As many already know, the actors who portrayed the Three Stooges were all Jewish, born with the last names Horwitz, Feinberg, Besser, and Wardell. I would be remiss if an article about those who brought joy to others wasn’t matched with the Gemara in Taanis 22a where Eliyahu HaNavi highlights two jesters in the marketplace as worthy of the world to come – their sole merit being that they took responsibility upon themselves to alleviate the heaviness of others. One can posit that in a time when mental health was not a priority, they used their craft as a means of self-healing and introspection.
It is, in fact, well documented that most of the Stooges (a total of six over the years) had some element of mental health complications. It’s an amazing thing that G-d placed in our nature that we have the ability to create a circuit within another human being or audience that can, in turn, uplift ourselves through uplifting others.
And, of course, a little bit of humor to conclude this piece:
Curly: “I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places.”
Moe: “What’d he say?”
Curly: “He told me to quit going to those places!”
