Humor

He tells Jewish jokes because their hard-won humor helps people laugh, stay alive inside, and learn faster than from serious talk.

Those jokes hit old, learned shame about natural things, so you tense up—notice it, relax, and laughter will come.

He tells jokes to help us laugh our way to God, and he doesn’t laugh because the jokes aren’t new to him.

He laughs to show that the pope’s “I can’t be wrong” and special authority are silly and disproved by history.

Humor helps you drop your serious, show-off mind so you can feel truth simply and directly.

Cultures that stay ordinary and can laugh at themselves (like Jews) create lots of jokes; when a culture stays very ‘holy’ and serious (like Indians), jokes are fewer.