavening we say that Hashem agrees to accept our sins like korbanos if we do teshuva, then we tell Hashem “Our korbanos of this type are endlesss….”When we are on the madrager of the holy Ropitzer then we can get buzy with this subject matter, in this case I agree with Yungermans, hardly approriate for the 3 weeks
Getting off the humor by mentioning the Chasan Sofer who interprets what we say in the Hagadah of Pesach, be able to eat there from the Korban Pesach and other sacrifices where the blood arrives on the walls of your mizbeach ‘laratzon’, with acceptance. He said that we have given many sacrifices but they were not laratzon. Hashem is not so happy with it.
lebidik yankel – Rav Hirsch’s lashon: “This sharp irony even in moments of deepest anxiety and despair is characteristic of the witty vein which is inherent in the Jewish race from their earliest beginnings.”
This is a serious question. Amoraim seem to be ok with jokes, but Tanach is not so much. Despite some examples of irony here and there, most of it comes from people, not from Hashem. Maybe given the pathos of communications between Hashem and people, humour is just not appropriate for that moment? Imagine, a navi who is preparing for the occasion and learning a bunch of Heavenly jokes instead?! Maybe Yona’s kikayon counts as a practical joke, we are just not used to read it like that.
The Chasam Sofer interprets כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה, one who mourns the destruction of Jerusalem will see its rejoicing. A dead person l’a is forgotten from one’s heart. When we mourn, we show that we have not forgotten it and we will not be forgotten either and we will be able to see the redemption to rejoice by it. It says, אין לך יום שאין קללתו מרובה מחבירו, you have no days where its curse is not worse than the previous day. Every day that we have to wait for Meshiach is harder to live through. Maybe, we can look at this in a bright light. Meshiach will come when we are on lowest level such that we have no one else to rely on only on our Father in Heaven. So the worse it gets, the better it gets. So maybe some humor is appropriate.
Tisha B’av itself we don’t say tachnun as it is called a moad which reminds us of the redemption. Maybe it reflects the words of Rabbi Akiva at the end of Meseches Makus where he was happy when he saw a fox at the sight of the ruins of the Beis Hamukdash interpreting it that if this prophesy became true the other prophesy of the redemption will also become true and as I pointed out above that our mourning will bring the redemption.
We decrease simcha in Av, not abandon it completely.. this is remarkable.. as to humour, the appropriate use of it is calling attention to a serious idea through an usual view. In our days, when there’s so much of bad information is floating around, it is especially helpful
Maybe, it says עבדו את ה’ בשמחה, serve Hashem with joy. It does not say how much.
The Chazon Ish said that even on Tish’ah B’Av there is no atzvus chas veshalom.
He proved it by the fact that the Navi Yirmiyahu wrote Megillas Eichah with nevuah.
Yet Chazal say that there is no nevuah to one who is b’atzvus.@Menachem, I withdraw my previous statement, some enjoy demostrating for climate change and bike and take cold showers, other go to political rallies, other use the torah as a joke book.
Whatever floats your boat.Vayeshev, Chap 40, Pasuk 19:
{יט} בְּע֣וֹד ׀ שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֗ים יִשָּׂ֨א פַרְעֹ֤ה אֶת־רֹֽאשְׁךָ֙ מֵֽעָלֶ֔יךָ וְתָלָ֥ה אוֹתְךָ֖ עַל־עֵ֑ץ וְאָכַ֥ל הָע֛וֹף אֶת־בְּשָׂרְךָ֖ מֵעָלֶֽיךָ׃
בְּע֣וֹד ׀ שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֗ים יִשָּׂ֨א פַרְעֹ֤ה אֶת־רֹֽאשְׁךָ֙ מֵֽעָלֶ֔יךָ וְתָלָ֥ה אוֹתְךָ֖ עַל־עֵ֑ץ וְאָכ
Ygreat pun: עַל-כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמָהּ, בָּבֶל, כִּי-שָׁם בָּלַל …, שְׂפַת כָּל-הָאָרֶץ
שפת לא ידעתי אשמע interprets the Bnei Yisoschor, Paraoh when he dreamt says that he stands על היאור, on the river but when he tells over the dream to test Yosef on the dream, he changes and says he stands על שפת היאור, on the edge of river, so Yosef says to Paraoh, I don’t know what this שפת is?
The value of humor in Torah is that proves the veracity of the narrative and that Yetzias Mitzraim and other events in TANACH happened to real people, not just characters in a story.
I’ve always found humor in Tehillim 115:8, mocking idols and the people who trust in them – especially the part about “Those who make them and trust in them should become like them.” (ie: the idols have mouths and can’t speak, ears and can’t hear” and so on. It’s so ironic. There’s also Yirmiyahu 2:27, also mocking idol-worshipers. “They say to wood, ‘you are my father.'” I once heard a drasha by a Rabbi who said that when someone makes an idol and says it’s his father, the idol should say to the person, “no, you made me, you’re my father!” And it says in Shulchan Aruch that it’s OK to mock idols, as Eliyahu haNavi did. Please correct me if I’m wrong with any of this.
לא יאמר עוד אלהינו למעשה ידינו, we should not worship the fruits of our labor.
Oy vei! Riboinoi shel oilam! What has the world come to!! Humour in toireh? When a yid is hurveh is learning, sweating over a rashba a toisfis a rabeinu dovid, humour should not be mentioned in the same sentence!
Rachmana litzlan!!Name, במחילת כבוד תורתו all the gedolim who found humor in the Torah were all wrong but only you are right and name is necessary. I have rachmonus on you for missing a nice part of the Torah interpreting things in a double entendre provided it is not kefira.
Rashi says גם נח מקטני אמונה היה, מאמין ואינו מאמין שיבא המבול Noach was also from the low believers as he believed and not believed that the flood will come. What about interpreting it for praise. It matters where the comma is placed. גם נח מקטני אמונה היה מאמין, ואינו מאמין שיבא המבול. In this case Noach had trust in the low believers that they will do teshuva and therefore did not believe that the flood will come. This idea we find on ויגברו המים that the rain came originally lightly and then it increased.The Torah is not forced on us as we accepted it again with willingness at the time of Achashverus. We make a bracha in Birchas Hatorah to feel the sweetness of Torah. So if we find some humor as we understand that Rashba nothing is wrong in it. The Torah is like honey which provides sweetness. I gave examples above of statements of the gemora that can be also interpreted as words of mussar.
One of the great words of mussar is what it says in the Torah as interpreted by the Kli Yakar for being superfluous, בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ מתחת, when it comes to heavenly, spiritual things, we should look to learn from people above us being in a greater madrega, level than we are, whereas by material, physical things let’s look at people below us who have less than we do.The brothers told the people of Shechem to circumcise themselves. Why? I heard from Rebbi Yonasan Eubshutz, once they are gemalelt no one cares.
Why didn’t Dinah bow down infront of Yosef? The mother in law does not bow down infront of her son in law.The Torah is compared to milk. If a baby does not want to nurse, it is sick and we must do everything possible to drink it. However once one tastes it, will enjoy it and drink it without being forced.
Torah is feminine to teach us learning in a light and pleasant way whereas chinuch is masculine being somewhat harsh. The Darashes HaRan explains that Moshe Rabbenu was first commanded to hit the rock but the second time only required to talk to it. Chinuch is the derech halimud taken with honey and medicine, and can also be humorous, comes the learning of Torah. Learning of Torah needs no medicine.
They say that David Hamelech, who knew he will pass on shabbos, made a melava demalka to thank Hashem that he is still alive.
Balabus, as we mentioned to serve Hashem with joy, so humor is part of learning Torah.
It says מרבה נכסים מרבה דאגה, increased wealth creates increased worry, how to invest it and not to lose it. They don’t see that money is the root of all evil.
Kesuvos 17b – Abaye expresses his astonishment at Rav Pappa’s lack of knowledge of a minhag that he would have known from his mother by calling him a yosom.
(The joke being that Abaye was the yosom yet knew the minhag)אביי stands for the beginning letters of אשר בך ירוחם יתום, where an orphan finds mercy in You.
How do we know Hashem is a baseball fan? The Torah starts “In the big inning.
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