יום ד Date: 18 Teves, 5776 (12/30/15) – Gittin Daf 17 {Eliezer}

CATASTROPHIC CELEBRATIONS

[17a top] Gemarah: Jews were learning Torah at night when the Persians entered and took away their light. They announced that Jews may only have lights on if they come and keep their holidays in their churches.
A similar “Holiday” threatens to allure Jews nowadays with its attractiveness and excitement that also forced Jews into other houses of worship…
R’ Kelemen: The First January 1st ever was marked to celebrate the Pagan god, Janice, by Julius Caesar who, on this day, made the streets flow with Jewish blood and encouraged massive drunken orgies.
In 1582, with a correction in the solar calendar, January 1st was established by Pope Gregory as a Christian date as well for the New Year. On New Year’s day, in 1577, he decreed that all Roman Jews under pain of death must listen attentively to compulsory catholic conversion sermons given in Roman synagogues after Friday night services. New Year’s 1581, Pope Gregory ordered confiscation of all Jewish sacred literature and murdered thousands of Jew that tried to stop him in the most horrific ways imaginable.

D-E-ep Thoughts: By having any part in a commemoration of a “New Year’s celebration,” Jews are spitting on the graves of their ancestors. To the most recent Holocaust we communally chant “Never Forget!” But this mantra must be applied to all dates that were founded by forces of evil. We must never get swept away in festivities and have definite purpose for all our actions.