“Rabbi Breitowitz received his Rabbinical Ordination from the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in 1976; B.S. with honors from Johns Hopkins University; J.D (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1979; and a Doctorate in Talmudic Law from Ner Israel in 1992. He has lectured extensively throughout the US and Israel on medical, business, and family ethics. He has published numerous articles on bankruptcy, commercial law, medical ethics, family law, and halakha. In addition to being the Rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue in SIlver Spring MD, Rabbi Breitowitz is a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland.”
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AND A MERRY CHRISTIANMAS TO YOU ALL, me I’ll stick to Chanukah with a bottle of M & H ISRAELI whisky
A Pastor told me that the two basic tenets which all Christian sect believe in are: 1) Man is destined to eternal perdition 2) The only way to avoid eternal perdition is by belief in Jesus.
To which I answered: Thank you, Pastor, now I understand better why I will never be a Christian: 1) I don’t agree that man naturally is doomed ot eternal perdition [so I do not need J]. 2) IF a man does commit such crimes that he deserves eternal perdition, no BELIEF can save him: he must CORRECT HIS BEHAVIOR and try to amend for his crimes.
Interesting article:
https://celsus.blog/2013/12/17/why-scholars-doubt-the-traditional-authors-of-the-gospels/
@ Sebastien Zorn:
The enthusiasts of the Moshiach’s advent, had no idea what he would do except to defeat all their enemies, and-by implication- rebuild a more glorious Temple, and spread his rule, around the world. They really didn’t know from nothing, just starry eyed hopefuls.
They were encouraged by the late books like “Daniel”.
Look how they assembled in droves when Shabtai T’zvi proclaimed himself. There were many, mostly crazy and some cunning, but I only recall David Reubeni, Molcho and Shabtai.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
No, the time he’s supposed to have lived the early years of C.E. are a part of that period. We know that Herod even as a young man, was seriously helping the Romans ever since he brought food supplies and his army to rescue Julius Caesar when he was trapped in Alexandria. But he was granted Roman Citizenship only about 30 years later. It took another 150 years or so for Emperors to relax enough so that it became easier to obtain citizenship.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
By the way Sebastien, just reading your post again, the “Historical” Jesus was not originally regarded as a pacifist, he was regarded as a Galilean revolutionist, where most of the Zelotim and other nationalists came from, There are records in Josephus of Judas the Galilean Zealot leader who was executed by the Romans, and many years later his son Menachem who succeeded him, was also caught and executed.. The “Historical” Jesus (the Galilean) told his followers to sell what they had and go and buy weapons. The “pacifist” cover came later after Christianity separated during the Bar Cochba War.
“Catholics are against abortions. Catholics are against homosexuals. But, I can’t think of anyone who has less abortions than homosexuals!” — George Carlin
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
My particular reason for ignoring Jeshua (Jesus), or whatever his Hebrew name was, is that I was born and raised by a Jewish father and a Jewish mother, for purposes of being added to the ranks of the Jewish nation.
My Judaism is based on the Tora, which plainly points out the commands that we shall have no gods whatsoever, other than our own awesome and universal HaShem, who has no partners, no equals, certainly no sons or daughters, etc, etc.
Assuming that HaShem could in fact morph His Self into the form of a male personage sent here to fuck a particular Jewish peasant woman and thus bring forth a Son of HaShem, I would seriously regard Him as little or nothing better than all the other numerous ancient Hellenic godlings whom I am certain are the models from which early Christianity took shape and rooted itself about just about everyone in the Mediterranean world other than our own precious Jewish nation.
And, because I could never accept the notion that this Jesus was in fact the sole son of the real HaShem, the whole ball of wax appears to me as nothing more than a faked-up but persistent fairy tale.
Does any of this mean that I find myself in some sort of endless cold war with the Christians of the world? Not at all. It’s just that I shall never and can never agree with most of what their religion teaches them.
So much for interfaith love and understanding in the Harris household in our particular locale in rural Wisconsin.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
@ Edgar G.:
Thankyou. I stand corrected. Still, the time he is said to have lived precedes those events and I think I was correct in answering what the Professor, who accepts the Christian narrative and timeline, in the video was saying about the function of the Messiah being to bring about the rebuilding of the temple and the ingathering of the exiles.
@ Edgar G.:
I just now listened to the Rebbe telling us why the Jews don’t accept Jesus. I have no idea why this is relevant now, and was purely disgusted to hear this fake crapper telling us what we already know a thousand times over. Not a single new item came out. And to utterly disgust me further, he was hewing closely to the Christian Gospel accounts, which have been authoritatively declared to be as fishy as a herring net, that whales have forced their way through.
Although written at a time over about 300 years, when records and historians abounded, there is not a single document of support for the Gospels, except by other Christians, or repeated here-say, and as the mythical Paul says,…”It must be believed by faith alone”.
On another point, which should show that Paul, if he ever existed, was a first class liar, he says he was a Roman Citizen. I suggest to anyone interested, to look up the complexities of being a Roman Citizen, How the vast majority of Roman population, living there was many successive generations were NOT Roman Citizens, just had certain rights with no vote. That any Citizenship awarded by an emperor, for services rendered, say, like to Herod, after so many years of vital aid to the Romans was eventually so rewarded, the honour died when the Emperor died, and often not renewed.
Back to Paul. Let’s assume he lived as stated. Can one believe that the obscure family of “tentmakers” a very low artisan designation, with no known connection to massive, important services to Rome, living in Tarsus, 2000 miles away, would be “hereditary” Roman Citizens..which was a thing only allowed to select Roman Families, who descended from the founders, and their close acolytes.. So the whole account of being a Roman Citizen and it’s aftermath, HAS to be a lie. We know that most of the rest of the drek is also a lie.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I’m surprised that you accept not only that Jesus existed, but you are following the Christian tendentious Gospel accounts, including the well known interpolations, (commonly known as “pious fraud-or forgery) which most know are nearly all fiction, and many times mistranslated and “re-edited”..
The Judeans were either killed in the Roman War, or died of starvation. They were also sold by thousands into slavery, NOT expelled. After Bar Cochba they were only forbidden to live in Jerusalm.
I think that the Jews either took that appellation upon themselves or the later Christians pejoratively bestowed it on them., because SOME Jews and Samaritans (who were really Jews too) certainly did remain in Judea, and their descendants are there still today. During Byzantine times they were many enough for Christian Bishops on visits there complained bitterly by existing letters, that they swarm all over the whole country, outnumbering and stifling the Christians.
And also, when the Sassanid Persians temporarily captured and occupied from the Byzantines, they did it in alliance with strong Jewish forces in Israel. This was overtaken by the Muslim infiltration of Jerusalem and later conquest.
The Southern tribes were not expelled, they were forcibly transferred (by Nebuchadnezzar)…and If you are speaking of the kingdom of Israel which was destroyed by the onslaughts of 4-5 successive Assyrian kings, they were the NORTHERN Kingdom, not Southern. And it IS known where they were taken. They were brought first to Assur, the capital, and the surrounding area, and spread out over the years. Roughly today’s Iraq and neighbouring countries, all have an admixture of Jewish blood. And there are wide estimates of how many were actually taken, from about 15,000 to 100,000. Anyway, there were plenty left in Israel as the Samaritans later showed, so perhaps there were no more than about 20,000 of their leading citizens and artificers taken..
Judah was the Southern Kingdom and it is well documented where they were taken 200 years later by Nebuchadrezzar, about 40,000 of them, and also when they were allowed by Cyrus to return.
Lenny Bruce when asked if the Jews killed Christ said yes we did, but it was only for 3 days.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Or as someone has said- The lion may lie down with the lamb but the lamb will not get much sleep.
https://philipchircop.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/lion-and-lamb-together/
Of course, when Jesus was executed, the Temple had not yet been destroyed — for the second time and last time — and the Jews had not been expelled from Judea — though the expelled tribes of the Southern kingdom were still gone, nobody knew where. So, the mission of the Jewish Messiah couldn’t have involved either of those things. And since he was a pacificist, he couldn’t expel the Roman invaders and liberate the Jews from Roman occupation like the Maccabbees or Bar Kochba. He just talked about himself as the gate-keeper to heaven. So, what would his task as a messiah have been, anyway? Abolishing war, as Isaiah prophesied? Yes, well the Christians did a good job with that one, didn’t they? Ha Ha.
Applying the term as it was later understood seems highly anachronistic, to say the least.