Vayera: Laughter and Deen
Vayera: Laughter and Deen

"Humor is just another defense against the universe." -- Mel Brooks.

"Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else." -- Will Rogers

This week's parsha has the amazing juxtaposition of the elements of deen (justice) and laughter. Both, of course, intersect in Yitzchak, who is the patriarch of deen, yet whose name means "will laugh". And both his mother and

Our human sense of the incongruous and inappropriate lies at the base of both our sense of deen and our sense of humor.

father do just that (Bereishit 17:17; 18:12-13).

The humor in deen extends further, when Lot is warned that Sodom is going to be destroyed, and his sons-in-law decide that Lot must be joking (Bereishit 19:14). Furthermore, Mother Sarah judges Yishmael to be evil and throws him out of the house after he is found laughing (Bereishit 21:9).

Is humor merely the defense against circumstances, as Mel Brooks says, or is it an essential part of deen?

Rabbi Matis Weinberg argues the latter in explaining that since the scales of justice hinge on the delicate balance of what is appropriate and "just", then our human sense of the incongruous and inappropriate lies at the base of both our sense of deen and our sense of humor.

"Laughter can be noble, lifting one beyond pettiness to see a whole picture from a new perspective. Such a man lives in an exquisite balance. In his moments of greatest honor, he knows he is but a step away from foolish embarrassments. In his moments of greatest shame, he knows that nothing can touch the significance that is his. This is the laughter of Avraham... the balance, the sensitivity to the hairbreadth difference that lies between sobbing over our heartache and rejoicing in our madcap adventure of living, tears of joy mingling with tears of sadness." (Frameworks, Bereishit, page 90)

Yitzchak, named after laughter, Forefather of deen, has an even deeper connection to humor. His Akeidah ("Binding on the Altar") brings him to the very question of existence itself. Rabbi Weinberg says that the answer of deen (and Yitzchak) to the question, "To be, or not to be?" is that existence simply is a given, from the Lord, and cannot be justified. Thus, Yitzchak readily submitted to certain death at the Akeidah, for deen could find neither questions nor arguments against snuffing out a life that cannot stake claims to its own existence. Yitzchak would never ask, "Where was God during the Holocaust?" (And neither should we, as the Rambam points out in Hilchot Teshuvah, Chap. 5, Halacha 2: "From the decrees of the Lord come not evils or good," but from the actions of Man and his free choices.)

Yet, Avraham, the man of chesed ("kindness"), does ask: "Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?" (Bereishit 18:25). The Aznayim L'Torah points out the wondrous mesirut nefesh (dedication) to chesed of the great champion of hachnasat orchim ("welcoming guests"), who is defending his antitheses, the Sodomites, who systematically tortured and plundered guests in all instances. But such was Avraham's love of Creation, and his feeling of connection to all creatures, that even Sodom was an object of his mercy. And in this parsha, through Sodom and Akeidah, the Forefather of chesed reaches deen (his kind of deen, not Yitzchak's).

This leaves us all the more in awe of our great Forefathers, two polar opposites, yet who "walked together" (repeated twice, in Bereishit 22:6 and 22:8). Halevai ("one could only wish") that the opposites among their Jewish descendants can reach such harmony, of which Rabbi Tvi Tau writes:

"Yitzchak understood the great chasm that existed between his way and the way of his father, yet he joined Avraham in a unity of will, with no mental, emotional or spiritual blocks to fulfilling the Will of God, in expressing the exalted truth of the Unity of Existence.

"From the aspect of the Divine Truth, all of Existence forms one Unity, even with all of the universe's diverse manifestations and polar opposites. This Divine Unity has one purpose, which embraces all, including all physical and spiritual entities, and all that is revealed, along with all whose sublime existence is hidden from us. But only those like Avraham and Yitzchak, who live lives of Unity, can see (Vayera - yir'eh; Bereishit 22:8 and 22:14) this ultimate Unity. When a man is sunk in pettiness, when he feels limited by a life he sees as full of contradictions and rents in the fabric of reality, then he will not easily see in existence (the kol) its underlying Unity, from which all springs, and to which all returns.

But here, as Avraham and Yitzchak reached the level of utter dedication to the Will of God, they were uplifted, to understand ('see') the secret of the Unity of all of Existence. And so they walked together." (Rabbi Tau, Emunat Iteinu vol.5, pages 98 and 106)

This leaves the Haftorah, with the stories of Elisha the prophet: first the vessel of oil, and then the bringing back to life of the son of the Shunamite. In the first story, the Malbim relates that we again see the question of deen: Hashofet kol ha'aretz lo ya'aseh mishpat - "Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?" This time it is the

This leaves us all the more in awe of our great Forefathers.

widow of the prophet Ovadiah who asks the question. Her husband had risked his life (mesirut nefesh) to feed 150 prophets he had saved from the murderous wrath of King Achav; was it Divine justice that his family be without food, and his creditor, the king's son Yehoram, take away Ovadiah's son in servitude? The Malbim gives a possible answer in terms of human justice. Meanwhile, the miracle of the nearly-never-ending vessel of oil reaches near slapstick dimensions, as the family scrambles to find more and more pots to pour oil into.

And the second story, the revival of the son of the Shunamite, touches on the nature of life and existence themselves. The Ben Ish Chai (on Pesachim 68a) asks why we read this story of Elisha, and not the similar miracles done by Elijah (Eliyahu; Kings I, chap.17). The Ben Ish Chai answers that Eliyahu is a timeless angel, and as such his miracles are not as impressive as that of the Elisha, a very human prophet and maker of miracles.

Finally, it is worthwhile to note the Talmud's parting message from this story: "In the future, the righteous (tzadikim) will resurrect the dead, as it says: 'There will yet sit old men and old women in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand.' And it is written of Elisha's act of resurrection: 'And you shall place my staff on the face of the boy,' his staff of resurrection." (Pesachim 68a) May we all merit to see these miracles, including the peaceful unity of Yerushalayim, soon, in our times.