Valentine’s Day is Not for This Jew!

Valentine’s Day.

To a Jew, it conjures up many of the same questions as does Halloween.

They are both classified as “pagan rituals,” with no connection to Judaism, but, if you’re like me, I need no connection other than the fact that both holidays provide me with free candy.

So, to celebrate or not to celebrate? That is the question, and not one of the four!

Any time I do get sucked up by the delirium of Valentine’s Day, I’ve been told that it’s all-but-sacrilegious to even acknowledge February 14^th as well as October 31^st, and that, we Hebrews have “our own” Halloween, namely Purim.

The truth is, as much as I feel the pressure to succumb to the power of heart-shaped boxes of chocolate and seriously sappy cards in which an anonymous source penned my undying pledge of love and romance to my lovely wife, Elana, as my spiritual connection to Judaism continues to grow, so too does my ultimate refusal to give in.

And, according to some experts, Valentine’s Day might very well be a Christian copy of Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility festival that took place on February 15^th, and saw boys strike women with bloody goat's hides.

Ahh, yes, bloody goat hides! Well, at least the blood was red. Such a romantic gesture, reminds me of my first wife.

And, as Cecil Roth made quite clear in his book, 'The Jewish Book of Days', it was on February 14, 1349 that the Massacre of Strasbourg took place, considered to be the worst anti-Semitic incident during the Black Death. Some things never change! Folks in Strasbourg blamed the inconsistent price of corn on the town’s Jews.

And, let’s not forget that it was also on February 14th that a mob barricaded the Judengasse (Street of the Jews) pushing the town’s Jews into the cemetery where they created a large pyre resulting in the death of approximately 2,000 Jews.

So, as I write this, the choice becomes quite clear. Rather than wasting….um, I mean, “spending” an obscene amount of money on a dinner at an over-booked restaurant, more on the seriously jacked-up cost of roses that will be dead within 72 hours, I cannot, in good conscience, support Valentine’s Day any longer. I’ll simply be forced to stay home tonight, and watch the Leafs take on the Flames, while the Raptors battle the Knicks.

Oh well, maybe next year! Then again, probably not!