Yehuda Geberer: The History and Observance of Nittel Nacht in Modern Times

thank you all for coming I know that normally would be rough for everyone to come because there was busy learning at night but tonight now learn so it's a few guys were able to make it so so um start so so you know it's not I don't have every time it's up its up usually usual that I have I have to crowd at least and know me I know number four makes me a little more nervous so let's see it's impressed so you'd see a few other guys white-hot impressed right so but there's not touch them let's speak a little bit about it's a lot about Christmas itself about the relationship between Jews and Christians over the years and if we have time and we'll get into other interesting customs that we've developed and have evolved over our long exile and the reason for that is this is a quite a knowledgeable fellow here to my left is is that I'm not here to give our love this year or about a minute the mystery but where what minik especially later man huggin or quasi man hug him like like crisps like sorry I used to speaking about other topics I apologize but NIT the lock is a product of the Exile to product of our relationship with Christianity and living in their proximity so that means it's a historical it's a historical story time something develops over time in our communities in our long story and there are other customs like that also so if we have time to try to get to that oh so I'm gonna start off with a couple of stories that will kind of lead us in first story is we're in LA in Covina and it's during the Warriors the Holocaust is taking place the Holocaust of the Jews of Covenant is the Fellaini was part of the Soviet Union before the at the beginning of the war so the policy that the Nazis did to the Jews Alania was within the framework of what they how they perpetrated the final solution for the Jews of the Soviet Union which was by the means of massing solutions and shootings into pits outside of the town they didn't bring any with the gas chambers that was the policy in other parts of Europe which is another story in itself about why they implement the different policies for different parts of the occupation so the Jews of covenant is a Coney ghetto in a series of Axius actions where they round up Jews of the Covenant ghetto and take out several thousand sometimes it was children sometimes people who could have work and sometimes it was whoever they could get their hands on they set them out outside mainly to a place called the ninth fort which is on the outskirts of the city old Czarist forts now in this ninth fort they buried them originally in mass graves and I think 43 after Stalingrad the Nazis realized they're losing the war they need to take care of all the evidence so they have the again what's called axiom 1005 that just happens to be the name of it where they have a group of slave laborer Jews will have one of the worst tasks in human history they have to dig off these graves these bodies excuse me these corpses and burn them destroying the evidence and they are the permanent labor they're all over the Soviet Union but the group who was stationed at the ninth fort their permanent laborers this is places an extermination site but there's also forced labor brigades there and they essentially are witnesses to the mass murder and they have to do horrible work and they decide they're gonna try to escape how could they escape so it's a whole story of how they managed to escape and it was a long planning and one of the main Jew who organized it was military experiences name was Kolya vasilenko and he organized the brigade and they're what they should do it and break through this wall and cut it and they cut it with like spoons so over time during the shift there the whole process of how they did it and they're ready to make their break 64 prisoners when are they gonna make that right one it's most likely to succeed when there's fewer guards around when a few guards who are are drunk and they won't notice they do it on Christmas Eve today that's the time that is that they're able to do it there's much less staff around from the Nazis from the local authorities and whoever it is is partying is drunk and they make their break 64 prisoners and they make it out they are the witnesses to what took place in the ninth fort and we have the story of the decimation of the Jerusalem covenant through this escape and escape itself as a wild story but it happened on Christmas Eve this kolya vasilenko he later said I don't know if Jesus was born on December 25th but we were born again on December 25th that night we got a second chance at life we were doomed we were victims give it up and we were born again that's number one I'll get back I'll try to bring everything together the second story is that and I was in in Barra Park today visiting some relatives so I you know I made a deal my wife we have to visit your relatives and we have to visit us on historical landmarks and bark park so we stopped at mere minyan also 50 54th Street and 60th Avenue and we we went into Mia Maine which was founded by a group of Mir survivors near Shanghai on survivalists refugees where they settled down a bar a park they had lost all their families and they built a shul of mere alumni today there's not really anything left of it so it's only historical landmark but it once was a very happening place a fraternity of sorts of Mir who had gone through the war and all they had were each other and and one of the inside the show there may have on the / ifas that's donated Lili nish mass through my shillelagh vomits been a guy in Revere uh from above it's the Michigan afore the mere mention label vomits was the son of the Messiah his son is erupting them here today are not little ovens and he was a shy kid and he was actually a clean-shaven shakin like a real it [ __ ] and chaga five woman the lavash once checked his collar for someone to see if he's a good I could and he said yeah he's good son also he's a good shot and trying to find his son was 1940 a the young son the opposing uncle [ __ ] for she is chef and he has I'm sorry that son-in-law one of his sons either way it doesn't matter he he asked him are we gonna eat from it they're Hungarian so chaga Philo says if he grow a beard will lead from Fiza so much the label above it said to him my father taught me that you chef with a cauliflower with a beard okay so he was a shy kid should I get out to be out of Pennsylvania his kids were in bar park his wife was in bark bark he was out in Pennsylvania in Iowa and different places where he lived all week and he would come back and come back once during the week he would come back for Shabbos for the weekends he wasn't around during the formative years when his kids were growing up but there was one a week and a half of the year that he was around that was the week of Christmas to New Year's he was able to be around and he would go with his kids to shul and he was learning with them at night and he said that he looks forward to it all year he was this was great this is just as being a father this was getting to learn with his kids and he told his kids he said if back in the mirror when I was growing up in the mirror when I lived with my father as the mystique of the mirror when it was if you would have told me that there's gonna come a day that you're gonna look forward to Christmas all year round I would have thought you're crazy look forward to spiritual holy Jewish the mirror was like over 90 percent Jewish the poles lived on the outskirts of the town like farming settlements the town was a Jewish town and here he looks forward to it all year round because that's when he has off and that's it he's able to learn with his kids that's another another aspect there we go ahead another few years and when I was a bunker buyer buster I really shear which I'm assuming stopped me I think much was there a couple of you guys probably work so your brush is only sharing the mirror that has fear the afternoon the length or the afternoons is already after skin so what happens in every other series of the morning there's no problem they don't run into nipple mouth problems Robus your stairs in the afternoon it's very dark outside at six o'clock menthol doctor comes both mental that's right mention it but the to two different calendars the Julian calendar Gregorian calendar so there's two net so nuts and some can see them holds one so if I see them hold the other they're my career Bowl both and on some white you should speak of the elements and I have second day on tips you know so there could be a bunch of days we have little now and they and they and she knows David and Russian Syria has a lot of caseta on half stir talking about all of a sudden you have a steer where half the guys aren't there and it was I kind of weird you know I mean like it's a regular steer it's a regular night or musher comes and gives this year and here half the shooters doesn't show up and it also upset him I mean he said you're coming to a sheer you coming to you gotta like custom yourself to the surroundings and we're giving sheer we're continuing with the program and this is part of the curriculum so but no we're very mock but we don't learn until enough so we're not showing up too much this year also so here we have three different angles on the Jewish relationship in recent all recent history to of idea that Christmas is a day on the calendar now if you ask anyone do they celebrate Christmas a little bit Christmas I'm Jewish even if arisen is not such a religious Jew is a traditional Jew doesn't celebrate Christmas Christmas is a Christian holiday it's not like Thanksgiving it's not like Martin Luther King Day it's not the national holiday it's a religious holiday we don't celebrate it and yet it's there and we deal with it and it exists throughout history in many forms and many facets and many fashions and and and it's something that has presented itself as a challenge to history not only in its external manifestation of being a holiday and a date on the calendar but it really is a symbolism of something much greater than that of the relationship between the two peoples and how they enter so we'll talk a little bit about it aloft and and that with in mind these three anecdotes that I mentioned so the the the reality of of nitsana and so so the reality little enough to existed sorry it's enough existed for a long time it's not a new invention and it was not invented by to see them in other words today it's come to be very much attached because see them don't learn it will not so if we would say that it's a hasidic minik and and they're the ones who do it that means that the earliest that we would find any sources for an instant after being in the 18th century because before that there weren't any proceeded and yet lo and behold there seems to be earlier sources and until not that people don't learn or people commemorated in some way shape or form in all different ways excuse me and it predates have seen them so essentially what we're seeing is that the Hasidim kept that meaning where other parts of the Jewish people have neglected it or neglected or removed on from it we'll see soon why some people stopped keeping it and what their different reasons are but it's even I've kept it by the way if if we're mentioning little NACA is something that I see them chemically well it used to be a universal custom that everyone kept so it happens to be sure about a lot of man hugging his Mitzvah tons a Hasidic custom probably tried to convince it it everyone doesn't listen to us today but it's as well but since it's a seemingly a again a minik custom that I see them do and people are not to see them don't do it happens to come from a much earlier source there's a professor and forget where he teaches Astro doctor most Cohanim who wrote half a book on the topic of how how the legacy of the old Ashkenazi the whole Germany the old from the time of the Maori land the early Ashkenazi shining and now those communities the German and French communities how a lot of their customs were either kept by to see them traveling through Hungary the sub site for that route made it too fussy them and they sometimes are the only ones who keep it because of the migration of the Jewish people to other lands and explains it and elaborate so it's an interesting topic how you know if I see that was started up as a new movement they in the end during the over the course of the 19th century they end up being the ones who turned ultra-conservative and they're the ones who are latching on and not giving up on any custom on any anything when they had originally in the 18th century been the innovators in the 19th century they turned into the opposite of innovators they want to keep they want to keep everything as it was so that's also a different topic however the idea metal not exists but what we're talking about is the specific custom I'm not learning on it for them there's a lot of things that people don't throw that people not because I'm sorry for rights you know it's terrible that they close the vicar's under means that there was a custom that people did because then until now we don't do that let's all see something what does that mean Hamelin men didn't really use enough means night the so there's all sorts of things that are not done on mental maps but the most commonly known and accepted one is not to learn it's also the easiest to do its tisha but everyone's major depressed by the way one of the reasons given for not going to connect is that valus by de cheveux is because the Jewish people is mourning because of what happened on Christmas Jesus is worn by the way it's not really clear that he was born and it comes really from a pagan holiday that was a that was a holiday that was kept by many pagan tribes from before and it has some funny Latin name that I don't remember and probably can't pronounce correctly anyway with my said mom's not to be ly amazing Oh ancient history right so there you go and it's related to the winter solstice and and which is which all the pagan all the pagan religions that did there you know base their calendar and what was happening in the in the cosmos and they in the upper realms of the atmosphere and that they attached significant importance to weather changes seasonal changes all pagan religions did that so but but the the so so but assuming he was born again that's what he also started the colio vasilenko he said I don't know if Jesus was born anything but we were reborn again so let's assume that he was so it's a time for mourning because look what destruction it did his person tried to destroy it ish kind and then all be tortures and a terrible thing that happened to the Jewish people because of that throughout history and therefore it's a time for mourning and if it's a time for Mourning it's a vain listeners DNA are endless so you know I learned Tyra why don't we keep any other dating of it listen to because maybe we should all wear slippers tonight or not will not take a shower I don't know this is one kind of stuck but that's that's just one reason for it right so the idea of not learning many people are discussed earlier as far throughout throughout history has been raised and emphasized that this is the principal reason for the not learning tire on Kristallnacht me oh that was really what it should be the whole day that's also a point if it's because of a long day if it's a good point yeah if we go with some of the other reasons we got to in a second that it makes a lot of sense why it's only at night Bayless is a problematic reason there's there some issues with it and you mentioned one of them so middle is is is is is not to like to learn fly over that night and and the main reason from the beginning and it's brought again and again and again again three most recently in recent years again recently many lies to 40 50 years of Yankee kamenetsky he was a real litvaks uh to make it a very like cult the technical reason for it but it was a technical very simple reason and this really brings us into the historical side on Christian holidays in medieval Europe in the Middle Ages and it's especially a significant holiday more than just Good Friday or the beginning of Lent or something like that but a real significant holidays such as Christmas which kicks off the today's today we live in a world where where Christianity where religion in general is not and not a major component than identity perhaps of individuals it still is at some level in parts of the world definitely not on a national level and the power of the church is almost non-existent we have to get back you know and also today holidays are completely commercialized they're not really any religious significance some more it's very very commercial in the western countries but if we go back into the mindset of the Middle Ages we have to understand the dominance of religion religion was everything the power of the Catholic Church was almost unlimited at that they controlled princes and kings and efforts and the Catholic religion was the only identity that people had it wasn't just something else that exists they also just go to church on Sunday the the the religion was everything and in that context religious holidays were dangerous times for the Jewish people and this comes up in many in many ways and the most dangerous day of the week was Sunday the most dangerous times of the year were the Jewish holidays excuse me the Christian holiday Stan extent though Jewish holidays also especially when sometimes they overlapped with Christian holidays to taste Easter one of the reason that the blood libel was so successful is because it was right around when they were getting riled up about Easter Sun Pesach was old usually right around that time so the the the libel against the Jews expressed itself in a Pesach for because Christian holidays were dangerous times that they were filled with religious fervor sometimes riled up by parish priests not even by the Pope or by the government or by the bishops very often at the ground grassroots level by simple parish priests - very often not very intelligent themselves but they explained to their congregants and that that the Jews really did kill Jesus and they're guilty and they're damned and whatever it is and they have to end their you know they turn into a mob but very often programs libels things happen and this was not a time to be excited for us so they always prepared themselves before these major holidays and they tried to do everything they could to avoid trouble and so the Jewish communities I was a mess survival in Europe during that time another point another demographic point today we live in a very heterogeneous society especially here in New York but even in Europe in most parts of Europe very a lot of people from different ethnic backgrounds national backgrounds religious backgrounds all types all colours in Catholic Europe of the Middle Ages there is basically two types of people an overwhelming majority of Catholics and a small minority of Jews that's it this is before the Protestant Reformation there is no Muslims in most of Europe a little bit on their baronmon incidence in the balkans that's it the rest is Catholic there's nothing else in Europe and the minority is the Jews and that creates a very interesting relationship also there the exclusive minority and anytime minority issues come or minority prejudices or discrimination rises it's against the only existing minority so so of time like Christmas is dangerous and Jews don't want to be out in the streets and then we go back to what you said when is it dangerous to be on the streets of mainly at night during the day today everyone has off during the taem and those days you couldn't really take off I wasn't like a vacation you know people had to work and and there was normal life during the day it was light outside there was protection of the law to a certain extent people were going about their daily business even on holidays to a certain extent and therefore during the day for many reasons is less dangerous but what it was dangerous to go was how about at night so people did not go out out at night no community leaders rabbis other community leaders would warn the people the common people do not go out at night it's dangerous no again let's go back to the Middle Ages before the printing press did people have big farms trunks today we're going back to that today until 15 years ago it was very common for every private home to have hundreds of fahren every type of safer exists and anytime you need to learn or even if you don't need to learn we just want to impress people that come into your house and say hey look I am a learning and knowledgeable fellow I have all these star in my house that was that's a normal part of our our culture in the manuscript culture people did not have his farm in their homes small were almost non-existent and people didn't know if things very hard there are simple people know what the stories are then they all know everything my heart and whatever it's not true they simple people if they want me to learn there was one way to go and learn you went to the local shul the local basement is a local these Connexus of the caja of the community and either a rabbi or some other learned and knowledgeable fellow gave a shear which people listen to or you took a manuscript off the shelf but you studied yourself and with a friend I was the only way to do it so going to shul equals learning staying at home equals not learning what do they do instead probably went to sleep there wasn't much else to do with forms of entertainment than the 13th 14th centuries but that's all they did so now when you wanna warn people to stay at home what are you telling them to do not learn because they can't write and it just becomes a reality of what's happening and that kind of develops into a system that we don't learn on its own that in other words this this school of thought believes that there was no esoteric and mystical reason for mental laughs and it's not because of our valence for sure but it's not even because of the Clippers and it's not even because it is neshama it's not because of terror lachemann and all the other reasons that are given which are more either Talmudic or mystical but it's a very simple based reason that you're telling the people to stay at home stay at all means don't learn and that goes up not only to medieval times it goes up to modern times gideon after the advent of the printing press where it was a little bit more accessible to have fun but in till the 18 1900s Shiva Tchaikovsky Shiva which was not that long ago was 100 something years ago last time I spoke about her Shemesh company she was so every Charlotte IRA alumnus woke up and they started sending me emails and correcting me and okay I try to be careful now I don't want to get anyone angry I get one a kind of a literal but they're recently and no one bothered me like that I always spent on balloons are uptight about their legacy turns out charter eyes I don't know they got very defensive so I'm not gonna say that much of our Jimmy should go but he in his is Shiva and his his Shiva for a period of time after World War one they didn't have a full shots they're not a full shots I was just at a family Konica party as I came from and one of the one of the little kids running around his name was Evan I said oh you named after your great-grandfather the other side [Music] and their wines father a barrel wines father his name was F wine but he was cold when he was in Hrodna by our shimmy was called velvel foolin why because during that period of time that they didn't have a full shot from Shimon took the top guys in the yeshiva he had to memorize he borrowed gamora's from people and he had to memorize certain aceptas and shots that memorized it literally word-for-word and the whole thing could be Rashi entices also I don't remember what the exact specifications were and then you had a full shot at the Shiva and he wanted to look up for a certain Gemara in hula then you went about the hula nest and what does it say Anissa he rattled it off to you now I know this guy okay I know Babu foolin he lived till he was over a hundred years old and so I was able to get to know a little bit and and and it's real it's a true story you know it's not made-up he was really a guy who knew hula hula like that now why was that important why was that necessary because there were not a lot of smarm and then a lot of so again so it's right up to modern times the idea that I stay at home means you're not learning and and if I want to get them to be safe from programs from people being beat up in the streets from literally sometimes danger to human life I've just made the rabbi the communities responsible to make sure that everyone stays I don't know one go out no she room tonight the rabbi's not giving a steer no one else is giving a share everyone stay at home so according to that line of reasoning so we didn't really accomplish anything by coming together tonight to not learn right because we all came out of our homes but it's not so dangerous anymore and because of that that line of reasoning says that it's not applicable today today the Christians are not making programs anymore against people during their religion time than the time of their religious and therefore it's not necessary to keep the custom but there's a lot by the way there's lot of customs like that that we do keep meaning a lot of the development of Jewish customs is because of original reasons that created a a you were created the custom be necessary we storied after marriage Chavez most people don't know that because it's goodish club at that you know something goes on there there at my speech something and it's a stroll if you go to one of these real long Gazette still officials then they actually read it from a cloth and they get a lint it's let me hear a little bit more about that later and recently a friend of mine was trying to convince me to go to Oman Rosh Hashanah so I told him look I've been by more recently than you have I bring groups there a bunch of times there in the year at Rosh Hashanah the crowds you know I I just can't handle it and he says you should know there's every type there there's even you sheepish you guys who come and bring a cloth with them so if they read that if they're from a club understand that was that's impressive we already have guys reading from a cloth and over come on for that fara on Rosh Hashanah know we're a rather new though okay so by the way the custom of reading a clef is also one of those new customs maybe we'll get to that too and and but where does F Tyra come from because the Roman Empire they made a decree at one point that the novel how to read publicly from the Tyra so instead they read publicly from the Navi the Roman Empire doesn't exist anymore even right agent history doesn't exist anymore and they and there's no and there's no there's no one forbidding anyone to read publicly from the tiger why are you still reading enough time what's what's this almost a because that's the only opportunity we'll ever have to hear anything from Navi because we'll never ever open an of a otherwise but that's not enough of a reason to do it and because this was a mini they keep them in and not only that but keeping the mini reminds us where we once were and it makes us appreciate who we are today in other words these when huggin can actually be historical reminders the same way I mean the same what would we go on the trips to Europe what are we trying to do you know we're trying to give it give a sense of identity by showing where we once were so we know where we are today so that we can get an idea where we're going so a lot of these old customs even though it's buck lajas Seba the original reason doesn't make sense anymore the Christians are not killing us if we walk out in the streets in Christmas Eve so there's no reason according to this school of thought that we shouldn't be learning anymore on on nipple mouth yet despite that we keep the custom because of what once was and therefore there's no there's no learning no as I said there's other reasons that are proposed which I'm not going to get into they have less to do a history and more to do with the Taira of Bethel not because it gives strength to the Clippers would excuse me where where Jesus came from he obviously came from a cliff but he couldn't come from a regular neat site's us of kedusha and there's other reasons that he learned Tyra should learn the shmup so we don't want to give him any Tyra on that night and there's other reasons like that the theory or just makes a lot of it there's a lot loads of proof meaning there's a lot of circumstance evidence of having forums Christmas even people being warned not to go out that night and again going out at night not going on at night means no learning that's that's that's that's again is that the only reason again is something that develops over time over a wide geographical dispersion of communities over hundreds of years there's going to be a combination of factors that come into play this happens all the time and it's very hard to pinpoint two-month thing and say that's it and everything else is wrong usually like can you pop track that pogroms therefore nipple knots Princeton area or is there no such progression the direct cause-and-effect would be hard to establish but we do see we do see the the writings against against going out at night in order to keep people safe your work yes dr. Greene had mass yes the Crusades were started because the first and second at least but the word started because the Pope went ahead and made a call to to liberate the Holy Land from the infidels and on the way they decided to take care of the local infidels but of course it very often came from up top I'm I'm thinking on Christmas Eve with you yeah yeah that's right there was all I mean we did with this again what I was trying to say in the beginning about it being so much part of our lives we lived in Christian lands for a thousand years it's a long time it's a long time I mentioned most of the trips we got on these trips and there are big churches in the United States and you see them all over and I mean you haven't downtown Manhattan you have a very big and famous Church they're really all over the place but some of these European cathedrals are really impressive and they're very dominant then you walk I was in Austria two weeks ago of the group and we were walking and we walked from the staad temple a shul and brendlin shoreland looks pretty impressive it's a beautiful shul and we're gonna walking tour of the center of town it was two weeks ago so everything was ready decked out and in the holiday a holiday like and you come to the state Stephen I think in the center of Vienna and just like overwhelmed by it you feel small and insignificant and and this is its massive it's it's and it's and it's not just huge it's like intricate the architecture and the design and it's so dominant and then I thought it was like I even stopped in front of it and talk to the guys a little bit about it this this feature of European Jewish life is something that is very often overlooked about the dominant force of the church and the daily lives of the Jews because it's there it's so present and you know you ever go into one of these old schools in here and we go all the time and every jewel you go in most jewels you go in there's steps going down inside why is there steps going on inside let's see there is a combination effect it weren't allowed to have it hotter than the church not only know I have are in the church very often wasn't just a technical thing of being two inches lower it was that it should look lower and it should not be above a certain height irrespective of whether you could even see the church nearby because the Jewish place of worship should not be a dominant force on the landscape it should not be something on the city landscape as noticeable Jews aren't stupid so they came up with this idea to dig it down which is legal to dig down underneath and then inside the shul it's tall it's impressive it looks great and and we got out of that the church thing but outside it looks kind of small looks kind of short it's not so impressive outside now Jews throughout the ages anything that they're forced to do it's not not so exciting to admit so when it was just like a little indent but I don't that's for sure because of the idea you know Hawking perceive Hashem right but I'm saying that even when they did it because of the church you're gonna go ahead and tell your grandkids and tell tell posterity you know we really had the rough times as a church and and we were forced to do it this way in that book that's what it means to be hidden veles in Europe during that time you develop a a religious justification for it a to make the Biddy oven until the papilla which happens in every stage notice to be people each from additional today why because the rebel eating the tonic eating is amiss day off and hiss eating excuse me is like a kiting from the carbon because the Sadiq has purified himself and made himself a cleaver on my decision and everything he does is purely for our decision and he's reached a certain image Reagan and his way this gentleman is kedusha and everything about him that his entire essence is away this is generally even the mundane even the the physical part of his existence and there have you connected it something in the whole idea of because it is to try to connect to that Sadiq and gain from him and composed him his Scotch versus how you partake in his meals and there's a whole tire I can see the six player and I only touch to touch something a little bit is that why it started is that we started because it's up to appointment as soon as they developed an idea that this is what its are there is no the reason it started is because I see them who came for two weeks in the mud in the snow of Ukraine to be able to be by the river leaving their family behind leaving work behind they usually didn't come with a full wallet into town and they came in on Thursday night and Friday afternoon they have their I'm a penny there's no way to make Shabbos and they came to hear tire from the rebel to hear to become better people to grow in their spiritual life to become better Jews to grow in their way decision that's why they came then come to eat the red was a nice guy he's exotic right because he cares he's a father to his Hassidim he's gonna share his meal with them he's gonna give his own food and [ __ ] with this vecina that's that's getting Chiron from the Rama now again so that's that's how it starts you know once it started once that's happening anyway and by the way that's one of the central ideas and themes of casitas to pick something that's mundane and technical and bring it and lift it up and give it kedusha and give it meaning and give it essence and give it and give it much more so they make a whole player out of it and then that time becomes very real that becomes very much part of the Hasidic experience and it's a custom that remains till today so it's the same thing with bureaucracy it shows that we go down to the depths and that's why we do it and that's why there's steps also but it really very often begins because the church the Christian authorities in the church they're not allow the shul to be to be lifted up so that's um running out of time here so the to shorten it up give a little Q&A at the end though so time so now we got to the point we're not learning okay we're not learning so what are we doing instead so this is where the older things get exciting this is the part that everyone knows right that that this revenues could play chess and and why would they play chess by the way and combine their into playing chess chimera they're glitch that's a different thinking play chess what was the thing about playing chess accomplished a couple of things first of all even when they're not learning Tyrel but they usually do something that's good for the mind that you that you need a that you need a you need to use your brain for not something mindless or solace or brainless something that requires hustling that requires wisdom and also to show the appreciation that the Jewish people have for games for hokhmah for the wisdom that's outside of the realm of Tarot and that was something that was done in certain areas of playing chess if you do share of Garrett would have cut his toilet paper for the year and today we have preffer ated toilet paper it's easier to cut for the shop he would cut regular paper in the toilet paper for Shabbos as you couldn't cut it on Shabbos you need to cut it burn for the see would cut his yeah see you need to normally have a Shabbos screw do you want that the doctor could do it on on Christmas Eve which is which is another which is another significant idea here why first of all where does the name that will come from so it probably comes from a Latin word again which I forgot exactly enough to Leland tone what Adel like pre needle needle okay that that was the I was the original name of Christmas and Christian times but there are those who wanted to say that comes from the word Midland the hummed one one who was hanged crucified by the Romans by the way crucification was just a form of execution that the Roman Empire did and used it wasn't that Jesus was crucified because on a special crime that he did but the way that people were killed when they received capital punishment in the Roman Empire was by crucification a recently a few years ago I've got an article not that I'm into archaeology I you know history is nerdy enough but have a little bit of self-respect so there was a reason I happened to read this article and there the some archaeologists in Israel found a ankle bone of a human a human being with a rusty nail through it the first physical evidence and history of actual crucification which in the archaeology roman empire history world was like a fascinating discovery because we have loads of documents attesting to it where here was actual physical documented evidence that exist so he's the honey one and and and it's like a disgrace to him that he was hanging now there's a Gomorrah in gettin that says that that that and today the many of the new Shasta's that have been printed in recent years have brought back all the censored out colors by the way one of the reasons why there's so much speculation about Christmas about their little nook is it I brought here different theories different schools of thought what are the sources say and the dearth of thought sources is because of the censorship of the church most of the sources we are gone people were afraid to write them in the first place and even when they did write them they were very often censored out again it reflects the reality of the time it reflects the history of how these things developed anything that's going to be about it till now is going to be very sensitive to the church and to the church authorities that the Jews are so upset that he was born and and they're scared of the per grub's because of the horrible Christian well any reason that it was that it's around and therefore this very few sources on it and it's only now that we're able to find more written about it because now there is no censorship and there's more freedom of what to write and even though you just mentioned before that they still get in trouble if you write the full truth for the outside world but though that exists by us too so there's also internal censorship but in any event the the the the so there aren't many sources about it not not much being have been able to written in the first place so so the they're getting so I got oh so the the the gomorian kitten which originally was censored out who it was and says please show useful who are we actually talking about talking about Jesus and the Pisces troll the Gemara says that he is punishment and Gehenna moneda even so erase a fuss so the dish you're in when he is cutting the toilet paper on it'll not so some of the Hasidim citizen he could easily ask the shamans to do it but he's doing it to show what this night is all about it's about the toilet paper so that has that angle tada so apparently his great his Bret his great grandson the Emory a mystic great Gera he wasn't into the whole toilet paper thing and he decided instead to spend nestled off learning polish there was the debate in those days was should we learned the language of the country or stick to a dish by the time the Henry Evans came around especially people like him who were very cognizant of what was going on in the outside role and how important it was to learn the local language so there was a need to learn the local language and you couldn't just do with you what are you gonna learn so maybe the next generation they can learn is from a younger age but someone like the Mimms he's ready an old big rubber he's gonna start taking polish lessons you can pick a course at worst the University what's he gonna do so he spent little enough every year improving his polish he would work on learning learning polish many rabbis the communal community rabbis they dedicated the night to have meetings about community needs they're just a very technical sense there's all types of needs that need to be done for the community all types of committees and budgeting and stuff like that so we'll schedule a few of them for nickel now this way we take care of their problem very subtle in a simple way some of them play cards there's already a little large distinct Chester so there's Hoffman everything here they actually that's the aqua mentioned earlier but paying picking out the good luck so they played cards though they can uh you thought cards was only a Chanukah things we have to find a go ahead and check into the Marshawn who is casitas no my show did not learn I meant enough our show was before the casino I've tried to make him to see this plate lately why he's in the Ukraine and all the trips go to the oldest leadership to go to the Ukraine so you have to make everyone there involving some level so there's been an attempt but he lived he lived before that he was 200 years before it I see this he did not live there till now and what would he do he would work on his budgets he would work on to do his accounting and go through his books his numbers he would work on there's my sir money which is interesting and I'm not sure but you could also speculate there was the end of the the end of the Christian year now I don't know if the fiscal year in the Middle Ages went with it with with the Gregorian calendar meaning I don't know it could be the one with the harvest the harvest season which is in November which is more likely in an agrarian society today the fiscal year ends with the with the regular Gregorian calendar meaning in December so it could make sense and you would work on your accounts and numbers during an it'll often that would be a good way to do it there are there were those who said and we can say see pureed subdeacon a little know how we got into trouble because I see this little novice commemorated it main mainly today they attach great importance to see poor it's a deacon the stories about so they can so much so that many of them have raised it to the level of actually learning Tyra so they're starting an internal dispute amongst different Hasidic groups are you allowed to do separate tsadikim and that's enough because here you're saying this is not learning Tyra if you're doing say I'm doing no anytime but on that same topic of support so they camp there were those who used at that time to read outside literature science geography chemistry you know anything about nature about the natural world and history so that means a history is also not learning Tyra unfortunately you know I would I would maybe dispute that also but there were those who decided to devote the night to reading history so there we go we're doing a great thing now where we're taking part in that also so at the end of the day most of most people and you see this by the way I'm sorry for wrote about this and others wrote about this famous woman sounds like her what happens to be that other people wrote about it also they're people who are regular learning target in yeshiva what they should do is they should go to sleep I think it's time they do it so today I'm finishing up now I don't know I don't know it's a good question because as soon as you see her but they had a very strict curriculum so it could unless I would want to find out about that I'm very curious I would say that they probably does not learn it to laugh because to make a revolution like that would be too much even though he did a lot of revolutionary things but um but I'm not sure I guess I want to look into it and so I think it sounds I think in other places the meaning is to go to sleep after Shakya and then to wake up and concise and to make up for lost time what they did the next night is up to anyone's guess because once there I see what my kids are like after two days in America it was their internal clock is off so um so I could imagine what these yeah but you see them they're just so if I see them they could lie two to three in the morning so so so that could be oh so now we see today that I see them around the only ones who kept it so why do most of us not take it amiss I didn't know that I didn't know that sir embroider the Yaquis keep it - that's interesting so so most of them don't keep it there was always quite kinds of questions if you do it on Shabbos or not and many said you don't do none Chavez and following a similar line of thought many said that it hurts you sir all you don't have to King little not because I say anyway it's not really in gulleson Garrity strolls different exercise the kedusha intro there's no clipless and they're too strong therefore ancestral is not done now the Muslim lands where it wasn't Christian no Christians in Iraq remove idea he writes old troop about us we never did it we never heard of it I'm gonna do it it's not bothering now has to do with being under the direct influence of the church which is something we're speaking about all along that it's a historical meaning it's something that reflects circumstances at the time people who lived in Islamic places you say all the terror you want about why you should that the fact that Jesus came down and it's a big problem and that's why we're not allowed to learn but at the end of the day I don't see I don't see the church in front of me I don't see this holiday being cell created because i live in morocco then therefore it's not kept and it was never kept in Jews of the Islamic lands in those communities so here you have an interesting situation you're moving up to modern times Sparta Martin's keeping it Jews an artist ro Laren keeping it and there's less and less fear from the surrounding Christian population and if you combine all that together and it simply falls away the building guy was uh was quite against keeping it for other reasons the house interested that there's no fear from the Christians anymore so we won't we don't have to do Knittle now but often not learn and it's enough meaning that's a straight-up reason he's taking on that that stream of thought that I mentioned earlier that it's a technical thing once the technicalities removed there's no reason to keep it his brother-in-law the stapler came from a see dishes at home and family and kept some stuff so he said he's not learning dental not from a safer what are you eating say is because it hit me said he doesn't want to offend the past even want to offend those he was learned by heart on the Ethel doc they only learned by heart that's what he did so then came along and this is the last of the last stage is there we have all these reasons not to do it charity stroll we have no fear of the Christians anymore Jews who come from Muslim lands and over to you who to cook wraps it all together and says today we have a Jewish state if we have a Jewish state and there's no reason to do things because of the Christians we don't do things not because there's no fear by the very fact that there is a Jewish state then there's no reason to do start to do things because of the Christians that's a a godless and exile mentality that we do things because of the call you because of the surrounding Christian population now we're on people in our own land our own country and we don't do things because of what others what others think so again so if a person you catch someone not learning I'm sorry you got someone learning on it's enough you could say that he's doing heroes of the game or he cuz he's party we could say maybe he's tickled CI knee and that's what he's really doing it and maybe that's another reason to doc cannot to learn that you shouldn't have someone suspect you of that you might be faster solomon CI knee so we'll stop it here there's a lot more to say about both about Nitin often about how customs develop through historical circumstances and should be a few questions anyone having questions is there any other day of the year rephrase you know significance of the day bigger one because there's a direction that's in violation of Mona's little surely ye stuff I don't know that was adapted by right I think I think I think it was violent the pagan times [Music] those Christian originally there was violence against that she was you're right I think yeah I think you're so right because he held the mental he he had as he/she will go to sleep and only get up and yet he's still he still said yeah some people nervous about we might come to learn on it so they don't learn the whole Julian count here's the Julian calendar was kept in the Russian Empire until the revolution as a result any casino who lived in the Russian lands Chernobyl parts of region Carleen Abbas good Oh Escobar was part two novel so they would keep the Julian which which comes out on January 6 or whatever I have the Russian search every by the way the British Empire didn't change to the Gregorian calendar the 1700s wasn't only the primitive Russians but there weren't that many Hasidic groups in the British Empire so so then the Gregorian comes in in today December 25th or then in that time so when they switched the 10 days because of the switch in the calendar Julian's a Gregorian do you keep the original day or do you keep 10 days later and that was like kiss amongst that I see them and I think some of them are mocking her I remember which ones but uh both make sure it deviates on the sheet this okay anything else not all dependent on there's something you're curious about from Kennedy Reese