Parshat Vayera - 5762

The Element of Humor

The nature of humor has its roots in a sense of the absurd. There are several examples in this week's Parshah of absurd events. The human response to humor is to laugh, "le-tzachek." In fact, the name of one of our great forefathers is built on the root, or foundation, of "tzechok," or laughter; namely, Yitzchak. Not that his life could be described as funny or laughable, but it did include several absurd elements. 

The first of these was the age of his parents when they brought him into the world. Sarah had been a barren woman all of her married life. The regular time of fertility for a woman at that stage of Biblical history had come and gone for Sarah, although it is clear from the Biblical narrative that earlier that period had lasted much longer. At the time that Sarah overhears an angel telling Avraham that Sarah will give birth to a son in a year, the Chumash itself informs us (Bereshit 18:11), "Now Avraham and Sarah were elderly, indeed quite aged; the period of her fertility had passed for Sarah." Sarah herself reacts with inward laughter upon hearing the absurd news that she will yet be a mother (Bereshit 18:12), "And Sarah laughed inwardly and said, 'After I have dried up, shall I still have pleasure? And my master/husband (Avraham) is also old.' "

In fact, Avraham himself had reacted in a similar manner, as we were told in last week's Parshah (Bereshit 17:16-17), when HaShem informed Avraham of His forthcoming blessing to Sarah, "And I will bless her and nations will descend from her…" To that news, Avraham had reacted seemingly with the same incredulity as had Sarah (Bereshit 17:17), "And Avraham fell upon his face and he laughed. And he said inwardly, 'Shall a child be born to a hundred year old man? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?' " It certainly is a puzzle requiring explanation why HaShem objected to Sarah's laughter, as we see recorded in Bereshit 18:13-14, "And HaShem said to Avraham, 'Why has Sarah laughed…Is anything beyond the power of HaShem?' ", but not, apparently, to Avraham's. But that intriguing question is not the subject of this essay.

Avraham instead prayed for the benefit of Yishmael (this prayer and HaShem's positive response may be the source of the power of the Muslims in our time). But HaShem insisted (Bereshit 17:19), "…But Sarah your wife will indeed bear a son for you, and you shall call his name 'Yitzchak,' and I will establish My covenant with him, and with his seed after him."

When Yitzchak is born, Sarah rejoices (Bereshit 21:6-7), "And Sarah said, 'A wonderful jest has the L-rd done for me. Everyone who hears of it, will laugh with me!' And she said, 'Who would have said to Avraham that Sarah would yet nurse, for I have given birth to a child in his old age.' " But at the feast celebrating the weaning of Yitzchak, Sarah experienced the mockery of Yishmael (Bereshit 21:9-10),"And Sarah saw the son of the Egyptian woman, Hagar, to whom she had given birth for Avraham, laughing at the scene. And she said to Avraham, 'Chase out this handmaiden and her son, for this son of a handmaiden will not inherit with my son, with Yitzchak." (And this may be the source of the bitter enmity that the Jewish People has experienced throughout the ages and especially in our time from the Muslim world.) And although Avraham strenuously objected (Bereshit 21:11), HaShem over-ruled him in favor of Sarah, saying, "Everything that Sarah says to do, you are to follow, for it is through Yitzchak that your seed will be called." 

Then comes the central absurd element in the Parshah, one of the crowning events in Jewish and human History; namely, "Akeidas Yitzchak." First, HaShem fulfills the prayers of the great Patriarch and his equally great wife, by granting them a son in their old age, in whose seed HaShem promises to establish, and then HaShem presents Avraham with an insoluble paradox. He says to Avraham (Bereshit 22:2), "Take, would you please, your only son, whom you love, Yitzchak, and offer him to Me as a burnt offering …" And Avraham obeys without question (Bereshit 22:3), "And Avraham arose in the morning… and departed towards the place regarding which HaShem had spoken." As Avraham raises the knife to slaughter his son, an Angel of G-d calls to him, and commands him to stop, that it was only a test, that Avraham and Yitzchak had passed with flying colors.

But Yitzchak's life is profoundly changed by the experience of lying on the altar and coming off of it alive. His renunciation of physical life and being restored to it may partially explain why later, he would love Esav, who represented the physical, over Yaakov, who represented the spiritual.

Thus we see that although the element of absurdity, sometimes tragic, has been interwoven into Jewish History and thereby into our own lives, in order to accomplish His purposes, HaShem has built into our natures a means of dealing with it; namely, the element of "tzechok,' of laughter.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel
Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU

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