Comments on: Laughter in the Bible? Absolutely!

By: york r pilson

york r pilson — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 11:45:47 +0000

I have been amused by the story of the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5 and Luke 8), when the demons are allowed to invest the hogs and then the hogs drown themselves. As pigs were non-Kosher, the idea of Greeks actually raising them would be akin to having a cockroach farm. The whole scene is worthy of a writer like Mel Brooks. I can just picture the Jews hearing the story falling down at the absurdity of it all..

By: David Feder

David Feder — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 20:00:55 +0000

Dr. Branch, fellow UT Austin BibArch grad here. When I first lived in Israel and learned Hebrew, I became more religious precisely because reading Torah in the original revealed it as full of action, romance and, especially, humor. (By far, to me, the funniest section is when Yaakov finds himself “mercilessly” passed around a dozen times from wife to handmaiden and back again. What does he say the entire time? Not a single word!”) A lot of that humor evident in day-to-day life, with situations of what I call “The Divine Sense of Humor.” Some branches of Orthodox Judaism are dour and overly focused on minutiae of practice. I was member of one synagogue whose rabbi was just like that, but my “Rav” is a Chabad rabbi–Chabad being followers of the Ba’al Shem Tov and infused with the concept that if your Judaism isn’t filled with joy, you’re doing it wrong. I mentioned “The Divine Sense of Humor.” to Rabbi Dour one time and he freaked out. “G-d is not like us!” he admonished, “He doesn’t have a sense of humor!” I responded, “What, you’ve never read a newspaper?” But I was troubled — what if I’d been wrong all these years? So I called my Rav. Got his equally joyous and wise rebbetzen, and asked, “Does G-d have a sense of humor?” Her response? “Of course He does! Haven’t you ever read a newspaper?”

By: Ron Stiskin

Ron Stiskin — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 16:29:32 +0000

I remember it being pointed out to me as a child that Sarah laughed and said, “Am I to have pleasure now?” as you wrote. But then she added, “And besides, my husband is old!” Abraham asked God why Sarah laughed, and God said, “Oh, she thinks she’s too old.” The lesson I was taught from this is that it’s ok to lie to preserve family harmony.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 15:51:38 +0000

You didn’t mention the humor that occurs in the original language (Hebrew) in the Hebrew Bible. For example: Isaac means “he laughs”. One of the parshas (divisions of the Hebrew Bible that are read weekly) is called “lech lecha”. Lech being the command (m) form for Go! and lecha meaning “to yourself”. It’s the chapter where G-d tells Abram (Abraham) to leave his father’s house and go to Canaan. Of course that might have been due to space constraints you had for the article.

By: zeke

zeke — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 16:02:14 +0000

Having a jewish who pointed out in the movie, “King of Kings” where Mary asks Jesus to fix a broken chair and he says to her “I’ll do that tomorrow” the next day He is being beaten and nailed to the cross!

By: David E Schwartz

David E Schwartz — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 00:07:00 +0000

Robin Gallaher Branch, a truly excellent piece of writing, you did. Thank you.
It was just what I was looking for to answer my question: “Why do people believe that G_d has no sense of humor?”

By: Jahshn Owain Gwendolyn True blood King of wales

Jahshn Owain Gwendolyn True blood King of wales — Sun, 06 May 2018 12:00:49 +0000

Be of good cheer my bother.You will have your chance now to see if your house will stand. I have word that you testing cometh and will not tarry.And to be sure if you a in America then you are in Egypt, Look and see that Ephriam hath brought Egypt and his Gods with him. Pyramids adorn every city and Horus’s eye is incorparated in every county ,state and judicial building on the lay out and landscaping and to be sure the bulls are worshiped here in Austin,Tx we also have the Frost bank you can see its in the form of molech whom they make their Children to pass through the fire the catacombs are also set up under the city for tombs and when Our Lord passes Through they will bring to bones of kings and princes whom the have slain .The Frost tower is an owl whom they worship here along the river i seen in oct hooting like owls as calls to each other all along the water ways chanting witches” is he gonna die is he gonna die die.” To Christians who came upon their pagan idol worship.Also the glass inthe tower is a bluish glass thats only found in one other building the world its sister in New York 3 to the 3 power 33 or 3times square times square. Thr Chrysler building a idol also and the boiller next to it is Prometheus a idol and time dosent permite me to Go over the whole sceam but you can believe there are eight mabey more Buildings and stucture dedicated to Demons and the worship of them. Not to mention the goddess of liberty on a build suppose seperated by law church and state.But it okay with everybody in America that the Babylonian transvestit be given a temple that whar it is a big temple to a hermaphrodite a bearded he she with teets and Armenianes on Washington and the city set on point according to heights measurment grooves, bodys of water and refective ponds, graven images, to water gods tree nymphs the doller is a witch craft tile set up as a spell to bring us back in unity with Egypt “one” the chain on the pyramid,horus,magi and the the other bound the star of David,Ephraim and Manassas and eagle,armed forces a little owl in the hidden place as the hidden hand.This is that same cult of temple worshipers stephen peach to before they stoned him Said you stiffnecked fool ye aways did resist to Holy spirit who say we wouldnt have killed the prophets i f we had live in our fathers day
said you are witness that you are the children of them that killed the prophets that the blood from righteous Able and all the prophets till now upon your heads they killed Christ the murdered Christian being the military arm of the Catholic Church till Pope got spooked then they took Pope captive in 1798 during thr french revelation.The first beast reciving it deadly wound Rev 13 and then and now serve the 2 beast coming out of the sea two horns like a lamb but speaking like a dragon exercising all the authority of the first beast and propping up the first beast making an image to it setting the mark it is the Protestant Church Tha Angelican Crusades that left all the true Church and Her doctrine burnt one the countryside my peo people burned at the stakes in England and by those puritan frauds that have a zeal in out apperances and works of the flesh

By: Kirk

Kirk — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 01:12:36 +0000

My guiding/guardian angel came to me in a dream one night to explain my mind was troubled because I was taking myself too seriously. She said God doesn’t take your mistakes any more seriously than you took those your little 3 year old child made – in fact, if you’ll recall, you were charmed and amused at his sincere but mistaken ideas. You may be an adult but never believe you are too old to be more or less than a beloved child of God. So lighten up, look in the mirror… and laugh!
I tried It. It works.

By: Art

Art — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 23:11:39 +0000

To me the funniest part in the Bible is when Jesus goes on a long talk ending with “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Then Phillip says “But when do we get to see the Father?” I always picture all the other apostles looking quietly at Phillip while Jesus closes his eyes and drops his head.

I also picture Jesus quietly eating His meal after appearing to the apostles post-resurrection. Then He looks up to see everyone staring at Him with their jaws dropped. What the Bible doesn’t tell us that as Jesus sees everyone gaping at him He says “What?”

By: SethZ

SethZ — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 14:28:23 +0000

One of the funniest lines in the whole tanach is exodus 14:11.
The setup: Egypt, then as now, was well-known & famous for its tombs. The Old Kingdom pyramids were already centuries old by the time of the Exodus. The Egyptians are pursuing the Jews; any other people, having just seen all the miracles of the plagues, would beseech G-d & Moses for another. Not us; we say, “What?!? There weren’t enough tombs in Egypt? You had to take us out here to the desert to kill us?” The line could be in any Jewish comic’s current standup routine. Sarcastic. Nasty. Smartass. Hysterical. Obviously us.