Reading from a Torah scroll in accordance with Sephardi tradition. Photo: Sagie Maoz via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1979, “The Life of Brian” by Monty Python comedians was a tremendous hit in Britain — and a scandal. The cast was composed of Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Graham Chapman, names that dominated British comedy for several decades.

It was set in Judea at the time of the Roman occupation and the rise of Christianity. It was iconoclastic in the truest sense of the word. It made fun of almost every possible cultural, political, and religious norm of British society. It’s essentially a group of fractious, petty, argumentative Judean rebels who sound like Marxists, Leninists, Trotskyists, and Stalinists trying unsuccessfully to defeat the Romans but can’t agree amongst themselves politically.

The figure who was supposed to represent Jesus was a nerdy naughty boy called Brian, who accidentally finds himself in the position of being worshipped by hordes of followers. But his mother called him “ just a very naughty boy.” Poor Brian found himself hounded by everybody — Romans, Jews, and pagans — until finally, the whole group ends up being captured and crucified by the Romans. It all ends with Eric Idle leading them in the song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Brilliantly, it held up a mirror to the hypocrisies, pretensions, and standards of British society and was merciless. Without a doubt, it was blasphemous, which made it additionally popular because in those days — when the Church of England was still important — that kind of humor was subversive.

Some weeks ago, John Cleese announced that he was working on a stage adaptation of “The Life of Brian.” He came under huge pressure from influential members of the artistic community to omit a certain scene from the production. But thankfully he refused and pushed back.

One of my favorite lines is, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” It’s particularly amusing because it mirrors a debate in the Talmud about what the Romans ever did for the Jews.

I was the principal of Carmel College when the film came out, and showed it there. Some of the Christian teachers were very upset and they came to me to protest. They argued that if I expected them to treat my religion with respect, why couldn’t I treat theirs with respect too? I replied that one should indeed respect the rules and the laws of the religions of others. But that doesn’t mean you cannot make fun or satirize.

There is something about the crime of blasphemy that offends me. It is not a crime against other people — only against religious orthodoxy and authority. Iconography originated as a movement to stop worshiping images and saints. Hunting blasphemers was a popular pass time hundreds of years ago. Thousands were burnt for professing theological variants with Christianity. It is still on the books in some Christian countries. But we have moved on since then.

Yet in many parts of the world today, you can be stoned to death for saying anything that is considered blasphemous. If anybody suggests that Mohammed was in some way an imperfect person, that could earn a fatwa and a death sentence.

Anybody or anything that takes itself too seriously should be held up to ridicule. Even religion. And if it isn’t confident enough to stand up to criticism or ridicule, then there is something wrong. I’ve always believed that it’s very necessary to have a sense of humor when it comes to religion. It is an important counterbalance to fanaticism. Nothing upsets the jihadi so much as to be laughed at. Even the Book of Psalms says that the Almighty sits up in heaven and has a good laugh at our pretensions. But now the so-called enlightened world has added a new kind of blasphemy declaring that it is not all right to make fun of secular religion.

We Jews have always faced humiliation and ridicule. We used humor to ridicule ourselves as well as others. Centuries of Christian polemic and enlightenment dismissal rained down on our religion and our holy texts. In the interests of free speech, I do not object to people saying what they want to say, so long as they don’t encourage violence against somebody who disagrees with them.

Comedy is traditionally a means by which the weak can check the power of the powerful, by pointing to their vanity, self-regard, and absurdities. Aristophanes mocked the Athenian rulers of his day, as Erasmus and Luther later used humor to prick the pretensions of the Renaissance papacy.

Anyone who can steel themselves to sit through a late-night talk show or “Saturday Night Live” episode knows that today all the “jokes” are designed to affirm the audience’s belief in their superiority. I weep for the culture that has descended to this pettiness. And may the Messiah (no, not Brian) come quickly and help us clean up this mess.

The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.