Part One:
(ד) כֹּ֥ה אָמַ֛ר יְהוָ֥ה צְבָא֖וֹת אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לְכָל־הַ֨גּוֹלָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־הִגְלֵ֥יתִי מִירוּשָׁלִַ֖ם בָּבֶֽלָה׃ (ה) בְּנ֥וּ בָתִּ֖ים וְשֵׁ֑בוּ וְנִטְע֣וּ גַנּ֔וֹת וְאִכְל֖וּ אֶת־פִּרְיָֽן׃ (ו) קְח֣וּ נָשִׁ֗ים וְהוֹלִידוּ֮ בָּנִ֣ים וּבָנוֹת֒ וּקְח֨וּ לִבְנֵיכֶ֜ם נָשִׁ֗ים וְאֶת־בְּנֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ תְּנ֣וּ לַֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים וְתֵלַ֖דְנָה בָּנִ֣ים וּבָנ֑וֹת וּרְבוּ־שָׁ֖ם וְאַל־תִּמְעָֽטוּ׃ (ז) וְדִרְשׁ֞וּ אֶת־שְׁל֣וֹם הָעִ֗יר אֲשֶׁ֨ר הִגְלֵ֤יתִי אֶתְכֶם֙ שָׁ֔מָּה וְהִתְפַּֽלְל֥וּ בַעֲדָ֖הּ אֶל־יְהוָ֑ה כִּ֣י בִשְׁלוֹמָ֔הּ יִהְיֶ֥ה לָכֶ֖ם שָׁלֽוֹם׃ (פ)
(4) Thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, to the whole community which I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: (5) Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. (6) Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, do not decrease. (7) And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the LORD in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.
הִלֵּל אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּפְרֹשׁ מִן הַצִּבּוּר
Hillel says: Do not separate yourself from the community.
(א) לִפְנֵי אֵידֵיהֶן שֶׁל גּוֹיִם שְׁלשָׁה יָמִים אָסוּר לָשֵׂאת וְלָתֵת עִמָּהֶן, לְהַשְׁאִילָן וְלִשְׁאֹל מֵהֶן, לְהַלְוֹתָן וְלִלְוֹת מֵהֶן, לְפָרְעָן וְלִפָּרַע מֵהֶן. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, נִפְרָעִין מֵהֶן מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהוּא מֵצֵר לוֹ. אָמְרוּ לוֹ, אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁמֵּצֵר הוּא עַכְשָׁיו, שָׂמֵחַ הוּא לְאַחַר זְמָן:
(1) During the three days preceding the festivals of the non-Jews, it is forbidden to do business with them, to lend them something or to borrow something from them, to lend [money] to them or to borrow [money] from them, to resolve your debt to them or to have them resolve their debt to you. Rabbi Yehuda says: One can have them resolve their debt since it causes him distress. They [the Sages] said to him: even though he might be in distress at the outset, eventually he will be joyful.
Christmas in Europe
For centuries, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe feared Christmas-time. At any other time, pious Jews would be studying Torah in the synagogue, but not on Christmas. Wary of being attacked in the street, they took refuge in their homes, playing cards or chess with their families.
The story was different in Western Europe, where, for the Jewish elite, holiday symbols — such as the Christmas tree — signified secular inclusion in society. Affluent German Jews often posed for portraits with their extended families in front of elaborately decorated Christmas trees. The Viennese socialite Fanny Arnstein, a co-founder of the Music Society of Austria, was among the first Jews to introduce a Christmas tree into the home, an act also practiced by none other than the father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. Indeed, after Herzl completed his seminal book on Zionism in 1895, Vienna’s chief rabbi visited him at his home during the month of December. This historically significant meeting took place with a Christmas tree in view.
In Berlin, the great scholar of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, grew up in a home that celebrated Christmas “with roast goose or hare, a decorated Christmas tree which my mother bought at the market by St. Peter’s Church, and the big distribution of presents for servants, relatives, and friends…An aunt who played the piano treated our cook and servant girl to ‘Silent Night, Holy Night.'” These celebrations, Scholem believed, reflected the view that Christmas was “a German national festival, in the celebration of which we joined not as Jews but as Germans.” As a young adult, Scholem would reject his family’s celebration and, instead, attend a Maccabee ball for single Jews in Berlin — a matchmaking idea that has as its modern counterpart the Matzo Ball, a party for Jewish singles held in cities throughout North America.
Coming to America
As early as the 1870s, Christmas in America began to change from essentially a religious to a secular national holiday — a process accelerated by commercialization and the custom of gift-giving.
In response, some Jewish families in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Hot Springs, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Toledo staged their own celebrations on the night of December 24. Incorporating both Christmas and Hanukkah symbols, regardless if Hanukkah fell earlier or later on the calendar, they decorated Christmas trees, exchanged gifts, and hung wreaths on the doors of their homes and stockings on the fireplace. In addition, from the 1880s to the beginning of World War II, American Jews of German descent hosted balls — featuring dinner, dancing, and a concert — for their Jewish friends on Christmas Eve.
Those Jews sharing in the tenor of Christmas without partaking in its religious elements would engage in selective borrowing of Yuletide accoutrements, lending a festive spirit to Hanukkah by appropriating decorations such as garlands, wreaths, and evergreen boughs. Consider Sinai Congregation of Chicago’s celebration of Hanukkah, as reported in the December 27, 1878 issue of Chicago’s Jewish Advance:
The fine Temple was crowded with grown people and children. The Hanukkah Tree was brilliantly illuminated with wax candles. The services commenced with the singing of the first stanza of the Hanukkah hymn by the Sabbath-school children.
So, too, the Sabbath Visitor, a popular Jewish children’s magazine of the time, encouraged the decorative use of evergreens during the Festival of Lights. A story in the 1880 edition entitled “On Last Christmas” describes a Jewish family’s celebration of Hanukkah; home decorations included pictures of Moses and George Washington, a menorah covered with flowers, and the liberal use of wreaths and evergreens.
Perhaps the most widely appropriated Christmas custom among Jews was gift giving. The 1931 how-to classic What Every Jewish Woman Should Know, for example, included the following advice:
It is a time hallowed Jewish custom to distribute gifts in honor of the Hanukkah festival. If ever lavishness in gifts is appropriate, it is on Hanukkah. Jewish children should be showered with gifts, Hanukkah gifts, as a perhaps primitive but most effective means of making them immune against envy of the Christian children and their Christmas.
Taken from an article entitled Jews and Christmas: What attitudes towards Christmas tells us about modern Jewish identity by Rabbi Joshua E. Plaut. Copied on 02/12/2017 from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jews-christmas/
For centuries, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe feared Christmas-time. At any other time, pious Jews would be studying Torah in the synagogue, but not on Christmas. Wary of being attacked in the street, they took refuge in their homes, playing cards or chess with their families.
The story was different in Western Europe, where, for the Jewish elite, holiday symbols — such as the Christmas tree — signified secular inclusion in society. Affluent German Jews often posed for portraits with their extended families in front of elaborately decorated Christmas trees. The Viennese socialite Fanny Arnstein, a co-founder of the Music Society of Austria, was among the first Jews to introduce a Christmas tree into the home, an act also practiced by none other than the father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl. Indeed, after Herzl completed his seminal book on Zionism in 1895, Vienna’s chief rabbi visited him at his home during the month of December. This historically significant meeting took place with a Christmas tree in view.
In Berlin, the great scholar of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, grew up in a home that celebrated Christmas “with roast goose or hare, a decorated Christmas tree which my mother bought at the market by St. Peter’s Church, and the big distribution of presents for servants, relatives, and friends…An aunt who played the piano treated our cook and servant girl to ‘Silent Night, Holy Night.'” These celebrations, Scholem believed, reflected the view that Christmas was “a German national festival, in the celebration of which we joined not as Jews but as Germans.” As a young adult, Scholem would reject his family’s celebration and, instead, attend a Maccabee ball for single Jews in Berlin — a matchmaking idea that has as its modern counterpart the Matzo Ball, a party for Jewish singles held in cities throughout North America.
Coming to America
As early as the 1870s, Christmas in America began to change from essentially a religious to a secular national holiday — a process accelerated by commercialization and the custom of gift-giving.
In response, some Jewish families in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Hot Springs, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Toledo staged their own celebrations on the night of December 24. Incorporating both Christmas and Hanukkah symbols, regardless if Hanukkah fell earlier or later on the calendar, they decorated Christmas trees, exchanged gifts, and hung wreaths on the doors of their homes and stockings on the fireplace. In addition, from the 1880s to the beginning of World War II, American Jews of German descent hosted balls — featuring dinner, dancing, and a concert — for their Jewish friends on Christmas Eve.
Those Jews sharing in the tenor of Christmas without partaking in its religious elements would engage in selective borrowing of Yuletide accoutrements, lending a festive spirit to Hanukkah by appropriating decorations such as garlands, wreaths, and evergreen boughs. Consider Sinai Congregation of Chicago’s celebration of Hanukkah, as reported in the December 27, 1878 issue of Chicago’s Jewish Advance:
The fine Temple was crowded with grown people and children. The Hanukkah Tree was brilliantly illuminated with wax candles. The services commenced with the singing of the first stanza of the Hanukkah hymn by the Sabbath-school children.
So, too, the Sabbath Visitor, a popular Jewish children’s magazine of the time, encouraged the decorative use of evergreens during the Festival of Lights. A story in the 1880 edition entitled “On Last Christmas” describes a Jewish family’s celebration of Hanukkah; home decorations included pictures of Moses and George Washington, a menorah covered with flowers, and the liberal use of wreaths and evergreens.
Perhaps the most widely appropriated Christmas custom among Jews was gift giving. The 1931 how-to classic What Every Jewish Woman Should Know, for example, included the following advice:
It is a time hallowed Jewish custom to distribute gifts in honor of the Hanukkah festival. If ever lavishness in gifts is appropriate, it is on Hanukkah. Jewish children should be showered with gifts, Hanukkah gifts, as a perhaps primitive but most effective means of making them immune against envy of the Christian children and their Christmas.
Taken from an article entitled Jews and Christmas: What attitudes towards Christmas tells us about modern Jewish identity by Rabbi Joshua E. Plaut. Copied on 02/12/2017 from https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jews-christmas/
What do you do to celebrate during December?
How do you feel about Christmas?
How do you feel about Chanukah?
What's the best thing about this time of year?
How do you feel about Christmas?
How do you feel about Chanukah?
What's the best thing about this time of year?
Part Two:
The Great Debate:
Should Jewish people have Christmas trees in their homes? Should we celebrate Christmas with presents, big meals, decorations etc?
(there might also be the chance to develop your 'wrap'ping skills too!)
Should Jewish people have Christmas trees in their homes? Should we celebrate Christmas with presents, big meals, decorations etc?
(there might also be the chance to develop your 'wrap'ping skills too!)