Joke Hashanah

Friend to the blog, New York-based comedian Joel Chasnoff just sent us the following mirthful take on Jewish values.

Thanks Joel! Keep killin' 'em on the stand-up circuit.

Dear Friends,

Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, colleague-in-comedy and co-author of the renowned Big Book of Jewish Humor ("A favorite in Jewish bathrooms the world over," as Moshe describes it), tells this joke:

A minister, a priest and a rabbi are sitting around, discussing what each wants people to say about him at his funeral.

"At my funeral," says the minister, "I want people to say that I was generous to the poor."

"At my funeral," says the priest,"I want people to say I visited the sick."

"At my funeral," says the rabbi, "I want people to say, 'Look! He's moving!'"

Yom Kippur is tough: endless services, 26 hours of fasting, multiple rounds of chest-beating. And who can forget that uplifting prayer where we name all the ways we might die ("Who by fire? Who by stoning?" Etc.)?

But we Jews are nothing if not optimistic -- which, in my opinion, is the point of the above joke, and the reason I shared it.

Best wishes for a healthy, happy, and optimistic 5773!

Joel is also the author of the 188th Crybaby Brigade, an award-winning novel about his year as a lone soldier in the Israeli Army.

For more on the irrepressible Chasnoff, visit his website here.

Oh, OK... and here's a clip of him doing his shtick. Funny as usual.