Humor in Tannaitic Literature - The 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies August 6-10, 2017

Thanks to their extensive literature, ancient rabbis, first a marginal minority, became the leading Jewish orthodoxy by late antiquity.
Rabbinic writings do not aim to make laugh, but several scholars already took interest in humor in the Talmud and the Midrash. Ancient rabbis recognized the importance of humor and even used it as a literary, rhetorical, philosophical and epistemological tool.
Previous research about talmudic humor have opened an important path for a new and strong reading in ancient rabbinic writings, through which we can find new and otherwise ignored meanings in the text.
As fascinating and professional as they are, none of these studies offers an overview of ancient rabbinic humor in its unity and diversity at one and the same time. Furthermore, none of the scholars took interest in tannaitic humor.
In this paper I will present some aspects of my PhD dissertation in which a thorough overview of narrative material in the Mishna and the Tosefta reveals the important (even though not central) role of humor.
Using up-to-date analysis tools from humor research field we find that:
A. tannaitic humor is expressed in three levels: 1. within the rabbinic discussion; 2. as a literary stylistic tool; 3. as a rhetorical/philosophical tool.
B. the Tannaim express various ideas that can be classified in three major categories: 1. Defining rabbinic standards - auto-critic through humor; 2. Defining rabbinic boundaries - criticizing yet inclusive mockery; 3. A sense of humor as means of expression, learning and communication.