anim8rfsk <
anim...@cox.net> wrote:
>Thu, 21 Nov 2019 09:59:38 -0700 Ian J. Ball<IJB...@mac.invalid> wrote:
>>On 2019-11-20 16:33:45 +0000, Ubiquitous said:
>>>JNS.org - The Hallmark Channel will premiere its first two Hanukkah-
>>>themed movies next month in honor of the eight-day Jewish holiday,
>>>which this year starts on Dec. 22, the New York Post reported on
>>>Wednesday.
>>I love how they don't even tell us who friggin' *stars* in the two flicks!!
>>>>/
>I don't think there are any Jewish actors in Hollywood, are there?
I am far more entertained when Christians are cast to play Jewish
characters.
I have to agree with Margolin on this one.
Can I just explain once again that Hanukkah, despite falling around the
same time of the year, is NOT the Jewish equivalent of Christmas? I'm
sure it's the Jewish holiday that mime would despise the most as it
commemorates a specific religious movement and start of political power
of a family who had some victories over the Romans. It's not a holiday
mentioned in the Bible as the Bible was "closed". It's Apocrypha generally
to most Protestant traditions, although Catholic and Christian Orthodox
traditions include I and II Maccabees. III and IV Maccabees are included
in the Christian Orthodox bible. The miracle is in I Maccabees.
For those who don't know about the religious stuff, here's my brief
lecture.
Due to Hellenic competition, Soloman built a great Temple. With a Temple,
you get priests and Temple-based rituals. The Temple was of course
destroyed, rebuilt, then destroyed again. It's Western Wall remains.
Centuries later, Muslims, in an attempt to force Jews to convert, built
their holy site on top of the ruins.
Pre-Christians, the people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, rejected any
Temple-based religion. These people would eventually find some crazy Jew
to be their saviour...
Since the time of Alexander the Great, and periods in which the region
were either ruled from Egypt or from the east by the Seleucids, Hellenic
influence was seen as an attempt to incorporate if not purge Judaism.
The Maccabees were essentually leading guerrilla fighters to break off
and take control of Judea from the failing Seleucid Empire, and ran the
place for 13 decades, 5 of which as a fully independent kingdom. They
wanted Judaism purged of all Hellenistic influences; there were forced
conversions and destruction of idolatry and, ouch, circumcisions.
The war started because Antiochus, the Seleucid ruler, forbid Jewish
religious practice.
Antiochus would send another army to put down the Maccabees, but his
death ended Seleucide efforts to stamp out Judaism.
Here's the ironic bit: the Maccabees entered the Second Temple, rededicated
it, and installed their own High Priest. The miracle Hannukah celebrates
is that oil for the menorah (candleabra) used in the rededication that
should have lasted for a day instead lasted for eight days.
This was 164 BC. Rome intervened in 63 BC; the Maccabee state was no
longer independent. The dynasty fell when Rome installed Herod in 37
BCE.
Of course, Christianity began despite Herod, with the further irony that
Rome Christianized by Hellenizing Christianity and making it the state
religion, exactly what the pre-Christians never wanted.
In the meantime, toward the end of the Second Temple period and the
conflict between Sadducees, who wanted relgious and political power
centered on the Temple, and the Pharisees, from which Rabbinical Judaism
originated. Rome destroyed the Second Temple in the year 70 AD, and the
Sadducee movement became defunct. Rome did Judaism a favor as the
possibility of an episcopacy was eliminated.
For all those Christians who condemn all Jews for the killing of Jesus
Christ, no you idiots, what the Jews are entirely responsible for is the
origin of Christianity because Judaism had become too Hellenized. Thanks
to the Romans, Christianity became exactly what the pre-Christians had
rejected in Judaism.