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Do Jews Celebrate Halloween ?
I know its origins aren't very "Jewish," but I'm worried that my kids will feel left out if they can't go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.
Answer: Historically speaking, the Halloween’s origins trace themselves back to the pagan idolatrous rites dedicated to the “sun god” and the “lord-of-the-dead.”
Halloween glorifies concepts relating to demonic forces, haunted places, witches, ghosts, goblins and general occult practices. Our faith celebrates life, not death. We believe in serving G-d with joy, not dread or horror. Most importantly, as a people we have always revered wholesomeness and uprightness not mischief.
Let me tell you about a wonderful Jewish holiday: once a year, our children dress up as sages, princesses, heroes and clowns. They drop by the homes of our community; visit the infirm and the aged, spreading joy and laughter. They bring gifts of food and drink and collect tzedakah (charity) for the needy.
You guessed it--it's called Purim, when it's customary to send mishloach manot--gifts of food--to one's friends and even more gifts to those in hard times.
Flip it over (October instead of March, demanding instead of giving, scaring instead of rejoicing, demons instead of sages, etc.) and you have Halloween. There you have it: a choice of one of two messages you can give to your children. I call that a choice, because one of the beautiful things about kids is that, unlike adults, they don't do too well receiving two conflicting messages at once.
I know how hard it is to be different, but as Jews, we have been doing just that for most of our 3,800 years. Since Abraham and Sarah broke away from the Sumerian cult of gods and demons, we have lived amongst other peoples while being very different from them. And we dramatically changed the world by being that way.
That's a proud and nurturing role for any child: To be a leader and not a follower, to be a model of what should be rather than of what is.
Make your kids feel that they are the vanguard. They belong to a people who have been entrusted with the mission to be a light to the nations--not an ominous light inside a pumpkin, but a light that stands out and above and shows everyone where to go. Forget about Halloween and wait for Purim to turn the neighborhood upside down!
Best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Eli Goodman
Educational & Outreach Director
Answer: Historically speaking, the Halloween’s origins trace themselves back to the pagan idolatrous rites dedicated to the “sun god” and the “lord-of-the-dead.”
Halloween glorifies concepts relating to demonic forces, haunted places, witches, ghosts, goblins and general occult practices. Our faith celebrates life, not death. We believe in serving G-d with joy, not dread or horror. Most importantly, as a people we have always revered wholesomeness and uprightness not mischief.
Let me tell you about a wonderful Jewish holiday: once a year, our children dress up as sages, princesses, heroes and clowns. They drop by the homes of our community; visit the infirm and the aged, spreading joy and laughter. They bring gifts of food and drink and collect tzedakah (charity) for the needy.
You guessed it--it's called Purim, when it's customary to send mishloach manot--gifts of food--to one's friends and even more gifts to those in hard times.
Flip it over (October instead of March, demanding instead of giving, scaring instead of rejoicing, demons instead of sages, etc.) and you have Halloween. There you have it: a choice of one of two messages you can give to your children. I call that a choice, because one of the beautiful things about kids is that, unlike adults, they don't do too well receiving two conflicting messages at once.
I know how hard it is to be different, but as Jews, we have been doing just that for most of our 3,800 years. Since Abraham and Sarah broke away from the Sumerian cult of gods and demons, we have lived amongst other peoples while being very different from them. And we dramatically changed the world by being that way.
That's a proud and nurturing role for any child: To be a leader and not a follower, to be a model of what should be rather than of what is.
Make your kids feel that they are the vanguard. They belong to a people who have been entrusted with the mission to be a light to the nations--not an ominous light inside a pumpkin, but a light that stands out and above and shows everyone where to go. Forget about Halloween and wait for Purim to turn the neighborhood upside down!
Best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Eli Goodman
Educational & Outreach Director
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Julie Lehmann Weisman on -
I second that. I grew up conservative and my parents used to allow me to go to school in costume, and even gave other kids who came knocking on our door candy, yet they would not allow me to go trick or treating because it was "not a jewish holiday." How much more of a mixed message can you get? I strongly reccomend to parents to pick a side and stick to it, and to hopefully choose the side with better values, and imbues children with a more loving view of the world.
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Permalink Reply by rebecca klempner on -
I know it's after-the-fact, but I'm seriously anti-Halloween! a) Clearly, it's pagan, at least in origin, and the Roman Catholic church has Christianized it with All Hallows, All Saints, etc. My husband works in a Catholic school part of the day and he says they really get into it. b) It teaches a message of gimme! gimme! instead of giving, like Purim. c) Celebrating it invites missionaries into your neighborhood. No joke. Every year, J. Witnesses crawl through neighborhoods to Halloween events to hand out anti-Halloween but very Christian pamphlets. I saw 7 missionaries doing just that on Fri., when the public school held it's Halloween celebration. If you take your kids to such events, you put your kids at risk. d) When we get to Heaven, all these Missionary Christians (Pentacostals, J.W.s, Seventh-Day Adventists, etc.) will be able to report that they didn't participate in this particular avodah zarah...how ashamed I would be to say I didn't refrain! However, if you want your kids not to participate in Halloween, you've got to give them things you say "yes" to, such as family outings and/or Jewish traditions.
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Permalink Reply by Shara Zuckerman Shetrit on -
I just want to add that historically non-Jews have been given the license to do pretty horrible things to Jews on Halloween. That's enough of a reason not to celebrate.
My neighborhood is VERY into Halloween and I buy candy and allow my kids to hand it out at the door. I tell them that this is not a Jewish holiday, that we just had our candy holiday (Simchat Torah) and Purim is our holiday to dress up, but that these are our neighbors and they wouldn't understand if we did not open the door, so to be neighborly we give out candy. They are ok with it. They are 7 and 4 and have always understood.
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