Jewish 'nobody' joke / synagogue self-humiliation
joke · Jewish joke ·
retold in 10 talks
In a synagogue, the rabbi, then a rich merchant, then a poor Jew each prostrate themselves as 'nobodies before God.' One of the rich men then stabs the other: 'Who is this guy, thinking he can be a nobody like us?', illustrating how self-humiliation confers a monopoly on judgment.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 9
“Then a poor Jew stands up and says, 'I am also a nobody.' And then one of the rich ones stabs the other and says, 'But who is this guy? He just thinks that he can be a nobody like us.'”
“The rich merchant stabs the rabbi and said: 'Who is this guy, a nobody and he also thinks he can just say that he is nothing?'”
“The rich rabbi says, 'But who this guy think that he is? He thinks—how dares he also to claim that he is a nothing?'”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Emilie Morin3Muriel Gardiner2Marcel Proust2Johann Wolfgang von Goethe2Václav Havel2Salman Rushdie2Samuel Beckett4Hans Blumenberg1
alongside works
Every retelling 9
In a synagogue, the rabbi, then a rich merchant, then a poor Jew each prostrate themselves as 'nobodies before God.' One of the rich men then stabs the other: 'Who is this guy, thinking he can be a nobody like us?', illustrating how self-humiliation confers a monopoly on judgment., illustrating surplus enjoyment,false universalism,white liberal guilt
A rich merchant and a rabbi both declare themselves 'nothing' before God. A poor Jew then says the same. The rich merchant protests: 'Who is this nobody that he also thinks he can say he is nothing?', illustrating how performed self-humiliation by the powerful conceals arrogance and a claim to universal judgment., illustrating false modesty,universality and particularity,white liberal self-humiliation
A rabbi and a rich merchant both declare before God that they are nothing; a poor Jew then also says he is nothing, whereupon the rabbi indignantly asks who this nobody thinks he is to claim he is also a nothing. Applied to white liberals competing in self-humiliation while denying minorities the right to the same gesture., illustrating performative self-humiliation,white liberal identity politics,universality vs. particularity
On Sabbath in a synagogue, a rabbi and a rich merchant each declare before God 'I am nobody, I am not worthy.' A poor Jew then says the same, and the rich merchant turns to the rabbi: 'Who is this guy, think he can also say he's nobody?' Žižek uses this to show that self-humiliation is a form of privilege, not everyone has the right to be a nobody., illustrating self-humiliation as privilege,white liberal guilt,object a as surplus profit of abasement
A rich rabbi and rich merchant each prostrate themselves before God as 'nothing'; a poor ordinary Jew does the same and the rich men whisper 'But who does this guy think he is to say he is also a nothing?' Illustrates how self-abasement can be a form of claiming special status., illustrating surplus enjoyment,identity politics,liberal guilt as appropriation of universality
In synagogue the rabbi and a rich merchant each declare themselves 'nothing before God'; a poor ordinary Jew does the same, whereupon the merchant kicks the rabbi and says 'who does this nobody think he is to say he is nothing?', illustrating surplus enjoyment,self-humiliation as authority,subject as excess