![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Dec. 24th, 2003 11:40 pmHope all of you who celebrate it have a happy Christmas. You're not escaping, however, without a bit of a lecture, on the holiday. For those of you who celebrate Chanukah, chag sameach! At least you've got the holiday in the right bit of the year.
Chanukah is the only holiday observed in modern Judaism which has no root in the Tanakh. Believe it or not, the sole reference in the accepted canon of Jewish and Christian scripture comes from the New Testament. Citing, from David Stern's Jewish New Testament (because it feels Jewish rather than Christian, not because of any particular endorsement of the author or the Messianic movement in Judaism):
So. What's this about Christmas being celebrated at the wrong time of the year? Well, i'm not going to definitively make any statements, having not been there at the time, but looking at the Gospels from a Jewish perspective together with a Jewish understanding of what the Messiah should be, if the historical Jesus were born at Saturnalia, something would seem just plain wrong about that. Besides, the implication (again from John, this time 1:14) is more in tune with a different timeline.
The translators footnote this, more accurately translating 'dwelt' with 'tabernacled' and this latter word makes much more sense to a Jew- at least in reference to a festival. A tabernacle is a temporary dwelling, such as are traditionally built during the festival known as Succoth- a festival which starts on the 15th of Tishri on the Jewish calendar, and marks the fall harvest- the gathering of the first fruits. Succoth falls in a busy time of the Jewish ecclesiastic year- it's right after Yom Kippur, the most holy of holidays, and its week-long celebration is capped by Simchat Torah- the Rejoicing in the Law, which marks the end and the beginning of the annual cycle of readings from the Torah.
Beginning to see why this might be significant for a Jew with aspirations to be the Messiah? Let's toss in one more little tidbit- Jewish males are circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Arguably, they become Jewish at that time. For a male child born at the beginning of Succoth, that eighth day would be Simchat Torah- arguably a prophetic date for one who would be the end and the beginning of the Law.
Believe what you will. Personally, as most, if not all, of you know, i have a difficult time reconciling my concept of the nature of the Divine with either that as understood by Jews or Christians, and embrace Divinity in a way which isn't so inimical to my ideas. I greatly respect the traditions and legacies of Judaism, and also think that if you could follow the teachings of the rabbi from Nazereth- those of his followers aside!- you'd be leading a pretty good Jewish life. I also think that if you look at the New Testament with an understanding of Judaism that he makes a pretty good case. Consider this, rather than as a challenge to what you believe or have been taught, if you're nominally Christian, an exercise in deconstructing your beliefs so that they can be reassembled in an appropriate cultural matrix. As a Celtic Reconstructionist- with reconstructionism emphasized here, i don't think it's possible to have a belief structure in a vacuum- as these things are irreconcilably linked with the cultures in which they arise, it's important to understand the appropriate culture as a framework.
To all of you, whatever you believe, happy holidays, whether religious, secular, or somewhere in between.
Chanukah is the only holiday observed in modern Judaism which has no root in the Tanakh. Believe it or not, the sole reference in the accepted canon of Jewish and Christian scripture comes from the New Testament. Citing, from David Stern's Jewish New Testament (because it feels Jewish rather than Christian, not because of any particular endorsement of the author or the Messianic movement in Judaism):
"Then came Chanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, and Yeshua [Jesus, if you're one of the goyim, and use the Anglicised version of the Greek form of the name] was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo's Colonade....(John 10:22)
So. What's this about Christmas being celebrated at the wrong time of the year? Well, i'm not going to definitively make any statements, having not been there at the time, but looking at the Gospels from a Jewish perspective together with a Jewish understanding of what the Messiah should be, if the historical Jesus were born at Saturnalia, something would seem just plain wrong about that. Besides, the implication (again from John, this time 1:14) is more in tune with a different timeline.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (New American Standard)
The translators footnote this, more accurately translating 'dwelt' with 'tabernacled' and this latter word makes much more sense to a Jew- at least in reference to a festival. A tabernacle is a temporary dwelling, such as are traditionally built during the festival known as Succoth- a festival which starts on the 15th of Tishri on the Jewish calendar, and marks the fall harvest- the gathering of the first fruits. Succoth falls in a busy time of the Jewish ecclesiastic year- it's right after Yom Kippur, the most holy of holidays, and its week-long celebration is capped by Simchat Torah- the Rejoicing in the Law, which marks the end and the beginning of the annual cycle of readings from the Torah.
Beginning to see why this might be significant for a Jew with aspirations to be the Messiah? Let's toss in one more little tidbit- Jewish males are circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Arguably, they become Jewish at that time. For a male child born at the beginning of Succoth, that eighth day would be Simchat Torah- arguably a prophetic date for one who would be the end and the beginning of the Law.
Believe what you will. Personally, as most, if not all, of you know, i have a difficult time reconciling my concept of the nature of the Divine with either that as understood by Jews or Christians, and embrace Divinity in a way which isn't so inimical to my ideas. I greatly respect the traditions and legacies of Judaism, and also think that if you could follow the teachings of the rabbi from Nazereth- those of his followers aside!- you'd be leading a pretty good Jewish life. I also think that if you look at the New Testament with an understanding of Judaism that he makes a pretty good case. Consider this, rather than as a challenge to what you believe or have been taught, if you're nominally Christian, an exercise in deconstructing your beliefs so that they can be reassembled in an appropriate cultural matrix. As a Celtic Reconstructionist- with reconstructionism emphasized here, i don't think it's possible to have a belief structure in a vacuum- as these things are irreconcilably linked with the cultures in which they arise, it's important to understand the appropriate culture as a framework.
To all of you, whatever you believe, happy holidays, whether religious, secular, or somewhere in between.
