Rabbi David Weiss HaLivni On Jewish Humor - Part II

(Click For Part I )

What surprised me most was how free these jokes were from constraints, religious or otherwise. The rule was: Anything goes. What generally would have been considered heretical or immodest was, in the joke,utterly forgiven or even encouraged. One of the "hit" jokes was the story of a Jew who was trying to convince his friend of the importance of monotheism, of One G-d who rules all. "What do I care?" said the other Jew. "Do I have to support them? Let there be many." Unintentionally, the joke cheapens the belief in monotheism, the cornerstone of Judaism, but it was nevertheless tolerated and enjoyed. I once tolerated a lecture on this kind of joke "Irreverent Jokes in a Reverent Society."