Guest Post by Rabbi Bill Kanter
Recently I read a halachic article that I feel compelled to comment on (this may not change
anyone's mind, but at least my children will know how I feel about matters).
In the December 12, 2014 (Parshat Vayeshev) edition of
Halacha Encounters, "A Project of the Chicago Community Kollel" Rabbi
Moshe Kaufman, a full-time member of the Kollel, discusses various greetings
and names that can or cannot be said during this time of year. The first column
of the two column article is a brief summary of the issue of whether or not
Christianity is avodah zarah (It is interesting to point out that on three
occasions Rabbi Kaufman is careful to spell the word Christianity without the
first "i," so it reads
"Chr-stianity." However, his proofreader fails him in the top line of
column two, where the word Christianity is spelled correctly).
The second column is devoted to answering four questions. 1)
May a Jew say Jesus? 2) May a Jew say Christ? 3) May a Jew wish someone a Merry
Christmas? and 4) May a Jew go to a holiday party?
With one exception, it is beyond the scope of this article
to explore different sources than those cited by Rabbi Kaufman to deal with
these issues. I simply want to use the same sources he uses (with the one
exception found in the next paragraph) and come out to different and more
balanced conclusions.
The one source I will add to the discussion is that while
Rabbi Kaufman quotes the Shulchan Aruch (YD 148:9) that "one may greet a
non-Jew on his holidays but with a sense of heaviness..." he does not
mention the Rama in YD 148:12 who says (about all of these laws) that nowadays
"one may rejoice with them 'mishum eiva'" (due to -or perhaps if there
is a fear of- animosity).
What follows are the quotations from Rabbi Kaufman's article
wherein he answers these questions, followed by my rewrite in bold.
On the question of saying Jesus:
Kaufman: "The example the Haagos Maimonios gives is the
fact that the name of J is mentioned many places in the Talmud (before removal
by the censors). Therefore, there would be no technical issur. However, today
it is a very uncommon name to have, unless it is associated with that religion,
so many Jews avoid using it.
Kanter: "The example the Haagos Maimonios gives is the
fact that the name of Jesus is mentioned many places in the Talmud (before
removal by the sensors). Therefore, there would be no issur. In fact, today it is a very common name to
have in many places (especially in the rapidly growing American Hispanic
communities and throughout Latin America), so many Jews have no problem using
this name, although some are more stringent and do avoid using it."
On the question of saying Christ:
Kaufman: "Rav Azriel Hildesheimer (Shu"t Vol 1, YD
180) is at a loss to explain why people are lax in this regard [i.e, people say
this name]. For a person to use these words in the context of swearing, such as
in court or rush-hour traffic, would be in violation of the prohibition against
swearing in the name of false deities."
Kanter: "Rav Azriel Hildesheimer (Shu"t Vol 1, YD
180) is at a loss to explain why people are lax in this regard [i.e, people say
this name]. For a person to use these words in the context of swearing, such as
in court, would be in violation of the prohibition against swearing in the name
of false deities." However, since no one in court (at least in this
country) is ever asked to swear in the name of Jesus Christ or any other deity
name (the customary terminology in court is "so help me God,") this
would almost never be an issue. Regarding using this name in rush-hour traffic,
further discussion is required regarding the purpose of invoking this name at
such a time. One could suggest that the driver is not swearing in the name of
the deity but is swearing at the deity in a condescending manner. It is also
possible that using this name will prevent the speaker from using a variety of
other foul sounding and prohibited words.
On the question of saying Merry Christmas:
Kaufman:"...it is quoted in the name of Rav Scheinberg
zt"l, that today the day is celebrated by most people as a secular
holiday, and the name itself does not carry a religious connotation (Divrei Sofrim).
Many people refer to the day as Xmas..."
Kanter: "...it is quoted in the name of Rav Scheinberg
zt"l, that today the day is celebrated by most people as a secular
holiday, and the name itself does not carry a religious connotation (Divrei
Sofrim). Based on this, Jewish people should have no problem using the greeting
Merry Christmas although again, some are more stringent and do refer to the day
as Xmas..."
On the question of attending "any sort of holiday party:"
Kaufman: "One may not attend any sort of holiday party,
even for business purposes, if at all possible. If one's job would be in
jeopardy if he failed to attend, one should ask a shailah."
Before proceeding with my rewrite of this paragraph I would
like to point out that while discussing the other issues Rabbi Kaufman marshals
Halachic sources. However, for this rather broad pronouncement "any sort
of holiday party," he cites no source. This appears then to be his opinion
as opposed to being a halacha rooted in poskim. One has to ask, what if the
"holiday party" is the entire office (with staff of various
denominations and religions) going to a kosher restaurant with their spouses,
or some other "kosher" venue.
Kanter: "Regarding attending holiday parties, whether
this time of year or any time of year, it should go without saying, that a Ben
Torah or Bas Yisroel must always act appropriately and when there is a question
of attending any event a Rav should be consulted."(This is assuming of
course that the holiday party is not also a Christian event which would most
certainly be prohibited).
In addition to the above I would like to add the following.
The role of Minhag or custom in Halacha cannot be overstated. This is the case
regarding many areas such as mode of dress and speech and interaction with
Gentiles, or more specific areas such as the proliferation of Eruvim in major
metropolitan areas, shaving, eating chodosh, women learning Gemarah (in Israel
there are several women Daf Yomi classes)
or using live chickens for Kapparos (which many poskim are against and
also violate at least one city ordinance- Los Angeles Municipal Code Section
53.67, banning "animal sacrifices...in any religious or cult ritual")
as well as many hundreds of other activities.
The Gemarah in several places
uses a principle of "go out and see what is happening in the
streets." While this does not mean that we can just follow what "the
street" does with no Halachic guidance (lest we would all drive on Shabbos,
God forbid, because most Jews do), it does mean that we need to be mindful of
the principal that "the custom of Jews is holy." When I have
mentioned this principle in the parts of our community of which I believe Rabbi
Kaufman likely identifies, a common refrain is "the Oy'lum is a
Goy'lum" i.e. "the world out there is uneducated" (lit:
"the world is a mindless clod").
In my opinion this expression, while
cute, is obnoxious and breeds a sense of haughtiness by those who invoke it (I
have never heard this from Rabbi Kaufman specifically). It also allows for one
to disregard the role of the (shomer Torah and Mitzvos) Jewish masses in having
a hand in deciding the Halacha in certain matters.
As stated by Rav Yehudah
Henkin in Tradition magazine 37:3, 2003 (regarding the book Oz Ve-Hadar
Levusha) "Books such as Oz ve-Hadar Levusha are as much about ideology and
musar as they are about halakha ...[and they] continue the process of
standardization of halakha at the expense of local custom."
When I discuss this issue of one's ideology (Hashkafa) influencing
one's halachic perspective to the point where one cannot be or refuses to be objective
in his (or her) halachik analysis, I often tell the parable of the little boy who
dreamed of being an expert archer. According to this parable, a man was walking
in the forest and he came upon a tree with a bull's-eye and an arrow right in
the center of the bull's-eye. The man thought to himself that a really fine
archer must be in these woods.
He then turned to see dozens of other trees all
with bull's-eyes and all with an arrow in the center of the bull's-eye. The man
thought that the archer in these woods is the finest in the world and he really
wanted to meet this archer. He then spotted a little boy of no more than 12
years old and this boy was holding a bow and arrow and a number of cans of
paint.
The man asked the boy if he knew where the great archer was and the boy
responded that he (the boy) is the person who shot the arrows at the trees but
he is not really a very good archer. He simply shoots the arrow at the tree and
when he hits a tree with the arrow he goes over and paints a bull's-eye around
the arrow.
In this article Rabbi Kaufman begins with "an arrow in
the tree." That is that according to Halacha: saying Jesus is wrong,
saying Christ is wrong, wishing Merry Christmas is wrong and going to "any
sort of holiday party" is also wrong. He then produces various sources and
"paints" such a picture.
I am not accusing Rabbi Kaufman of purposefully or knowingly
misrepresenting the Halacha. (Such accusations have been made about other
authors and publishers and I will briefly point out 3 instances.
1) In the
aforementioned Tradition article Rav
Henkin accuses Rabbi Eliyahu Falk, the author of Oz ve-Hadar Levusha, of a
"pattern of wishful or willful misreading of the Iggerot Moshe" when
analyzing Rav Moshe's heter to allow women to uncover a tefach of hair;
2)
Recently in a blog post, Prof. Marc B. Shapiro has pointed out that in the
latest edition of the Artscroll Mikraot Gedolot, several sections of the
Rashbam's commentary on Genesis chapter 1 have been entirely censored out by
the ArtScroll publishers;
3) The cropping out of Rav Soloveitchik from the
picture that was taken with the Rav, Rav Ahron Kotler and Reb Irving Bunim and appears in the book The
Legacy of Rav Ahron Kotler, also by Artscroll. Note that the picture was taken
at the first Chinuch Atzmai dinner on
January 11, 1956 and Rav Soloveitchik was invited to the event by Rav Kotler
and sat next to him.
For many more such examples the reader can see Rabbi J.J.
Schachter's article Facing the Truths of History in Torah U-Madda Journal
Valoume 8 1998-1999). ). I am suggesting
that Rabbi Kaufman's (and others) ideology may prevent him from dealing with
Halachic issue with the requisite objectively.
We must remember that Torah must always be "Toras
Emes" or a "Torah of Truth." Yes, we all approach the Halacha
with our own biases. However, when one's Hashkafa (perhaps molded by one's
upbringing and education) prevents one from having and employing the
objectivity that is required in any truthful legal analysis, then he or she may
be turning our holy Torah into something different entirely.
Bill Kanter is an attorney and financial planner in Chicago.
