Limericks about Moses and the Exodus

These days, it seems, people aren’t so interested in reading the Bible. Either they oversimply associate it with religious fundamentalism and political extremism, or they categorically relegate it to the field of fiction. As if fiction were something of little or no value.

But tell me this: which of these tales has greater value? The true story of George Washington crossing the Delaware, or the fictional story of Prince Hamlet plotting against his devious uncle? In case it’s not obvious, I prefer the second.

Equally, if I had to choose between reading the Book of Exodus as historical non-fiction, or as an elaborate, allegorical myth, I would much prefer the myth.

When we read the legendary birth story, the escape from slavery and the crossing of the Red Sea as symbols and metaphors, they lend themselves to a thousand possible interpretations and psychological lessons. Otherwise you just have another chapter in Levantine history, with a colorful splash of divine intervention.

So in the spirit of Old Testament allegory, I hope to impart a bit of wit and wisdom with the following series of limericks.

The Hero’s Passage
An orphan abandoned, alone in a basket
Is later reborn, downstream in a casket
      With strength from the source
      A mysterious force
It can strengthen you too, if you know how to ask it

The Legacy of Shepherds
There’s a wandering tribe with a ban on baloney
In the deserts of Hebron their sheep could get lonely
      While others built towers
      They pondered for hours
Inventing a god who’s the One and the Only

Exodus
Out of bondage in Egypt from where they’d been kept
God’s chosen people evasively crept
      For years they would wander
      And pensively ponder
The laws on the tablets their leader had schlepped

I and I
A man on a mountain encounters a flame
Demands of the voice: won’t you tell me your name?
      I am that I am
      And I’m more than a man
Yet your Father and I are just one and the same

Plants on Fire
There’s a bush and it’s burning for those who can see
It’s over the mountain behind the next tree
      So search and you’ll find
      If you open your mind
And tune up your senses another degree

Further Reading

In the beginning was the worm

The night before Christmas, revisited

Beatified Limericks for All Saints’ Day