Tikva Blaukopf Schein – Hannibal and R’Akiva: Laughter in the Face of Defeat

Tikva Blaukopf Schein (Bar-Ilan Univ., Shalem College) – Hannibal and R’Akiva: Laughter in the Face of Defeat

Hannibal and R’ Akiva: Laughter in the face of defeat.

Hannibal and R’ Akiva are both leaders, with vulnerable, worried followers looking up to them,
at a time of great national insecurity. Both leaders respond to the anxieties of their dependents
with laughter. In this paper, I comparatively examine this laughter, and its varied success,
analysing it as a threat as well as a non-verbal speech act that foments the path of each respective
people. As with any comparison, diachronic or synchronic, the comparison elicits more than the
individual corpora. Through an expanded survey of examples taken from both Graeco-Roman
and Rabbinic literature, I question the function of laughter in leadership in its ability to cohering
a sense of self and other, as well as upturn the mainstream narrative, to great effect or loss.
I compare laughter to other non-verbal speech acts, locating each within the realm of
emotion. To what extent is the inherent potential for threat in laughter part of its very benefit?
How does the level of vulnerability of the one laughing or being laughed at affect the quality of
truth being expressed, or the resulting level of security? This paper focusses on the power of the
individual to shape a nation’s path through the steering of emotional interpretation. Moreover,
this research seeks to develop a closer understanding of how and when laughter emerges as a
societal response to crisis, and how the willingness or reluctance to admit laughter acts a
barometer of a society’s level of security.

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