“Play is an ancient, voluntary, inherently pleasurable, apparently purposeless activity or process that is undertaken for its own sake and that strengthens our muscles and our social skills, fertilizes brain activity, tempers and deepens our emotions, takes us out of time, and enables a state of balance and poise.” - Dr. Stuart Brown
“Play is called recreation because it makes us new again, it creates us and our world. -Dr. Stuart Brown
"The opposite of play is not work. It's depression*." - Dr. Stuart Brown
(*he does not mean this in a clinical sense)
The Holiness of Play
Hasidic Somersaults - Reb Feibush of Uchnow
He had a tradition that on Friday nights, he would do a somersault in the synagogue before kabbalat Shabbat when he was dressed in his coat and hat. In the morning, after the prayers, he would do it one more time...When Feibush arrived at the prayer “yotzer or” he went before the podium and did a somersault in the study hall. The Hasidim thought the rebbe of Lublin would rebuke him…However, the rebbe of Lublin said that God called to the angels and indicated to them that they should be ashamed of the way they pray. That Feibush, who is flesh and blood, prays better than them.
Notes from Rabbi Yochanan Twersky (the Tolner Rebbe)
“It was his custom to do cartwheels/flips at certain moments. He had a fixed time to do it every night, before all holy ritual acts like Kiddush, before lighting Chanukah candles and such, before reading a particularly difficult kvitel [letters of request for assistance from congregants], in order to gladden the bride and groom at a wedding. He would do this as a form of self-erasure (bitul ha-yesh) Sometimes he would explain himself in words of rebirth and renewal, a nullification of the past and open reception for the future.
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What do you make of these Hasidic somersaults?
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Why do you think he and his students are doing them?
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What message are they trying to send - to others and to themselves?
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There were many different forms of physical play the Hasidim engaged in. Somersaults were one of them, but why do you think they chose somersaults in particular? What spiritual lessons might they find in these somersaults?
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How do you bring playfulness to those things in your life, which, on the face of it, may be more “serious?”
Rabbi James Jabobson-Maisels
"Sometimes being silly is a way to show up...it is a practice of being vulnerable and not protecting ourselves, reminding ourselves not to become too self-important...it can release our caution and our fear that we might get it wrong.”
The Hebrew words for “play” (שחק) and “laugh” (צחק) are closely related and sometimes used interchangeably in the Torah
The Power of Laughter
Anne Lamont (20th C American non-fiction writer and novelist)
"Laughter is carbonated holiness."
That explanation is like that practice of Rabba’s. Before he began teaching halakha to the Sages, he would say some humorous comment, and the Sages would be cheered. Ultimately, he sat in awe (or trepidation, or wonder?) and began teaching the law.
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Why would he (Rabba) start all of his teaching like this?
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What connection do you see between laughter and awe, reverence, or wonder?
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Do you think that joking can produce an atmosphere of awe-spirited learning?
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Have you had teachers whose styles matches Rabba's? Did that produce a positive learning environment for you?
In the meantime, two brothers came to the marketplace. Elijah said to Rabbi Beroka: These two also have a share in the World-to-Come. Rabbi Beroka went over to the men and said to them: What is your occupation? They said to him: We are jesters, and we cheer up the depressed. Alternatively, when we see two people who have a quarrel between them, we work hard to make peace [through jokes].
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Is what way(s) is/are laughter shown here as being transformative?
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Why do you think Elijah perceives these jesters as worthy of the World to Come?
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Do you ever use humor to cheer others up, or bring people together? Do you ever use it to cheer yourself up?
- Do you ever think of God as being playful, as this text describes?
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Why do you think the Sages imagine God as playing?
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What lessons can we draw for our own lives from how God structure’s God’s day in this text?
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What moments in your day can you reserve for a moment of play or laughter?
Other Notes on Laughter
Avner Ziv, Humor as a Social Corrective; https://msu.edu/~jdowell/ziv.html
Stories of this sort are told when a group or nation finds itself under occupation or oppression without any means of fighting back. In such cases, humor is an instrument of self-respect and the spirit of freedom. The French philosopher Penjon has written, "Laughter is nothing but an expression of the freedom which we experience or long for. Always and everywhere, laughter is the echo of freedom."
Stephanie Newman, What Can Laughter do for Social Justice?; https://theestablishment.co/what-can-laughter-do-for-social-justice-4875b260311c/index.html
In cases where the people laughing are more oppressed than those they’re laughing at, the solidarity can bring with it a sense of power. As Jazmine Hughes wrote in The New Republic, “By making fun of white people, people of color can, in a small way, push back against stereotypes, opposing racial humor by inverting it.” Hughes gives an example: “If you are a black person in the 1800s, and there’s a white man who owns you, beats you, and tears your family apart, then it’s totally fine to crack a joke about his waistcoat to your friends.” If you’re a woman, you’re allowed to make fun of the men whose stares creep you out as you’re walking home...
There are real emotional benefits to group laughter, as well. Laughing with friends for 15 minutes can raise pain tolerance levels by 10%. Whether it’s women like me laughing at Fox News commentators with Jessica Williams, or people of color cracking up with Aziz Ansari at white people’s ignorance, the opportunity to make fun of an oppressive force is cathartic. Considering how many people feel oppressed by Trump’s presidency, it’s no surprise that viewers are finding ablution through the late-night skewering of Donald Trump by Samantha Bee and Stephen Colbert, two comedians whose ratings have surged since Inauguration Day.
Professor Meir Soloveitchik; https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/meir-soloveichik/may-inscribed-good-laugh/
Jews loved jokes because they expressed the idea that there is more to life than meets the eye, that a pattern is not eternally set in stone, that our expectations can be uprooted—that . . . there is a completely different way of seeing [a given] situation.
David Pruwer, A Wondering Jew Blog; http://awonderingjew.com/2014/07/the-best-medicine-laughter-in-jewish-thought/
The ability to laugh allows one to not take oneself and one’s opinions overly seriously and permits the consideration of other perspectives. With the inability to laugh comes an inability to acknowledge the contradictions inherent in every society and relationship. The well-timed joke shows the other party that there may be disagreement, but those differences are not insurmountable and do not necessarily spell the end of all meaningful dialogue. Laughter overcomes separateness and closure. Similarly, Avraham’s laughter took joy in the possibility of the impossible. That is why it is specifically the jesters who merit the world to come. They can inject humour into the most serious of moments and make people appreciate that great difficulties are always pregnant with hope. Perhaps laughter really is the best medicine.
Other Articles on Laughter and Judaism
- What’s So Funny About Arguing with God? A Case for Playful Argumentation from Jewish Literature
- The Gravity of Laughter (Rabbi Ariella Rosen)
- Laughter Is Serious Business (Rabbi Noah Weinberg)
- Resist, Laugh, Hope (Rabbi Jessica Kate Meyer)
- Humor During the Holocaust (Whitney Carpenter)
- What Makes God Laugh? (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)
- Three Laughs (Baal Shem Tov story)