HALLOWEEN, celebrated on Oct. 31 as cackling leaves swirl and winters proximity chills the heart, is one of the oldest holidays on human record.
According to history.com, its superstition-laced origins fuse pagan Celtic rituals, Druid incantations under moonlight, Catholic and Roman religious practices and European folk traditions.
Adherents lit huge bonfires and wore fanciful regalia to ward off unwanted ghosts.
By the 19th-century, the holiday assumed a secular shape as costume-clad children romped through their neighborhoods in search of baked goods and giggles.
Today, selecting the right disguise, retrieving a huge arsenal of sweet delights and comparing loot with friends trumps all other concerns.
Contemporary society has transformed Halloween into a viable financial marketing tool independent of spells or magic wands.
Supermarkets line their aisles with mountains of candy. Moms no longer spend hours sewing inventive costumes, which now come prepackaged and ready-to-wear. You can send Halloween cards and eat off Halloween plates.
You dont even need to hang real spider webs to scare the fainthearted. Imitation ones do a great job, and theyre a lot easier to disassemble.
Sure, kids still love to dress up as witches and fairies but perhaps not as much as dressing up as superheroes, Gagaesque celebrities, the latest horror film fiend or detested politicians.
This Oct. 31, many Jewish adults will accompany their children or grandchildren through well-lit, hospitable areas although dark, unresponsive doors seem to outnumber those with welcoming pumpkins these days.
But still others decline to participate, considering the holidays pagan genesis and enduring supernatural aura.
The Intermountain Jewish News asked three local rabbis for their opinions about Halloween.
One Conservative rabbi who went trick-or-treating as a youth now feels the holiday should be off-limits to Jewish children, including his own.
A modern Orthodox educator who never sees little witches in his school says Halloween encourages mischievous antics a very anti-Jewish behavior.
One Reform rabbi who reveled in Halloween as a kid says the decision to enjoy Halloween has nothing to do with theology or philosophy.
Its just about fun, and experiencing the exuberance of life as a child.
FOR Rick Rheins, senior rabbi at Temple Sinais Reform synagogue and an enthusiastic trick-or-treater of yore, thoughts on Halloween bubble to the surface without toil or trouble.
Oh sure, we went trick-or-treating as kids, he says. Absolutely. And we had fun with it.
So did his three sons until they got a little too old for Halloween.
The general pattern was, my wife Susan (as in Rabbi Susan Rheins) took them around to each house and I would stay home and man the candy bag.
I loved seeing the expressions on our boys faces when they got home, he laughs ever so gently.
But I also love seeing these little guys holding out their bags when they come to our house.
Theyve been coached by their parents who are standing right in back of them to say thank you after I drop a few pieces of candy in their bag. They look so adorable!
Im planting sweet memories, and sharing the message that life is fun. No wonder I like being the bag man.
Rheins understands that some Jews might object to Halloweens pagan roots.
But honestly, thats not how Halloween is observed by the majority of Americans today, he says. In fact, its just the opposite.
Cognizant that Jewish parents must prohibit certain activities in order to nurture Jewish pride and identity in their children, Rheins doesnt believe Halloween fits into the threatening category.
I feel that if you deny kids the exuberance of their youth, it will lead to resentment, he says.
There are times when we have to say no to our children. But I dont want them to feel that being Jewish is a hindrance to who they are.
The Reform Jewish perspective on maintaining Jewish identity in 21st-century America allows for mutual appreciation and respect, he says.
At the heart of Reform Judaism is the sense that Judaism is fully compatible with modernity. They work together beautifully.
You can be wonderfully observant and engaged as a Jew and still have fun on Halloween night.
Rheins enthusiasm for Halloween the anticipation of greeting a long line of delighted smiles at his door and the memory of his long-ago excursions down darkened streets is contagious.
Think about it, he says. How many other nights of the year do you go to the homes of strangers? Normally were too frightened to do that but not on Halloween.
DONT look for a pumpkin carved and leering on the porch of HEA Associate Rabbi Salomon Gruenwalds home on Halloween because its not a Jewish holiday, he says.
However, Jews should not ignore the small costumed visitors who come tap, tap, tapping on their doors this Oct. 31, he adds.
I do not encourage our participation as Jews in Halloween, the Conservative rabbi says. But theres nothing wrong with handing out candy to our neighbors who do celebrate it.
We can still be generous, and not shutter our windows.
As a Conservative rabbi, Gruenwald says its his duty to teach congregants to regard their Jewish traditions seriously and turn to them for guidance.
But we also have to take our engagement with the modern world seriously and not shun the culture in which we live, he adds.
My job is to inform people, and help them make informed choices.
For example, if a congregant knocks on his study door and asks whether his child should trick-or-treat, Gruenwald would outline Halloweens nefarious pagan past and subsequent appropriation by the Catholic Church.
It also glorifies the occult and makes death terrifying, he says. Thats not a very Jewish value. We see death as a part of life and not something to be feared.
And I dont know whether we should teach our kids to eat tons of candy, he adds, perhaps alluding to childhood obesity, diabetes, and all those dental bills.
Halloweens historical provenance provides ample evidence that in some ways it is antithetical to Judaism, Gruenwald says.
However, origins dont necessarily define meaning, he qualifies.
Origins are an important component to Jewish objections to Halloween, but at the same time we have to recognize that Halloween has evolved into a secular American holiday. Its a model of pluralism and multiculturalism. But as Jews, its not what we do.
Just for the record, Gruenwald went trick-or-treating as a child, long before he became a Conservative Jew. Its hard to remember, but I probably was a superhero, he says.
Gruenwald, the father a two-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, has already told his son that Halloween is not a Jewish celebration but were not trying to put it down.
The Halloween confrontation may initiate the inevitable conversation between parents and children about being different as Jews, and the reasons we dont do certain things, he elucidates.
Its like kashrut. Jews dont eat certain foods. That doesnt mean people who eat those foods are bad. Similarly, we can say that Halloween is not our holiday but we dont have to be anti-Halloween, either.
THE only reason Halloween is noteworthy for Rabbi Daniel Alter, head of school at DAT, the K-12-grade modern Orthodox day school, is that his daughter Talya was born on Oct. 31.
With that significant exception, Alter says Halloween is clearly an anti-Jewish holiday on a number of levels.
First, trick-or-treating is antithetical to Jewish values. The phrase means, If you dont give me a treat, I will play a trick on you. Thats why there is so much mischief on Halloween night. Its not a coincidence.
Secondly, Halloween has indisputable pagan roots and paganism tends to conflict with Judaism.
Finally, says Alter, the holiday was often an excuse to commit anti-Semitic acts, including violence against individuals and vandalizing Jewish property.
In his years at DAT, Alter has never seen a child stroll through the hallways on Halloween wearing ghoulish garb or a Spiderman outfit.
But he has no idea what students do outside of the classroom environment on Halloween.
We dont ask who does or doesnt indulge in a little Halloween exploration, he says with a matter-of-factness stemming from absolute confidence in his charges.
Growing up in an Orthodox home and community, Alter never experienced Halloween nor did he miss it.
Theres so much beauty in our religion that its unfortunate that Jews look at other days and holidays with pagan roots, he says.
True, Halloween has shed its primeval ways in favor of an innocuous secularism but Alter says you can take the argument further.
Christmas has become a more secular holiday, he says. Does that mean Jews should celebrate Christmas? Symbols and rituals are important, both in holidays we celebrate and those we dont.
The Halloween culture is in no way conducive to Judaism.
However, not all American holidays are negative, Alter believes.
Many rabbinic leaders feel that Jews should observe Thanksgiving because its a chance to thank G-d for everything weve been given, Alter says.
Modern Orthodoxy offers a very simple answer to the dilemma of remaining faithful to ones Judaism while simultaneously existing in a modern, non-Jewish environment, he says.
You look at each individual situation from your own Torah-oriented world view, analyze each aspect of modernity and see whether it fits into that world view.
For me, these determinations are very clear.
Like his Conservative counterpart, Alter suggests that Jews who dismiss Halloween have some candy on hand for their night callers.
Where we live, we might have one child stop by on Halloween, he says. But I dont see any reason to be antagonistic or inhospitable.
He suddenly inserts another reason Jews kids shouldnt go trick-or-treating
Dont forget the whole candy aspect, Alter realizes. Its a very kosher one.
Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News
