Opinion & Comment
Kelm Humor

Kelm. The very name invokes an image of intense devotion to Torah and mussar, ignoring worldly pleasures and striving for self-perfection. For those privileged to have had contact with alumni of the renowned Talmud Torah in Kelm, the memories include pictures of towering personalities who reached unbelievable heights in ruchniyus. What place is there for humor in such a picture? The words simply do not belong on the same page, let alone one following the other.

And yet -- and yet I did hear a joke from Kelm. My famed rabbi, the Ponovezher Rosh Yeshiva Maran HaGaon HaRav Dovid Povarsky ztvk"l once recounted the following in a shmuess: A joke went around Kelm as follows. A person from a different country arrived in Kelm. He explained his reason for coming: He had heard that by coming to Kelm one becomes a mashgiach [i.e. without further effort]. He wanted to become a mashgiach, so he came.

You may still be waiting for the punch line and I apologize for disappointing you but I must end your suspense: Don't hold your breath. There may be a reason why you very likely never heard this joke when you were growing up, and perhaps that is the same reason why you now find it difficult to see the humor in it. Why is this? Did the sense of humor in Kelm differ so much from ours? Are we missing something here?

I believe the answer is obvious. Each person's sense of humor depends on what that individual is accustomed to. There is nothing inherently funny about a man wearing an orange suit with pink and purple polka dots, yet if you were walking down the street and saw someone wearing such a suit you would most probably burst out laughing. Anything that differs drastically from what we expect and consider normal becomes funny.

This explains why we have an easy time keeping a straight face after reading the above joke. We do not see anything so absurd or ridiculous about hoping to grow without making the necessary amount of effort. Therefore, if we hear that a person thinks this is possible, we do not consider it humorous.

Now this does not mean that if someone were to ask us, "Is it logical for a person to attempt to become a better person without trying?" we would answer "yes." We understand the logic which tells us that a person cannot expect to achieve anything through sitting and waiting for it to happen by itself. However, not everything we do in our lives is completely rational. There are indeed many areas in which we all hope to advance and grow, and still we put very little effort into reaching those goals.

For example: How many of us dream of davening with the proper amount of kavonoh? We always hear inspiring stories about tefilloh and what it can accomplish, and we think to ourselves, "How nice it would be to daven with more kavonoh." But how many people take the time to actually work on this goal? And how many people work on it enough to succeed?

How many of us wish we had better control over our middos? How often do we say, "If only I could control my temper, if only I could overcome my feelings of laziness, if only I could stop myself from being so jealous"? Yet how many of us really put our minds to correct such traits?

How many men long to delve into the gemoras which they study, understand them properly and become proficient in Shas? And how many people study with the hasmodoh one needs to attain this? And the list goes on and on.

Luckily for us, Chazal revealed that our job is not as difficult as it may seem. "Open for Me an opening like the eye of a needle and I will open for you an opening as wide as the doorway of a hall." This means that we need not even put in an amount of effort commensurate with the goals which we wish to reach. All that is required of a person is to make a relatively small opening -- "like the eye of a needle" -- and he will be granted an abundance of Heavenly assistance.

However, we must not belittle the duty incumbent upon us to make an opening like the eye of a needle. Without proper diligence and focus, a person cannot hope to make any opening at all. Hashem's offer of "an opening like the doorway of a hall" is definitely a bargain, but it is up to us to take advantage of it.

The mishnah in Ovos tells us "Im ein ani li mi li," if we do not attempt to achieve our goals, no one will do it for us. Let us not make the mistake of sitting idly by and waiting for greatness to fall right into our lap. We know our dreams are worth working hard for, and work we must.

Now I know that we are certainly not obligated to find every joke funny. People's senses of humor differ greatly. If people in Kelm found a joke like the one told above to be funny, that does not mean others have to follow suit. Nevertheless, I cannot help but be afraid that perhaps the reason why we fail to see the humor in this particular joke lies in the fact that the butt of any joke never thinks it is very humorous.

A. Lessin is an avreich from Kiryat Sefer.

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