Serve Adonai in awe and rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11). What does “rejoice with trembling” mean? Rav Adda bar Mattanah said Rabba said: [even] where there is rejoicing, there should be trembling. Abaye was sitting before Rabba, [who] saw that he was extremely joyful. [Rabba] said, “It is written, Rejoice with trembling.” [Abaye] said to him, “I am laying tefillin.” R. Yirm’ya was sitting before R. Zeira, [who] saw that R. Yirm’ya was excessively joyful. [R. Zeira] said to him, “It is written, In all sorrow there is profit (Proverbs 14:23).” [R. Yirm’ya] said to him, “I am laying tefillin.” Mar b. Ravina made a wedding for his son. He saw that the Rabbis were extremely joyous. He brought a cup worth 400 [zuz] and broke it in front of them and they became sad. Rav Ashi made a wedding for his son. He saw that the Rabbis were extremely joyous. He brought a cup of white glass and broke it in front of them and they became sad. *** The Rabbis said to Rav Hamnuna Zuti at the wedding of Mar b. Ravina: “Let the Master sing for us.” He said to them, “Woe to us for we shall die! Woe to us for we shall die!” They said to him, “What shall we respond after you?” He said to them, “Where is Torah and mitzvah that protect us?” R. Yochanan said in the name of R. Shimon b. Yochai, “One is forbidden to fill one’s mouth with mirth in this world, as it is said, [When Adonai returns the fortunes of Zion, we will be as dreamers;] then will our mouths be filled with laughter and our lips with tongues with joy (Psalm 126:1). When [will that be]? They will say among the nations, “Adonai has done great things for them!” (Psalm 126:2). They said about Reish Lakish that throughout his life he did not fill his mouth with laughter in this world once he had heard this [teaching] from his teacher, R. Yochanan. (BT Berakhot 30b-31a)
INTRODUCTION
The Rabbis were not, as a rule, opposed to humor and laughter. Bar Kapparah, for example, was famous for his humor and the pranks he played. Rabbah was said to open his lessons with a joke (BT Shabbat 30b). Elijah the Prophet tells us that of all the people in the public square, jesters are destined for the world to come because they make people happy (BT Ta’anit 22a). Mishnah Berakhot 5:1, however, instructs that one be in a serious frame of mind (koved-rosh) to recite the Amidah to insure that one’s heart is focused exclusively on God and notes that the pious sages of an earlier age would delay their prayers an hour to achieve koved-rosh. The Gemara asks the source for this stricture. Rav Nachman bar Yitzhak offers Psalm 2:11: Serve Adonai in awe and rejoice with trembling. The unusual phrase “rejoice with trembling” launches a discussion on the proper limits of humor and rejoicing.
COMMENTARY
Rav Adda bar Mattanah interprets “rejoice with trembling” to forbid unbridled expressions of joy. Joy should always be tempered by an abiding sense of God’s power and, as will become apparent, whatever suffering God has ordained for, or permitted to happen to, Israel (more on this soon). Two anecdotes follow in which a rabbi instructs his student to curtail his excessive expression of joy. Both students, Abaye and R. Yirm’ya, respond that their masters need not worry; their tefillin (phylacteries) will curtail excessive exuberance. Two wedding anecdotes follow. In each story, a group of rabbis celebrates in a boisterous manner that the father of the groom considers excessive. Both fathers, Mar b. Ravina and Rav Ashi, halt their colleagues’ displays of joy by shattering an expensive goblet, a stark symbol of how quickly happiness can turn to sorrow. We are then told a story that explains what lies behind the tradition of stifling expressions of unbridled joy: At the wedding of Mar b. Ravina, his colleagues ask Rav Hamnuna Zuti to entertain them with a song. They expect a boisterous expression of the joy of the occasion; instead he sings about human mortality and the inescapable reality of death. They don’t immediately recognize the song as a dirge and ask what they should sing as the chorus. He replies, “Where is Torah and mitzvah that protect us?” It now becomes clear that the song is not merely about human mortality: it is about the national tragedies that have befallen the nation—the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. and the calamitous Bar Kochba Rebellion of 135 C.E.—and continue to adversely impact life day in and day out. This is made explicit through the interpretation of Psalm 126:1-2 that R. Yochanan learned from R. Shimon b. Yochai. Unbridled laughter and expressions of joy are not permitted in this world—while the Temple lies in ruins and Israel is in exile. Only upon God’s return of the captives to the land of Zion, only then will laughter and joy be unlimited. (The psalm speaks of the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E., but the Rabbis routinely apply such verses to the Second Temple destruction, as well.) Gemara asks: When, precisely, will that happen? As R. Yochanan interprets v. 2, when Israel’s enemies recognize God’s redemption of Israel, which will be marked by the return of the people to the Land of Israel and the restoration of their sovereignty over it.
R. Yochanan’s teaching far exceeds the boundaries of the discussion of the proper mood for praying the Amidah. It is difficult to know if R. Yochanan’s teaching is an optimistic affirmation that redemption will come, or a pessimistic appraisal of the quality of life until that happens.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS
- Do you think R. Shimon b. Yochai taught that unalloyed joy and laughter are not possible until redemption, or should be delayed until then? Why? Do you think this passage is passing a negative judgment against all humor, joking, and boisterous celebration, or reserving for prayer a serious demeanor?
- Do you think the discussion of unbridled joy is intended to comment on human behavior or the historical condition of the Jewish people? Is there a way to see the Rabbis as survivors of tragedy who find humor and joy less accessible in light of their experience?
- Do laughter and humor hold particular value in times of hardship?
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