CCAR RESPONSA
New Year’s Eve Party on Shabbat in the Synagogue
5753.15
She’elah
This year December 31 falls on Friday, and thus New Year’s eve coincides with Shabbat. Many Jews will be tempted to celebrate the secular new year and thereby forsake Shabbat services and observances. What is the religious propriety of hosting a New Year’s eve party on Shabbat in the synagogue? (Rabbi Seymour Prystowsky, Lafayette Hill, PA)
Teshuvah
The she’elah incorporates two issues. Is it appropriate for a synagogue or a Jewish organization to celebrate the secular New Year? If it is appropriate, what should be done when New Year’s eve falls on Shabbat?
1. Celebrating the secular new year. It is well known that some Orthodox authorities are opposed to any celebration of the secular New Year. In Jerusalem, for example, major hotels have been threatened with a revocation of their kashrut license if they hold a New Year’s eve party. The opposition to celebrating a non-Jewish festival is based on the Toraitic injunction, “you shall not follow their customs.”1 Talmudic commentators saw in this prohibitions two types of foreign customs: one, any custom that is related to idolatry, and two, any foreign custom that is foolish or superstitious.2
Some halakhic authorities expanded the rule in order to ensure the separation of Jews from Gentile society.3Thus, Maimonides taught:
Jews should not follow the practices of the Gentiles, nor imitate their dress or their hair styles. . . .The Jew should be distinguished from them and recognizable by the way he dresses and in his other activities, just as he is distinguished from them in his knowledge and his understanding. As it is said, “And I have set you apart from the peoples.”4
But over the centuries this rigorous judgment has beeen followed by a minority only, and the definition of what constitutes chukkat ha-goy has been reinterpreted.5
Some who opposed the celebration of the secular new year did not want Jews to give the impression that they were observing the Catholic feast of Saint Sylvester,6 which was celebrated on December 31, and was followed by the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1. It should be noted that in 1961, the Catholic Church reduced the “Feast of St. Sylvester” to a day of mere commemoration, while the “Feast of the Circumcision” was eliminated altogether.7
It is worth noting that the feasts for December 31 and January 1 were originally created by the Catholic Church as an attempt to overcome the Roman pagan celebrations of those days,8 while today, when people have festivities on the secular New Year’s eve, they are not doing so with any intent to observe a Christian or pagan festival.9
Therefore, since Reform, Conservative and modern Orthodox reject the notion that Jews should be separated and segregated from general society, they need not hesitate to celebrate the civic new year.
2. Celebrating the civic New Year on Shabbat. Inasmuch as our synagogues are not only Houses of Prayer but also Houses of Assembly, and seeing that it is customary to hold social events in the synagogue’s social hall, there should be few objections to making it the locus of a New Year’s eve party, provided it meets the required standards of moderation and good taste. But may such a party in the synagogue be held on Shabbat?
R. Solomon B. Freehof held that the worshipful mood of Shabbat contrasts too sharply with the hilarity of New Year’s eve and said: “Let the joyous New Year party this year be moved to another hall [i.e., outside the temple premises] … Let the synagogue stand alone and unique as a place of worship.”10
While this caution needs emphasis, the Responsa Committee believes that the civic new year can be observed on Shabbat, as long as the sacred day’s spirit prevails. Indeed, we urge the congregation to explore creative ways to attract Jews to celebrate Shabbat when it falls on December 31. For example, the congregation might consider hosting a more elaborate Oneg Shabbat; those attending could listen to Jewish music; or a movie could be shown that is compatible with Shabbat. But the latter, and not New Year’s eve should be the dominant focus of the evening.
A further bonus of a Shabbat celebration on New Year’s eve would be the presence of a sober, sane and safe environment. While many may choose to forsake the joy of Shabbat for the bacchanalian irreverence of the secular observance, let our Reform congregations offer a sacred alternative.
Notes
1Leviticus 18:3.
2Tosafot on BT.Avodah Zarah 11a, and see, BT. Sanhedrin 52b.
3See “Chukat Ha’Akum: Jews in a Gentile Society,” The Journal of Halacha, vol. I, no. II, pp. 64-85; Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education (trsl. C. Wengrow, Jerusalem, 1991), mitzvah # 2.
4Leviticus 20:26; Yad, Hilkhot Avodah Zarah v’Chukot HaGoyim, 11:1.
5For details, see our responsum 5751.3, “Blessing the Fleet,” p. .
6He was Pope from 314-335.
7“Christmas and Its Cycle, “New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1967),vol. III, 1967, pp. 657-659.
8The Council of Tours (546 C.E.) declared in its 17th canon that the Church Fathers, “in a desire to stamp out the custom of the pagans, imposed a private celebration of litanies of the first of January…” (Alban Butler, The Lives of the Saints, Westminster, MD, 1967), vol. I, p.2.
9R. Moshe Feinstein who was strict about holding a Jewish affair, such as a Bar Mitzvah party, on the day of a Christian festival (lest one should convey even the appearance of apostasy), was, nevertheless, relatively lenient about the secular New Year’s celebration; Iggerot Moshe, Even HaEzer part 2,# 13.
10New Year’s Eve Party in the Synagogue,” Today’s Reform Responsa (1990), pp. 25-27.
If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.