It’s important to maintain a sense of humor even in the midst of adversity. Comic relief is not just about goofing off. It can be directed to the nether regions of the psyche or it may be elevated to the status of a peak experience within the innermost dimensions of the soul. It is not always ease to distinguish between irrational and pointless humor and its sublime super-rational counterpart. However, Chassidic teachings are often awe-struck with the possibilities of the latter version.

Called, shtus d’kedusah, folly or insanity of holiness, the Chassidic masters enjoin us to walk on the wild side from time to time in order to transcend the limits of the intellect. The proceeds of the performance will go to a good cause. The comedic act is liberating. Laughter is both a potent social lubricant and a binding agent of spirit to spirit.

The kabbalistic tradition has even dedicated the entire Hebrew month of Adar to laughter and play. The month of Adar, which showcases the holiday of Purim—celebrating the deliverance of the Jewish people during the 4th century BCE from the hands of the evil Haman the Agagite, who was hellbent on total Jewish destruction—might give one cause to expect a somber day of reflection. Not so. It’s an occasion for a festive meal and a Purim party. More specifically, it’s time to play dress up and have a rollicking good time complete with a community costume extravaganza.

The kabbalists further explain that this month was created with the “sense” of humor and humor is really about timing. The punch line works when you are expecting one outcome and then suddenly are surprised with another. But this has to be timed just right. To really be funny it needs to play out in a spontaneous manner. For that, we need to be comfortable in our shoes and allow ourselves to ‘temporally’ experience real life as a night at the improv—to be open to the ‘spur of the moment’.

The mere recognition of all of the improvisation in our lives—the sense of making the most out of whatever is available even when life doesn’t turn out like we’d planned—reconditions all of our experience and acknowledges a bigger picture that we seldom see. Improvisation also rises above the causal currents that reserve a particular time and place for events that conform to social norms. Our capacity to deviate from convention and reorder events during the improvisation accentuates our freedom.

In recent times, the Rabbe Rayatz of the Chabad Chassidic movement (1880-1950) was famous for exclaiming: “forthwith to teshuvah (return to or reconnecting with the Divine), (then) forthwith to redemption.” In the original, “l’alter

l’teshuvah l’alter l’geulah,” whereby “l’alter” means ‘on the spot’ or ‘forthwith’, the notion of immediacy.

Amazingly, in modern Hebrew this word was selected to signify improvisation: l’altair means “to improvise”. The process of returning all of our experiences back to their spiritual root, of connecting everything back to the source, of reassembling nuggets of ‘commonplace reality’ into the frame of Reality as a whole, is facilitated by the break with the average everydayness of our social interactions. Thus, the Chassidic expression above might be reworded to read: to improvise (is to) return (to that which is beyond nature or the norm), to improvise is redemptive (of everyday reality).

One of the most interesting improv groups that I have encountered via video on the web has taught me a great deal about the spontaneous power of bringing people together by violating the tedious grind of the mundane and importing some playtime where it is least expected. This can be life changing if only for a few minutes. Founded in 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has already taken YouTube by storm with videos of their thousands of agents momentarily taking over parts of New York City where they are based. Todd, along with Alex Scordelis, have even penned a book about staging these experiences called Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places with Improv Everywhere.

Here is a prime example of their orchestrated antics:

We need to ask ourselves: What is so attractive about the ‘guerilla theater’ of these spectacles and how this power could be further harnessed for the benefit of all mankind?

What is your suggestion for an improvisation that carries a positive educational message?

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