Question: $\"vker992699\"$ <\/em><\/p>\n

Do Jews celebrate Halloween? I know its origins aren’t very “Jewish,” but I’m worried that my kids will feel left out if they can’t go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me tell you about a wonderful Jewish holiday: once a year, our children dress up as sages, princesses, heroes and clowns. They drop by the homes of our community, visit the infirm and the aged, spreading joy and laughter. They bring gifts of food and drink and collect\u00a0tzedakah<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(charity) for the needy.<\/p>\n

You guessed it–it’s called\u00a0Purim<\/a>, when it’s customary to send\u00a0mishloach manot<\/span><\/i>–gifts of food–to one’s friends and even more gifts to those in hard times.<\/p>\n

Flip it over (October instead of March, demanding instead of giving, scaring instead of rejoicing, demons instead of sages, etc.) and you have Halloween. There you have it: a choice of one of two messages you can give to your children. I call that a choice, because one of the beautiful things about kids is that, unlike adults, they don’t do too well receiving two conflicting messages at once.<\/p>\n

I know how hard it is to be different, but as Jews, we have been doing just that for most of our 3,800 years. Since\u00a0Abraham<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Sarah<\/span>\u00a0broke away from the Sumerian cult of gods and demons, we have lived amongst other peoples while being very different from them. And we dramatically changed the world by being that way.<\/p>\n

That’s a proud and nurturing role for any child: To be a leader and not a follower, to be a model of what should be rather than of what is.<\/p>\n

Make your kids feel that they are the vanguard. They belong to a people who have been entrusted with the mission to be a light to the nations–not an ominous light inside a pumpkin, but a light that stands out and above and shows everyone where to go. Forget about Halloween and wait for\u00a0Purim<\/span>\u00a0to turn the neighborhood upside down!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Source: Do Jews Celebrate Halloween?<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Do Jews celebrate Halloween? I know its origins aren’t very “Jewish,” but I’m worried that my kids will feel left out if they can’t go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Answer: Let me tell you about a wonderful Jewish holiday: once a year, our children dress up as sages, princesses, heroes and clowns. They drop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.draherin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/vKeR992699.jpg?fit=240%2C236&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5MjSO-gL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70,"url":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/2015\/03\/12\/messianic-judaism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1039,"position":0},"title":"Messianic Judaism","date":"2015-03-12","format":false,"excerpt":"What is it? What is it rooted in? Who started it? All good questions, and I\u2019m sure there are many more, but I\u2019m not going to answer every one because I can\u2019t. I\u2019m still learning about Messianic Judaism as I\u2019m a wee bit green on the whole thing, but I\u2019ve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/2015\/03\/16\/anti-semitism-affects-all-of-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":1039,"position":1},"title":"Anti-Semitism Affects All of Us","date":"2015-03-16","format":false,"excerpt":"My father,\u00a0Kirk Douglas, born Issur Danielovitch, is Jewish. My mother, Diana, is not. I had no formal religious upbringing from either of them, and the two kids I have with Catherine Zeta-Jones are like me, growing up with one parent who is Jewish and one who is not. Several years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.draherin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Michael-Douglas-SM.jpg?fit=1000%2C988&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1103,"url":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/2017\/01\/23\/who-came-up-with-tikkun-olam-dont-surrender-dont-escape-fix-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":1039,"position":2},"title":"Who Came Up With Tikkun Olam? - Don\u2019t surrender. Don\u2019t escape. Fix the world.","date":"2017-01-23","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe you\u2019ve heard of\u00a0tikkun olam. It\u2019s a phrase thrown around a lot in Jewish circles. Olam\u00a0means \u201cworld,\u201d and\u00a0tikkun\u2014well, it means all sorts of things. But in this sense, it means \u201crepair.\u201d So\u00a0tikkun olam\u00a0means \u201crepairing the world.\u201d Which is what we\u2019re here to do. Because, in case you didn\u2019t notice, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.draherin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/VFER9802827.jpg?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":847,"url":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/2016\/03\/16\/passover-the-real-meaning-of-matzah\/","url_meta":{"origin":1039,"position":3},"title":"Passover: The Real Meaning of Matzah","date":"2016-03-16","format":false,"excerpt":"Your bread is flat, hard, thin and, probably, burned. It's called matzah (also spelled matzoh, matzo, matza, etc.), and you think you're eating it because when your ancestors fled Egypt over 3,300 years ago, they didn't have time to let their bread rise. But is that really the reason? Probably\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Food"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.draherin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/matzah_grain.jpg?fit=539%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":930,"url":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/2016\/03\/29\/the-history-and-meaning-of-hamantaschen-peeling-back-the-layers-of-the-purim-treats-also-called-oznei-haman\/","url_meta":{"origin":1039,"position":4},"title":"\u05d0\u05d5\u05d6\u05e0\u05d9 \u05d4\u05de\u05d5 \u2014 The History and Meaning of Hamantaschen","date":"2016-03-29","format":false,"excerpt":"By Rabbi Yehudi Shurpin, Chabad.org What comes to mind when you think of\u00a0Purim? Costumes, the\u00a0megillah, gift baskets, and of course, those delectable three-cornered pastries,\u00a0hamantaschen.\u00a0Called\u00a0oznei\u00a0Haman\u00a0in Hebrew, these treats filled with poppy seeds (or other fillings) have been a part of Purim celebrations for centuries. Where did they originate? What do their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Food"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.draherin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/VgPL8765687.jpg?fit=650%2C245&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/2017\/01\/19\/grace-the-art-of-how-we-give-thanks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1039,"position":5},"title":"Grace: The Art of How We Give Thanks","date":"2017-01-19","format":false,"excerpt":"Saying Grace. Giving Thanks. Saying the Blessing.\u00a0It\u2019s that little prayer that we offer up to G\u2013d in thanks for the food on our table. It usually goes something like \u201cwe thank thee, o L\u2013rd, for these thy gifts,\u201d or perhaps like this; \u201cplease bless this food to the nourishment of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.draherin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Kiddush-by-Nachum-Zeev.png?fit=1200%2C627&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.draherin.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}