"This is one of my best Jewish jokes," says Mikhail Sergeev, an adjunct professor of religion, philosophy and modern art at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. "I don't tell it to my students."

A native of Moscow, Sergeev started collecting jokes when he began teaching at UArts 10 years ago. He likes to pepper his lectures with punch lines to better connect with his American students.

Here's how it goes: A young bride-to-be meets with her rabbi, who explains to her that the Jewish faith has many rules that apply to married people. One of them is that man and woman must not dance together. The young woman nods and says she understands.

"What about sex?" she asks.

"Sure," the rabbi responds.

"All kinds of sex?"

"Sure."

"Sex while you are lying down?"

"Sure."

"Sex while you are sitting?"

"Sure."

"Sex while you are standing up?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it may turn into a dance."

Sergeev's jokes are not meant to belittle, or mock, or insult. In the introduction to his collection of religious jokes, And God Created Laughter: Religious Jokes and Anekdotes, Sergeev cites the Talmud: "A person can be judged by how readily he laughs with others."

The collection, printed by a Czech publisher in Russian in 2005, has Book of Genesis jokes ("Why didn't Noah kill those two mosquitoes?"), Russian jokes ("Adam and Eve were the first Soviet couple. Only a Soviet couple could live without clothes, have only one apple for a meal and still believe they are in paradise"), and Jewish jokes ("A rabbi in a supermarket asks, 'How much is this fish?' The salesperson says, 'That's not fish, it's pork." The rabbi replies, 'So who is asking you?'").

In those Jewish jokes, Sergeev hears infinite wisdom: "The wisdom of a people who went through a thousand years of persecution, under all possible regimes, and know how to survive," he says. "You can feel it in all the jokes."

Like this one:

Four rabbis are walking together. The first three are arguing against the fourth on a biblical matter. The fourth lifts his hands to the sky and says, "God, send a sign to show that I am right!"

Immediately, the sun is obscured by clouds and lightning lights up the sky.

"See? I'm right!"

"Bah," say the other three. "A coincidence."

The fourth raises his arms and asks God again, and a lightning bolt strikes a nearby tree.