Nittel Nacht | Why Torah Isn't Studied on the Eve of December 25

let's talk about the mysterious Jewish custom of not studying on the evening of December 25th holiday of many of our non-jewish neighbors the reason why I say mysterious custom is because there's there's very little known about it in comparison to other uh in comparison to other Jewish customs the earliest knowledge we have of is actually it dates back to as far as we know to be showing him we know it's mentioned by the students of rabeno yoina as well as the rajbam it's mentioned by the some of the Ashkenazi Creations the tradition did not exist in Sephardic communities as we'll talk about later um many of the police came don't elaborate because it wasn't it's simply put it's not PC not studying Torah because of you know because of the events that took place and we'll talk about that soon isn't the PC concept so it was always just passed down orally it wasn't written down until the Ocarina until later and you know more relatively recent Sparta in the past 200 years or so maybe 300 years what does the term knittel mean you ever thought about that is there's actually a debate about it there's a there's a number of opinions depends how you spell it if you spell little teslamic then it comes from the word Nita to be removed it's the day that is removed from the world if you spell nitil with a tough lamid it comes from the word it's a day that is hung allegedly hung on a cross um some say it's actually not a Hebrew word it's a Roman word Hebrew Roman for borns the day that he allegedly was born and that is the holiday which the December 25th of which way they allegedly celebrate his birthday that we're living in reaction uh living our Judaism and reaction to a non-jewish holiday that we don't even believe in to the extent that we're compelled to not even study Torah which is so Central to Judaism was actually challenged on this by a local priest in his age the priest told him it says Imperial voice that the world stands on three things the one of the three pillars of the world is Torah study and you guys aren't studying Torah so how are you uh how is the world existing according to you according to your religion according to your belief system and the eye of it's told them it's a minute Israel it's a Jewish custom the Jewish custom is so by not learning by fulfilling the Minogue style of not learning that is the Torah that is the learning and we have several daily so interesting uh Snippets of daily strel um what they said or what they did about not learning specifically so we have the river shab we know that he had very little patience for people that couldn't hold back from learning for those six to eight hours by the way this is kind of the other side of the coin that someone said it was once learning how are you learning he slams The safer shot and he looks at the person seriously and he says why did you have to tell me wouldn't sleep the entire network you know why he would dream about tiger he didn't want to even dream about Taylor although as we'll discuss soon you're allowed to think so that's interesting maybe he was extra Market I don't know of Carlene would cover up his farm he didn't want to be tempted at all to learn that's how hard it was for him and we have the story of the maharsha one of the famous from the back of the gemara the maharsha was once not learning on little Knox he was catching up on paperwork or whatever he was doing and mysteriously the safer just falls off the shelf he runs to go pick it up puts it back on the Shelf he sits down goes back to his business the safer falls down again picks it back up a third time the safer Falls and he's this is just too weird and he can't hold himself back he opens up the safe for just then law enforcement barges in and this was a Christian law enforcement who I guess took offense to the tradition of netlonach that we're not learning because it's their holiday and they were trying to I guess somebody informed on the maharsha and they were trying to bust him for not learning and at that moment they saw him when they barged in it's when he picked up the safer he opened it and they said oh that's interesting he was learning and they had no reason to arrest him or detain him or anything like that what are the reasons for not learning why would you not learn on the tonight what what is our not learning or our learning going to accomplish what is that going to impact so there's a number of opinions amongst the Ocarina of why we don't learn on network I'll just share a couple of them according to the liquite paradis it was a historical logistical issue if you didn't record going to the base of Madrid on that evening when all the William are celebrating their quote unquote sacred holiday they would have been bullied by the Goliath could have caused per grams just simply wasn't safe and having lights on in their homes simply wasn't safe so you couldn't go to the basement you couldn't have the lights on you couldn't learn that explains why they didn't learn back then it doesn't necessarily explain why we don't learn now which is why by the way according to many lit Fischer communities they still learned because they maintain that the reason or the main reason the historical reason simply doesn't apply but there are other explanations you have the carbon Asana the carbon sound is one of the mepharshim on the rash in the back of the carbon Nissan explains that it's kind of like a an element of Avalos one who is an avell especially during Shiva or an onion doesn't learn just like on Tish above we don't learn learning Terry bring Sim Khan this is the day that we refrain from that level of simcha because of Ice Age we're essentially mourning the destruction that it brought to Yiddish kite and this in many ways the destruction that it brought to the world as the ram of discusses at the end of some safer has a different take on it Ravi moisture safer of pressburg from the 1800s he explains well look at it this way learning is forbidden from shkia from Sunset until midnight why so the goyam traditionally would celebrate their December 25th Eve parties are learning at night as normal you go to bed you're sleeping and while we're sleeping other people are partying and there's Clipper being added to the world there's negativity being added to the world so the Min hug became to go to sleep until and that way you can learn after so the whole purpose of not learning up until is to Simply so you're compelled to learn after safer says and that's why Shiva they would literally go to sleep early around skia or whatever maybe after my rev and they would wake up at and continue learning that evening there's the reason Brian also quoted from Buddha Sahar that learning also adds highest to clip adds energy and vitality to this negative energy that tends to hide God's presence which is the the falseness of of what this holiday is celebrating but there's another explanation as well from the kadusha and he says learning is supposed to lead to action and on this day didn't act on what he learned that's what we're reminded of on December 25th that we have this ID who is an incredible yet didn't act on or believe in what he studied and prioritized more the feel-good element of uh of humanitarianism and Judaism um as opposed to actually acting on monasham wants and acting on the terrorist so on this day we focus more on acting not on the learning and that's why we don't learn it to emphasize the importance of action says that Queen Esther she declared a fast state right when the Jews were in trouble she did that specifically on pesach on the Seder night there was no seder that year it was a fast day instead which is quite bizarre you gotta imagine the tomb of that created in heaven so similarly us not learning on this day that's going to create a big too much in heaven and create a big broadcast and kind of shake things up and finally we have the reason attributed by the market of message this is interesting hazal tells us person should only leave their friend with words of halacha right before leaving somebody end off with a word of Torah but there's another there's an alternate translation it says connection don't leave your connection with God always proactively think about how you can connect with hashems with Hashem unless you're learning when you're learning you're learning Hashem and you don't have the headspace to think about Hashem and his rasan so you don't have to be focused on Hashem in that same way although it is he says this day there's such a high intensity level of clipper we can't afford to not think about Hashem even if it's through hashem's Torah we have to think about Hashem directly which I'd practically diving an extra long my rib that night I guess I don't know when is when is it observed this period of time in which we don't learn when it is it so it starts at the evening that's when most poems celebrate it's the evening in which Muslim celebrate um in in America and most countries it's December 25th in other countries I think they do like January 6th or 7th so the Jews of that Community would not learn in that in other words it does change based on location it starts at skia starts at Sunset it goes into it's only at night because that's when the darkness of klippa is uh prevalent knittel is observed on Shabbos as well even on a Friday night so when little Nacht fell out on Friday nights by the way the rabbit who would normally deliver a mimer Friday night so he would make sure to do the Miami shop this morning that time instead um so what do you do about and stuff like that you have to do that earlier it's known that the Republic [Music] thought perhaps it's like a gather of trila it's not really learning in the same way you're just reciting but he fell asleep and when he fell asleep before he even got to say it his candle blew out he took that as a sign that perhaps we shouldn't be saying it's against spider communities don't observe Newton they're part of the world it was unheard of I guess the minute never happened there and um certainly many of the reasons for the Min hug the Practical reasons were not relevant in the so far to communities in lit Fisher communities many literature communities is not observed for reasons mentioned the logistical reasons aren't relevant anymore although the spiritual ones are the stapler did personally did not observe netanath he would learn but he would make sure to learn about he would make sure to learn by heart without sparim people weren't didn't necessarily know he was learning and he did that out of respect for the Min hug that was his that was how he uh kind of reconciled to still be respectful for the medic itself um what is included in learning how do you define learning it's not just limited the more classical things but it includes learning Musa includes learning um any types of any any uh thing that's part of the whole gamut of tell you where you're not allowed to learn you are allowed to think Taira by the way Benita Gabriel explains that you're allowed to think Tyra before saying in the morning you're not supposed to tell other words of terror but you're allowed to think words of Torah so you're allowed to think words of Tyra he says that even according to the the girl maintains that you're not allowed to think words of Tyra even before because thinking is like speaking has that element of speaking um he says that's not exactly the same because the idea of being massive highest and Clippers is you can apply to thinking and things like that don't read minds and and he says that's fine you are allowed to read sipuri sadikim stories of sadikim you're allowed to read Jewish history the kashlitsarbe used to learn Josephus but either way a person certainly shouldn't be wasting time they should be productive there was ones about her who had a button missing from his jacket and the rabbi said I don't know if the rabbit spoke to him directly or sent to him I don't remember exactly but basically informed this Baja that it's you know you're representing the Reven you gotta you gotta look like a mensch the Baka said he's waiting for nitinach to fix his button he didn't want to be about the automatic there ever got a lot of knockers from that it's known of gear would prepare Shabbos toilet paper for the entire year again he would be productive the imray Emmons used to learn a new language again it's being productive even if you can't learn teira at least you can you know you're not doing Duart but tell him you're not wasting time and you're doing something that can support Jewish life in some way and if not indirectly the rebel would catch up on his mail especially in the later years as long as it wasn't terribly related mail much of the igorithm is quite diverse and the things that weren't directly Terror learning the river would catch up to that the river Rashad and the Frieza Club used to play chess together and the rebel explained that even though they're not learning and they're playing they're playing a game that is and that requires a mind exercise that is mind intensive they're still exercising the mind and that's going to support their learning indirectly later on it's brought down in safarium that there's an old Min hug to say specifically out loud the reason is stolen God we are the Jewish people and while other people bow down to nothing and to vanity down to nothing other than God we conclude Elaine with hope for that day that Hashem is going to show us his glory and yakira to call you the whole world is going to experience the MS gonna experience his glory so we we definitely exercise that idea emphasize that idea that's my story and I'm sticking to it