“Milta De’Bedichuta”: Some Playful Parodies of the Talmud in the Modern Period
By Ezra Brand
6-Mar-23
Ezra Brand is an independent researcher based in Tel Aviv. He has an MA from Revel Graduate School at Yeshiva University in Medieval Jewish History, where he focused his research on 13th and 14th century sefirotic Kabbalah. He is interested in using digital and computational tools in historical research. He has contributed a number of times previously to the Seforim Blog (tag), and a selection of his research can be found at his Academia.edu profile. He can be reached at ezrabrand@gmail.com; any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
Intro
The origins of Jewish humor are debated, with some linking it to Eastern Europe and others to a more distant time and place. Recognition of Jewish humor as first-rate gained popularity at the end of the 19th century.[1]
I previously wrote on the Seforim Blog about humor in the Talmud.[2] In this piece, my focus will be on parodies of the Gemara written for Purim, known as “Purim Dafs”. Roni Cohen, at the beginning of his 2021 dissertation on Medieval Parodies for Purim, describes the earliest known parodies on the Talmud written for the holiday of Purim:
The first, Massekhet Purim (Purim tractate), is a parody of the Talmud written by the Provençal translator, philosopher, and writer Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, during the period he lived in Rome, between 1324 – 1328. The other two – Megilat Setarim (esoteric scroll), a parody on the Talmud and Sefer Habakbuk (the book of Habakbuk), a parody of the Hebrew Bible – were both written by the Provençal philosopher, astronomer, and bible commentator Rabbi Levi ben Gerson (Gersonides) in 1332.[3]
When written for Purim, the Talmud parodies are often known as “Purim Dafs”. This is something I tried my hand at when I was in yeshiva.[4]
In this piece I’d like to give a number of examples of modern parodies of the Talmud, collected from various locations on the web, listed in chronological order of date first published.[5]
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מסכת פורים: מן תלמוד שכורים (1814) 6
A satirical discussion of the laws of drinking on Purim.
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מסכת עניות מן תלמוד רש עלמא (1878)7
A satirical halachic discussion of laws of poverty.
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מסכת עמיריקא: מן תלמוד ינקאי (1892) 8
A satirical halachic discussion of living in America.
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מסכת שטרות (1894) 9
A satirical halachic discussion of who can sign contracts.
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מסכת דרך ארץ החדשה: מתלמודא דארעא חדתא (1898)10[10]
A satirical halachic discussion of living in America.
מסכת סוחרים (1900)[11]
A satirical halachic discussion of the laws of merchants.
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מסכת אדמונים מן תלמוד בולשבי (1923)[12]
A satirical discussion of the trivial differences between the socialist Bolsheviks (“red”) and the monarchic Mensheviks (“white”) in the Russian Civil War, which started in 1917.
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מסכת פרוהבישן מן תלמוד בטלי (1929)[13]
A satirical halachic discussion of the laws of drinking alcohol during the period of Prohibition in the United States, which started in 1920.
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מסכת פורים תו שין טית וו (1955)[14]
A satirical halachic and aggadic discussion of Israeli elections.
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מסכת המן (1975)[15]
A satirical halachic discussion regarding Haman.
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מסכת אב”כ שומע קול צופר (1991)[16]
A satirical halachic discussion of wearing of gas masks during the Iraqi rocket attacks on Israel during First Gulf War in 1991.
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הדאנאלד (2016)[17]
A satirical discussion of the Trump wall.
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מסכת קורונא פרק ב’ (2021)[18]
This parody is a satirical halachic and aggadic discussion surrounding coronavirus, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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[1] See Avner Ziv, “Psycho-Social Aspects of Jewish Humor in Israel and in the Diaspora”, in Jewish Humor (ed. A. Ziv), p. 48:
“Many of those engaged in research related to Jewish humor point to Eastern Europe as the place where it first developed and flourished. Other researchers claim that its origins are much further removed, both in time and in place […] Others […] are of the opinion that Jewish sources are not replete with humor [….] [W]ith the exception of the customs connected with the Purim holiday, the Jewish religion regards humor with suspicion […] [V]ery little attention was paid to Jewish humor until the end of the 19th century, so little in fact that the chief rabbi of London, Herman Adler, wrote an article (1893) in which he spoke out against the charge that Jews have no sense of humor […] From the end of the last century, Jewish humor became widely recognized as superlative humor […]”.
[2] Available also on my Academia.edu profile, a small bibliographic update in Sep-2021: https://www.academia.edu/51817737/Talmudic_Humor_and_Its_Discontents
[3] Cohen, “‘Carnival and Canon: Medieval Parodies for Purim’. PhD Dissertation, Tel-Aviv University, 2021 (Abstract)”. See also Cohen’s many other publications on his Academia.edu profile on other historical aspects of parodic Purim literature.
See also the National Library of Israel catalog comment on an entry of a scan of a book containing Megilat Setarim and Massekhet Purim:
” “מסכת פורים” (ובה ארבעה פרקים), שתיהן חיקוי למסכת מן התלמוד. ו”ספר חבקבוק”, שהוא חיקוי לנביא חבקוק. דוידזון Israel Davidson, Parody in Jewish literature, New York 1907 p. 115-118. מייחס “מגילת סתרים” ו”ספר חבקבוק” לר’ לוי בן גרשון (רלב”ג). עיין גם: א”מ הברמן, “מסכת פורים מהדורותיה ודפוסיה”, ארשת, ה, תשל”ב, עמודים 136-138. “מסכת פורים” היא מאת ר’ קלונימוס בן קלונימוס.”
[4] Replete with inside jokes: “Purim Daf (דף פורים), Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah 2011”.
[5] Dates are taken from the National Library of Israel online catalog. Some of the dates are noted there as uncertain. The availability and links to book scans online are often noted in that catalog.
Out of scope are the afore-mentioned Masekhet Purim . See also the מילי דבדיחותא לימי חנוכה, published in 1577, scan available at National Library of Israel website here, discussed by Davidson, Parody in Jewish literature, pp. 39-40.
Compare also the list here: פרודיות לפורים – ויקיפדיה
[6] Scan available at the National Library of Israel website here. According to the NLI webpage, although the date of publication stated on the title page is 1914, it was in fact published in 1814.
[7] Scan available at National Library of Israel website here. Also at Google Books here.
[8] Scan of 1894 Vilna edition available at the National Library of Israel website here. Scan of 1892 edition there as well, here. Mentioned in Davidson, Parody, pp. 100, 103.
[9] Scan available at the National Library of Israel website here.
[10] This parody is a satirical halachic discussion of living in America. Scan available at the National Library of Israel website here.
[11] High quality scan at Internet Archive here. Lower quality scan at HebrewBooks here.
[12] Scan available at HebrewBooks here, and Otzar HaHochma here.
[13] High quality scan at Otzar HaHochma here. Lower quality scan at HebrewBooks here. In Halacha Brura index of works of humor, the title is mistakenly given with one letter different: “בבלי”, which the title is of course a play on. (For a meta-index of Halacha Brura’s incredible index of scanned Jewish book, see my work here. I also discuss this index in my “Guide to Online Resources for Scholarly Jewish Study and Research – 2022”, p. 21 and throughout.)
[14] Scan available at Otzar HaHochma here. The title is the Hebrew date spelled out – תשט”ו.
[15] Scan available at Otzar HaHochma here.
[16] Scan available at National Library of Israel website here.
[17] Scan here. Linked to and discussed here:
ישראל כהן, “דף גמרא היתולי לפורים: “שיערו המתפרץ של הדאנאלד“, כיכר השבת, 16 מרץ 2016.
[18] Scan available at the Facebook page of “ דפי גמרא הומוריסטיים “ here.