I found out that in Israel many people use old Christmas decorations sold in the shuk for Sukkos decorations. Apparently they are sold at a discount and many Charedi people have no idea what they are. So much so that I heard some stories of Americans going to very frum peoples houses and seeing big Santa Clause picture decorating the sukkah wall.
It appears that many Charedim in Israel think that Santa Clause is a Chassid dressed in red!
-->
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
add some Reindeer to it and some sukkah stockings, soon it will be a minhag.
Just another proof that you need to have minimal knowledge about the world your soul descended into, in order to perform mitzvos properly in it. A Jew should at least know when something is avoida zarah.
Where are the chareidi leaders in this situation? Too busy forcing Chabad to exclude women from Sukkos celebrations? Too busy looking for another science book to ban?
Yeah, my uncle said he once overheard two Israeli kids talking about a Santa Claus poster in a sukkah. One said, “Who is that on the poster?” and the other said back, “Oh, it’s some rebbe from America.”
when we first started building a suka, i used halloween decorations cuz i couldnt find anything else where i live!
I woman I know brought back a doll from Bnei Brak. It was a Santa Claus doll, the seller had colored the beard black and added a black coat and a shtreimel to make it look like a Rabbi. But when you push the button, it’s stomach shakes and it plays Jingle Bells.
Crawling axe- I think its just proof that watching TV and ebing exposed to real world media can do good in some situations.
i have that doll in my room- my favorite material possession in the whole world
it’s a little chassid with button eyes holding a saxophone over his mouth. (it even has tzitzit!) it plays the musical tune for santa claus is coming to town
what actually happened was the manufacturer placed the wrong song piece in the doll, and when people realized the hilarious mistake, they bought them like hot-cakes. i would love to buy another one for my friend, but it seems they’re all sold out.
Yes, but the dangers of TV are far greater. Going to a bar and doing drugs can do somebody some good, but we try to find safer alternatives.
I think just reading books or having basic education about the world is necessary. If Hogwarts had Muggle Studies, then yeshivas can have Goyim Studies.
Are you sure they’re as innocent and ignorant as you think they are? Maybe they have a Santa poster because there’s just as big a chance that he’s visiting the Sukkah as the Ushpizim??
We use Christmas lights in our Sukkah, they’re soft and beautiful. Thank goodness for my daughter’s drawing of a kitten wielding a lulav and esrog or it might be mistaken for a well decorated, fall themed gazebo…
why would anyone put Santa up? i mean fine if it’s for Christmas or something. but outside of that, he’s a big old man in a red suit.
lights are cool in the sukkah, nothing Christmas about lights. the only argument against them is that they’re more for the winter solstice holidays (chanukah, christmas, etc.). but hey, whatever floats your boat.
We have Xmas lights in the sukkah, they simply cost less than those Judaica shops that mark up the same lights by 1000% and market them as succah lights.
Once we’re on the santa topic, ever wonder how he came to exist?
If j.c. lived in Israel, why would you have some dude in boots riding reindeer that aren’t native to the desert?
Woudn’t he be better off in a robe on a camel?
Simple answer is that he was invented by child molesting priests!
That’s why he puts on a costume, breaks in to the house while the parents are asleep, asks the kids if they’ve been naughty, then gives them candy for sitting on his lap. The guy should be in jail, instead of Macy’s.
Phil, according some program on one of the nerd channels, like History or Discovery, the original St. Nick was a monk from what is now Turkey. Somehow it got mixed up with Germanic paganism.
Phil,
Startling ignorance AND rudeness in one comment! Nice to see your skills are improving.
CrawlingAxe,
Us non jews could even be brought into class for live demonstrations. I’ll do it, but you gotta pay me double union scale wage if you want to call me a goyim to my face and not get hurt for it.
Raizy, j,
As they say on the Intarwebs, “pics or it didnt happen”. Its a funny idea but sound like the urban myth of the old Japanese “santa on the cross” decorations. If I had a buck for every time I’ve heard of someones girlfriends cousins brother in law’s auto mechanics wifes hairstylist SWORE her family had one of those as a kid I’d be very rich indeed!
OTOH, I’m tempted to get me a noisy santa animatronic and kitbash the costume as you mention and mod the sound chip to make it “authentic”.
OTOOH maybe there’s a market for this?
I actually like the idea of using christmas tree lights as a sukka decoration – kind of an opportunity to turn some chol into kodesh. Santa Claus seems a bit bizarre, though, I agree that he’s certainly likely to be dressed much too warm for the season here… Anyway, the lights didn’t bother me, until my neighbor got some super-fancy ones that played “Jingle Bells” all during our chag meal
Oh, well.
I remember hearing a story of a chassidic tisch at Chanukah time where the Rebbe asked about the rebbe on the Coca-Cola bottle. They told him it was “The Klausinger Rebbe”.
That could just be an urban legend though.
As a kid growing up in NJ I always envied and enjoyed my neighbors’ X-mas lights. Now, living in Israel I get to enjoy my own lights adorning my Succhah. Yet another benefit of Aliyah!
Silly. It’s not Santa, it’s the “alte zeide mit de roiteh bekeshe”
I thought the big gedolim specifically banned xmas decorations for sukkot.
j, my sister was in Bnei Brak today and saw the infamous Santa disguised as a Chussid. She took video and sure enough, he plays the music for “Santa Claus is coming to town” on his sax!
I’m in Israel right now and thinking of taking a taxi out there tomorrow to stock up on a few of those. They’re hysterical!!!
Wow. This story made my day.
If yeshivas start having Gentile Studies, they should hire converts as cultural interpreters, not just pull random non-Jews off the street to perform.
Hiring converts? Sign me up – can’t eat off my student loans forever, you know…
I’d be happy to consult on the male perspective as well.
haha do they put big light up stars on top of the scach too?