ABSTRACT
This chapter refers to the fact that the Jews are known as the 'chosen' people. People who do not like Jews or do not know the Bible use this term to suggest that Jews feel superior to other people and other religions, those who were not 'chosen'. In reality, the term refers to the fact, as Jewish theologians explain things, that the Jews were chosen by God to receive the Torah (and with the Torah, the Ten Commandments). In a sense, a joke that people tell reflects or depicts, indirectly, the 'joke' (the absurd relationships, the silly things people do, human foibles, and so on) that exists in the society where the joke is told. Laughter is not to be killed, but maintained. Roger Abraham is not to sacrifice 'laughter' but preserve it, and so he sacrifices a ram, the first 'stand in', providentially caught in a thicket, instead.
