[Avodah] Dixie Yid: The Warden, the Jester, and the Lawyer

[Prof. Levine]

At 09:52 AM 3/1/2011, R. Micha [quoted]:
>         When [they were conversing] two [men] passed by and [Elijah]
>         remarked, These two are also "binai olam haba.". R. Beroka then
>         approached and asked them, What is your occupation? They replied,
>         We are jesters, when we see men depressed we cheer them up;
>         furthermore when we see two people quarrelling we strive to make
>         peace between them.

The following is from page 15 of A Fire In His Soul, Amos Bunim's
biography of his father, Irving Bunim.

Bunim considered humor a mitzva. He often told a story from the Gemara's
Tractate Ta' an is in which Eliyahu ha-Navi (Elijah the Prophet) came
to a town. After greeting this holy man, the town's rabbi asked, "Who
will go to olam ha~ba [the World to Come]?" Eliyahu ha-Navi answered,
"Those two brothers who always dress as clowns."

"The clowns?" the rabbi asked. "Why? They are not particularly learned
or exceptional."

"Perhaps not," the prophet replied, "but they alleviate depression in
people. Anyone who relieves another man's burden merits olam ha-ba."

Given this, I always wonder at those who condemn any sort of a joke with
the categorization of "Letzonis." Indeed, what constitutes Letzonis and
what constitutes the humor that the gemara and Irving Bunim approved of?
YL

Returning to the main thrust of R. Micha's post, one might ask "How
far does Bein Adam l"Chaveiro go?" Does it apply only to fellow Jews
or are Gentiles also included? The following stories about the Alter of
Slabodka (Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel), shed light on the answers to these
questions. The stories are taken from The Golden Tradition, The Old Man
of Slabodka, by M. Gerz pages 182 - 183.

   From time to time the Old Man [the Alter] would disappear. People
   thought he was probably at home, for where else would he be? But
   those close to him knew he was not at home. They began to trail
   him. They caught up to him just as he was setting out with a band of
   gypsies. His friends appealed to him, "Teach us, rabbi, what is the
   meaning of this?"

   "Gypsies are the most forlorn people in the world. They do not know of
    rest or home. They torture themselves and their families in their
    wretched travels. So they ought to be heartened by a cheerful mien,
    a friendly smile in their roaming and wandering."

    Because he believed wanderers were the most forlorn people, he used to
    often steal out to the nearby railroad stations. There he found much
    work for himself - helping travelers by carrying a bag, or giving
    advice or comforting them with a kind word, cheering them with a
    chat and sometimes with a loan. The Old Man used to say: "`Love thy
    fellowman as thyself Just as you do not love yourself because it is
    a commandment, do not love him because it is a commandment."

    Winter, he would rise early, cross the bridge into town, setting
    out for all the prayer houses and places of study, to start and
    stoke the ovens. He said that if the prayer houses and study houses
    would be warm early in the morning a coachman, a porter, or just a
    poor man would come in to warm up and find himself in a sanctified
    place. His closest friends asked him: "Rabbi, is it your business
    to start the ovens and carry packages?" He answered:

	"Even if it were as hard as you think it is, that would not be
	the point. The maskilim demand 'light,' humanity must be given
	light. But we must not forget that a light sheds light for all,
	but itself is extinguished. Otherwise, it would not be a light."

Yitzchok Levine