Rav Aviner was quoted recently (link) as saying that wishing “Happy New Year” on Jan 1 is prohibited because the Xstian new year is connected with idol worship and wishing happy new year would be a positive acknowledgment of an idolatrous celebration.
I e-mailed (though I’m not sure I had the right address) the ba’al hablog to see if it was possible to get some more information or clarification on this psak. I am curious as to why Rav Aviner defines the new year as a religious holiday and not a secular or civil holiday. The origin of celebrating Jan 1 as the start of a new year goes back to the Roman Empire, long before the rise of Xstianity. For centuries the Xstian world celebrated March 25 as its new year, not Jan 1. The establishment of Jan 1 as the new year on the Gregorian calendar may have more to do with this Roman precedent than religion. Jan 1 is celebrated as the start of a new year in countries like China, where it seems to be only a secular, civil holiday, as other dates are celebrated as the start of a new religious/traditional year (i.e. Chinese New Year). Interestingly, Wikipedia identifies Israel as the only country that does not celebrate Jan 1 as a new year.
Update -- I received the following reply from R' Friedfertig, who writes up the torah for the Rav Aviner blog, and am posting it with his permission: While it seems that the date was originally established for a "secular" purpose (although it is hard to know if it was not connected to idol worship in some way), in Western countries it is clearly part of the calendar which is related to Christianity. Rabbenu Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah was adamant that we not use the Christian date because of its association with idol worship and obviously saying "Happy New Year" would be included in that.
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Rav Aviner is correct, at least about the fact that January 1st is an idolatrous holiday. Please read this link for more information:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Circumcision_of_Christ
Understood that there is also an idolatrous commemoration -- my question is whether that is the reason why Jan 1 is celebrated, or is it coincidental? My hunch is the later given the fact that it's designation as the new year pre-dates Jesus's circumcision and given that even in non-Xstian countries it is also celebrated as a holiday.
ReplyDeleteRav Aviner may have a different take because in Israel the day is not what it is here in the US. I am not aware of the position of American poskim on the matter. R' Maroof, l'halacha do you think you can't wish a coworker a "happy new year"?
Oh, come on. YD 148:12, and the Rama.
ReplyDeleteThere are two aspects. On one hand, it is a new year because the counting cycle starts anew and if you're going to write cheques, you can't ignore that.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, no one wishes you "Happy new year" when your employer's fiscal year ends in July, nor do we wish anyone Shanah Tovah on Tu B'Shvat so there is something special people attach to New Years.
Now, the Israelis do celebrate New Years but they call it Sylvester. I've never gotten a straight answer but I've always suspected that it's the name of a Catholic saint so that could be the religious angle that Maran Rav Aviner is worried about.
For the strange story of Sylvester, and the irony of calling it that in Israel, see http://havolim.blogspot.com/2009/12/x-mas-carol.html
ReplyDelete>>>YD 148:12, and the Rama
ReplyDeleteu'mekol makom ba'al nefesh yarchik...
As for eivah, does it still exist in our politically correct society?
Jay Nordlinger recently wrote (http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MTczOTY5ZmM1N2I5MmZjMzhmNTNiMDJkZDZiZTczYTQ=) --
You may get a kick out of this, as I did. I have a friend who works for a large Catholic organization. He is Jewish — the only Jew in the joint, I believe. Last year, the organization had a Christmas card it was thinking of sending out. It said, “Happy Holidays.” My friend saw it and said, “What are we doing? We’re a Catholic organization and can’t say ‘Merry Christmas’?” The higher-ups were very skeptical, but eventually shrugged and relented: and mailed a card saying “Merry Christmas.”... When my friend goes on an extended December break, he intends to leave an auto-reply that says, “. . . and may you have a most blessed Christmas.” Any other member of the organization could get in trouble for that — but not this one. To him, they will be able to say nothing.
"There's a long, long distance between baal nefesh yarchik and prohibited" he thought as he contemplated the Reese's peanut butter cups sitting on top of the microwave oven where his wife can't see it.
ReplyDeleteTamar Yonah has a blog posting today on this subject:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/4011
There is a Catholic holiday on December 31 called St. Sylvetser's Day. It's named after a Pope who was alive at the time of Emperor Constantine (and was also apparently an anti-semite). See this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sylvester_I
There is a connection between New Year's and that holiday.
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa010499.htm
Furthemore, it seems that the Roman adoption of January 1 is rooted in pagan conception. See this link:
" In 46 B.C.E. the Roman emperor Julius Caesar first established January 1 as New Year’s day. Janus was the Roman god of doors and gates, and had two faces, one looking forward and one back. Caesar felt that the month named after this god (“January”) would be the appropriate “door” to the year. Caesar celebrated the first January 1 New Year by ordering the violent routing of revolutionary Jewish forces in the Galilee. Eyewitnesses say blood flowed in the streets. In later years, Roman pagans observed the New Year by engaging in drunken orgies—a ritual they believed constituted a personal re-enacting of the chaotic world that existed before the cosmos was ordered by the gods."
http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/newyearshistory/
(Interestingly, that same story states that anti-semitic acts were popular on New Year's:
"On New Years Day 1577 Pope Gregory XIII decreed that all Roman Jews, under pain of death, must listen attentively to the compulsory Catholic conversion sermon given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. On Year Years Day 1578 Gregory signed into law a tax forcing Jews to pay for the support of a “House of Conversion” to convert Jews to Christianity. On Yew Years 1581 Gregory ordered his troops to confiscate all sacred literature from the Roman Jewish community. Thousands of Jews were murdered in the campaign.
Throughout the medieval and post-medieval periods, January 1 - supposedly the day on which Jesus’ circumcision initiated the reign of Christianity and the death of Judaism - was reserved for anti-Jewish activities: synagogue and book burnings, public tortures, and simple murder.")
So we have paganism, Catholicism, and anti-semitic atrocities!
I don't know if it is assur, but sure seems something a Yid should avoid!
Interestingly, Wikipedia identifies Israel as the only country that does not celebrate Jan 1 as a new year.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find any reference to Israel in the link to the Wikipedia article that you gave.
( It could have been edited out since the last time you saw it)
I am curious as to why Rav Aviner defines the new year as a religious holiday and not a secular or civil holiday...
ReplyDeleteI think you've all gotten it wrong. What he actually says is:
No, because the Christian year is connected to idol worship...
He is saying that the whole Christian year is part of idol worship, and thus forbidden to be mentioned, not just the New Year's holiday. So the discussion should be on whether the Christian( today: Secular) calendar system is Avoda Zara or not.
Personally, I think that if you forbid mentioning in a greeting the Christian year, then why not, miQal vaChomer, forbid using and mentioning Christian dates at all, or possessing calendars and diaries( and even computers, or the Web) that show them. I know of some people who do that, but should this be a Pesaq for the whole community ?
Tamir, along the lines you mention, I received a reply from the ba'al hablog posting the material from R' Aviner in which he states that R' Tzvi Yehudah opposed using Christian dates completely. I e-mailed back to ask for reshus to post the complete reply and bl"n will do so if I can.
ReplyDeleteWish them a happy new fiscal year. It's true for most people (the new fiscal year part, not the happy part).
ReplyDeletesee here where I discuss calling the months in their secular order
ReplyDeletehttp://nefeshchaim.blogspot.com/2006/02/parsha-chabura-bo-jewish-months-of.html
Genial brief and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.
ReplyDeleteBrim over I acquiesce in but I think the brief should prepare more info then it has.
ReplyDeleteChaim B.(6:47 PM): Tamir, along the lines you mention, I received a reply from the ba'al hablog posting the material from R' Aviner in which he states that R' Tzvi Yehudah opposed using Christian dates completely. I e-mailed back to ask for reshus to post the complete reply and bl"n will do so if I can.
ReplyDeleteO.K., but where did my comment, that you replied to, disappear to ?
O.K., I see my comments are back again.
ReplyDelete