Adam and Eve's fast and solstice feast - a Jewish and Noahide alternative to Saturnalian Christmas

Is it permissible to lie to children? Are "magic" and "Santa Claus" worthy causes that justify breaking the moral law that prohibits lies and deception? Or does this trick of "putting a stumbling block before the blind" undermine their faith in G-d and in humanity? When did Mary give birth to her famous son? What does the evergreen tree signify, and what is the origin of this tradition? What are the origins of the Roman Saturnalia / Sol Invictus holiday at the winter solstice? Is there a Jewish tradition about the significance of this heavenly event? (yes there is!) And how should we observe this in order to nullify idolatry and honor the "Father of lights, in whom there is no change or shadow of turning?"

What does the evergreen tree signify?

The fear of endless winter is what drove the pagan Germans to sacrifice at Donar's oak. Boniface took an axe to the idolatrous Oak, he survived the wrath of Thor (Donar), because they don't exist. He pointed the surprised Germans to the evergreen tree as a sign that winter will end. This should have taught the Germans that the Eternal God is Lord over nature, and is alone worthy of fear, and in him we can hope that spring will return.

This is, or should have been, the seasonal lesson of the evergreen. jaredscribe.com/evergreen-tree

But once the now "christian" germans cut the evergreen down to put in their living room or church lobby, the tree died, and is ipso facto no longer "ever"-green. So the lesson Boniface taught is forgotten, left untransmitted, and now the "christmas" tree is merely another idolatrous object in the cults of the false gods Santa Claus, mom and dad, the pop culture marketing complex, consumer capitalism generally, the national GDP in whom many apparently trust, republican-democracy with this established as its state religion, and the Anglo-American led liberal internationalist world order - which is supposedly "rules-based", but actually based on the projection of military power. The cult of Santa Claus at the "Christmas tree" is not fundamentally different or morally superior to the polytheistic worship of thor or jupiter at Donar's oak, which is also about the worship of warrior power.

Just as Asiatic nations have every reason to resist the encroachment of American imperialism, they have every reason to reject these false cults on which it is based. We should de-colonize our understanding of discipleship and religion, reject Roman and Germanic idolatry and imperialism, and learn the Noahide covenant from the Jewish people, whose own particular Sinai covenant explicitly teaches this prohibition, giving the antidote for the intellectual and moral illness of idolatry:

God knows when you're sleeping, he sees when you're awake

He knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for heaven's sake.

Ascribing godly attributes to Santa Claus is an act of "making an image of God", imagining him in human form. The images of Santa Claus are, ipso facto IDOLS. This is forbidden to the God-fearing. Making lists of desired presents, and setting them on bedposts, is a form of IDOLATRY - the worship of idols. This engenders magical thinking, superstition, and deception. Once children grow out of it, it engenders mistrust of parents, teachers, and pastors leading to eventually athiesm or agnosticism. If they later return to faith, they should reject this apostasy and the entire religion that perpetuates it. Thus the true G-d "dispossesses" the idolaters of their children's loyalty, in accord with divine justice:

Teasing or lying to children for the sake of "magic", since they are too young to see and understand the way of the world, is a form of laying a "stumbling block before the blind". If you lie to them about Santa Claus, why should they believe anything you say about Mary and Joseph and their holy baby? Or about anything, for that matter? He wasn't born on December 25th, and although there is a record in the new testament scriptures of him observing Hannukah, there is no record of him or the apostles celebrating his birthday. Once they discover that they have been flattered by soothsayers, they will be doubly disillusioned.

The origin of the Roman Saturnalia and Kalenda, according to the Jewish sages, may their memory be a blessing. This suggests how we can learn natural philosophy and the fear of God from Adam our father, and thereby rectify the holiday:

Teach children natural philosophy, planetary science, and newtonian physics, astronomy, so they understand the natural cause of the seasons, and liberate themselves from superstitition and irrational fear.

Blessed be the God of Adam, the universal king, who has given "order to the world", and who gives knowledge to man.

Testmonies "edut" is from the same root "moedium" / holidays. Passover, pentecost, and sukkot are "testimonies", as is the sabbath. Unlike christmas, these are trustworthy memorials of historical events and trustworthy allegories for refinement of the soul. Observe these instead: for Jews it is a holy obligation to "keep" them. For God-fearing gentiles, who are forbidden from "Judaizing", it can be a volunteer service and an act of discipleship.

Roman catholics hold christ-mass to be a "holy obligation" and as aspect of "sacrament". This is the sin of "adding to the commandments", and it is a bogus form of holiness. Most protestants avoid the language of "obligation", but nevertheless make christ-mass a fixed practice and tradition that has the same effective status of sacrament, creating a sort of familyolatry.

Those who abstain are unfairly but commonly derided as puritanical fanatics, grinches, scrooges. If they enjoy the biblical holidays instead, christians seeking to learn the Hebrew roots of their faith along with God-fearers who have rejected the religion altogether (as I have done), are likely to be accused of legalism or judaizing, and excommunicated or shunned by the adherents of what should more accurately be called "churchianity".

The voluntary celebration by gentiles of biblical holidays - those in which Jews are positively obligated but gentiles are not - does not constitute "Judaizing" according to the apostle Paul prohibition of that error, which is roughly equivalent to Talmud and the Mishneh Torah's prohibition on it - and the accusation is usually false. The voluntary celebration of biblical holidays constitutes what Paul described as "sanctification by faith", the counterpart for God-fearing gentile Noahides to the Jewish obligation of "sanctification by the commandment". These are complementary to each other, not hostile or contradictory as churchianity falsely teaches them to be.

Read also the essay "What does Judaism say about Christmas: A night we don't study, a day soaked in sorrows, and today's materialism HQ in progress" by Rav Yonah Bookstein.

A warning like unto this was delivered it to a few churches on "Christ"mas eve 2021, and published on my website: the churches remained unentreatable and tendentious, as is their way. In 2022, the Christmas-week bomb cyclone of 2022 killed 70+ persons and shut down "Christmas" travel for millions. This could be understood as a sign from heaven that the Holy One has vindicated his servant.

Perhaps the churches should consider that God Almighty is displeased with them for abusing their Christian witness to perpetuate these absurd and immoral apostasies, of an already apostate religion they have invented in the name of a Jewish prophet, whose own very word they have refused to hear and obey.

Or they could persist in their folly, and have dissenters and street-preachers arrested and charged with trespass.