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January 01, 2006
Hanukkah: Siete kandelikas.
All Chanukkah entries can be found here.
Meryl is keeping track of menorah vandalisms.
There seem to be a lot this year.
But the zeitgeist is on our side, so fuck 'em.
Sephardic minhag for Hanukkah.
The Mystical Understanding of Chanukah: The kabbalistic sephirot applied to the Hanukkah symbology.
I have a large post brewing about the Maccabees and assimilation and fundamentalism, but I don't think it's going to see daylight by tomorrow, so in the meantime here's a website about Judas Maccabeus, with a map of the Hasmonean kingdom. The first physical evidence of the Maccabees was found in 1995:
"For years scholars had been searching for this elaborate site," says Yeshayahu Gafni, a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “Its existence was known for hundreds of years after the Maccabean period, and it is depicted in a sixth century mosaic map at Madeba in Jordan. But then it was lost.”Azziz Poonwalla compares the Hanukkah re-consecration of the Temple with a story of from founding of Islam. (Hint: It's all about the oil!). . . . One of the ossuaries was inscribed with the partly obliterated Hebrew word Hasmonean, another name for the Maccabean clan. “This is the first time that word has been found on archaeological evidence,” says Riklin. Several other ossuaries were inscribed with such names as Sarah, Mariama, Eliezer and Elazar, all in Greek letters, and Simon in Hebrew. The cave also yielded coins and oil lamps unique to Hasmonean times.
. . . . many of the names are those of the original Maccabees. Says Efrat Orbach, spokeswoman for the authority: “We know from historical writings that the Hasmoneans lived and were buried in this area.” Riklin speculates that the cave may contain three generations of Hasmoneans, perhaps even its most famous members, Judah Maccabee and his brothers.
Judith | 01/01/06 at 04:41 PM | Categories: - Holy Days
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