Halachot and Customs
Is It Permitted to Study Torah on the Night of Nittel?
Question
What is the night of "Nittel"? I heard that it falls on the night between 24/12 and 25/12, and that one does not learn Torah on that day. Is that correct...? Thank you very much.
Answer
Hello,
The night of Nittel is a term for Christmas Eve, and the custom is observed בעיקר among Chassidim not to learn Torah on that night until midnight. Some follow this custom on the night of December 25, some on the night of January 7, and some on the night of January 6. Where there is no established custom, one should follow the custom of the Christians in that place, and if there are differing customs among them, one should follow the custom of the majority of the Christians there. Several reasons have been given to explain the basis of the custom (see at length in Nitei Gavriel, Hilchot Chanukah, p. 385 and onward).
In any case, see what was written by HaGaon Rav Ovadia Yosef zt"l in Responsa Yabia Omer, vol. 7 (Yoreh Deah, siman 20), and in his work Halichot Olam, vol. 8 (pp. 382-384), that this is not the custom in our places, and that in all our yeshivot and kollelim, the married Torah scholars learn Torah even on the night of their festival as usual on all other nights of the year, with regularity, without paying any attention at all to this custom. See there.
With blessings,
Hillel Meirs
