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Problematic?
Not if you’re Irish 😉
Talmud: Oh, what’s Irish? Where’s Ireland? 😉
About as problematic as a Jew celebrating Easter.
While in America it is largely secular, the holiday is in fact celebrated by religious ceremonies. It is the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland (whose historic veriity has been question by Catholic Church historians – but don’t tell that to any self-respecting person of Irish descent). Part of the avodah is praying to this person.
If Roman Americans were marching to honor “Jupiter Day”, or if Babylonian Americans were marching to honor “Marduck Day” — would you join them? How do you celebrate Dec. 25, which raises an identical issue?
talmud – I’ll drink to that! L’chaim!
Chaim Herzog former president of Israel was an Irishman, He was the son of the Chief Rabbi of Ireland
I would be very skeptical if R. Herzog (who held positions in Ireland, Britain and Israel) would observe “St. Patrick’s Day” since in Ireland it has always been a solemn holiday in which attendance at Church services was the highlight of the observance. The celebrations involving alcohol are of Amercian origin, but even in America they are in addition to the religious ceremonies (and note that the parade routes are designed with the religious element in mind).
My green tie has pictures of the Arba Minim on it, so if St. Patrick’s day were to occur during Sukkos, I would have no problem wearing my green tie on St. Patrick’s day, but being that Sukkos is far away from St. Patrick’s day, I am unable to don my green tie on St. Patrick’s day.
Even when Palm Sunday occurs on St. Patrick’s day, since they use dry palms and only a single branch or 2, and not an entire Lulov as in the design on my green tie, it doesn’t match my tie.
About as problematic as a Jew celebrating Easter.
But I hope & trust that it wasn’t problematic for Michael Bloomberg to attend this parade on Shabbos.
As per Halocho, I am Don him leChaf Zechus, that he walked to the parade from Gracy Mansion not to desecrate Shabbos, and even if he did carry something at the parade, I am sure he was relying on the “5th Avenue Synagogue” Eruv, and I am sure that he or 1 of his aides called in on Friday to verify that the Eruv was intact & operational.
Next year after he has left office, he shall have to decide if he is more interested in spending the day on 5th Avenue attending St. Patrick’s Day Parade, or maybe more interested in spending that same day on Rehov Ben Yehuda watching all the costumes on Shushan Purim.
147,
What part of halacha is it to be don a mechalel shabbos befarhasia lcaf zchus?
That is besides the many other pulic proclamations and actions which define him as a rasha.
Is it just because he does not sing hatikvah? That one appropriate action alone does not make him a tzadik.
We don’t have a dog in this fight. It’s either St. Patrick or the snakes.
I wonder if fkelly does…
A member of Shearith Israel posted online that the Jews and Irish had at least some commonality.
On March 10, 1847, Page One of the New York Daily Globe reported that “a large and respectable assembly” had gathered at Manhattan’s Congregation Shearith Israel on Crosby Street to organize an appeal for aid to Ireland. The chief speaker was the popular Hazzan, Jacques Judah Lyons, who noted “no diversity of opinion” on the facts of Irish suffering but “a great diversity of opinion as to what we should do…” Looking towards his critics, his voice boomed to the back of the Sephardic synagogue so he could be sure to be heard by all. “We are told that we have a large number of our own poor and destitute to take care of! That the charity we dispense should be bestowed in this quarter! That justice is a higher virtue than generosity, that self-preservation is a law and principle of our nature!” Nevertheless, he argued, “thanks to the Lord,” there is one “indestructible” and “all-powerful” link between the Irish and the Jews: “that link, my brethren, is humanity.”
After the meeting, according to the Globe, the sum of $175 was donated to the General Standing Committee for the Relief of the Famishing Poor in Ireland.
The kehilla raised over $1000 in total for Ireland ($82,000 in today’s currency).
In 1947, a charitable contribution arrived at Shearith Israel from some Irish citizens of New York who requested that their donation be accepted in gratitude for what the Congregation had done for their forbearers a century earlier.
At first, in the 1920s and 1930s, Irish sympathies lay squarely with the Zionists and drew heavily on the presumed parallels between historic Irish and Jewish suffering, as well as the shared traumatic experience of large-scale migration in the 19th century.
Drawing a parallel with their own history of occupation, the Irish also championed the Zionist struggle for self-determination against the British. A correspondent to The Bell, a leading Irish magazine, raged over current events in Mandate Palestine in March 1945: “Never let it be forgotten that the Irish people … have experienced all that the Jewish people in Palestine are suffering from the trained ‘thugs’ ‘gunning tarzans’ and British ‘terrorists’ that the Mandatory power have imposed upon the country.”
Sadly, though, the Irish have turned against the Jews and now support Palestinians. Long gone are the days when Irish nationalism and Jewish nationalism were united in their oppression by a common foe.
Regardless, though, imagine if we raised $82,000 nowadays for the suffering and blighted of the nations.
AJWS is effective at providing aid, but it is a hillul hashem when other faiths appear more charitable towards the poor, hungry, and sick of the world than us, the ohr lagoyim.
Humanity is the tie that binds all people, and it is a shame that we often forget that.
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