ABOUT THE LAUGHTER OF JOY AND THE LAUGHTER OF MOCKERY IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
ABOUT THE LAUGHTER OF JOY AND THE LAUGHTER OF MOCKERY IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Summary/Abstract: Along with smile, humour is a feature of human nature, it often facilitates communication between people, can tear down walls that would seem insurmountable, it is a form of opening of the human being towards communion with the other. In this study we are going to review the scriptural texts that speak about this state of mind which is called laughter under its two forms: joy and mockery, in the order of the books of the Old Testament, about the holidays established by the Law of the Old Testament that were always accompanied by moments of joy, when the communities were united, when they were called together, without exception: “And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you” (Deuteronomy 16, 14), but also from the mocking laughter of the people around the chosen people when they depart from God: “You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke …” (Ezekiel 5, 15).

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