Posted on 10/31/2012 10:31:16 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
If you allow your kids to participate in the pagan rites of a gentile culture, they are likely to grow up with pumpkin heads instead of Jewish heads.
Tonight, Jewish youth all over the world – except in Israel– will celebrate the pagan holiday of Halloween.
Halloween is also called All Hallows’ Eve, because, for the gentiles, it is a hallowed evening, the eve of All Saints’ Day, a day which honors all Christian saints.
The Encyclopedia Britannica explains that in ancient Britain and Ireland, the Festival of Halloween was also celebration of the end of the fertile period of the Celtic goddess, Eiseria. It is said that when Eiseria reaches the end of her fertile cycle, the worlds of the dead and the living intertwine. This supposedly happens on October 31. Masks are worn to show respect for the Goddess Eiseria, who, like most Celtic gods, does not wish to be seen by human eyes. This is one of the reason behind Halloween costumes and for the holiday’s omens, spirits, demons, and witches.
This date was also New Year’s Eve in both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times, and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits. The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day, and the festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, black cats, fairies, and demons said to be roaming about.
It was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of nature. In addition, Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for divination concerning marriage, luck, health, and death. It was the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes. These pagan observances also influenced the Christian festival of All Hallows’ Eve, celebrated on the same date.
Jewish Law states:
A Jew should not follow the customs of the gentiles, nor imitate them in dress, or in their way of trimming their hair, as it says, ‘You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I cast out before you’ (Lev. 20:23), and ‘Neither shall you walk in their statutes’ (Lev. 18:3). These verses all refer to one and the same matter of not imitating them. A Jew, on the contrary, should be distinguished from them and recognizable by the way he dresses, and in his other activities, just as he is distinguished from them in his knowledge and his beliefs, as it is said, ‘I have set you apart from the peoples’ (Lev. 20:26). (See, Rambam, Laws Regarding Idol Worship and the Ordinances of the Gentiles, 11:1).
When it comes to the question whether Jews can take part in gentile holidays, the halachic discussion differs between clearly religious holidays like Xmas, which are forbidden, and purely secular holidays like Labor Day, which are permissible. Halloween’s religious origins and pagan history place it in the category of gentile holidays that are forbidden to celebrate.
Though Halloween in America has been secularized and commercialized to the point where it is now a frivolous time of costumes, candy, and pranks, it is still celebrated in places like Scotland and Ireland as a Celtic festival of the spirits, and in other places as a holiday honoring the Christian saints. Therefore, there is good reason for telling the kids that “Trick or Treating” is a no-no for Jewish children.
The law prohibiting our participation in gentile holidays and customs comes to protect our special Jewish holiness and cultural distinction. If you allow your kids to participate in the pagan rites of a gentile culture, they are likely to grow up with pumpkin heads instead of Jewish heads.
On the other hand, if you try to safeguard our distinction as Jews and not let your children go “Trick or Treating” with all the other kids in the neighborhood, there’s a good chance that they will grow up hating both you and Judaism for turning them into freaks in the eyes of their friends. Either way, as a Jewish parent, you lose.
What’s the solution? Move to Israel. The only place you will see a pumpkin here is in the supermarket (a small yellow one that looks more like a squash). If you truly love your children and don’t want them growing up with pumpkin heads, then the only solution is to bring them to Israel where they will grow up with Jewish holidays like we’re supposed to.
For example, my 12-year-old son doesn’t know anything about Halloween. He probably has heard about Xmas, but he’s never heard any “Silent Night, Holy Night” carols or seen mangers, or Santa Claus decorations on the street. He’s never heard of Ground Hound Day, and he couldn’t tell you what color is associated with St. Patrick. If you told him that Americans eat gefilta fish on Thanksgiving, he wouldn’t know you were pulling his leg. He’s totally ignorant when it comes to Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and I doubt that he’s heard of Columbus. I can bet he’s never seen an Easter egg, and to him, the Fourth of July doesn’t mean a thing. For him, Memorial Day honors Israel’s fallen soldiers and not department stores sales. His official school holidays fall on the Days of Awe, Sukkot, Chanukah, and Pesach, and not on the Xmas and Easter celebration of Jezeus.
In other words, my son, thank G-d, is growing up to be a Jew without any foreign Xtian pollution, and without the schizophrenia of observing the holidays of gentile countries and cultures in foreign gentile lands.
Are you still going to let your kid go Trick-or-Treating tonight?
“It’s based on a pun. Yiddishe kopf (”Jewish head”) is a common Yiddish expression”
Let’s be blunt and honest.
It’s based on “goyishe kopf,” which is an insult.
There are no formal, official prayers to the Sages
As you know, ZC, Christians do not pray "to" saints, but ask saints to pray for them. Their names are invoked. And in the pious songs and prayers of Judaism, the prophets and sages are invoked as well.
Sorry widey, but there simply is no Jewish counterpart to the chrstian cultus of the saints. There are no prayers (or even requests) in the Siddur or Machsor invoking deceased sages to "pray for us." You might find a few poetic references in some of the piyyutim (and I'm not sure about that), but in chrstianity the saints are officially invoked. In Judaism they are not.
or statues of the Sages prayed before.
Since Judaism eschews statuary,
And icons as well . . .
graves are typically used instead as special, physical places for the commemoration and veneration of the sages.
How you can compare prayer at the graves of sages to the chrstian cultus of the saints is beyond me. Where in the Shemonei 'Esrei are the tzaddiqim actually addressed? Even the first blessing, about the 'Avot, is addressed to G-d and not to the 'Avot themselves. Nor is the universal Jewish calendar peppered with the feast days of tzaddiqim, as you well know. Various communities do observe anniversaries special to them, such as birthdays, yahrzeits, and deliverances from danger, but the Jewish holidays are those ordained in the Torah. The 'Anshei HaKenesset HaGedolah added Purim and Chanukkah, and later still La"G Ba`Omer was added as a minor holiday. One of the events this commemorates is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Shim`on Bar Yochai, though it also commemorates the end of the plague among Rabbi 'Akiva's students as well.
No one has a "patron sage"
Every community has "patron sages", usually the deceased rebbes of their community or the sages whose books are revered as valuable commentary in their communities.
Don't you think there's a difference between revering books and commentaries and invoking their authors in the official prayer of the community? I suppose not, if you're trying to stuff a chrstian peg into a Jewish hole.
nor are their "feast days" for them.
That would be news to the Ukrainian communities who are inundated with devout Hasidic pilgrims who come to venerate their sages on special days.
Widey, widey, widey . . . Rav Nachman of Breslov's grave is visited on Ro'sh HaShanah, not any "St. Nachman's Day." And again, the visiting of graves of holy men on the anniversaries of their deaths simply does not compare to the chrstian "proper of the saints." Judaism does not have a "proper of the saints" at all. This is a chrstian thing. Any glance at a Siddur will show an unbridgeable gulf between Jewish and chrstian prayers.
A glance might create the impression of an unbridgeable gulf.
It does indeed.
An informed perusal would notice that a Siddur and a Christian Missal/Liturgy have very similar structures.
So? There is no "proper of the saints," no side altars (in fact no altar at all). It's a different religion, widey. It's true `Avodah is still awaiting restoration at the Holy Temple, and there will be no "prayers to saints" there either.
The core service opens with invocations, then blessings, then a doxology. There are readings from Scripture, there is often a homily, and a sequence. The most signal difference in the structure is that the Siddur has no sacrifice, while many Christian services do.
Chrstianity's cribbing from Judaism is not a matter in dispute. But you are far oversimplifying matters here. The central act of prayer in the Jewish ritual is the `Avodah (which was written by Prophets) and which contains no prayers addressed to tzaddiqim. The other important part of the morning and night services is the Shema`, the twice daily recital of which is a mitzvah. In addition to this are the Pesuqei d'Zimra', the Tachanun (on appropriate days), and the `Aleynu. But you've now changed the subject of this discussion, which is your claim that the chrstian invocation of saints and their official celebration in their own propers is a continuation of the Jewish veneration of Sages. And I'm sorry, but it is not. As I said in my previous post, any perusal of the actual texts of the prayers will show this. And any glance at a typical Jewish calendar will show there is no official sanctoral cycle. Again, these are chrstian things, not Jewish.
The similarities between the two stand to reason: the first generation of Christian worship often consisted of communal prayer in the synagogue followed by a sacrificial ritual in another location.
All well and good, but this has nothing to do with your claim that the chrstian cultus of the saints is a simple continuation of the veneration of sages in Judaism. It most assuredly is not.
As I have said before, chrstianity chose to proscribe Judaism and "baptize" paganism (or at least gentilism). That was its choice. Of course, had it made the opposite decision it still would have been unnecessary.
“First off, what was the ORIGINAL Torah scrolls. Exact copies were around. This is how they confirmed it was the original.”
Yes, obviously it was the Book of the Law that Moses sealed in the Ark, but where do you get that they had other copies around and confirmed this by that means? Is that from the oral traditions or from the Bible?
The story I read in the Bible says that Josiah was grieved by what he read in the Book, convicted in his heart by the testimony of God against his people, to the point of rending his clothes. He then commands his servants to go to a prophet of God, saying:
“13 Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.”
This seems very plainly to show that Josiah is just now finding out that Israel has been unfaithful, so he is not just reading the original Torah scrolls for the first time, he is reading the Torah, in any form, for the first time! Otherwise, why is he only concerned that they aren’t doing the words of THIS book, if those words were no different than the words of every other Book of the Law laying around Israel? It only makes sense if there were no other such books.
“Second, it is false that the “Israelites had completely forgotten the law.” Think it through: it was a high priest who found the original. There were still a core of faithful who observed the law. They were just outnumbered and did not have political clout.”
Just because there was a high priest does not mean that he, or anyone else in Israel, was faithful to the Law. Obviously, there have been plenty of men who have styled themselves high priests who weren’t faithful to God.
The answer that God gives through the prophet also supports the idea that Israel was completely unfaithful, with no remnant of faithful that was simply reinvigorated. For example:
“17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.”
ALL the works of their hands provoked God, not just some of them.
Then, when God says he will show mercy, it is not because there was small group who had remained faithful, it was only because of the recent repentance of Josiah himself, upon his discovery of the Book of the Law:
“18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;
19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.”
So, I think the story is pretty clear that the whole of Israel had forgotten the Law, in its written form. Which makes me highly skeptical that they would have preserved the Law in an oral form. If they knew the Law at this point, why would Josiah only at that point be grieved to the point of action? Why would he have to go to a prophet to find out what to do, instead of simply relying on his knowledge of the Law? Why would God confirm to Josiah that all of Israel’s works were sinful?
Even if we were to answer those questions and somehow conclude that there was a core of faithful at this time, there certainly couldn’t have been a core of faithful at ALL times throughout Israel’s history. After all, there are simply far too many prophecies pointing to the time when Israel would completely forget God. For example, God told Moses in Deuteronomy 32:
“15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.”
“18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.”
“20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.”
“28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.”
“36 For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.”
I mean, there are five verses in a single chapter of prophecy that talk of the time when Israel would be completely unfaithful and forget God. So, if the time preceding Josiah’s discovery of the Book of the Law was not this prophecied time, then there certainly must have been another time which would fulfill those, and all the many similar, prophecies. After all, have we not seen the judgements that were prophecied to follow that time come to pass, exactly as God prophecied?
And in NONE Of these recorded New Testament cases -- minus Jesus speaking to Lazarus to come out of the grave (& any other resurrections He did) -- is there a recorded instance of a person (out of body) receiving direct communication from somebody still in the body.
Christians do not pray "to" saints, but ask saints to pray for them...
You are playing word games here -- because anybody listening to such a person "converse"/appeal/communicate/discuss/mediation attempt etc. with somebody out of body would be in EVERY context interpreted as a form of invocation, intercession, mediation or simply put, prayer.
We know the early church wasn't advocating this.
Jesus died between 28-30 A.D. By within 220 years, we have quotes like these:
"We judge improper to pray to those beings who themselves offer up prayers. For even they themselves would prefer that we should send up our requests to the God to whom they pray, rather than to send them downwards to themselves, or to apportion our power of prayer between God and them." (Origen, c. 248 AD, 7 years before his death, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, p. 533)
From that same source: "Celsus forgets that he is addressing Christians, who pray to God alone through Jesus"
Now Cyprian around that same time (c. 250) acknowledged "that the merits of martyrs and the works of the righteous are of great avail with the Judge." He quickly added a "However": "However, this will be when the Day of Judgment comes. It will be after the conclusion of this life and the end of this world--when His people will stand before the judgment seat of Christ." (p. 436)
I took a quick look around that same time period as to how martyrs were regarded in their then-current placement with Christ/in Christ. Dionysius of Alexandria (c. 262) did reference them as "judicial assessors": "Those holy martyrs, who were once with us are now seated with Christ. They are sharers in His Kingdom and partakers with Him in His judgment. They act as His judicial assessors."
(But again, Dionysius dovetails Cyprian in linking that role to Christ's future role in judging...)
Until you can at least show that the earliest church fathers embrace the mediation and intercession and invocations you profess, you don't even have a leg to stand on...
It doesn't matter. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6,7)
2)Zechariah is not propehsying about chrstianity as the "fulfillment of Judaism." This is merely the chrstian interpretation of Zechariah (and the entire Hebrew Bible). But that interpretation is not self-evidently true.
Zechariah was speaking of the Messiah just as Isaiah was and the Psalmist in Psalm 22 was. In all, over three hundred prophecies were written about the coming Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled them all. There can be no hiding behind the rationalization that "this is merely the Christian interpretation", because we all know these books are STILL available in the Hebrew language. No reputable scholar would or even could get away with a false translation of the original languages of the Bible. I'm surprised you could fall for such a blatant smokescreen.
3)You cannot "prove" chrstianity to a non-chrstian by simply quoting the "new testament." One must be a chrstian already for that to have any merit.
I was quoting the Old Testament to a non-Christian who claimed he accepted it as from God. But, you are right about what it takes to "convert" any person to Christ. It is an act of faith that believes first IN God and also that this God created people for a purpose and did not leave us on our own to figure out what it is. In order to "prove" anything to anyone, you have to have evidence and enough of it in a good enough quantity and quality. Now there IS sufficient, more than enough even, to prove that Jesus was who He claimed to be and that He is the fulfillment of all those Old Testament prophecies. Anyone who is honestly searching for the truth about it will be rewarded with the truth but that is the requirement - earnestly seeking the truth. Just like God told Moses:
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
And to Jeremiah:
You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:13)
And as He told Solomon:
And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. (I Chronicles 28:9)
I did find the statement about "pumpkin heads" strange but it was explained to me about it being a "Jewish" saying so I'm okay, I have a sense of humor and LOVE Yiddish and Jewish humor. As to the subject of Halloween, I am ambivilent because Trick-or-Treating was something we all did as kids - and I'm talking over fourty-something years since I actually did it. The kids in our neighborhood are no more sinister or opened to evil than we were - it was just a fun kid thing to look forward to, that's all. In fact, most of the kids that came by had pretty innoculous costumes on - princesses, knights, the "Joker", Candy-corn witch, old-lady-fuddy-duddy and Superman. No one got possessed, no one vandalized. It was all over by nine p.m. and I turned off the porch light. We've lived here for six years now and not once have there been problems because of Halloween. People can decide for themselves, it's not my business to dictate what they can and cannot permit for their own kids.
The REAL problem I had and, I hope from the comments you are getting on this thread, that you realize by now that it was NOT the article itself which caused the consternation but your own superflous words condemning the Christian faith. If you think back to the time when you were a Christian, would you have taken such hits against your faith and not felt a need to rebut them? I think you bombed your own thread.
It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. The event that some Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. The modern Thanksgiving holiday traces its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. This was continued in later years, first as an impromptu religious observance, and later as a civil tradition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States))
I haven't heard of other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving Day - at least not for the same reasons we do in America. So for that reason, I don't see how it could be a problem or "complex issue" for anyone who is American. It's not a religious holiday, per se, but a tradition to set aside a day for families to gather and thank God for His blessings over the year. By the same tone, I think the way Halloween is marked here is far different than the ancient Celts or Druids observed it and it is really pretty innocent. I think far too much is made of it for it to be mandatory for all believers to avoid like it is a sin such as idol worship. I do think our society commericalizes such special dates too much and the significance of them is sometimes lost, but, again, it is up to the individual how and if they do observe such days.
Thank you for that.
P.S. I like your tagline! :o)
Exactly.
Of course we disagree with each others religious points of view, but silly folks like the author using such language can only divide.
And that's a very nice compromise.
Last week we toured eastern Poland and went to Zabłudów, and some parts of Lithuania and found out about Litvak Judaism (didn't even know about that earlier!) and their theological debates. Fascinating -- and I of course see parallels in Christian thought a century /two later
I personally think the dietary laws have sensible logical reasoning for a desert climate with heavy population and low sanitary etc. — pork can get easily corrupted, more than other meats, and presumably the cooking a calf has another logical reasoning.
the problem is the poor choice of words by the author of this article
Note that it’s not Jews who are saying these things, but Noahcides who would call us “ Greco-Roman/European religion”
Another possible reason for a ban on pork is the nomadic lifestyle. Cattle, sheep and goats can be driven for miles each day, but not pigs. God was looking out after his Children.
I didn’t think of that! And the dietary laws date from the wanderings in the desert, not when they settled down in Kanaan
“Yes, obviously it was the Book of the Law that Moses sealed in the Ark, but where do you get that they had other copies around and confirmed this by that means? Is that from the oral traditions or from the Bible?”
Both, actually. Every king was to personally make a copy of the Torah. Most did. This king (who was a kid, in fairness) blew his responsibility off until confronted with the original document signed by Moshe himself. It’s a major point of the recounted events.
I concur with your anti halloween article but your enemy isn’t halloween or Americans or Christians..
Your true enemies are sin, death and the devil and only One defeated them. You have chosen to deny Him.
Saul from the tribe of Benjamin explained it this way:
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Grecian. For by it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
You can be saved Zionist. Moses can’t wash your sins away. Jesus can ..
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And the wages of that sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
God proves he loves us in that though we are still sinners,
Christ died to save us.
And if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
For if your heart believes, it brings righteousness and if you confess with your mouth, brings salvation.
For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Zionist conspirator, I pray you receive that gift of faith before your final breath because you appear to long for righteousness.
Jesus, I pray for a softening of Zionist conspirator’s heart for the Gospel and a dissolving of the unbelief that blocks Your grace into his/her life.
Amen.
Ok, but where in the Bible does is relate your version of these events? Because that is not documented in the chapter I quoted, so if there is another chapter somewhere that does relate that, I would like to read it.
"Our Father..." sure seems like a Hebrew prayer to me.
To you.
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