Laughs

By RABBI JOSEPH PROUSER

Recently added to the décor of my “Saba Cave” (a basement rec room and personal sanctuary, so dubbed by my grandchildren) is a framed, vintage 1942, full-page magazine advertisement for a “Hitler Pin Cushion.” Depicted is a six-inch figurine of the Fuehrer, disconsolate in expression, hunched over, a pin cushion on his posterior.

Customers are urged to carry out a “rear line attack” and “stick it” to Hitler.  The item was a bargain: three for $3.49.  The ad, however, explains the true value of the collectible: “It’s good for a million laughs now, when every laugh is worth a fortune.”

Laughter in response to dark and desperate times is a form of spiritual resistance to evil, a defiant insistence on life in the face of the genocidal designs of despots, an expression of faith that goodness will prevail despite the transient gains of the bestial.  Such laughter – “now, when every laugh is worth a fortune” – is precisely the role of the spoofs and good humor associated with traditional Purim observance: “a day of gladness” (Esther 9:19).

In the time of Esther, “there was great mourning among the Jews, fasting, weeping, and wailing” (Esther 4:3).  We celebrate Purim with light and laughter… triumphing over the darkest and most doleful days of Jewish history. 

A pointed reaction.

Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and the editor of “Masorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.”