Q:
If a Jew is supposed to be friendly and have a sense of humor how does a person know that he’s not going too far and becoming a letz?
A:
And the answer is, forget about a sense of humor. I never said that you should have a sense of humor. A frum Jew has to have a sense of seichel, that’s all. Seichel. That’s enough. The phrase ‘sense of humor’ is an American invention. You won’t find it anyplace in divrei Torah.
A frum Jew should be malei simcha because he understands how good Hakodosh Boruch Hu is to him, how lucky he is that he is able to see and able to walk and able to talk and able to hear; how lucky he is that he doesn’t have any mumim. Everybody should be malei simcha when he understands that כל עצמותי תאמרנה – all my parts say to You Hashem, מי כמוך – who is like You. You’re so happy you have a heart, you have lungs, you have kidneys, you have everything. And each one is singing to Hashem. That’s called a man who is malei simcha.
And a person like that, certainly it’s easy to get along with him. But a person who is atzeiv, he’s sad, he’s always worrying, he thinks he should have more than he has, he’s angry because he didn’t succeed in getting more money or more kavod, it’s hard to get along with him.
And therefore, you don’t need a sense of humor to succeed and to be liked by others. You need a sense of seichel. And a sameyach b’chelko, that kind of seichel, that kind of person is much easier to get along with.
TAPE # 960