#nitl nacht

[starlightomatic]

You mentioned nittel nacht. Do you know about Toilet Jesus

of course

[starlightomatic]

So like it’s worth mentioning that one of the reasons so many Jews have such an aversion to Christmas is intergenerational trauma stemming from the fact that back in Eastern Europe, Christmas was a night when Christians would hear sermons about how the Jews killed Jesus and then would get drunk and go out in the streets and murder us.

We literally have a tradition called Nitl Nacht from those times where Jewish men who would ordinarily be out at the study hall learning Torah stay home. It developed into something fun where they play board games with their families instead, but it originates in needing to stay hunkered down so you won’t get murdered.

This is not something that’s ever-present for us in the current day, and we obviously know that we can leave our homes on Christmas safely nowadays (and we developed another tradition for it, that of going out to eat at Chinese restaurants), and most of us don’t actively hate or fear Christmas, but there’s something deep down for many of us that marks it as something to keep at arms’ length no matter how warm and nice and brightly-lit it seems. Something that marks it as irredeemably Other. We might admire a Christmas tree in the town square because it’s pretty and makes the town feel festive, but that sense of This Is For Them, Not For Us is always there.

Of course there are Jews from interfaith households who celebrate Christmas, as well as many others who just don’t experience what I’m describing. It’s not my intention to erase their experiences or present my own perspective as universal. But, what I’m describing is very real as well.

And because of that sense deep down that Christmas is at best not ours and at worst something sinister, an entire month and a half of public space being taken over by it, between decorations and trees and music and Jewish employees being forced to wear Christmas outfits, just becomes... a bit much.

(Yes, non-Jews can reblog this.)

[starlightomatic]

broke: thanksgivukkah woke: nitl nacht + asarah b’tevet