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October 27, 2000/28 Tammuz 5760, Vol. 53, No.5
Is it OK for Jewish kids to trick-or-treat?
JUDITH BOLTON-FASMAN
Jewish Family and Life
Halloween is in four days, and I'm in that peculiar Jewish predicament where culture approaches sacrilege.
I understand the technical or Halachic-driven objections to the holiday. Some of them begin with the story of King Saul who consulted a fortune teller instead of God about his future. King Saul lost his mind and then his throne over that misjudgment.
But like Purim, I think of Halloween as stepping out of roles rather than crossing boundaries into blasphemy. Instead, I like Halloween for its playful brush with silliness. More importantly, I understand why my daughter Anna has been excited about Halloween since July.
Last year, Halloween was easier for all of us; she went trick-or-treating as Queen Esther. This year, our talks about dressing up as Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" have the absurd feel of a parent sitting a child down to talk about sex or drugs. It's all because my kindergartner has attended Jewish schools so far and no one has said anything to her about Halloween. All of the adults around her are spooked. But not my daughter, not her friends. They're happy to trick-or-treat under a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Anna's decision to be Dorothy had the gravity and importance of announcing a presidential candidacy. Then, several months before Halloween, she got into character by asking me to call her Dorothy. She tells me that when she grows up she will have twin girls and name them - what else - Dorothy and Dorothy.
Anna knows exactly what Halloween should mean to her as a Jew. She loves a good time, and to her, Halloween is nothing more than that. Not to mention, it's the one time of year when candy is free and unlimited.
Some may see celebrating Halloween as a foreboding compromise. I call it Jewish adaptability. No one knew this as well as Queen Esther, who, after all, was the prototype of the first American Jew. She was immersed in the culture of her time and even intermarried; yet she remained a Jew. Like many of us she had two names - her Persian name Esther means "star" and her Hebrew name Hadassah means "myrtle." During Sukkot, myrtle's qualities - no taste but a wonderful fragrance - are presented as a metaphor for a person who is not learned but does good deeds anyway. In other words, the myrtle signifies a person who operates on well-honed Jewish intuition - the very description of Esther, who saved her people without being a Torah scholar.
Myrtle is also a little bit of Paradise on Earth. Legend says it was the only plant that Adam and Eve took with them when they were expelled from The Garden of Eden.
In the end, however, Halloween is about witches and goblins and ghosts. But my daughter knows the difference between a trick and a treat, and that the only trick here is to remember that this is all supposed to be good fun. This is the Diaspora. This is Purim in October. And on Oct. 31, Anna and I are off to see the wizard to prove just that.
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