Popular myth puts Jesus' birth on December 25th in the year 1 CE. The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth.
Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the week-long celebration.
In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.
The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day,December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city.
As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles.
The Origin of Christmas Presents
In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas.
The Origin of Santa Claus
Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil” who sentenced Jesus to death.
TORAH WARNED JEWS of PAGAN TRADITIONS!
Long before the invention of Christianity: Jeremiah - Chapter 10:2-4
2. So says the Lord: of the way of the nations you shall not learn, and from the signs of the heaven be not dismayed, for the nations are dismayed from them.
3, For the statutes of the peoples are vanity, for it is but a stock that one cut from the forest, the handiwork of a carpenter with a small axe.
4. With silver and gold he beautifies it, with nails and with sledge hammers they strengthen them so that it does not bend.
Food for Thought by Steven Shamrak
I have no problem with idea that Messiah has already come - as long as it is a delusion, which only Christians or Muslims believe - but not Jews! Muslims believe in Muhammad, as the second coming of the Messiah, but Christians reject this idea. Otherwise, all of them would be Muslims by now, wouldn't they? We, Jews, do not have a problem with either belief system; both of them are based on good Torah fundamentals. You might worship Christ or Muhammad and even kill each other to prove it. But, please, leave us, Jews, alone and do not tell us that we ‘must’ betray our national spiritual system just to satisfy your psychological spiritual inadequacies!
Hundreds of young men and women have come from around the country in recent days to the town of Amona to be there when police security forces come to dismantle the town by the December 25 deadline set by the High Court.
Hezbollah Targets are Acquired
The IDF has published a map revealing that Hezbollah has taken over more than 200 towns and villages in southern Lebanon since the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Some private houses have become rocket launching sites, headquarters and warehouses for rockets. The targets displayed on the map will be attacked by the IDF should a new war be launched on the northern front. (Most likely, this is a mind game IDF is playing with the enemy!)
Tzipi Livni named her price for joining her Hatnua party up with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Recent polls have put her current partnership with Machane Tzioni at barely a dozen MKs, while polls show Yesh Atid in the twenties. Of course, one of the reasons that Yesh Atid is going up in the polls is that Yair Lapid is moving his party’s political positions away from those of Tzipi Livni.
The United Nations Fifth Committee, which oversees the international body’s budget and administration, is expected to fund a blacklist of Israeli and international companies operating in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the West Bank. The blacklist will be updated annually.
The Israeli government is expected to approve an additional 15 thousand work permits for PA Arabs. The Arab workers would be allowed in Israel to work in the fields of agriculture and trade. The defense establishment is pushing to increase the number of permits even further. (No wonder they do not want to leave to low wage Arab/Muslim countries and end occupation of Jewish land!)
45 haredi youths participated this week in a preparatory program for the "Haredim Tzanhanim" (Hetz) unit. The paratroopers brigade will enlist new soldiers on December 19. Basic training will last four months, and will be followed by a further four months of advanced training. (No doubt there will be protests from self-hating Jewish left.)
Quote of the Week:
"There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives... And the tragedy for me - and that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area - is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves... That's why you've got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars." - Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary.
Time to “Leave Egypt”.
by Steven Shamrak.
I wrote this article 12 years ago. Unfortunately the problem still exists.
Every year Jews celebrate the exodus from Egypt and freedom from slavery. It took place 3,320 years ago. It was a fundamental event in Jewish history. At the same time, it symbolizes not just freedom from physical slavery. Passover reminds us that internal freedom of mind and spirit are even more significant. This freedom allows us real freedom of choice.
Jews have nothing to apologise for. We have the right to live in peace on Jewish land in our own country. We lived in Galut (exile, slave mentality) for too long. It is time to say – “NO more”!
I am ashamed and feel sorry for those Jews who have no self-respect and are helping enemies to destroy Israel. Why do they hate themselves so much?
I do respect non-Jewish people who do not know and do not care about the Arab-Israel conflict. They are honest hard working people who have their own problems and interests. At the same time, there is a danger when opinions are formed under the influence of selectively presented information, provided by mainly a press that is biased against Israel. People become attached to the belief system they have adopted and it is difficult to change it. For Jews the understanding of the conflict and support for Israel is existential! I would like to remind all of them:
1. Israel is on a front line of the war between Arab-Muslim expansionism and Western democracy.This war has already shifted to America and Europe.
2. According to the UN’s own legal opinion: Judea, Samaria and Gaza do not belong to any country at the moment. Therefore, it is wrong to call them ‘Occupied Territories’. They used to be a part of Jewish land 2000 years ago and were allocated by the League of Nations for the creation of Eretz-Israel in 1922. There was never an Arab country in Palestine.
3. So-called Palestinians are Arabs and Muslims who moved to the territories during the last 130 years, after the Zionist pioneers started to revitalize the land.
4. Arabs have no intention of living in peace with Jews. When the former president of Egypt Nasser was asked: Why do you continue to fight Israel after so many defeats? His answer was: “Because. We need to win only one war!” Please make no mistake, the Arabs’ aim is total destruction of the Jewish state!
5. Arabs do respect charisma and strong leadership. It is time for Israel and her government to show it and end terror.
6. Enemies and so-called friends have never treated the Jewish people as equals. They will never support Israel unconditionally regardless of facts. They do not care about facts and deliberately distort or falsify them (remember the fake massacre of Jenin and how much noise they made about it).
7. After 60 years of wars and terror, it is time to become an Independent nation with self-respect and be equal among equals. No more double standards!
8. Israel was created to fulfil a 2000 year-old national inspiration of Jewish people. Jews have the right to regain control over all Jewish land. The time is NOW!
At the same time, I am ashamed and feel sorry for Jews who advocate destruction of Israel. Why do they hate themselves so much?
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