I'm surprised not a word was mentioned this year about nitul

watergirl

Mon, Dec 25 2017, 7:45 pm

Ruchel wrote:

Nittel may or notcome from "nisht lernen". Not to give zechus or chayus to,you know what etc.

Many people don't do anything.

No one does Chinese except onFB.

Sadly a couple restaurants have a"holiday" menu...

My FIL did chess with the kids.

I grew up eating treif outside the house. Waaaaaaay before facebook was a thing, we went for chinese on cristmas. It is indeed a thing. Maybe not where you live. But its a American tradition as old as apple pie. Read the link that someone posted upthread.

HeartyAppetite

Mon, Dec 25 2017, 8:10 pm

We actually hold nittel is on January 6th.
No Torah learning or relations. The first satmar Rebbe I was very against having relations on this day, because you don’t want to bring down a neshama in this tamei. Some satmar mikvahs were even closed on jan. 6th. (Not sure if that still applies to today’s day.)

naturalmom5

Mon, Dec 25 2017, 8:24 pm

HeartyAppetite wrote:

That's very interesting, considering Jan 6th is when its celebrated on the Russian Orthodox calendar, and Satmar is a Hungarian Chasidus.

Volunteer

Mon, Dec 25 2017, 9:03 pm

keym wrote:

I know that there are those who won't learn any Torah on Xmas Eve because of koach hatuma and other such really sophisticated Concepts that are way above my pay grade. So many of them will either play chess, play cards or I know some Rabbi who take care of their pre tax documents put together all their tax information at the end of the year why not? But for some chess or cards on Xmas Eve has been some of what other tradition.

Also because of the koach hatuma there are those who are careful not to have relations on Xmas Eve. So if you can't have relations and you can't learn Torah then there's not much else to do besides play board games.

I once dated someone who observed nittel nacht. He used to spend the evening cutting lengths of toilet paper for Shabbat, enough for the whole year. That's another fun activity idea. We had a thread about this a couple of years ago, in which I learned that the Hazon Ish also used to cut his tissues on this night.

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 12:30 am

Calling x-mas a day of tumah gives the religion a power that it shouldn't have. As I understand, Jews in parts of Christian Europe were simply afraid to go to the bais medrash that night. The bravado about not learning because we don't want to give zechus came afterwards. In the different mo communities where I've lived, there's always extra learning because so many people are off work for the day. Halevai that our biggest sin should be learning on nittel nacht.

amother

Chocolate

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 6:08 am

My husband does both. But the whole "nittel" of not learning is from about 6 pm (nightfall) till midnight - so he comes home eats and goes to sleep - then wakes up at 1 to go learn.
It happens to be I had to go to Mikva Sunday night. He asked a shaila of two dayanim one said do what you want but wouldn't actually say he recommends going and the second said go but don't have relations till after chatzos.

saw50st8

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 7:29 am

I think everyone in Teaneck had chinese food on x-mas Eve and x-mas Day, given how long the lines and waits were :-) We actually didn't have any this year. It's a fun tradition.

Mommyg8

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 8:30 am

HeartyAppetite wrote:

We got married January 6th! I panicked and asked dh, he said that the shayla was asked, and we were told "no problem". I think the date was available because Chassidim didn't want that date!!!

So we're not Chassidish, and we don't "hold" nittul.

imasoftov

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 8:41 am

saw50st8 wrote:

I think everyone in Teaneck had chinese food on x-mas Eve and x-mas Day, given how long the lines and waits were :-) We actually didn't have any this year. It's a fun tradition.

We ate some in Machane Yehuda.

elisheva25

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:15 am

HeartyAppetite wrote:

Can someone please explain what this means ??? What does Xmas have to do with Jan 6? I heard of people not learning on Xmas, because in the olden times they were afraid. But what does it have to do with bringing neshamos down???? Rolling Eyes

How is any date in the secular calendar significant for us??
Really trying to understand this post

naturalmom5

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:21 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nittel_Nacht

Elisheva, you can all check a sefer called Nati Gavril by Rabbi Gavriel Zinner , where there is a quite lengthy explanation

keym

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:25 am

elisheva25 wrote:

How is any date in the secular calendar significant for us??
Really trying to understand this post

There are those who believe in the koach hatumah present on the secular date of when he was born. The kishuf and tumah he used and all that. Christians celebrate dec 25 using the Julian calendar but the real date is jan 6 the eastern orthodox date following the Gregorian calendar.
Someone correct me about the calendar names if im wrong. I get confused.
But the belief is that that day had such an ourpour of tumah that everything on that day gets tainted and turned tumadik. Learning, neshamos created physically and spiritually, new business ventures.
Not saying I hold of it. Just explaining.

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:31 am

elisheva25 wrote:

How is any date in the secular calendar significant for us??
Really trying to understand this post

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates on January 7 because they observe according to the old Julian calendar. Pope Gregory instituted the new calendar in 1582, because the old one needed too many leap years. Russia didn't adopt the calendar until 1918, at which point they needed to cut 13 days out of the year to catch up. Hence the disparity between the dates.

I have no idea about bringing neshamos down.

amother

Yellow

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:34 am

amother wrote:

I'm really surprised a rav would put nittel nacht ahead of the mitzvah of mikva. AFAIK the only dates we push off mikva are YK and tisha b'av.

JoyInTheMorning

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:35 am

Elisheva25, the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches go by the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar; therefore, their dates don't sync up with the rest of the word. The difference between the two calendars increases over time. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.....dates .) For all of the 19th century, the difference between the J and G calendars was 12 days, giving our January 6 for their December 25. Since 1900, the difference has been 13 days, so their December 25 is our January 7.

A separate issue is that January 6 is Twelfth Night, as in the Twelve Days of Xmas.

cnc

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:38 am

amother wrote:

I'm really surprised a rav would put nittel nacht ahead of the mitzvah of mikva. AFAIK the only dates we push off mikva are YK and tisha b'av.

Years ago in Europe - none of the Mikvahs were open nittel nacht.

DrMom

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:41 am

cnc wrote:

Years ago in Europe - none of the Mikvahs were open nittel nacht.

Right. Due to circumstances that don't exist anymore.

So why delay a mitzvah for this today?

elisheva25

Tue, Dec 26 2017, 9:44 am

JoyInTheMorning wrote:

Thank you !
Now I get it!