"The Sacred and the Human":
The rational person is not the one who scoffs at all religions, but the one who tries to discover which of them, if any, can make sense of those things, and, while doing so, draw the poison of resentment.
And only a rational being can laugh. Hyenas make a noise like laughter, but it is not a sign of amusement, nor does it have the social function that laughter has -- which is to make light of our differences and to rejoice in what we share. Laughter is not only a joy and a balm, it is the principal way we have of accepting the failings of our fellows.
[...]
For the feminist the failings of men are no laughing matter. Not surprisingly, therefore, the literature of feminism is devoid of humor -- and advisedly so, for if it ever were to employ this resource it would die laughing at itself.
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Jewish humor is one of the greatest survival mechanisms ever invented -- which has aided not only its own survival but the survival of Jewish identity, through an unparalleled history of attempts to rub it out.
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