Tuesday, April 17, 2018

There Once Was a Man From Canaan: The Five Books of Limerick Hardcover – 2015 by Rabbi Joe Black (Author, Creator)



This wonderful little book by Rabbi Joe Black has a limerick for every Torah portion. But it is not only for Jews. It is surprisingly concise and fun. LIMERICK Syllabification: lim•er•ick Pronunciation: /ˈlim(ə)rik - A humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear. (Oxford English Dictionary.) As a songwriter and musician, I've always found limericks to be a wonderful blend of storytelling, rhythm and rhyme. As a rabbi, the challenge of finding five perfect lines of poetry to encapsulate every portion in the yearly cycle of Torah readings became something of an obsession for me as I approached my 25th year on the pulpit. I started sharing them with friends and posting them on social media. Soon, other people began posting their limericks in response. After receiving several requests to publish them in book form, I finally gave in. My goal is writing this book is to teach, entertain, and inspire others to understand that Torah study can and should be multi-dimensional. Some of these limericks simply tell a story. Others refer to midrashic and Talmudic passages. Some portions have only one Limerick - others have two or three. All of them are written with love. I hope you enjoy them and will share them in classes, sermons, around the Shabbat and seder table and anywhere where words of Torah are expressed. From Canaan, there once was a man Who was part of a sanctified plan That was idealistic And Monotheistic And now I'm a part of his clan. Happy Limericking! Rabbi Joe Black

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