| Judaism: History When someone first crossed the river from Assyria into Israel he was called a “Hebrew” which means “from the other side”. Later, Abraham was promised by God that he would be the father of the innumerable Jews through his son Isaac. The name “Semite” stems from an 1879 German writing linking Sarah’s descendency from Shem. Since almost the first recorded history, the Jews have been held together by their language, religion, and the Jewish discouragement of marriages outside of Judaism. As for the name Israel, meaning “struggled with God”, some bible commentators have claimed that it is another name for Isaac rather than Jacob, or that it may mean either. This appears to be based on Amos 7:9, 16. But against this theory Genesis 32:22-28 clearly gives this name to Jacob, not to Isaac. It seems evident that at least some of the Hebrews were invited into the eventual 400 years of Egyptian captivity by Joseph. It should be noted also that some remained outside of Egypt and did not go with him. Also, recent archaeological finds show how the Hyksos (also Hebrews) were Egytianized and assimilated into the same captivity. It appears the uniting factors for all the Hebrews wherever they were, culminated with Moses at the exodus, and the written law in cuneiform. Today, other groups like Rastafarians and the Mormons like to erroneously asscociate themselves with the name of the God chosen Israelites. Just as it is impossible to give a history of Sharon Tate without mentioning Charles Manson, some things need to be included about Islam, Hitler, and various other effects from religions and politics to properly describe the Jews. Islam erroneously teaches that the Jews and Christians altered the Bible and that actually Ishmael instead of Isaac was the chosen son, and therefore the Arabs, now mostly Islamic, are God’s chosen people. Islam can produce no evidence or reason for them doing that, however. What are their books? They use what is called the Torah and the Talmud. Simply put the Torah is the Old Testament. The Talmud is a combination of two subdivisions, the Mishna or the Law, and the Gemmara , a commentary on that law. Sometimes one hears that the Jews use a book called the Kabala. Even though the rock queen Madonna adores it, this is simply not true. The Kabala is to Judaism as The Manual of Witchcraft would be to Christianity. An orthodox Jew would be defrocked if he used it. In unofficial circles, though, much like Christians have used horoscopes, the Jews have consulted it in past centuries….until its precepts have been repeatedly debunked by modern science. Also much as the Christians have erroneously predicted the second coming using various formulas, use of the Kabala and its numerology has produced at least one false Messiah for the Jews for every century. Just as God can speak through an ass, use of the Kabalistic numerology eventually produced the decimal point system while a Muslim first introduced zero into mathematics. Mostly because of disputes over interpretations of their scriptures, like other major religions, the Jews developed their factions also: Before and during the life of Jesus Christ they were called Sadducees (priests, the rich, the politicians, conservatives, believed in no afterlife), Pharisees (scribes, writers, rabbis, always took the liberal interpretation of the Talmud, believed in afterlife), Herodians, Essenes(John the Baptist was probably one of these), Zealots (included Judas Iscariot), Samaritan Sect, Sanhedrin (71 who acted as judicial and sometimes legislative), and Publicans (Jewish tax- collectors who bid for the right to collect taxes and then could collect as much as they wanted after they paid the Government)). Immediately After Christ: Christians, Ebonite, Nazareans or Nazarenes, Simonians, Cerintheians, Judaizers, Circumcisers, Nicolaitans, the "Synagogue of Satan", the "Throne of Satan", the "doctrine of Balaam", Docetism, Gnosticism, Neo-Gnosticism, Agnosticism. Judaism from the Second Century to Present: Rabbinic Judaism, Anti-rabbinic reactions, Karaites (The readers), the Geonim, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Jewish Mysticism, Kabalists, Hasidism, Gnosticism, Haskala or Enlightenment, Zionism Judaism Today: Orthodox, Chasidim, Reform, Conservative, Reconstrucionist, Traditional, Humanistic, Gay/Lesbian. As God’s chosen people (and they know it by the way), the Jews are not without their expected accomplishments. The rest of us should keep in mind that they were chosen not because of their righteousness, but merely to be an example of what one could be if one followed the precepts of God. But while the other religions had many other gods fashioned with hands and competing, the arrogant Jews had a God who was both invisible and supreme! Not only that, but the Jewish God proved his claims, played fairly, and demanded morality from everybody. (Not that the Jews always listened). Nevertheless, one can see how this would cause discord among neighboring dictators and their little do nothing, carved out of hands Gods. The Jews were the first recorded group to have representative government and laws that even their own kings had to obey. Lex rex as opposed to Rex lex (the law is King as opposed to the king is law). This, coupled with the example of the Christian framing of America (modeled after the above mentioned Jewish history in the Bible) evolved them both into a democracy in the USA and later in present day Israel. Another purpose that they were set apart for was for the very keeping of the Old Testament. Scribes had each letter of their copied Old Testament counted to the center by a number known by the Rabbi. That center letter had to be correct or Mr. Scribe could start over….copying the OT again….probably without overtime pay. Hardly a chance to change the Bible as Islam asserts…..which begs the question, why would the Jews pen a God breathed infallible Bible only to later alter it to their own destruction? Not counting their own political leaders and Biblical associates, a lot of genius, both famous and infamous came from Jewish loins….Karl Marx, Freud, Einstein, Spinoza, Levi-Strauss, Jonas Salk, Steven J Gould. When you combine the Jewish ability with his freedom and hi tech availability in the USA, the list of scientific achievement is not just impressive, it is overwhelmingly out of proportion to his populace. Smart guys, these Jews. Inventors of such things as the remote control, the corvette, lasik eye surgery, vaccine for hepatitis b, oral contraceptives, antihistamines, printed circuit boards, video tape machine, kodachrome, Zeiss camera, vinyl record, color TV, Barbie doll, endoscope, cataract surgery, transistor, Polaroid camera, telephone as we know it, sonogram, geosynchronous satellite, vaccination needle, electron microscope, zeppelin, valium, electronic dimmer, jeans, streptomycin, and you get the point. Discoverers, co founders, and CEO’s of much more. There is good theory that Colombus was born jewish. His chosen maps, doctor, officers, nav instruments and financing certainly were. The day before he left, Aug 2 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. Incidentally, Columbus's voyage was not financed by Isabella selling her jewels as is often stated. The major financiers were two court officials - both Jewish conversos - Louis de Santangel, chancellor of the royal household, and Gabriel Sanchez, treasurer of Aragon. Colombus sent his first letter back to them. In fact, Americans and Israelites are usually the red and blue ribbon winners in every academic category of scientific awards. This has obviously been because of the freedom to aspire and compete, the good God of both of them, and the civility he inspires. Compare that to the suppression of education in Islam and it’s scientific export in the last centuries and you can see the problem. Forgive me for not remembering the exact figures but it has been shown that prior to WWII the Germans had significant awards in science attributable to the Jews. After expelling them to America they had almost none….and America’s awards went up significantly. In fact, Hitler hating, yet realizing the Jewish contribution to quantum physics, gave the name “Judaphysiks” to it. For the most part Judaism has never been an offensively fighting people. When they have warred, though, and given equal weapons, the Jews are fearless. Ordained by God, Joshua was 31 and 0. In other battles, it was not so much that they lost, but that they held out so long. Tiglath Pilaser conquered Egypt in a week and a half but it took a year and a half to beat the Jews. Caesar and Alexander the Great had less than 50,000 soldiers to subdue the world. But when Titus attacked the Jews at the downfall of Jerusalem beginning in 66AD, it took Romans 4 years and 83,000 soldiers to beat the final 23,000 Jews entrenched in the temple. In fact, in one show of force that was meant to intimidate the Jews there, Titus marched his army in all its splendor for four days in parade fashion, around Jerusalem, while 500 other captured Jews were crucified on the hill in plain view. The response from the Jerusalem wall was not intimidation but applause, as if to say “Thanks for the Parade”! It seems that Titus was the one who was intimidated. Although the Romans were oppressive, the peaceful Jews at Jerusalem were forced to fight by two of their own terrorist groups under Simon and John. Despite atrocities of Mother baby cannibalism from starvation within the Walls, these two factions killed many who tried to give up or who refused to fight the Romans. Flavius Josephus said 1,100,000 were killed during the Jewish wars surrounding the downfall of Jerusalem. With only a few exceptions such as this, the Jewish modis operandi is normally limited to opposing oppressive tyrants of false religions. However, forced into a corner for their own survival against those who want to die in battle, they occasionally take the offensive as a defense. Unlike us politically correct Americans, they notoriously make good use of the false religious rituals of their enemies against them. Their 4th largest Air Force in the world strafed and bombed the Jordanian runways while the Islamic Jordanian pilots were in scheduled morning prayer, facing Mecca. Good strategy. Once, they convinced their enemies to have circumcisions before they could wed their Jewish women. After the circumcisions, they attacked them while the men were still in pain and unable to move. Further circumcising them at the neck. Also unlike the USA treatment of present day mosques, the first thing Israel destroyed historically was the shrines and statues of the false gods that caused the tyranny. Street fighters. The only problem with present day Israeli strategy is that after they win the war and gain the new territory, they revert to the “battered child syndrome” i.e., they always try to appease everyone who beats them… as if it were their fault. Let’s give back the Sinai before it angers the Arabs…or let’s pull out of Gaza before they get mad. They seem to understand the fact that the Arab world is not after their submission but rather their extinction….but they rarely act like it. When Jews were threatened in Ethiopia in the early 1990’s Israel airlifted 22,000 out to safety. Bold practical rescuers. Yet while about 1 million were slaughtered by machete in less than thirty days in Rwanda in 1994, the UN, French, and yes, we Americans stood by…arguing the law. Why are they so persecuted? Good question. After all: They are technically not a race. Although they instigated it, officially they did not kill Jesus (it was the Italian Military (Romans) who actually gave the orders, did the beating, and drove the nails…who, notably, are never mentioned in that context). They are not a greedy country hungering after land. They hold mixed political views. \ They are peaceful and non violent. Murders, rapes , and child molesting in the Jewish populace have historically been almost non existent in comparison with their contemporaries. Most historians divide the persecutions into three distinct types: 1. Anti Zionists which is loosely defined as those who think that the Jews should not have a country, and 2. Anti-Semites, who hate the Jews just because they are Jews. 3. Anti Jewish….those who hate Jews for a reason (justified or not) The French fall into the first category who, when rebuilding their country after the French revolution understandably said that the Jews could not have a country within their country. Hitler, on the other hand falls into the second category when he tried to exterminate the race. The third group might be those who hate them because they erroneously think they killed Christ….the hate is unfounded but at least they use some reason. In the total scope of history, the real reason they are persecuted is because God told them that while he would keep them alive as a race, they would be persecuted. But also in that scope, one should understand that they were no more persecuted than the rest of the populace who lived through dangerous times and changing regimes. For example, the Catholics killed more Christians than Jews, in fact, even under Torquemada; the Spanish inquisition was prevented by law from killing anyone other than Christian heretics. While 20,000 Albigenses Christians were killed in one town in France, and 70,000 Huguenots following the Saint Bartholomews massacre in 1572 in another… yet the Jews were expelled, but were spared their lives. But the tool Satan used, at least in the last hundred years, to torque that pressure was ideas from a series of books in the 1800’s. Although himself a failure, Nietzsche wrote about an Aryan race of supermen who were to be warriors, and women, he taught, were to be the entertainment of warriors. Another French book that did not specifically name the Jews submitted the idea that the problem of society was because in democracies the lower classes were ruling! All in all, the French were the first government to actively, knowingly, and falsely conspire against an individual and incarcerate a military man just because of his faith in what was called the Dreyfus Affair. Many laws were enacted preventing Jews from competitive sales with Christians. But their thirst for education, combined with their inimitable communication of it through their unique language, they survived by finding jobs of intellect. The Jewish ghettos and the fact that not many Jews were permitted into ruling positions unless they converted, obviously put the Jew into this category of ruling by a lower class. So the Jews became worthy tools for the Governments, creating their banking systems, strategizing their infrastructure, education, law, and negotiating as ambassadors, but were never able to rule because of their minority amongst other religions. But where a few books and ideas heated anti Semitism, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, forged it. Secretly written by the Russian Police and published about 1903 this book was supposedly a first person point of view of Jewish plans to take over the world. It told horrid stories about how Jews drank the blood of Christian babies. How they put Christian blood over their doors for Passover….and so on. It was made more believable because it contained many prominent Jewish names of that day. Although proven time and again as false, Czar Nicholas of Russia read and initially accepted the book as true and his nation followed his lead (he later rejected it as false but it was too late by then). Poor Czar. His entire family was assassinated by the same group who wrote the book….and then in the mid 1900’s his home was secretly bulldozed by the later President of Russia… Boris Yeltzin….to cover up any evidence of the assassination. Within a few years of its authorship, 1000 Jews were slaughtered in the streets of Odessa, Russia because of it. Henry Ford read and initially accepted the book, too, and even wrote his own book against the Jews, called The International Jew that, although not read much in the USA, was immensely popular in Europe. Ford later recanted, as well, but again it was too late because a certain Austrian had picked up a copy. Of course, because one of Hitler’s heroes was Henry Ford, Hitler was all too eager to accept The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as well as Henry Ford’s recommendation of it. Hitler even had the Volkswagen built “for the people” trying to emulate Ford. With 16,000,000 rifles accepting his dogma, millions were exterminated in Hitler’s “T4 program” and his “Final Solution”. Even though 5,000,000 Jews perished it wasn’t just a Jewish problem. It was a problem that should have concerned the world. 7,000,000 Christians perished also. Zylon B was the gas of choice for the concentration camps. At the end of the war the Russians found proof that Hitler wanted to continue against the world. They found stockpiled enough of the gas to kill 20 million more people. Much more than any Jewish population. Yes, although he couldn’t advertise it because the whole world was Christian, and he didn’t want to antagonize them, Hitler wanted to kill the Christians, too. So he only publicly marketed three things that the people would accept; 1. socialism, 2. the destruction of communism, and 3. the extermination of the insufferable Jews. In fact the only God he wanted left standing was the Aryan god of socialism. Like the Bataan death march, by the time the Jews found out about it, it was too late to muster any opposition to it. We can’t blame the Jews for their disbelief when Americans and even many of the German people didn’t know what was going on. When they did suspect the worst, the Jews did muster a heroic effort as in the Warsaw uprising as portrayed in the movie The Piano. Jewish murders didn’t end with WWII. After the war, Jews returning home were sometimes murdered by Russian designed “Pogroms” also portrayed in a movie I am David. However, the late Christian pastor Richard Wurmbrandt of the Voice of the Martyrs ministry, could tell you of many murders, and his own 19 years spent in a Russian Gulag just for being a preacher. I heard it first hand as he spent the night in my house one night. To other’s shame and their credit, only the Lutheran church openly opposed the Nazis from within Germany. Not much different from today, history repeats itself as a quick glance at Arab newspapers on any given day reveals the same phony propaganda that we don’t see in the West. While the Muslims rioted over a few innocent Danish cartoons of Mohammed, everyday in Arab papers a cartoon is printed depicting Jewish vampires, a Jewish man with an Arab baby on a spear, a Jewish puppeteer pulling the U.N strings, a Jew boiling an Arab alive, a Jewish plane flying into the World Trade Center, etc., etc. It’s no wonder Arabs hate Jews. So perpetually brainwashed are each generation of Arabs that even the present day president of Iran stated publicly that the Holocaust never happened. Are we in the USA immune? No, even American Skinhead groups still accept The Protocols of the Elders of Zion today as truth. The fact that it is still in print attests to world ignorance. Notable American personalities like David Duke, Louis Farrakhan and even Pat Buchanan is listed on the Anti Defamation league as being against Jews. Even some churches like the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas make terrible, false, ungodly statements against Jews. I, being a Baptist, resent that tremendously. I can believe them to be wrong without asking for their extermination. But with the statements from the present day world of Islam….here we go again. So how do they fit in? At the time of Jesus the Jews were expecting a warring Messiah to come with a sword and free them from the Roman occupation. Of Jesus’ disciples, Judas Iscariot was of a group that advanced this, and was probably very disappointed when he found that Roman extinction wasn’t exactly what Jesus’ agenda was shaking out to be. Therefore, when Jesus came peaceably many Jews did not recognize him. However, many did…including all of the New Testament writers and the early church. Jesus did indeed overcome the Roman occupation, but he surprised all but his sheep by accomplishing it with influence and reason instead of the sword. Jesus fulfilled at least 66 major prophecies (a major example would be: He would be born in Bethlehem of Judea) that predicted his arrival and person from the Jewish Old Testament … with hundreds of other minor connected implications (a minor example might be: “He”, in the same passage, that signified gender). Many Jews convert when they actually read and study these Messianic prophecies. However Psalm 53 and others passages have regularly been torn out of some Jewish Torahs by Fathers and Rabbis who don’t want them discovered. Jews approve of Jesus because they, missing all scriptures like Matthew 1:23, John 1: 1, 8:58, believe he never claimed to be God in the flesh. Claiming this was done by a hallucinatory Paul they say. Prophecies that could only have been known because God revealed them (virgin birth for instance), and were remarkably all written at least 400 years before he came. Despite of all of the evidence that he is the one they were looking for, the present day Jews are still waiting for their predicted Messiah to come. Not that they haven’t fallen for at least one messianic imposter per century. Remember that Jesus himself was a Jew. In fact, one of the qualifications Jesus had to accomplish to be the Messiah was to be a Jew in the direct line from Abraham. In the opening chapters of both Matthew and Luke people get lost and bored when they read the genealogy. But what these authors are doing is double qualifying Jesus as the foretold Messiah by showing his required direct descent from Abraham in his mother’s line and his Father’s …as well as showing that he was descended from common people and sinners. In fact, not believing Jesus was the Messiah has created technical theological problems for the Jews that they tend to close their eyes to today: In 70 A.D. their temple at Jerusalem was, as predicted by Jesus, thrown down to rubble and they lost all of their genealogical records. Consequently, anyone in the future claiming to be the Messiah cannot prove his genealogy. Furthermore, with Christ the sacrifice days are finished and needed no more…. The Jews now have no temple in which to perform their required sacrifices. So, what’s all the talk about them today? Of 6 billion people in the world, the Jews comprise only .003 percent of the population and statistically they should be unheard of like some tribe or city in the heart of China, yet the United Nations spends ninety percent of it’s time trying to deal with Jewish Issues. I hope you noticed the imbalance there. Note also that the UN is always formulating hostility against the Jews, not peace. In fact, Israel’s only friend in the world today is America. However, even America, under pressure from the UN, restrains Israel from diverse levels of retaliation when other countries under the same terror campaign might declare war. Nevertheless America bares fondness for them for various understandable reasons: Religious….Judaism is the ancestor to the 85% claimed Christians of the USA. Just as my father was a prodigy programmer of the original room size IBM key punch computers (which was a forerunner of today’s laptops) he did not realize “Windows” concepts and was not able to understand or make use of modern computers. Likewise Judaism is the ancestor, but does not realize the Messiah and Christian concepts. It is the now fossilized religion of what evolved into Christianity. Nevertheless, many Jews are today accepting Jesus as the Messiah as can be well attested to by the organization “Jews for Jesus”. In the book of Revelation is the prediction of 144,000 Jews who will be supernaturally saved during that period as well. Political…they are the only democracy in the region. In fact, they invented it. Fair Judges, twelve tribes of represented Jews, Kings that follow the law, testate rights for women, etc. Although Democracies are not always the answer (when Muslims vote in the sharia law for example…or America votes in socialism), they usually allow arguments (as opposed to controlling information), and therefore truth to eventually boil to the surface. Israel consistently votes with the USA at the UN. In fact, the representative government that we enjoy that is typically attributed to the Romans ….was first used by the Jews. Giving the Romans credit for the first senate is like giving Lockheed credit for inventing the airplane. The circuit courts were founded when Mose’s father in law suggested he give up some of the trials that were too numerous for him. The Post office is found not from Ben Franklyn, but in the book of Esther. Taxes were first in 1 Samuel 8:15ff. Quietly and largely unnoticed trade ( for example, the Apple IPOD is from Israel, Medical products such as Biometrics, etc), we trade with Israel and they with us, in huge sums. However, for political reasons so the Arabs can’t cry about it or attack our corporations, it is buried under “other” in Federal Government budget releases. The 2003 USA budget was a $5.9 billion deficit to Israel. Credit was first given by the Jews and rent and capitalism was suspected to have first started in the Jewish ghetto or pale….where they had to compete amongst themselves. Israel is Civil….unprovoked they have a good track record for humanitarian practices, treating their citizens well. As for murder, rape and violent crimes, they are 1% of the the incarcerated per capita. Even when they kill it is not with suicide bombers or beheadings. Also, unlike America's Arab "allies," Israel never attacked U.S. interests. The USS Liberty may or maynot be an exception to that. It has periodically acted contrary to them, as in Suez and Lebanon, but these anomalies are a far cry from Arab states' routine criticism of U.S. policy as the “Great Satan” and who want to “cut the head off the snake”, and are often active supporters for America's enemies, such as the Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq and Libya; and direct opposition, as in the refusal to allow U.S. troops to be stationed in their Arab countries. In Intelligence matters, some say they are the best in the world. El Al airlines is the no nonsense standard for airline security that we just don’t match in the USA. Every plane has at least one fighter pilot, stewards are trained in hand to hand, each flight has an air marshall, every passenger is personally interviewed, luggage is sent through a decompression chamber. As a result, there has been no hijacking since 1968. Israel retaliates correctly when attacked and, although they create collateral damage, like us, they try to avoid it…. they immediately and surgically target their attackers. They relentlessly tracked and killed 9 of the 11 Arab assassins of the Munich Olympics. Immediately after Arafat was dead, Palestinians installed a Rantissi as president. Within a couple of days he began to publicly call jihads for American assassinations and the extinction of the USA and Israel. I wrote to President Bush and told him we should assassinate those who do this and let the word out that any public outcry of this sort would be met with such. The next day Israel assassinated Rantissi ! Someone was thinking ahead. Since then I have heard no public outcries for jihad assassinations of this nature from Palestine. They like the USA and our values, and have always been a good neighbor, and similar to us in human rights issues. It is always easier to like people who like us. Not only do the Jews love us, but an average of Gallup Polls over the last 40 years show that Americans favor Israel to Arabs at 47 to 13. Militarily, Israel is our fire alarm in the Islamic region. We sell them extinguishers. What do they believe? Like most religions the Jewish are mostly born into it and subconsciously believe that by that virtue of being born they will go to heaven. In fact, to be a Jew today, your Momma has to be Jewish or you have to convert to it. For you biotekkies, that means the mitochondria gene is dominant in Judaism. It’s a lot easier to be born Jewish as “Dr. Laura” can tell you. Because if you are born Jewish you have to adhere to a few rules, but if you convert you have to adhere to hundreds. That is exactly why the genealogy of Jesus, one proof for the long awaited Messiah, was so important that it was included in the Gospels….both from Joseph’s side in Matthew, and from the mother’s side in Luke. Practically speaking, just like in your religion, most Jews don’t know what they believe….one could say they belong ‘just cause their Momma’s do’. Technically, they believe if you follow the law, you will go to heaven. They are however ardent monotheists. In fact, if there ever was a bumper sticker for a Jewish chariot it would read “Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord!” this statement is called the schema and found at Deuteronomy 6:4. It is (supposed to be) nailed to the entrance of every Jewish household. When they approach the Western wall in Jerusalem where they believe God is present, and where they place their prayers, they have to have the schema between their eyes, and on four corners of their clothes. Of course if you can’t approach the Western wall because you live in Cherrylog, Georgia then you can fax in your prayer, or email it to God via www.westernwall.com and a student will place it in the cracks of the wall for you. Of course, you can donate there as well. Even though they are God’s chosen people and most closely resemble the peace and civility of America, it should be noted from an evangelical viewpoint that as long as they do not accept Jesus as their savior, they are just as much out of the will of God as a Muslim. Only the Jew is much more peaceful and civilized about it. In fact, if you put a Muslim, a catholic, a Jew, an evangelical, A Hindu, a Buddhist, and a sprinkling of cults in a room together…..it would not be the Jew, nor anyone else, but the Muslim encouraged by his religious writings, that would initiate the trouble. He is ordered by the Koran (“…kill the Christian, kill the Jew….”)….but that’s another topic. The best spelling for the Christian and Jewish name for God is Yahweh. Also known as the Tetragramaton, it is correctly taken from Exodus 3:14 where God tells Moses “Tell them IAMTHATIAM sent them”. IAMTHATIAM in ancient Hebrew that did not use vowels is spelled “YHWH”. It is not Jehovah as previously thought. Because the Jews have not pronounced God’s name (In fact some will even spell the word God as G_d) out of fear of “using the Lord’s name in vain” (a Ten Commandment) …they almost lost it. The vowels, not normally found, were archaeologically found inscribed on a rock in the early twentieth century… and found to be placed differently than previously expected. What about their mysterious Holidays and symbols? Jewish Holidays are calculated by the Jewish calendar that is different from the Gregorian calendar that we use. But their holidays are only mysterious because being so self centered around our own, we have never taken the time to be aware of anyone else’s. Like Cinco de Mayo is relevant to America, Jewish holidays can be relevant to Christianity. But forget about trying to understand the Jewish calendar and all of its implications if you aren’t Jewish. The significance just ain’t worth the trouble. For one reason, although the dates remain the same on their calendar, the calendar keeps changing. Chanukah might be celebrated along side of Christmas one year and apart from it another. But knowing about a few of their holidays is worth the effort because some intermingle with Christianity. One of the most prominent would be: Passover: I hope no explanation is needed here….or see Exodus. Celebrated April 1st every year just as Jesus did. Not really. Himself truly being the sacrificial lamb as pre pictured in Exodus. Rosh Hashanah: Ist day of Jewish new year by their calendar. It varies by ours. Between Labor and Columbus Day. A time of reflection and resolutions. Starts the sunset before the date listed on your calendar. Do not disturb. Once, back in my heathen days, I called my local radio station and told them to put Rosh Hashanah on the birthday list that was read daily by the station…they did…..just proves most don’t know about Uncle Rosh. Yom Kippur: about 10 days after the Rosh, it is the Day of Atonement and reconciliation with the Creator. Synagogues are full and feeding before the fast. Give em a break and leave them alone. Let them off work. Chanukah meaning “rededication”(sometimes spelled differently, Hannakah, etc): Called the Festival of lights, 8 day Chanukah counterbalances Christmas on a practical scale for the Jews. It is a complex but interesting story. If you have ever wondered what happened between the Old and New testaments…in a galaxy far, far away (not really), there existed this one disgruntled Darth Antiochus Epiphanes Vader, who claimed to be god in the 2nd century B.C. Antiochus also wanted to make the Jews serve the Greek Gods….and thus to Hellenize the area and reunite it much as it was under Alex the Great. At first he gave the Jews permission to worship unabated until, when they thought he was dead in a distant battle, the locals threw about a hundred of his officials and Jewish sympathizers over a hundred foot wall. It wasn’t the fall that killed them. It was the sudden stop at the bottom. They didn’t make it…but Antiochus did. Obviously alive on his surprise return he was furious, and desecrated everything that was holy to the Jews….including sacrificing a pig on the altar. A Jewish no no. To make a short story longer, a family called the Maccabees (the Hammers) overthrew Mister Antiochus and the Syrians and took their Hummers. When our hero Judas Maccabees and his bullet proof followers reclaimed, rededicated, and finished cleaning the Jerusalem temple, they wanted to light the eternal light, known as the N'er Tamid, which is present in every Jewish house of worship. Once lit, the oil lamp should never be extinguished. Only a tiny jug of oil was found by the Maccabees with only enough oil for a single day. The oil lamp was filled and lit. Then a miracle occurred as the tiny amount of oil stayed lit not for one day, but for eight days. The famous menorah candelabras, containing 9 candle positions, commemorate this. The first candle in the middle is in the higher position but is yet the slave candle that is used to light all the others. When Jesus said “I am the light of the world”, those listening would have no doubt seen him identifying himself with this candle. After the Holocaust, in 1947 the UN declared the British part of Palestine as a state for both Jewish and Arabs. (Insert here 1948 war of independence, the Lavon affair, the suez war, Palestine means philistine 1967 six day war, Israel shooting the US ship) October 6,-26 1973 brought the Yom Kippur war where Israel was almost surprised attacked by Syria and Egypt on the Jewish holiday… so that the country would be shut down. Seems the Arab world learned to use religion in war also. Yet in effect it backfired on them, it made it easier just hours before the attack…. when the Israeli Government was better able to call up the reserves after the intelligence of imminent war inescapably mounted. All the soldiers were either in the synagogues or at home. All the while representative armies from almost the entire Arab world was either about to fight or had pre supported the war against Israel with money. Cuba even sent approximately 1,500 troops including tank and helicopter crews to help the Arabs. Sadat of Egypt had “cried wolf” and threatened war so many times before (9 times in the previous month) that then Prime Minister Golda Meier was hard pressed to believe it was really happening this time as well. But the intelligence mounted until hours before the invasion, Israel wanted to strike first but knew they would not get any help if they did. As it turned out it was a good choice, after the invasion started, Israel was encouraged by Henry Kissinger to hit and hit hard initially….with the promise that America would be quick to replenish their supplies …as it did. One heroic story of the immediate battle was: By the end of the first day of battle, the Syrians (who at the start outnumbered the Israelis in the Golan 9 to 1) had achieved moderate success. Towards the end of the day, "A Syrian tank brigade passing through the Rafid Gap turned northwest up a little-used route known as the Tapline Road, which cut diagonally across the Golan. This roadway would prove one of the main strategic hinges of the battle. It led straight from the main Syrian breakthrough points to Nafekh, which was not only the location of Israeli divisional headquarters but the most important crossroads on the Heights." During the night, Lieutenant Zvika Greengold, who had just arrived to the battle unattached to any unit, fought them off with his single tank until help arrived. "For the next 20 hours, Zvika Force, as he came to be known on the radio net, fought running battles with Syrian tanks—sometimes alone, sometimes as part of a larger unit, changing tanks half a dozen times as they were knocked out. He was wounded and burned but stayed in action and repeatedly showed up at critical moments from an unexpected direction to change the course of a skirmish.". When the UN saw that Israel was winning, they immediately, prompted by Washington and Moscow, called for a cease fire. Because it was called late in the day, satellite imagery was not able to confirm any cease fire lines. When Egyptian forces broke the cease fire at several points that night, it was just the opportunity that Israel needed. They pushed the Arab forces across the Suez Canal and trapped them, cutting them off from food, water, and supplies. Later, when the US military saw that Soviet Nukes were moving to Egypt it went to DEFCON 3… reached only two other times in our history (Cuban Missile Crisis(surpassed to DEFCON 2), and 911). This Author happened to be a Nuclear weapons specialist living at the end of the runway at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota at that time. At about 4 in the morning continuous B52 takeoffs woke me up. I can’t remember exactly, but it seemed like there was one taking off or coming from other bases and landing every couple of minutes. In a while I got a phone call to report in for duty. When I arrived, I realized it was not just another alert. My team, who normally worked on the Minute Man missile warheads, began augmenting the nuclear bomb teams and were soon transporting their bombs to the flight line to be loaded on to the B52’s …just as fast as we could. In fact, a large part of the safety procedures were done away with in an effort to increase our speed. When we finally heard the predicament, we missile men were told, although we had not trained on bombs since tech school, that we would be the next shift of bomb builders if required. Believe me, it was serious business in the nuclear world. Not wanting to start a nuclear holocaust over Egypt, eventually Russia backed down. Except for negotiating the release of the Arab army that Israel had trapped, the war was effectively over. Through a series of remarkable maneuvers, Yahweh had humiliated Allah once again. Sadat, however, had lost a brother in the war. This turned his heart around toward peace. He was the first and only Arab leader ever to visit Israel to talk of peace. For that, Yassar Arafat gunned down his colleague. He continued to Camp David to meet with Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister, to achieve Egyptian peace with Israel that remains to this day. Sadat, of course paid for that peace with his assassination in 1981. Muslims do not want peace. |