Thread by @Adderabbi

Discussions of Nittel Nacht often begin with a dichotomy: Hasidim observe the custom of not learning, whereas Litvaks disregard this and learn. But neither of these groups was the first to observe Nittel. The custom originated in an unexpected place: 1/n

The Rhineland. Germany. The cradle of Ashkenaz.
The earliest record of specific Nittel customs is from the Rhineland in the late 1600s.
The first two mentions of Nittel customs are from none other than Rav Yair Hayim Bacharach, author of Havot Yair. He mentions it twice. 2/n

First, in Mekor Hayim, his commentary on Orah Hayim (which remained in manuscript for 300 years before its publication) he has a shorthand note. He reminds himself to write about "מנהג ביטול הלימוד בליל חוגה פלוני" - the custom not to learn on such-and-such holiday. 3/n

Second, in Yair Netiv, his manuscript index of his own writings, I found the following line:
"רב מפורסם אמר שלא ירדו נשים לטהרתן בליל ניט"ל."
"A well-known rabbi said that women should not go down to purify themselves (i.e., go to the mikveh) on the night of Nittel." 4/n

Havot Yair lived in Worms and died in 1701. These sources are from the years before his death, so late 1600s.
Next: Nitei Gavriel cites a manuscript from R. Netanel Weil, author of "Korban Netanel" on the Rosh. He says that it is a mourning custom - like not learning on 9 Av. 5/n

R. Weil was the rabbi in Karlsruhe - also in the Rhineland - in the early to mid-1700s. Here he is rocking the tricorn hat. 6/n

Hatam Sofer says in the name of his father and of his teacher, R. Natan Adler, both of mid-18th century Frankfurt, that the custom indeed originated as a mourning custom. (Hatam Sofer offers a different reason, but that's not for now.) 7/n

All of these early sources - R. Bachrach, R. Weill, R. Natan Adler, and Hatam Sofer's father - are from the Rhineland in the late-17th and 18th centuries. It stands to reason that this is where the custom originated, and that the rationale was mourning, like 9 Av. 8/n

It's worth mentioning that the custom of avoiding the mikveh fits with the mourning theme as well. Women would not have gone to the mikveh on 9 Av, either. 9/n

The only other early source is an undated gloss on a manuscript of R. Isaac Tyrnau's minhagim (15th c.), according to which records a custom to recite the Aleynu prayer out loud on Nittel. No mention of Torah study (or mikveh). 10/n

In the early 19th century, Hatam Sofer and R. Elazar Fleckeles (in a letter recently discovered by Prof. Marc Shapiro) acknowledge the practice and explain it in different ways - Hatam Sofer far more generously than R. Fleckeles. They were both in Central Europe. 11/n

R. Fleckeles in Prague, Hatam Sofer in Pressburg (today's Bratislava). Neither lived in a milieu that could in any way be considered Hasidic. Rather, both places were influenced by both German and Polish custom. It seems that the Nittel customs spread from west to east. 12/n

Hasidic treatments of the issue begin in the early decades of the 1800s. R. Tzvi Elimelekh of Dinov (died in 1841), for instance, relates to it. By now the custom is preserved largely by Hasidim (though I'd venture that most Jews, in fact, do not study Torah on Nittel). 13/n

Korban Netanel and R. Fleckeles mention people who play games on Nittel, but this gets taken to new heights - playing cards, chess, Risk; tearing toilet paper for Shabbos; going to large indoor water parks; etc.
But now you know that it started among Yekkes, not Hasidim. 14/15

For more, give a listen to this shiur I gave last year:
yutorah.org/sidebar/lectur…
And the associated source sheet: yutorah.org/_cdn/_material…
/fin

cc on this thread: @onthemainline @bknwrabbi @Laura_E_Adkins @minhagim
(you might like the line from the Bacharach manuscript find: @jteplitsky @hchesner @YakovZMayer)

Two side points:
1) Sorry this thread is Ashkenormative. Ashkenazim were mainly the ones living among Christians, though, so it can't be helped.
2) My research into this started because of a fight in my daughter's youth group about whether a "Secret Santa" is appropriate.