SOURCE: "On Sholem Aleichem's Humor," in Prooftexts, Vol. 6, No. 1, January, 1986, pp. 41-54.

In the following excerpt, which was originally published in 1941, Wiener discusses Aleichem's unique brand of humor.

The Victory Over Human Fear

Brave children, when fearful upon entering a dark room at night, sing cheerful songs to themselves. Like most metaphors, this one is only partially applicable, but there is a kind of humor that depends, in part, on this sort of spunky singing in the dark. So too, in Sholem Aleichem's humor we find not only laughter and tears, but the sort of merriment that comes from having overcome and tamed the fear of chaos, the fear of a maimed, confused and falsely-ordered life. This conquest of fear of the tragic in life ennobles and deepens humor, lending it an aspect of nobility.

Sholem Aleichem presented the poverty of the great masses of Jews in the...