Happy Chanukah!

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Jrosemary
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Happy Chanukah!

Post #1

Post by Jrosemary »

Go find the Chanukiah in the basement! Dig up your decorations! Fry up some latkes! Drink a toast to the Macabbees for their (rather zealous) fight for religious freedom. Chanukah starts tonight. O:)

cnorman18

Post #11

Post by cnorman18 »

JoeyKnothead wrote:
Jrosemary wrote:
Joey Knothead wrote:It seems the first act of this revolt was by a person named Mattithias the Hasmonean, who must be famous because he's got his own wikipedia entry all to himself. Well anyways, Mattithias wasn't having no part of some outsider telling him how to worship and he up and killed another Jew right there on the spot for giving in. After cutting out, it went well there for about a year, but even Mattithias ended up there on the dead side of things.
I love your Chanukah write up, Joey!

Mattithias always struck me as a John Brown type figure. Scary and maybe crazy fanatical, but arguably necessary. :-k
'Preciate it.

Seems somebody bothered the wrong person ;)

I see a lesson here - Don't expect others to respect your god unless your out there respecting theirs.
I agree.

Let it be noted that Jews are barred from access to Temple Mount in the present day; that area, which was the site of the First and Second Temples, remains under the control of Muslim authorities, because it is today the site of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Muslim holy places.

By way of contrast, when Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan and the Muslim authorities, the Western Wall -- the holiest site in the world to Jews -- was quite deliberately and with conscious, malicious intent, used as a public latrine and garbage dump.

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Jrosemary
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Post #12

Post by Jrosemary »

I'm not sure who bars Jews from going up to the Temple Mount today, though. I know the Chief Rabbi says Jews shouldn't go up there--and one of the reasons is because no one knows just where the Holy of Holies was, so you could accidentally walk into it.

I know Israeli authorities will generally stop any major protesting group of Jews from going up.

However, I know lots of American Jews who went up to the Dome of the Rock as tourists and no one stopped them. I asked one of my friends who had gone up, "But what about the Holy of Holies? You might have walked right into it."

He jokingly looked down his nose. "My dear, I'm a Kohen," he reminded me.

:lol:

(The Kohanim are our high priests. They were--are?--allowed, at certain moments, to enter the Holy of Holies.)

P.S. For the record, I think the Dome of the Rock is a beautiful building, and I'm not anxious to reinstate Temple worship in Judaism.

P.P.S. Just looked it up on Wiki--apparently there is, off and on, limited access for non-Muslims to the Dome of the Rock, but non-Muslims can't pray there (and the Muslim ministry in charge won't let you in with non-Muslim prayer books and such. ) As a separate issue, the Chief Rabbi of Israel doesn't want Jews to go visiting because of the Holy of Holies issue, but as far as I can see that's not a law or anything.

cnorman18

Post #13

Post by cnorman18 »

Jrosemary wrote:I'm not sure who bars Jews from going up to the Temple Mount today, though. I know the Chief Rabbi says Jews shouldn't go up there--and one of the reasons is because no one knows just where the Holy of Holies was, so you could accidentally walk into it.

I know Israeli authorities will generally stop any major protesting group of Jews from going up.

However, I know lots of American Jews who went up to the Dome of the Rock as tourists and no one stopped them. I asked one of my friends who had gone up, "But what about the Holy of Holies? You might have walked right into it."

He jokingly looked down his nose. "My dear, I'm a Kohen," he reminded me.

:lol:

(The Kohanim are our high priests. They were--are?--allowed, at certain moments, to enter the Holy of Holies.)

P.S. For the record, I think the Dome of the Rock is a beautiful building, and I'm not anxious to reinstate Temple worship in Judaism.

P.P.S. Just looked it up on Wiki--apparently there is, off and on, limited access for non-Muslims to the Dome of the Rock, but non-Muslims can't pray there (and the Muslim ministry in charge won't let you in with non-Muslim prayer books and such. ) As a separate issue, the Chief Rabbi of Israel doesn't want Jews to go visiting because of the Holy of Holies issue, but as far as I can see that's not a law or anything.
I stand corrected. The point, of course, is that Muslims DO have free access, and the site is not molested or otherwise interfered with by Jews. That is NOT the case with Jewish holy sites under Muslim control, in the past or in the present day.

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Lux
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Post #14

Post by Lux »

I often wonder, is there a spelling more accepted than others for Hanukkah?

There is an avenue in my town called the Avenue of the United Nations, which has a flag for every nation belonging to the UN, and in a centrical place, the UN flag. On the flagpole for the UN flag, someone placed a cardboard Menorah (I'm sure at least Charles will see some irony in that) and the inscription "Happy Jánuca" in it. Jánuca is what Hanukkah sounds like in Spanish.
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cnorman18

Post #15

Post by cnorman18 »

Lucia wrote:I often wonder, is there a spelling more accepted than others for Hanukkah?

There is an avenue in my town called the Avenue of the United Nations, which has a flag for every nation belonging to the UN, and in a centrical place, the UN flag. On the flagpole for the UN flag, someone placed a cardboard Menorah (I'm sure at least Charles will see some irony in that) and the inscription "Happy Jánuca" in it. Jánuca is what Hanukkah sounds like in Spanish.
There is, to date, no standard schema for transliterating Hebrew into English. I know of at least seven ways to spell Hanukkah -- now there are eight. Hey! One for each night!

Thanks for asking, though. We Jews argue about it all the time. I have a friend who despises any spellling that begins with "H" because the initial sound is a guttural "CH" as in the German ach. Me, I don't care, as long as whoever you're writing to knows what you're talking about.

I doubt that there'll ever be a standard schema. We Jews like arguing too much, and if anyone sets themselves up as a French-style "Academie de la Hebrew," there will be Jews lined up around the block to ask, "Who died and left YOU boss?"

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Jrosemary
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Post #16

Post by Jrosemary »

cnorman18 wrote:
Lucia wrote:I often wonder, is there a spelling more accepted than others for Hanukkah?

There is an avenue in my town called the Avenue of the United Nations, which has a flag for every nation belonging to the UN, and in a centrical place, the UN flag. On the flagpole for the UN flag, someone placed a cardboard Menorah (I'm sure at least Charles will see some irony in that) and the inscription "Happy Jánuca" in it. Jánuca is what Hanukkah sounds like in Spanish.
There is, to date, no standard schema for transliterating Hebrew into English. I know of at least seven ways to spell Hanukkah -- now there are eight. Hey! One for each night!

Thanks for asking, though. We Jews argue about it all the time. I have a friend who despises any spellling that begins with "H" because the initial sound is a guttural "CH" as in the German ach. Me, I don't care, as long as whoever you're writing to knows what you're talking about.

I doubt that there'll ever be a standard schema. We Jews like arguing too much, and if anyone sets themselves up as a French-style "Academie de la Hebrew," there will be Jews lined up around the block to ask, "Who died and left YOU boss?"
Well, there may be no standard transliteration of Chanukah. However, there is a spelling that's, ah, accepted by just about everyone:

חנוכה

:eyebrow:

cnorman18

Post #17

Post by cnorman18 »

Jrosemary wrote:
cnorman18 wrote:
Lucia wrote:I often wonder, is there a spelling more accepted than others for Hanukkah?

There is an avenue in my town called the Avenue of the United Nations, which has a flag for every nation belonging to the UN, and in a centrical place, the UN flag. On the flagpole for the UN flag, someone placed a cardboard Menorah (I'm sure at least Charles will see some irony in that) and the inscription "Happy Jánuca" in it. Jánuca is what Hanukkah sounds like in Spanish.
There is, to date, no standard schema for transliterating Hebrew into English. I know of at least seven ways to spell Hanukkah -- now there are eight. Hey! One for each night!

Thanks for asking, though. We Jews argue about it all the time. I have a friend who despises any spellling that begins with "H" because the initial sound is a guttural "CH" as in the German ach. Me, I don't care, as long as whoever you're writing to knows what you're talking about.

I doubt that there'll ever be a standard schema. We Jews like arguing too much, and if anyone sets themselves up as a French-style "Academie de la Hebrew," there will be Jews lined up around the block to ask, "Who died and left YOU boss?"
Well, there may be no standard transliteration of Chanukah. However, there is a spelling that's, ah, accepted by just about everyone:

חנוכה

:eyebrow:
I know there's a word in Yiddish, but how do you say "wise guy" in Hebrew -- ignoring the gender issue, of course?

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fewwillfindit
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Post #18

Post by fewwillfindit »

Just came across this today:

Image

I thought you'd get a kick out of it, Charles. :)
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

cnorman18

Post #19

Post by cnorman18 »

fewwillfindit wrote:Just came across this today:

Image

I thought you'd get a kick out of it, Charles. :)
Classic. I once saw an ad for "Kosher Pork Chops." I kid you not. Even loonier was a greeting card wishing a "Festive And Joyous Yom Kippur."

Oy. These goyim...

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