Pharasees (Jewish) Criticized By Hegseth of Trump's Governing Body

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

                    Pete Hegseth b: June 6, 1980, 45 years old.  He's a former television personality who has served since 2025 as the 29th United States secretary of defense.   Hegseth studied politics at Princeton University, where he was the publisher of The Princeton Tory, a conservative student newspaper.^[3] In 2003, he was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota Army National Guard, serving at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.^[4] Hegseth worked for several organizations after leaving Iraq, including as an executive director at Vets For Freedom^[5] and Concerned Veterans for America. He became a contributor to Fox News in 2014. Hegseth served as an advisor to President Donald Trump after supporting his campaign in 2016. From 2017 to 2024,  I don't see any background in Biblical studies other than him being:   Religious Affiliation: Christian:  Hegseth is aligned with the CREC, a denomination known for its, and, according to, a "strong hierarchy" and rigid, patriarchal, and socially conservative beliefs.

Ah yes, Hethseth now criticizing Pharasees (Jews) through the New Testament of Jesus.  The commentator on CNN had it wrong; he wasn't criticizing Jesus;  he was referring to the Pharasees who were the Jews.  The Sadducees in the Temple followed a strict, literal interpretation of the written Law of Moses (the Torah or Pentateuch). They focused on the first five books of the Bible, rejecting the oral traditions, interpretations, and added doctrines held by the Pharisees, such as the resurrection of the dead. 

That's what I took it as, anyway.

Even the HILL's headline reads "Hegseth compares media to Jewish biblical group that clashed with Jesus. He was talking about the Pharasees, probably having no idea who they were other than Jews that Jesus was against.  

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday complained about an “endless stream of garbage” from the media in its coverage of the Iran war, comparing the Pentagon press corps to the Pharisees, the biblical Jewish group that often clashed with Jesus as told in the New Testament only. He is not mentioned in our Jewish Torah at all.  “As I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,” Hegseth said during a briefing at the Pentagon. “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on.”

Well, thank you very much, I say bitterly.  You just called our origin of today's Judaism an endless stream of garbage-as you say Jesus must have thought, who was also a Jew, as you should know.  Let me tell you a few things:  

"King Solomon lived from 961 to 920 BCE, almost 1,000 years before Jesus and he is the one who had the Temple completed as Moses had wanted.  

Going back further than Jesus, to the 2nd Temple period, in Jewish history, it lasted approximately 600 years, from 516 BCE to 70 CE. It began with the completion and dedication of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile and ended with its destruction by the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War.  It had Jews in 2 political groups called the Pharisees and the Saducees.  The Pharisees were interested in how the masses needed learning more of the traditional religious teaching.  The Pharisees used to eat in groups and observe all the rules of purity in the same manner as the priests consuming consecrated food in the Temple.  They incorporated into the cult, as some called it, folk-customs not mentioned in the Bible, such as the Water-Drawing Festival, to the dismay of the Saducees.  Pharisees admitted the principle of evolution in their legal decisions.  The Pharisees were thus generally lenient in their interpretatioins.  Pharisaism  was responsible for strengthening morality and  introducing the elasticity which enabled Judaism to withstand its subsequent tribulations;  the movement was continued in the stream of historic Judaism.   So, this is the line of our Judaism today, which has evolved into 3 groups as such;  Orthodox, Conservative, and then Reform Judaism.   

The Sadducees had had absolute control.  It is thought that the origin could have come from the high priest, Zadok whose descendants served in the same office until 162  BCE. It was the well-connected priests and prominent aristocrats who belonged to the Sadducees.  They were the influential in political and economic life.  For them, religion was primarily the Temple cult without a basis of abstracted faith. According to their viewpoint, individuals and groups must aspire to well-being in this world without expecting recompense in the world to come.  they had no belief in a future world, resurrections, or the immortality of the soul and also rejected the existence of angels and spirits.  They sounded very much like our scientists of today,   a very scientific outlook.   The Sadducees were incapable of adaption to a changing environment.  They clung to the letter of the text.  

Resource: 

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5834226-hegseth-media-iran-war-criticism/

CNN

Similarities of Sadducees versus Pharisees like our Israeli Judicial System of Today: History Repeating in Israel's Judicial System

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

During the 2nd Temple period (about 597 BCE) we had the Jewish sect of Sadducees who were like Priests or judges with their own standards.  It may have been introduced with the high priest Zadock whose descendants served in the government until 162 BCE.  We also had the Pharisees, judges but had their own standards that differed from the Sadducees in many ways.  They were rather like judges of the Left and judges of the Right political persuasions.  

The Sadducees, wealthier Jews, well-connected priests, prominent aristocrats who belonged to this group who were influential in political and economic life.  For them, religion was primarily the Temple cult without a basis of abstract faith.  They differed from the Pharisees in the nature of their religious outlook and way of life.

According to the Sadducee viewpoint, individuals and groups must aspire to well-being in this world without expecting recompense in the world to come.  The Sadducees had no belief in the future world, resurrection, or the immortality of the soul and also rejected the existence of angels and spirits.  Their slavish adherence to the Written Law led them to behave severely in cases involving the capital penalty and they interpreted the Les Talionis (an eye for an eye)  literally rather than in the sense of monetary compensation which was adopted by the Pharisees.

Their austere conceptions extended to the Temple and its cult retaining the decisive role of the priest and opposing Pharisaic innovations like the Water-Drawing Festival, which might have given a foothold to non-sacerdotal circles.  Developing into the supporters of the Hasmonean kings from the reign of John Hyreanus, they lost influence under Salome Alexandra and suffered severely at the hands of Herod.  The whole power and existence of the Sadducees was bound up with the Temple cult, and on the destruction of the Temple, they disappeared. 

Therefore, the origin, like that of other contemporary parties, is unknown but probably they represent a continuation of the Hasideans.  Although a relatively narrow body, closed to the masses, their activity was directed to the masses whom they sought to imbue with a spirit of holiness by propagating traditional religious teaching.  The gulf between the Pharisees and those ignorant of the Law or not practicing it was complete.  

Today Jews eat together on a Friday night (Shabbat)
The Pharisees used to eat in groups and observe all the rules of purity in the same manner as the priests consuming consecrated food in the Temple.  They endeavored to extend their influence over the Temple at the expense of the Sadducees, whose control there was absolute.  In addition, they incorporated into the cult, folk-customs not mentioned in the bible, as the Water-Drawing Festival to the dismay of the Sadducees.  

Started by the Pharisees, every day of the year, after the sacrifice was burned, an offering of wine was poured on the altar. During Sukkot, there was also a water libation (nisukh hamayim). Some have suggested that it was a folk rite, an inducement for rain made by pouring out water at the season’s onset, transformed by the rabbis into a symbolic Temple ritual.a water ritual: the Rejoicing (Simchat) at the Place of (Beit) the Water Drawing (Hashoavah). From the time King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem until the day it was destroyed by the Romans (with a brief interim for temporary exile to Babylonia), the can’t-miss-it event-of-the-year for Jews was the Water-Drawing Celebration.  Envision streams of Jewish families—farmers, vintners, shepherds, merchants, craftspeople, and scholars—streaming in from every part of Israel, Syria, Babylonia, Egypt, and other nearby lands, converging upon Jerusalem and celebrating day and night, non-stop for eight days. The hot spot was, of course, the Temple Mount (Chabad).  

The antagonism between the two parties extended to many spheres, which some scholars attribute to basic social differences .  Generally, the Pharisees admitted the principle of evolution in their legal decisions, while the Sadducees were incapable of adaptation to a changing environment.  

The Pharisees were priests who avoided contact with others for reasons of ritual purity, concerned about their Jewish religion and political party during this 2nd Temple Period. 

Pharisees were generally lenient in their interpretations of the law, while the Sadducees clung to the letter of the written text.  The Pharisees placed the nation's life within a halakhic framework expressed in the Oral Law which they regarded as no less vital than the Written Law or Torah or Bible.  Their doctrine aspired to embrace the entire life of the community, touching therefore, on the theological foundations of life, questions of fate, good and evil, the immortality of the soul, and eschatology. Rabbinic Judaism holds the Oral Law to be of divine origin. The divinity and authoritativeness of the Oral Law as transmitted from God to Moses on Mount Sinai, continues to be universally accepted by Orthodox and Haredi Judaism as a fundamental precept of Judaism.

Rabbis of the Talmudic era-we had 2 different ones, The Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud was completed c. 350, and the Babylonian Talmud (the more complete and authoritative) was written down c. 500, but conceived of the Oral Torah in two distinct ways. First, Rabbinic tradition saw the Oral Torah as an unbroken chain of transmission. The distinctive feature of this view was that Oral Torah was "conveyed by word of mouth and memorized." Second, the Rabbis also viewed the Oral Torah as an interpretive tradition, and not merely as memorized traditions. They saw the written Torah as containing many levels of interpretation. It was left to later generations, who were steeped in the oral tradition of interpretation, to discover those ("hidden") interpretations not revealed by Moses. Instead, Moses was obligated to impart the explanations orally to students, children, and fellow adults. It was thus forbidden to write and publish the Oral Torah; some rabbis kept private notes of their teaching, but only for their personal convenience.

Pharisees admitted Divine predestination but also man's responsibility for his deeds.  In contrast to the Sadducees, they believed in life after death, the resurrection of the dead, the advent of the Messiah, and the Day of Judgment.  They seemed to have two avenues for Judaism, the exact same condition of many Jews of today.    

Not all Pharisees lived up to their high principals, and the Talmud itself lists 7 hypocritical types:  nevertheless, in reality they were far removed from the derogatory  pictures from other competitive religions.  Pharisees were responsible for strengthening morality and introducing the elasticity which enabled Judaism to withstand its subsequent tribulations;  the movement was continued in the stream of historic Judaism.  It seems that Pharisee ideas rule today's Judaism.  Hillel (1st century BCE)  wrote the Golden Rule, Don't do to people what you wouldn't want done to you, all the rest is commentary.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1971019/jewish/The-Joyous-Water-Drawing-Ceremony.htm

The Real Reason Why Jesus Was Crucified

 Nadene Goldfoot                        

A Jew of today, descendent of Jews from the time of 4 BCE in Jerusalem, fighting for the life of his people in the IDF of Israel, a people bearing the scars of anti-Semitism, and throughout his life blamed for something that happened long ago that they had no control over. 

The myth that Jews collectively murdered Jesus, also referred to as “deicide,” has been used to justify violence against Jews for centuries. Historians as well as Christian leaders have agreed that the claim is baseless. (ADL)

"Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem during Roman occupation sometime around 30 CE.  

And Pontius Pilate — then serving as the Roman prefect (or governor) of Judaea — both presided over the trial of Jesus and gave the order for his crucifixion."

Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion.

This man who gave the order of crucifixion is revered by the Coptic and Ethiopian churches, even making him a saint, whereas Jews have been hated since Emperor Constantine's days.  

How bizarre! Due to the Gospels' portrayal of Pilate as reluctant to execute Jesus, the Ethiopian Church believes that Pilate became a Christian and venerates him as both a martyr and a saint, a belief which is historically shared by the Coptic Church.  The deed happened in Judaea to the Jews, who were the victims of the Roman Occupation.  

Pilate's post of governor of Judaea was of relatively low prestige and nothing is known of how Pilate obtained the office. Josephus states that Pilate governed for 10 years (Antiquities of the Jews 18.4.2), and these are traditionally dated from 26 to 36/37, making him one of the two longest-serving governors of the province.  Tiberius had retired to the island of Capri in 26, 

Map of the province of Judaea during Pilate's governorship in the first century.

As governor, Pilate had the right to appoint the Jewish High Priest and also officially controlled the vestiments of the High Priest in the Antonia Fortress.  The High Priest had to be Jewish, and was the chief official in the Temple that  stood till 70 CE.  This was conferred on Aaron, brother of Moses and his descendants who held it until the reign of Herod when it became dependent on the will of the Jewish rulers and the Roman procurators.  During the war with Rome of 66 CE, the post was filled by lot. 

      High Priest Joseph ben Caiaphas 

 Unlike his predecessor, Valerius Gratus, Pilate retained the same high priest, Joseph ben Caiaphas (c18-36 CE,) for his entire tenure. Caiaphas would be removed following Pilate's own removal from the governorship. This indicates that Caiaphas and the priests of the Sadducee sect were reliable allies to Pilate, (or under his thumb, as I see it).  The New Testament represents him and his father-in-law, Annas, as chieefly responsible for the prosecution of Jesus and the arrest of the apostles.  He was removed by the Syrian governor, Vitellius.

  Moreover, Maier argues that Pilate could not have used the temple treasury to construct an aqueduct, as recorded by Josephus, without the cooperation of the priests (who were forced to be his yes-men). Similarly, Helen Bond argues that Pilate is depicted working closely with the Jewish authorities in the execution of Jesus. (Jews had no choice, they would be on the cross next if they disobeyed.) Jean-Pierre Lémonon argues that official cooperation with Pilate was limited to the Sadducees, noting that the Pharisees are absent from the gospel accounts of Jesus's arrest and trial.

According to Josephus in his The Jewish War (2.9.2) and Antiquities of the Jews (18.3.1), Pilate offended the Jews by moving imperial standards with the image of Caesar into Jerusalem. This resulted in a crowd of Jews surrounding Pilate's house in Caesarea for five days. Pilate then summoned them to an arena, where the Roman soldiers drew their swords. But the Jews showed so little fear of death, that Pilate relented and removed the standards. (Evidently he didn't want a whole Jerusalem uprising at that time.)

 Bond argues that the fact that Josephus says that Pilate brought in the standards by night, shows that he knew that the images of the emperor would be offensive. She dates this incident to early in Pilate's tenure as governor. 

Traditionally a body of 71 rabbis that make judgements for cases brought to them.  They are like our Supreme Court but also our legislature, too.  The head was called the Nasi, a descendant of Hillel who was from the 1st century BCE who was born in Babylonia.  

In the New Testament, the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus refers to the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (a Jewish judicial body) following his arrest in Jerusalem and prior to the trial before Pontius Pilate.  They met on fixed occasions in the Lishkat La-Gazit (“Chamber of the Hewn Stones”) in the Jerusalem Temple and that was presided over by two officials (zugot, or “pair”), the nasi and the av bet din. It was a religious legislative body “whence the law [Halakha] goes out to all Israel.” Politically, it could appoint the king and the high priest, declare war, and expand the territory of Jerusalem and the Temple. Judicially, it could try a high priest, a false prophet, a rebellious elder, or an errant tribe. Religiously, it supervised certain rituals, including the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) liturgy. The Great Sanhedrin also supervised the smaller, local  sanhedrins and was the court of last resort.  

As for, was it made up of all Sadducees?  That could have been a political statement.  Evidence shows: The composition of the Sanhedrin is also in much dispute, the controversy involving the participation of the two major parties of the day, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Some say the Sanhedrin was made up of Sadducees; some, of Pharisees; others, of an alternation or mixture of the two groups. In the trials of Jesus, the Gospels of Mark and Luke speak of the assembly of the chief priests, elders, and scribes under the high priest, referring to “the whole council [synedrion]” or “their council,” and the Gospel According to John speaks of the chief priests and Pharisees convening the council. The Gospel accounts have been subjected to critical scrutiny and questioning because of the extreme theological and historical significance of the issue, but none of the theories evolved has won scholarly consensus. It is still uncertain, for example, whether the Sanhedrin had the power to hand down a death sentence in a case such as that of Jesus. The Book of Acts gives an account of the trials of Peter and John before “the council and all the senate” (apparently one and the same), pointing to a split between the Pharisaic and Sadducean members of the Sanhedrin.

The Sadducees disappeared from the Jewish scene before the end of the 4th century CE, which would bee in the 300s CE.  Pharisees were the dominant Jewish beliefs. 

     Rome's high priest pick -Annas, at the least a very Hellenistic Jew working with Romans

It is an incident reported by all three Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament, while the Gospel of John refers to a preliminary inquiry before Annas, who is not listed in our Jewish Encyclopedia. Wikipedia tells me that  Annas was appointed by the Roman legate, Quirinius, as the first High Priest of the newly formed Roman province of Judaea in CE 6 – just after the Romans had deposed Archelaus, Ethnarch of Judaea, thereby putting Judaea directly under Roman rule.  Ananus (or Annas), son of Seth (6–15)

Yet while having been officially removed from office, Annas remained as one of the nation's most influential political and social individuals, aided greatly by the fact that his five sons and his son-in-law Caiaphas all served at sometime as High Priests, appointed by the Romans. His death is unrecorded.

The gospel accounts vary on a number of details but are identical in essence.

Jesus is generally quiet, does not defend himself, rarely responds to the accusations, and is found guilty of: violating the Sabbath law (by healing on the Sabbath); threatening to destroy the Jewish Temple; practicing sorcery, exorcising people by the power of demons and; claiming to be the Messiah. He is then taken to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Roman Judaea, to be tried for claiming to be the King of the Jews.

The fact is that Jerusalem had been occupied by the brutal Romans who took over like the Gestapo, almost.  They selected their henchmen who were Hellenized Jews who went along with this ruling political party. If they didn't do the job according to Roman desires, like the Mafia, the Jews would be rubbed out.  Jews were being crucified left and right.  

Would even a Hellenized Jew decide to crucify another Jew?  Not on your life.  Our Golden Rule, "Don't do to others that which you do not want done to you" came from Rabbi Hillel himself of the 1st century BCE, before Jesus's day. That comes from the Torah, which is our bible.  Crucifixion was a Roman thing; not the Jews.  Blame it on the Romans, not the Jews who were the victims. Actually, all the Jews, including Jesus, knew the penalty of trying to overthrow the Romans and that was crucifixion.  Jesus put himself in this position, either him or the gospel writers.  Another brilliant Jew was killed for trying to improve his society's position.  He was not the first to wind up on the cross.  

 Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin_trial_of_Jesus

https://antisemitism.adl.org/deicide/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrs2XBhDjARIsAHVymmSGDW-nwEqgGzW7jSl-rl0tQ47ED0x4GlE2nJpfXCMVbPoeh6v1JvkaAuGJEALw_wcB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annas#:~:text=five%20brothers%20are%3A-,Ananus%20(or%20Annas)%2C%20son,of%20Seth%20(6%E2%80%9315)&text=Yet%20while%20having%20been%20officially,His%20death%20is%20unrecorded.

Book, 1965,, The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passover_Plot 

Movie: The Passover Plot, 1976

https://www.britannica.com/topic/sanhedrin

The Jewish G0-TO Resources, The Oral and The Written Law

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

Our tradition is that over the 40 years, Moses, who led the Israelites and others out of Egypt, took 40 years to go from Egypt to Canaan, and while traveling wrote the 5 Books of Moses that make up our Torah.  That would be Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Is is said that G-d spoke to him and he wrote what he heard.                                        

We have the tradition of interpretation and analysis  of this Written Law and this was handed down orally from generation to generation.  This held great importance, emphasized by the tradition that it contained words given to Moses on Mt. Sinai together with the Written Law.  

Later, during the 2nd Temple Period (586 BCE-70 CE) the ancient Oral Tradition was upheld by the Pharisees and supported by the majority  of the population.  It was not recognized by other sects, the Sadducees and the Essenes, which is very interesting.  Why? 

They had their own traditions on how to interpret lines of the Written Law.  These sects disappeared after the destruction of the Temple, so the view of the Pharisees won national acceptance .  

Pharisees avoided contact with other people, especially as they had rules to follow about eating.    It was a religious and political party during the 2nd Temple period.  Many people were ignorant of the Law or simply lost the need to practice it and so the Pharisees tried to  influence these uneducated.  The Sadducees had strong control in the Temple.  They were socially different as well.  The Sadducees were incapable of adapting to their changing environment while the Pharisees were lenient in their interpretations, accepting the principle of evolution.  Essenes were on the scene at the end of the 2nd Temple period, close to the Pharissee thinking with their own beliefs and customs that were very structured.  They outdid orthodox Jews today of their do's and don'ts.  One thing I admire is that they opposed animal sacrifice and believed in the immortality of the soul.  What is difficult about them was that celibacy was practiced and common. 

The Oral Law was studied in the various Academies that sprung up.  The various schools had their own style of teaching;  some teaching the Oral Law as a commentary on the relevant section of the Written Law; while others  in a systematic and topical arrangement.  Of course, each teacher gave his own interpretation. 

The Grand Sanhedrin had 71 members (45 rabbis and 26 lay members.  On March 9, 1807 they met with David Sintzheim, president, rabbi of Strasbourg,, and adhered to the civil code -subject to the general demands of Judaism.   

Sometimes they even used the Sanhedrin to decide between the conflicting opinions.  Usually, the majority of votes was accepted, but the rejected viewpoints were also taught theoretically.  

As time went by, people recorded privately, (no tape recorders or computers then) parts of the Oral Law which they feared might be forgotten.  A complete outline, known as the Mishnah, included earlier versions, was compiled by Rabbi Judah HaNasi (135-220 CE ) and became the basis for study.           

The discussion of these laws, remained oral and was only recorded several centuries later,, and was called the Talmud (GEMARA).  After the redaction of the Talmud, study time centered around the written text, but it was still known as the Oral Law because its roots lie in the oral tradition.  The Talmud is the comprehensive written version of the Jewish oral law and the subsequent commentaries on it. It originates from the 2nd century CE. The word Talmud is derived from the Hebrew verb 'to teach', which can also be expressed as the verb 'to learn'.

 Shlomo Yitzchaki,(1040-1105)  today generally known by the acronym Rashi, was a medieval French rabbi and author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud and commentary on the Hebrew Bible.               

                             Karaites

During the Gaonic Period of intellectual leaders found in Babylonia that had 2 major academies, the Harvards of the time, Sura and Pumbedita.  

The Karaites, a Jewish sect of the 8th century BCE in and around Persia,  rejected the Oral Law and denied the validity of the Talmud.

 Karaites once occupied their own separate quarter in Cairo—adjacent to the rabbinic Jewish quarter—with its population estimated at 5,000 as of 1948. Karaites still exist today. The community in Israel is estimated at more than 30,000 and is concentrated around Ashdod and Ramla. Some small communities exist outside Israel; many of those residing in eastern Europe consider themselves ethnically distinct from other Karaite Jews.                    

        Chabad honored Alan Dershowitz 

My assumption is that many of these men had high I.Q.s and a photgraphic memory to be able to remember things passed down orally.  Otherwise, they would have had a mess as played in the game of TELEPHONE.  Maybe we're slipping in losing such a gift, though some men such as Alan Dershowitz and my friend, Victor Sharpe display they could have fit right in the group.  

Today our Stone Edition Tanakh contains comments and by who at the end of pages.  I have my parent's 1st set of the Pentateuch and Haftorahs of 2 volumes with one side in Hebrew and the other in English with many more comments taking up more of each page.  

In schools in New York, students learn that who said it, like Rashi, is just as important as what the comment was.  The idea that Reed College professes of WHAT'S YOUR SOURCE follows the Oral tradition.  

Resource;

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Karaism