Jews and Halloween: Celtic Rituals & Idolatry

Is celebrating Halloween against Jewish law? Discover surprising insights as we explore the intersection of Halloween customs and Halacha. We dig into Halloween’s origins, tracing its evolution from ancient Celtic rituals to its modern-day form, and ponder the halachic implications of participating in traditions like trick-or-treating and wearing costumes. While I’m not a rabbi, and recommend consulting one for definitive guidance, this episode uncovers intriguing aspects of Halloween's roots, highlighting potential issues with its idolatrous past and encouraging you to reflect on how these elements might influence your decisions and actions today.

Beyond the Halloween discussion, we delve into the practice of reflection and gratitude, urging you to question and appreciate the benefits of your daily actions. Often, it's easy to adopt habits without understanding their positive impacts. Here, we emphasize the importance of being mindful—taking a step back to understand and appreciate the unseen processes and contributors that enrich our lives. Join us as we explore these thought-provoking topics, and walk away with practical insights that could enrich your journey towards intentionality and gratitude.

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Transcript

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Welcome in to the Motivation Congregation podcast.

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We got something different going on today.

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It's not your regular scheduled programming, not a short Musser talk with some music in the background, but more of a halacha discussion with the help of Hashem, concluding with a practical takeaway and a Mussar idea.

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Now, this episode is a bonus episode and really came about just through some honest curiosity.

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Most of you may not even know exactly what the context of this episode and the ideas discussed therein are all about, but, either way, I bet that you'll find these conclusions to be rather surprising, to say the least, and stick around for the conclusion.

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That will be something that could help us to steer clear of some roadblocks and stumbling blocks in the future.

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Now, today's topic being that it is Monday, october 30th 2023, is Halloween in Halacha.

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Now, most of y'all may not even know what Halloween is, but if you live in the certain out-of-town communities of the world or maybe you grew up in Virginia, you'll know a bit.

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At least you thought about what Halloween is.

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If you maybe grew up in Lakewood or Flatbush, maybe not so much.

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So what is Halloween?

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Why is it celebrated?

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Is there any halachic prohibitions in trick-or-treating?

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If you decide to put your costume on tonight.

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Is there a halachic issue?

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While it may not be entirely practical, we do live amongst the non-Jews.

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Is there anything that we should be aware of about the nature of Halloween and how it coincides with the holy halacha?

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Would a person violate a prohibition maybe a biblical or rabbinic prohibition by merely knocking on a door tomorrow night and asking for some candy, or maybe just putting on your old sweaty and wine-stained Purim costume and going for round two tomorrow night?

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So first things first, a little bit of a disclaimer I'm not a rabbi and I do not have any halacha knowledge background, and definitely not in how to pasken and bring the different opinions to the modern day.

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So one should definitely seek the advice and counsel of their local Orthodox rabbi.

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But here is just one man's research and findings about the topic.

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Now, first let's discuss what could be a halachic issue with all of this.

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Number one, there's actually something called Darchei Emoyri, which is a prohibition that we find many times to be discussed inside of the Gemara, where Shulchan Aruch actually brings it down to Halacha, where the Amorites, the Amorim, would engage in certain silly superstitions, it seems, or certain sayings, or create certain potions or doing certain actions, and it is forbidden for us to mimic their ways.

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There is a bit of some ambiguity as to what the real reason is.

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What is the underlying and underpinnings of this transgression?

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And, following the MO rights, the Bais Yosef brings from the smog that it really is twofold.

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That it could be based on sorcery, because it was well known that sorcery and witchcraft was widespread in the world of the Amoyrim.

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Maybe that could be an issue with Halloween.

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Or the basios have also said that could be based in the Jewish people ever gratuitously imitating other nations More along the lines of and following non-Jewish practices.

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So Maybe.

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But last but not least, there are more poskins in Yerudea that actually any performance, any following of any custom that is originally originating from any sort of avodah zara of service of the spirits of the foreign, alien, made-up gods, even if it doesn't still isn't still practiced for that reason.

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But there's the slightest taint or it is even Hard to suspect that this is because of a desire that you are doing and engaging in this practice, still, says the Ramah.

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This could be an issue and in fact is an issue of engaging in idolatrous practices.

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So what's left is to get down to what exactly is going on, what's the celebration and what is Halloween all about?

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Is it just a memorial day, a time to party?

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Is that where it came from, or could it be something more?

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I discovered that Halloween began some 2,000 years ago in the area and the country of what we know to be as modern day Ireland, at the ancient Celtic festival of the Samhain nation I thought it was Samhain, but apparently it's pronounced Samhain where they would have this sort of festival where they would light bonfires and wear animal skins, where they would light bonfires and wear animal skins.

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And it seems to be because this was the turn of the season, october 31st, where some elements of this crazy sun god is now being put into jail by the winter god.

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Needless to say that there seems to be some real avodazara practices.

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People were fearful of the souls that were now unleashed from this other world, so they would wear animal skins.

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And then things got worse when the 18th century Pope Gregory wanted to propagate his All Saints Day, some sort of day where people would celebrate the deceased.

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But then, when people could not, or the church could not, get rid of the pagan holiday, of the original All Howls Eve Day, which was that celebration of the Celtic Festival, eventually they said, let's just put it all on the same day.

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So the eve of October 31st, the whole souls creepy thing all hallows along with the daytime Christian All Saints Day, all Saints Day.

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Not to mention that the Romans in 43 CE also tried to put in some god named Feralia, some dead Yortzeit weird thing, along with some Pomona god, which was the god of trees Also.

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They would celebrate it on that day as something to do with a turning over of the seasons.

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So it was weird, because it really does seem that the origins of this holiday is from total paganism.

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I never really thought that we would have some chance to abstain from a void de zara like a modern day avram avinu.

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But it seems that the 31st of october is some quasi non-jewish, gentile, roman, christian, celtic souls type of death holiday thing.

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It most definitely would seem, at least on face value, to be some violation of maybe Darchei Emori but I ain't a rabbi or maybe some overstepping the boundaries into Uvechukos, seom, loselechu and, last but not least, one of the big three of Avodah Zarah.

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Now maybe there's some wiggle room, because modern day Gentile adherence to Halloween seems to be totally disconnected to any of this, seems to be totally disconnected to any of this, but the Ramah did tell us that even if that is true, it still is an issue.

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It doesn't seem like a very innocent holiday.

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Seems like the costumes were to protect from spirits.

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Yeah, the trick-or-treating that came in from the Goyish when the Christians got involved with the Pope, and the handing out of free food to people that would promise to do better in the future, it seems very much rooted in idolatry and things that the Jewish people do not stand for and a violation of halacha.

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But then again, check with your local Orthodox rabbi, for there may be some leniency that I'm not aware of.

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But here we talk about Musser, we talk about a practical takeaway, and we do believe that one can learn from almost anything.

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No, we do believe that one can learn from anything, and in this situation the takeaway seems pretty straightforward and clear, that I imagine that most Gentiles, most non-Jews, don't even understand or know what exactly they are celebrating.

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And that's takeaway number one that it's very possible to engage in behavior, to be excited, but have absolutely no idea what you're doing.

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And that's something for us to learn, that maybe we should be more well-educated about our own festivals.

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And, furthermore, it's unbelievable that a person will never question why something's happening, if things are going his way, when the goodies are falling from the heavens, when there's free candy and it's a free day off of work and it's time to party.

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Nobody seems to want to put an end to that or even think about if it is right or wrong.

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I'm not talking from the Jewish side of things, but it's just.

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No one even seems to bat an eyelash or to question it.

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No one even seems to bat an eyelash or to question it.

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Maybe we should take more time that, when we have all of the goodies coming to us by way of the one and only God, hakadosh Baruch Hu, that he gives us everything and we have so much to be grateful for for sustaining us and giving us all the goodies, we should stop to think.

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For sustaining us and giving us all the goodies.

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We should stop to think where is this coming from?

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Why is this happening?

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Who is supplying all of this?

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Why am I doing this?

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But to live life with our heads screwed on with Das and with Seychell.

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People go trick-or-treating without even the slightest clue why.

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Mostly, it just seems it's promoted by the candy companies to sell more candy, but for us Jews it definitely seems like this weird creepy night of October 31st may be a violation of the halacha, but I ain't a posik or a rabbi.

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But what we can say unequivocally?

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That there is a very valuable takeaway here.

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It is very possible for a human being to engage in a practice that he never understands or thinks about, and all the more so if he is benefiting from it.

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If something good is happening, he may never stop to question why, how, what, when or who is even supplying the goods.

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So take a second to think about your actions.

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Think about the good.

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Thank HaKadosh Baruch Hu, who is supplying all the goodies and live life with your head screwed on tight to your shoulders, using your das and using your seichel to connect, all the more so to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Jews and Halloween: Celtic Rituals & Idolatry

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