I’m sitting here trying to make the case that Valentine’s Day is really a Jewish holiday. It is my earnest desire to demonstrate that this day, dedicated to the commercial display of affection, started out as Valenstein’s Day, and like most things Jewish was stolen by the Catholics. I hoped to tell the tale of two righteous brothers who lived many thousands of years ago in Jerusalem. From my research I had hoped to prove their names were Shmuel and Velvele Valenstein and that, even though they had devoted their lives to the study of the holy Torah, they had decided to help save their parents’ failing confectionary business.

Shmuel would die young, leaving Velvele to carry the load for the family. It would have been perfect if years later the family store’s name (which up to this time was Velvele’s Delights) was changed to Valentine’s Delights to attract a more Roman clientele . Above the store’s name this slogan would have been chissled, “Give your beloved Valentine’s candy, she’ll know you really care”

Notwithstanding the month’s of research into the historical record, I failed in finding a scintilla of evidence to support my hypothesis. One thing I am confident of, however, is that the Roman Catholic Church, with its plethora of Saint Valentines, has had about as much success. In fact, in its 1969 revision of the church’s Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine on Feb. 14 was axed for lack of evidence of the life and miracles of the saint.

It appears the association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love has more to do with the poem Parlement of Foules, (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer. The poem was written to celebrate the first anniversary of the marriage of King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia. Other references to the great V-Day persist throughout literature, most notably in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Ophelia laments:

To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose, and donn’d his clothes,

And dupp’d the chamber-door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

Hillel famously was approached by a man who promised to become devout if the great Jewish sage could teach him the entire contents of the holy Torah whilst standing on one leg. Hillel, tradition tells us, lifted one leg and declared, “Love your fellow as yourself, is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary; now go and learn it,” thus enshrining “Love” as the greatest of the mitzvahs (commandments).

So Valentine’s Day is not the Jewish invention I’d hoped for: If it were, we would have been obligated to celebrate it not once but 365 days a year. Wouldn’t retailers just love that?

 

Max Friedland

max@davidlv.com