Monday, October 04, 2010

History repeats itself

Yesterday's post attracted the notice of Alan Brill, who asks:

So, I have a historical question. When modernizing Jews gave up the second day of yom tov in the 19th century was the push from certain professions or certain districts?

Jacob Katz, following his method of relying on Mannheim’s concept of ideology, presents the issue as an ideological battle between Reform and Orthodoxy (See, “Orthodox defense of Second Day of Yom Tov in Divine Law in Human Hands). But has anyone checked- did the push to get rid of yom tov sheni occur after a series of 3 day yom tovs pushed people to feel a need for the change? Was it more in certain professions? Maybe it was not ideological but a social push from ordinary businessmen? Was there a need to do manual labor or more likely to check the European stock market? Someone want to check the 19th century dates and determine if there was a decade like the next decade with many 3 day yom tov’s in a row? Does it coordinate with the push for the change?


I totally never thought to look into this before, but it appears that the answer is yes. Yom tov sheini was repealed by the Breslau Conference of 1846. The days of the week for Rosh Hashanah in years leading up to that were:
1830 Sat
1831 Thu
1832 Tue
1833 Sat
1834 Sat
1835 Thu
1836 Mon
1837 Sat
1838 Thu
1839 Mon
1840 Mon
1841 Thu
1842 Mon
1843 Mon
1844 Sat
1845 Thu
1846 Mon

(See this post for a key to what each configuration contains.)

So their time was much like ours: they had recently gone from a weekend-holiday-rich era to a weekend-holiday-poor era.

6 comments:

  1. I think you've pinpointed the first moment in history when religious decisors kowtowed to inauthentic modern needs rather than traditional halacha! Yasher koach to the Reform movement of 1846 for starting the downfall of Judaism as we know it!

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  2. Living as I do on the liberal end of the halakhic spectrum, I know a small handful of diaspora shomerei shabbat who keep one day of yom tov. (Were I Modern Orthodox or anything to the right of that, I probably wouldn't know any.) None of these acquaintances is following a mesora that dates to the 19th century. In fact, I'm reasonably sure that each one made the decision on his or her own.

    Unless my population sample is grossly disproportionate, it would seem that the change instituted by the Breslau Conference did not endure. Those who inherited the tradition of a single day of yom tov must have either ceased to be Shabbat-observant or gone back to two days. Is there a reason to believe that anything different would happen this time around, assuming the predicted shift does take place?

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  3. None of these acquaintances is following a mesora that dates to the 19th century. In fact, I'm reasonably sure that each one made the decision on his or her own.

    I don't know whether you know me or whether you would consider me "shomer shabbat", but my family has been doing 1 day for 7 generations.

    Unless my population sample is grossly disproportionate, it would seem that the change instituted by the Breslau Conference did not endure.

    It certainly did, at least on the public level: 1 day of yom tov (with varying customs for Rosh Hashanah) has been almost universal in the Reform movement (the largest denomination in North American Judaism) since then.

    (And whatever you're going to respond about individual observance among Reform Jews, it would be very hard to make the claim that the shift to 1-day yom tov played any causal role in this.)

    Those who inherited the tradition of a single day of yom tov must have either ceased to be Shabbat-observant or gone back to two days. Is there a reason to believe that anything different would happen this time around, assuming the predicted shift does take place?

    Yes - for whatever definition of "shomer shabbat" you want, you can find an Israeli community that is shomer shabbat in that way and (obviously) keeps 1 day of yom tov, so Diaspora Jews now have models of 1-day-yom-tov communities that otherwise share their own practices.

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  4. We don't know each other personally, so your tradition does add a new datum to my highly unscientific survey.

    It certainly did, at least on the public level: 1 day of yom tov (with varying customs for Rosh Hashanah) has been almost universal in the Reform movement (the largest denomination in North American Judaism) since then.

    That's why I specified that I was talking about people who were shomerei shabbat. This is relevant on two fronts. First, the ritual decisions made by people who aren't at least nominally SS tend not to be taken seriously by the vast majority of the SS world. (This is, I believe, one of the barriers to halakhic gender egalitarianism in Orthodoxy: sure, most American Jews think men and women should both count in a minyan, but how many of those people are frum enough for their opinions to matter?) The second issue is that switching to one day in order to avoid the major personal and professional inconveniences of a two-day holiday is only a serious consideration if the presence of the holiday impedes you from getting other things done. If you're willing to do any number of melakhot on sheni shel yom tov, where's the disruptive influence compelling you to get rid of it? (This "you" is a general one, of course; I'm not talking about you.)

    (And whatever you're going to respond about individual observance among Reform Jews, it would be very hard to make the claim that the shift to 1-day yom tov played any causal role in this.)

    Wasn't planning on it. I doubt there's a causal relationship, though the correlative one does bear investigation.

    Yes - for whatever definition of "shomer shabbat" you want, you can find an Israeli community that is shomer shabbat in that way and (obviously) keeps 1 day of yom tov, so Diaspora Jews now have models of 1-day-yom-tov communities that otherwise share their own practices.

    But it's worth noting that those communities will tell them explicitly that they, the diaspora communities, ought to be keeping two days. Another issue is that today those diaspora communities that maintain some semblance of normative halakha are almost universally built around the two-day model. A member of one of those communities will have to decide whether it's worth skipping hazkarat neshamot with the community and skipping simchat torah. In more right-wing communities, there is also the danger that one-day observance might be viewed not as an informed and logical decision, but as a way of being frum one day and going off the derech the next. Keeping one day can be quite damaging to certain kinds of social capital in the wrong circles.

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  5. The second issue is that switching to one day in order to avoid the major personal and professional inconveniences of a two-day holiday is only a serious consideration if the presence of the holiday impedes you from getting other things done.

    There are certainly some Reform Jews who don't go to work on yom tov, even if others do. This seems more relevant than melachot per se.

    But it's worth noting that those communities will tell them explicitly that they, the diaspora communities, ought to be keeping two days.

    I think most Israelis don't really care what Diaspora communities do.

    Another issue is that today those diaspora communities that maintain some semblance of normative halakha are almost universally built around the two-day model. A member of one of those communities will have to decide whether it's worth skipping hazkarat neshamot with the community and skipping simchat torah.

    So the question is how many people are out there who would personally be willing to switch to 1 day but for the fact that their community does 2 days, and what percentage of such people is needed to catalyze a tipping point so that (a) they become open about their 1-day leanings, (b) 1 and 2 days both become normative options in that community, or (c) the community shifts to 1 day?

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  6. There are certainly some Reform Jews who don't go to work on yom tov, even if others do. This seems more relevant than melachot per se.

    I'm not sure I agree with regard to relevance. If one does not go to work on yom tov on principle but is not concerned with details of shemirat shabbat, then going to work under unusually trying circumstances requires a single compromise ("I'll do it just this once"). For people who davka avoid melakhot, that same decision would require dozens or even hundreds of individual compromises, usually starting with the question of how to get to work.

    So the question is how many people are out there who would personally be willing to switch to 1 day but for the fact that their community does 2 days, and what percentage of such people is needed to catalyze a tipping point so that (a) they become open about their 1-day leanings, (b) 1 and 2 days both become normative options in that community, or (c) the community shifts to 1 day?

    And that is a question to which I have not even the beginnings of an answer. Any thoughts on your end?

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