Listen to Amichai speak with Lily Percy of Creating Our Own Lives on the episode Deep Laughter in the Place of the Deepest Pain of On Being with Krista Tippett.

“Humor is always about ‘as if.’ And it just relaxes everybody. We’re going to laugh.”

Transparent creator Jill Soloway describes Amichai Lau-Lavie as “a God-optional, patriarchy-toppling, Jewish modern mind.” He uses humor to connect — to himself and others, his family, his sexual identity, and his spiritual life. The rabbi says the Jewish people have endured because of their ability to laugh at themselves and, in this way, laugh at the world.