Jews and Halloween

November 1, 2009 · Filed Under Baum's Blog 

Yes, I know I am a day late in writing about Halloween and Jews.  But, I got distracted by all the candy yesterday.

This week during our Shabbat Service webcast, Rabbi Barr and I talked about Halloween and Jews.  If you missed it, you can catch it in our on-demand library.

We talked about whether Jews should celebrate Halloween.  And our answer was a definite YES!  Some rabbis have argued Halloween is a pagan holiday; others have argued we should separate ourselves from Gentiles (based on their reading of Leviticus 18).  I say Halloween has become a secular holiday and we should not separate ourselves from the community.  It is a holiday where people have fun – and we are not giving anything up by celebrating – so let’s join in!

Not all religious leaders agree.  Three days ago, the Vatican branded Halloween as anti-Christian and dangerous.  Catholic bishops asked parents not to let their children dress as ghosts and goblins for Halloween.  Another Catholic group, the Association of Pope John XXIII, called Halloween “a great Satanic ritual.”

As if that were not enough, TV preacher Pat Robertson issued a warning that demons may be lurking in your Halloween candy.  And no, he doesn’t mean calories.  The Christian Broadcasting Network’s website said that “most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.”  It claims curses are sent in candy of innocent people who go trick-or-treating.

Now that is crazy!  Curses in chocolate?  I think not.  Perhaps even Robertson’s TV network saw the light.  The blog post about demonic Halloween candy, written by Kimberly Daniels, was here, but the link mysteriously is not working at the moment.  Maybe a demon did that too…

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Comments

2 Responses to “Jews and Halloween”

  1. Pat Chambers Says:
    November 2nd, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    This might explain the less than normal amount of Halloween participants that were in my neighborhood. Or it could be that those kids have gotten older and stopped going around. But how does that explain the few groups of teens I found going door to door without younger kids accompanying them?

  2. Ruth Says:
    November 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    I noticed the same thing in my area. maybe they’re having one last round before they are too old to go.

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