Dear Editor,
I was absolutely shocked this year to see more than one frum advertise “Thanksgiving dinner” and the like.
Have we lost all sensitivity? Do we not have any gedorim anymore?
And even if the storeowners are clueless, don’t the rabbonim machshirim have a say? How can they allow their stores to do this?
So what’s so wrong about advertising about, or celebrating, the holiday of Thanksgiving and a turkey dinner?
Let me quote from Rav Avigdor Miller:
“Thanksgiving is a holiday that was manufactured by gentiles for the purpose of going to church. That’s what the original purpose was. And therefore it’s avoda zara and Jews are forbidden to participate in such a thing. If you eat turkey especially for Thanksgiving, you’re an oveid avoda zara. That’s my opinion. Now, some people are weak in this matter; but I think it’s real avoda zara; I think it’s יהרג ואל יעבור. I think a Jew shouldn’t eat turkey on Thanksgiving at all! He should make a sacrifice not to eat turkey. Because it’s a Christian observance you understand. It’s not a legal holiday alone. It’s only recently that it became a ‘legal holiday.’ But it used to be a Christian holiday and that’s what it is, all the way down till today.”
But, Rav Miller was asked, isn’t this only if eating turkey has religious symbolism?
No, said Rav Miller: “It doesn’t have to have religious symbolism to be a problem. As long as it’s connected with the holiday and the holiday has religious symbolism, that’s enough to make it forbidden. There’s a Gemara that says it’s forbidden to wear laurel leaf on the day of a certain gentile avoda zara. Now, laurel has no religious significance. But because the gentiles wear laurel on that day, it’s forbidden.”
I’m not telling people not to eat turkey. And maybe you have a rov who says different than Rav Miller. Fine. But why are stores advertising it as if it’s a Yiddishe thing? Have we no shame?
Sincerely,
Mordechai L.