Jewish Values & Halloween

The month of October has been filled with holidays from Rosh Hashanah to Simchat Torah!  As we conclude this month, we end with a bang: Halloween.  Yes, I know that Halloween is not even remotely a Jewish holiday!  As you might have known, the origins of Halloween goes back over 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain.  This was a day when the boundary of the living and dead were quite blurry.  This pagan holiday celebrated the return of the dead as ghosts who visited the living.  Later, the holiday was transformed into “All Saints Day” to honor martyrs.  In recent generations, the holiday has once again changed with the times.  Today, Halloween has become a celebration of candy, costumes, pumpkins, with a little bit of horror thrown-in.  Even amongst the chocolate and costumes, there are Jewish values that can guide us in our celebration of Halloween.

Welcoming Guests

One of the quintessential Jewish values is hachnassat orchim: the welcoming of guests.  In the Torah, we learn that Abraham and Sarah welcomed strangers into their tent who were travelling across the wilderness.  They provided them with food, water, and shelter, which gave them nourishment and strength.  During Passover, we are reminded: “All who are hungry come and eat.  All who are in need, join the Passover meal.”  We open our doors to the hungry as well as all those who need communal support.

Honestly, how often do we truly open our doors to our community?  In our modern age, we often run from house to garage to car.  We don't connect with our neighbors or our broader community as much as we'd like.  Halloween is an opportunity to open our doors, to welcome our neighbors and community into our homes.  Although we provide small tokens of sugar and chocolate, these are gifts of hospitality, nonetheless. 

Tzedakah

In many ways, Halloween can be the most stereotypical of American holidays.  It’s a holiday about sweets, fattening us up, and it’s all about ME, ME, ME!  But, it doesn’t have to be that way.  Judaism teaches the moral imperative of giving back to our community.  Each Jew is required to give a percentage of money as tzedakah, money that will help uplift the community.  This money is not charity, it’s a Jewish requirement, an act of justice.  Halloween can be more than collecting the most amount of candy!

As a child, I was given an orange cardboard box to collect money for UNICEF.  From house to house, I would travel asking for some coins to help children throughout the world.  It was literally, a tzedakah box!  Today, you can do the same by registering through the UNICEF Website.  Even five dollars collected can provide children with 13 doses of the measles vaccine.  As our kids travel from house to house on Halloween, they can fill more than their tummies with candy.  They can do their part to help those in need.

Jewish Values & Halloween

Yes, I know that Halloween is not a Jewish holiday.  Yet, there are Jewish values that can become the heart of Trick-or-Treat.  Opening our doors and giving out candy is the observance of Hachanasat Orchim, the welcoming of guests.  Having some coins on the ready and a UNICEF box (or a tzedakah box) in hand will help us all observe the mitzvah of tzedakah.  May we infuse these Jewish values into our Halloween celebration!