Cracking Up a Joke: A Torah Perspective on Laughter

Two men are waiting for a train. The younger man asks the older man for the time, but the older man ignores him. After a while, the younger man again asks for the time and again the older man ignores him. Frustrated, the younger man finally asks, “Why won’t you answer me when I ask you for the time?” 

The older man sighs and explains: “Look, if I tell you the time, we’ll start to talk. Then when the train comes, you might sit down next to me. Perhaps we’ll get to know each other, and maybe I’ll eventually invite you to my house for Shabbat dinner. Maybe then you and my daughter would really get along – why, you might even get engaged! And why would I want a son-in-law who can’t even afford a watch?”¹

Humor is part and parcel of Jewish life; both to cope with our 3000 year old (plus!) history of ups and downs and to highlight the weird and wonderful idiosyncrasies of our nation. We may pause to consider, though, to what extent are jokes and laughter appropriate? Is it a practice of the wise or of the uninformed? Does the Torah appreciate or frown upon humor? 

It may surprise us to learn that the Gemara² records that Rabba would crack a joke before delivering a Torah shiur. Rabba knew that the lightness of the joke would open up his listeners’ hearts to the truth of Torah. Laughter can relax a person and bring defenses down, allowing us to be more receptive and open to the messages of the Torah. As King Shlomo wrote in Mishlei (17:22) “a happy heart enhances one’s brilliance and a broken spirit dries the bones.” If we learn Torah when we are feeling weak, overwhelmed or downtrodden, we are in fact not able to absorb much Torah at all. But if we allow a light spirit of laughter to enter our minds, the joy will lift us to the optimal headspace to learn. This secret which we may have attributed to the modern kiruv movement is in fact a secret passed down through our Oral tradition and now inscribed eternally in the Gemara.

Humor is part and parcel of Jewish life; both to cope with our 3000 year old (plus!) history of ups and downs and to highlight the weird and wonderful idiosyncrasies of our nation. We may pause to consider, though, to what extent are jokes and laughter appropriate? Is it a practice of the wise or of the uninformed? Does the Torah appreciate or frown upon humor? 

Another positive tool of humor is the ability to uplift those around us. A short quip or one-liner can transform someone’s day, in a chesed that could take less than a minute. The Gemara³ lists those who receive good in this world, not at the expense of receiving good in the next world. The Gemara brings the example of two jesters who travelled around town, cheering people up with their humor. So valuable was this avoda before Hashem that they receive blessing both in this world and the next. Making the right people laugh at the right time is incredibly powerful and should not be underestimated. Brightening someone’s day can literally be life-changing and is a wise practice we can easily adopt.

Another positive usage of laughter can be attributed to the original carrier of the name: Yitzchak. The root of Yitzchak’s name is sechok, which means laughter. This may seem like an unusual choice for the Yitzchak we know from the Torah: a man of gevura, strength, someone who was willing to be sacrificed for the sake of Hashem and someone who is known for staying in Israel his entire life, marrying one wife and redigging the wells his father had dug. In other words, Yitzchak is not presented to us as a “light” character and with his absolute commitment to Hashem, the land of Israel and his wife – he does not sound like someone who engaged in much laughter at all. Yet, it is Yitzchak who is named laughter because he harnessed the power of laughter in his avodat Hashem. He laughed at his yetzer hara. In contrast to Yishmael who engaged in “sechok” in empty and sinful activities,Yitzchak used laughter in the holiest way: to extinguish any desire for sin. “Don’t be ridiculous, yetzer hara, I would never do that…”

Yet, we must engage in laughter with caution. The Shulchan Aruch⁴ instructs that a person may not fill his mouth with laughter in this world. It is only when we merit geula and inhabit a spiritually perfect world that we say “az yimalei sechok pinu” “then our mouths will be filled with laughter.”⁵ On a deeper level, Rav Noach Weinberg zt’l explained that we laugh when something unexpected happens, like someone slipping on a banana peel or a president making a blunder. When we see our perception completely turn on its head. On a calendar level, this occurs each year on Purim.⁶ On a world level, this will occur at the time of Mashiach. All the pain will be revealed to be true good and we will see Hashem’s love in every footprint of our lives. Right now, we cannot fully laugh because we do not have the full picture. Once we do, then we will truly fill our mouths with laughter. 

The righteous Sara Imeinu is criticised for her laughter over the news that she will be blessed with a child at the age of 90. Yet, Avraham also laughed over the news, but he was not criticised. The Torah distinguishes between laughter of disbelief and laughter of wonderment. They are closely related, yet they remain distinct. Rav Noach Weinberg zt’l lays out several guidelines for Jewish laughter and cautions that we should never cross these lines. Laughter should never be used to ridicule people, nor should it be used to ridicule any holy value or ideal. Rav Noach highlights that sarcasm and cynicism often fall into this dangerous category. Interestingly, Rav Noach also warns against laughter for its own sake. Gathering together to laugh over complete emptiness would be an insult to the lofty people we truly are. And the lofty things we can achieve when we channel the power of laughter correctly.

A talmid once said to the mussar⁷ giant Rav Wolbe, “Rebbe, your shiur really impacted me for life, thank you.” Rav Wolbe responded “I could kill it with three words: Ha. Ha. Ha.” 

The Mesilat Yesharim writes that 100 words of mussar can be ruined by one word of mockery⁸. This is characteristic of our nemesis nation: Amalek. They scorned us. They cooled us down. They derided us. Amalek is the deadliest example of laughter gone wrong. The ugliness of laughter is that it strips away a person’s greatness, our nation’s greatness. And in contrast, the beauty of laughter is in Purim. We recall Hashem’s miracles, we give charity and send food packages to friends, we drink to the point that we are fully disconnected from the sheker of this world. They laugh at our infinity, we laugh at their finiteness.

May we merit to harness the power of laughter to its fullest and fulfill the words of the pasuk, “az yimalei sechok pinu…”

1. As seen on Aish.com, Dr Yvette Alt Miller ↩︎
2. Pesachim 117a ↩︎
3. Taanit 22a ↩︎
4. Orach Chaim 560:5 ↩︎
5. Tehillim 126:2 ↩︎
6. As the Megilla says, ‘venahapoch hu, asher yishletu hayehudim, heima besoneihem…’ ‘The situation was reversed, the Jews prevailed over their enemies.’ ↩︎
7. Loosely translated as ‘self-improvement’ ↩︎
8. Heard in shiur by Rav Moshe Tzvi Weinberg ↩︎