You may not be aware, but April Fool’s Day is a Jewish holiday;
rather, a holiday originated by a Jew named, in all seriousness, Kugel - the perfect name for originating such a
holiday.
A scholarly explanation of the origins of April Fools' Day was
provided by Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University in a
1983 article.(*See citation for source below.) He explained that the practice began during the reign of Roman
emperor Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told
the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire.
Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for
one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the
custom became an annual event.
"In a way," explained Prof. Boskin, "it was a
very serious day. In those times fools were really wise men. It was the role of
jesters to put things in perspective with humor."
Ok, I admit it, I just played a joke myself, the article by
Boskin was a big fib that actually ran for 2 weeks on the Associated Press in
1983 until they realized they had been the victims of a clever April Fool’s
joke themselves.
Oh, and I fibbed too – the fictional Kugel wasn’t necessarily
Jewish, but you never know, right?
April Fools jokes and tricks are usually about convincing
someone of something in such a complete way that they are surprised when we
reveal we’re just having fun.
In a similar way to the Book of Esther, it is a day for upending
the world as it is, turning the world upside down, so we can achieve a new
perspective, a fresh perspective and, for sure, laugh, take a deep breath, and
remind ourselves we’re human beings – sensitive, sometimes gullible, flawed,
and in that way we are like God who created us in God’s image.
After all, when the great Rabbis of the ancient academy spoke to
God’s representative Elijah, when they spoke to him after having argued a point
of Jewish law with Rabbi Eliezer, a point with which the majority of the
academy did not agree but with which God did agree – they caught God in an
April Fool’s day type of moment by citing that the Torah, which God gave them
at Sinai, says, “Make decisions based on the majority.”
And in that moment, God realizes God’s hands are tied, and
Elijah says in that moment God laughs.
Ok, ya’ll got me…
April Fools' day, again like Purim that we just celebrated, reminds us we need to strive
to make the outside appearance more and more similar to the inside, to the
intention, and the truth of who we are.
Jewish tradition teaches about us mortals that our outside
should be like our inside, ‘tocho ke’varo.’
When we make the jokes and tricks we’re in effect showing just
how important it is that every other day of the year we do our best to overcome
dissonance, to pursue truth with all our hearts, and to honor fellow human
beings rather than make them vulnerable.
All that being said, we’re a relatively small group here, so if
you’d like to tell the story the way Professor Boskin did, it might be worth an
April Fool’s try.
*Source for the April Fools' history: From Infoplease.com
April Fools' Day: Origin and History
The uncertain origins of a foolish day
by David Johnson and Shmuel Ross
No comments:
Post a Comment