The art of storytelling is one that crosses many boundaries of language, faith, eras, and genders, it’s central to many societies and presents a meaningful way of personally transmitting not just historical or religious accounts, but also serves as a form of entertainment. Coming from a quasi-Jewish family I feel closest to my religious roots not when actually speaking of religion, but rather when the family all mutually tell sometimes sarcastic, odd accented, and always ridiculous jokes and exaggerated stories. My mom sent me a link somewhere around five months ago to oldjewstellingjokes.com and it might have changed my life. My mom and I are both fond of doing old New York Jewish accents where in crotchety old voices we yell things like, “Oy, my sciatica!” and “Your voice is giving me shingles!”
Really though, these jokes, in some small way preserve a piece of Jewish heritage; not even so much as religious jokes (though there are plenty), but they really retain the humor of Jewish ethnicity. The jokes are often about religious rituals or husband/wife zany situations, the newest one posted is entirely in Yiddish and is an old Jewish joke. Maybe because of the tumultuous struggle-wrought history of the Jews there is a special place in our hearts for comedy and family and anything that might bring us together through laughter. There’s an emphasis in Judaism to cherish the now and the life you’re given as a gift from God, and I can think of no better way to fill my life, and to show how much it means to me, than by laughter.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
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