As we are all well aware, this weekend, in our surrounding secular community is the highly promoted and celebrated holiday of Halloween. Given that the origin of the word holiday comes from holy day, it seems at best odd we would call this day anything near to holy. Having said that, when our neighbors are celebrating their special days and we sometimes fall into some level of observance or celebration, I’m inclined to look for some, however remote, Jewish connection. We do have the Yiddish literature’s parallel to a monster character of course, the Golem of our literary tradition. The Golem was dracula-like, a fearsome creature meant to conjure images of evil and destruction. I confess to being glad we didn’t do carved pumpkins and the like, but we have to acknowledge that many cultures, including ours, seem to take some delight in frightening mythical creatures. This is the season in our secular culture to celebrate such things. For me, I’d rather get back to Shabbat and our days of holiness and celebration.