Nittel on Friday nite?

Happy 2B

Fri, Dec 24 2010, 10:37 am

I never heard of that either, till my husband said a dreidel is muksah.. it's not so strange though cuz usually games that you play with money or pens are assur on shabbos.

yo'ma

Fri, Dec 24 2010, 12:17 pm

Happy 2B wrote:

I never heard of that either, till my husband said a dreidel is muksah.. it's not so strange though cuz usually games that you play with money or pens are assur on shabbos.

We don't play dreidel w/ money, we play with beans. After we wash and use them Wink

.

I also never heard of this minhag. I guess I should tell my dh not to say a d'var torah tonight. Wait, he doesn't anyway Rolling Eyes

chocolate moose

Fri, Dec 24 2010, 12:26 pm

Happy 2B wrote:

I dont think I've ever heard of this minhag. I can't imagine the entire lakewood yeshivah sitting and playing cards... Seems like a big bitul torah to me... an excuse to have the night off? I'd think you would want to have more learning.With so much tumah the kedusha of learning can overpower it and bring mashiach!!!

Is this a chassidishe minhag?

Why can't you just say l'elui nishmas so and so and allocate the learning to someone else.

I'm not putting down anyones minhag.. I just never heard of it and am trying to understand it. Then again there are many minhagim we dont understand.

It's not a night off, or a night of bittul Torah - it's from shkia until chatzos.

busydev

Fri, Dec 24 2010, 12:39 pm

I first heard of it in Sem when one of my classmates (english and chassidish) tried to get the principal to cancel classes that night LOL

but being litvish without that minhag we will just be doing our regular friday night- food, song, dvar torah, bentch, shluf.

Chana Miriam S

Fri, Dec 24 2010, 12:53 pm

Chinese food (only restaurants open traditionally- before we kept kosher) and a movie because theatres were open.

Tonight, Chinese Shabbat Dinner at Shul with friends. No movie. Next year, we are thinking about Chinese Food and a Movie Motzei Shabbat.

NotInNJMommy

Fri, Dec 24 2010, 1:26 pm

sequoia wrote:

I've seen a photo of the rebbe and the previous rebbe playing chess at a sanatorium... how do you know it was just once a year?

to my knowledge, the famous picture was not taken on nittel, but another time when the previous rebbe was convalescing and told to not engaged in any demanding mental work...and chess was taking it easy for him.

The Rebbe and the Previous Rebbe played chess many times, not only on nittel.

freidasima

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 11:10 am

BTW just for our edification, as my dh reminded me, the term "nittel" comes from the Latin "Natal" meaning birth and you can guess whose birth they were talking about.

We ended up not having a dvar torah at the table, looking at the shabbos papers and in spite of the chassidish minhog of not sleeping before chatzos (in case of a pogrom) we fell asleep really early (like 9 PM) and paid for it be being up from 1:30-5:00 AM and dh got another hour of sleep then before shul.

At least we don't have snow around here...

grace413

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 11:15 am

bubby wrote:

smilingmom wrote:

I asked my DH and sons, but none of them knew that tonite is xmas.

To those that keep it, do you mark it on your Jewish calendar?

How could they NOT know??? shock

It's everywhere, you can't escape it! I will be glad when it's over...all this false bonhommie is making me Puke

Next week, it's back to being growled at by the water delivery guy, the mailman, the custodian, the..... Once they've gotten their holiday bonus, the "goodwill to all men" flies out the window with those reindeer.

Ho flippin' Ho Twisted Evil

Aaaaahhhhhh......the beauty of living in E"Y.

Tamiri

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 11:35 am

grace413 wrote:

bubby wrote:

smilingmom wrote:

I asked my DH and sons, but none of them knew that tonite is xmas.

To those that keep it, do you mark it on your Jewish calendar?

How could they NOT know??? shock

It's everywhere, you can't escape it! I will be glad when it's over...all this false bonhommie is making me Puke

Aaaaahhhhhh......the beauty of living in E"Y.

Yup, no one had a clue here.

grin

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 11:48 am

Tamiri wrote:

grace413 wrote:

bubby wrote:

smilingmom wrote:

I asked my DH and sons, but none of them knew that tonite is xmas.

To those that keep it, do you mark it on your Jewish calendar?

How could they NOT know??? shock

It's everywhere, you can't escape it! I will be glad when it's over...all this false bonhommie is making me Puke

Aaaaahhhhhh......the beauty of living in E"Y.

Yup, no one had a clue here.

I hand't noticed the date until I saw this thread - ds in yeshiva said they had seder nigunim instead of seder limud and I didn't have to pull teeth, excuse me DT, at the table, for a change Smile

shalhevet

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 1:12 pm

freidasima wrote:

The pogroms were probably because people didn't learn enough Torah that night. Torah magna u'matzla.

I told my dh he should learn extra last night for all those who aren't learning and he looked at me like I was nuts. All ye merry Xmas-in-your-faces should move straight away to EY. (He knows about nittel because we have chassidish neighbours - usually we hear them banging away fixing things that night. Actually not such a bad idea - we should also have one night a year when things get fixed in the house... Wink

)

Raisin

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 1:26 pm

We did not say a dvar torah but we were talking about the parsha and dh prepared leining. So ooops.

Shalhevet, don't worry, due to different time zones nittel is at different times in different places. So someone is always learning. Plus there are some different opinions on the correct date - 6 jan vs. 24/25 dec.

Mommyme1

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 3:12 pm

I think Pogroms were any time that the non jews were having a good time and decided to have some fun. People still have problems Halloween time with eggs being thrown...

freidasima

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 3:31 pm

Pogroms were usually twice a year after the Galachs (priests) would whip up enthusiasm - during the daytime mass at Easter and at the night mass at Nittel.

When dh came home from shul this morning he spoke about it to some of the older men there and they said that in Russia it is the 6th of January so that's the date they remember keeping as children.

shabbatiscoming

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 4:17 pm

I never heard of nittle nacht until I came onto Imamother a few years ago.

M husband learns twice a week for smicha with a group of men. One of the guys there asked the Rav who leads the learning group about Nittel Nacht and he told all of the men that this minhag goes way back in time, that it is not something that just came into play 20 years ago and that yeshivot always did this, they played chess or whatever it was that night. I thought that it was an interesting hstorical tidbit to learn.

Last edited by shabbatiscoming on Sat, Dec 25 2010, 5:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

sarahd

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 5:09 pm

shalhevet wrote:

freidasima wrote:

The pogroms were probably because people didn't learn enough Torah that night. Torah magna u'matzla.

shalhevet, perhaps you shouldn't be so flippant about minhagim that were and are kept by gedolei olam, all of whom value/d Torah learning at least as much as you and all of whom were at least as learned as you when it came to understanding minhagim.

smilingmom

Sat, Dec 25 2010, 5:56 pm

grace413 wrote:

bubby wrote:

smilingmom wrote:

I asked my DH and sons, but none of them knew that tonite is xmas.

To those that keep it, do you mark it on your Jewish calendar?

How could they NOT know??? shock

It's everywhere, you can't escape it! I will be glad when it's over...all this false bonhommie is making me Puke

Aaaaahhhhhh......the beauty of living in E"Y.

I live in Brooklyn, though not in Boro Park, Flatbush, Willimsburg or Crown heights, which are suburbs of Bnei Brak.