I am nervous about the debate tonight. We are going to watch it with friends. We are going to bring something to drink. We are going to need it.

I want to divert my mind today. How about three Jewish jokes? I usually don’t like Jewish jokes. But I like these. Maybe you know them. Maybe you have never heard them before. Maybe you have heard them before and have totally forgotten each of them. Even I might be in that last category.

(1) Jewish Joke Number One:

A very elderly man is lying on his death bed. His wife of more than 60 years sits by his side, holding his hand. There is no need to talk and silence prevails. His wife interrupts the silence. “Is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all.” He smells something. Coming from the kitchen. He whispers to her: “I smell the cookies you are baking. I don’t know if I can eat a whole one, but I really would love to try.”

She looks at him with pity and says: “That’s the one thing I cannot give you now……They’re for the shiva.”

(2) Jewish Joke Number Two:

The young man in his early 30s calls his mother on the phone with good news: “Mother, I have something to tell you. I am getting married”. “How wonderful”, his mother says. “And,” he says, “I want to introduce you to your new daughter in law, and I think I will come by tonight with three or four young women. One is my fiance; the others are our friends. We can sit around and talk for a while, and then later you can tell me which one you think she is.”

“Okay”, says his mother, “that sounds like fun.” Her son brings four young women with him, all obviously in on the plan, and they have a fine evening. The next morning, the son calls his mother and asks: “You know which one I am marrying?” “Yes”, she says, “I think it’s the redhead.”

“Mom, how did you guess? You are right!”

“It was easy”, his mother says, “she’s the only one I didn’t like at all.”

(3) Jewish Joke Number Three:

Elon Musk (or was it Jeff Bezos) decides to send an experimental manned satellite into orbit to go around the earth twenty times, each time taking a little more than an hour. In addition to the pilot and the engineer, he asks three men of faith to travel in his machine – a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and an orthodox Rabbi. The three enter the capsule, the rockets blast them off, the flight is successful and they all return safely and in good health.

A reporter asks them: “So, what were your reactions to traveling around the Earth like that?”

The priest says that it was an experience of a lifetime, and all he could think of as he looked at the Earth below was how remarkable God is to create such a universe and to allow him to participate in it in this remarkable way.

The minister talked about the beauty of the Earth, the closeness to God, and the remarkable aspects of the solar system, which he could appreciate even more fully from such a wonderful vantage point.

The reporter then turned to the rabbi, who had been uncharacteristically quiet and asked him what his reaction was. Did he have the same overwhelming feelings the other two had? “No,”, said the rabbi, “Not really. I found it exhausting.”

“Why?”, asked the reporter. The rabbi answered: “I had to put the tefillin on, take the tefillin off, put the tefillin on, take the tefillin off, put the tefillin on, take the tefillin off. I didn’t even have time to look out the window.”