Does Hashem Have a Sense of Humor? – Lech Lecha
There is a joke that Hashem created us humans, because the angels were BORING. Whatever you tell them – they do. No surprises. Humans on the other hand are an endless source of entertainment - you never know what they are going to do next.
Seriously though, it is a legitimate question. Does Hashem have a sense of humor or not? We know from the many sources in the Tanach of HKB”H’s various attributes – Merciful, War-like, etc. Is the human ability to have a sense of humor, something we should learn from the attributes of HKB”H, like being Chanun veRachum, Ish Milchama (Shirat Hayam), etc. or is humor something exclusive to the human species that has nothing to do with Hashem or His attributes, like the ability to breathe or eat?
So obviously the answer is that Hashem does not have a sense of humor, or any other sense for that matter. HKB”H created “sense” as He created everything. All references to HKB”H being “angry” or any other emotional feeling, are purely allegorical, to allow us to better understand the essence of HKB”H with our limited, finite human intellect. HKB”H is infinite, without physical form or even physical emotions and beyond our human understanding.
What does having a sense of humor mean? It is the human ability to find something funny, something we see, hear, feel, that causes us to smile and laugh.
The first reference we have to laughing in the Torah is in this week’s parsha (Breishit 16:17) when Hashem tells Avraham that Sarah is going to have a son at age 90. Avraham “falls on his face” and laughs. Hashem responds, “But your wife Sarah will have a son and you will call him Yitzchak.”
In the next parsha, Va’yeira, the three angels come to visit Avraham after his brit milah and tell him again that Sarah is going to have a son. Sarah, who is in the tent, hears this and “laughs inside herself” saying “the way of women is no longer upon me and my lord (Avraham) is old” (Breishit 18:12-15)
Hashem reprimands Sarah for laughing. What, Sarah does not believe? Hayipalei meHashem davar?” Sarah denies it saying, “I was not laughing, I was afraid”. Hashem says “No – you laughed!”
Why does Hashem reprimand Sarah for laughing and not Avraham who also laughed before (Breishit 16:17)?
True to Hashem’s word, Sarah gives birth to a son and Avraham calls him Yitzchak, (literally meaning - he will laugh!).
We are not yet done with the laughs. Sarah says (Breishit 21:6) “Hashem has made “fun” of me, anyone who hears (that I gave birth at 90) will laugh at me.”
A few psukim later we are told of Yishmael, son of Hagar, who Sarah caught “laughing” (Breishit 21:9) and she tells Avraham to banish Hagar and Yishmael as a result. It’s OK for Avraham and Sarah to laugh, but it’s not OK for Yishmael to laugh?
Following this in the entire Torah, we have only two more references to laughing –
Potiphar’s wife runs out crying “he brought this Hebrew man to laugh at us.”
When Bnei Yisrael made the egel hazahav, they awoke the following morning “to laugh”.
In other words, the majority of references to “laughter” surround the story of Yitzchak, (whose name itself means “he will laugh”).
Let’s examine Yitzchak a little. Out of the three Avot, he is the only one who did not have his named changed by Hashem.
Avraham starts off as Avram until Hashem changes it, because of something that Avraham did – he gave birth to many nations, thus the name Av Hamon Goyim.
Yaakov’s name is changed to Yisrael also after something he did - he battles Eisav’s angel and prevails, Yisrael meaning “Ki sarita im elohim ve’im anashim vatuchal”, you battled with angels and men and prevailed.
Yitzchak’s name is preordained by Hashem and not changed during his lifetime.
Also out of the three Avot, Yitzchak seems the least likely to be associated with laughter. All three of the Avot suffered trauma in their lives. Avraham was thrown into the furnace by Nimrod and saved by a miracle. Yaakov was swindled repeatedly by Lavan and he lived in constant fear of his vengeful brother Eisav who never stopped trying to kill him. Yitzchak also suffered trauma, perhaps greater than that of his father or his son – he was tied on the altar in the Akeida. Avraham’s and Yaakov’s trauma were caused by their enemies, it was expected that they would cause them trauma, they were their enemies after all. Yitzchak’s trauma was caused by his own father!
True we read in the Akeida “Vayeilchu shneihem yachdav”, they were of the same mind in their service of Hashem and Yitzchak willingly complied. But still, to have your own father, who you know loves you dearly and who you love dearly in return, tie you down on the altar and raise a knife to kill you - that has to be the most traumatic emotional experience any son has to endure, however spiritually noble it may have been.
Davka it is Yitzchak, who was most traumatized out of the three Avot that is associated with “laughing”?
OK, so we have presented a number of questions and apparent contradictions, so let’s try answer them one by one.
What is humor? What is a joke? What is it that makes us laugh?
As any comedian will tell you, there are different types of humor. There is slapstick humor, where people do silly things that provoke laughter, like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy where they fall over, bump their heads, etc. Another kind of humor is to make fun of someone else or something. Think of Irish jokes, Polish jokes, “a rabbi, a priest and an imam” - type jokes. Most of standup comedy is this latter type of humor.
The latter kind of humor, the “making fun” kind is problematic according to the Torah. Sometimes it borders on and sometimes it is outright “malbim pnei chaveiro” which is an issur equivalent to murder! Perhaps the only time such humor could be acceptable is if the person is making fun of himself and not others, but even then it is not completely clear if that is OK or not.
The former kind of humor that simply makes one laugh, without denigrating anyone or anything is OK and more than that, it is encouraged.
When Avraham laughed after hearing about having Yitzchak, it was the second kind of laugh, a laugh of pure joy, a smile that lit up Avraham’s face. “Vayipol al panav vayitzchak”.
When Sarah laughed, it was a “laugh inside herself” Vatizchak Sarah bekirba! That is not a laugh of pure joy, that is a mocking, “making fun”, disbelieving kind of laugh and for that Hashem reprimanded her. Later Sarah admits her mistake when she says “Hashem has made “fun” of me, anyone who hears will laugh at me”. Midah kenegged midah - I was mocking, so now people will make fun of me.
Yishmael’s laughter was also a mocking, denigrating laughter, ridiculing Yitzchak for respecting the ways of his father Avraham. That prompted Sarah, who had learned the severity of such kind of laughter, to demand that Avraham banish Hagar and Yishmael, because such laughter is not innocuous, it is destructive.
Potiphar’s wife accused Yosef of, not laughing at her, but mocking her.
When Bnei Yisrael arose early to worship the egel hazahav, their laughter was not laughter of joy or an innocuous laughter, it was a destructive, mocking laughter.
Humor, laughter and smiling are one of the most important defense mechanisms that the human species possesses. This enables us to see things in perspective and not to allow reality to overwhelm us. They are a complex endocrinological mechanism of hormones and neurotransmitters that activate the reward centers in the brain and reduce stress.
If Yitzchak had not been named Yitzchak, if he had not been ordained from birth by Hashem with the gift of laughter, his childhood trauma may very well have overwhelmed him and overshadowed his life. As it is, we see Yitzchak being very “passive” in the Torah, everything is always being done for him or to him. Armed with the power of laughter however he was able to overcome all this and function successfully in this physical world. We see an example of this when Avimelech kidnaps Rivka and later observes Yitzchak “making her laugh” (Breishit 26:8). Despite all the trauma he suffered in his life, the Akeida, having a son like Eisav, etc. Yitzchak still managed to cope - using laughter. That was Hashem’s blessing to him in giving him that name, from birth.
Humor may not be Divine, Hashem may not have a sense of humor (or maybe He does, who knows), but one thing is for sure, he gave us humans the special gift of humor, the gift of laughter – to protect us and allow us to cope in this tough physical world.
We need to make sure we use it correctly and not destructively, that our laughter should uplift the spirit and not trample on it chas veshalom.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Showbread Institute
www.showbreadinstitute.com
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