A post about philosophy and humor appeared on 3quarksdaily. It included this famous bit of humor:
There is a well-known joke about Talmudic interpretation. A Jew is talking to his Rabbi.
Rabbi,โ the man said, โExplain the Talmud to me.โ
โVery well,โ he said. โFirst, I will ask you a question. If two men climb up a chimney and one comes out dirty, and one comes out clean, which one washes himself?โ
โThe dirty one,โ answers the man.
โNo. They look at each other and the dirty man thinks he is clean and the clean man thinks he is dirty, therefore, the clean man washes himself.โ
โNow, another question:
If two men climb up a chimney and one comes out dirty, and one comes out clean, which one washes himself?โ
The man smiles and says, โYou just told me, Rabbi. The man who is clean washes himself because he thinks he is dirty.โ
โNo,โ says the Rabbi. โIf they each look at themselves, the clean man knows he doesnโt have to wash himself, so the dirty man washes himself.โ
โNow, one more question.
If two men climb up a chimney and one comes out dirty, and one comes out clean, which one washes himself?โ
โI donโt know, Rabbi. Depending on your point of view, it could be either one.โ
Again the Rabbi says, โNo. If two men climb up a chimney, how could one man remain clean? They both are dirty, and they both wash themselves.โ
The confused man said, โRabbi, you asked me the same question three times and you gave me three different answers. Is this some kind of a joke?โ
โThis is not a joke, my son. This is Talmud.โ
The Talmud is a famous example of seeking answers within a religious framework in a manner that does not assume there is only one possible answer. It is not infinitely open to plurality, but it regularly gives voice to minority and individual viewpoints. And in doing so, it shows that in order to seek to be faithful to a tradition, one does not have to take the fundamentalist approach of shutting down dialogue or seeking to exclude and/or silence all who disagree with oneโs own viewpoint.