There Once Was a Man From Canaan: The Five Books of Limerick Rabbi Joe Black
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Eddie Goldfine , illustrator
This book by Rabbi Joe Black has a limerick for every Torah portion. As a songwriter and musician, Rabbi Black has 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 him as he approached his 25th year on the pulpit. He 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, he finally gave in.
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.
