UNESCO: Reincarnation of Ancient Rome: Refuses Recognition of Jewish Ties to Temple Mount-Site of Solomon's Temple

Nadene Goldfoot                                      

Arab Aggression in 1967 against Israel  in Six Day War
when  Egypt and all Arab States; Jordan, Iraq, Syria attacked.
Surprise to Arabs was that Israel prevailed and won in 6 days! 

UNESCO condemns Israeli "aggression " in Jerusalem and  ignores Palestinian violence.
                                                                       

Young Arab men are induced even today in attacking
Jews; throwing rocks, knifing, ramming crowds with their cars.
They haven't given up.  Khartoum Conference in August1967 dictated the
 3 NOs:  No peace, no negotiations, no recognition of Israel.   

UNESCO is not a peaceful organization.  They are appeasers.  

A rabbi condemns UNESCO for declaring our forefathers' tombs to be Islamic sites.  
                                                                          

UNESCO's Flags -The one thing they are ignorant about is
Israel's history, and that's what they consume their time talking about. 

UNESCO is the heir of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.  UNESCO is like the theater of the Absurd.  

UNESCO, standing for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization, is an agency of the United Nations, located in Paris and includes 195 member states and 9 associate members.  

They just wrote a resolution on what they called "Occupied Palestine" which negates the move that their forefather,  The League of Nations took, and the United Nations had followed up and verified with when they decided to give the mandate for Palestine to Great Britain with the direction to help the Jews and to help them turn it into the Jewish Homeland.  They did, and when the Brits' 30 year mandate came to an end and they packed up and left, the Jews declared their state to be called ISRAEL on May 14, 1948.

Their declaration sets out to Islamize the ancient history of the people of Israel, with Islam, a religion that came 1,600 years after Israel's King Saul had established his Israel.  We see from those who voted for it that they were a mixture of European and other Christian nations along with many Muslim states.  
                                                                     

UNESCO, Paris, France

Then this new group of culturally interested and oh so educationally minded approved their resolution at a committee stage by 24 votes to 6, with 26 abstentions back on October 13, 2016.  

The people voting against this terrible resolution were:  Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States.  Six brave countries who said NO!  

Abstaining were:  Albania, Argentina, Cameroon, El Salvador, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Haiti, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Paraguay, Saint Vincent and Nevis, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Ukraine.  

Absent were Serbia and Turkmenistan.  

The nasties who voted FOR this unbelievable resolution were Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chad, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Vietnam.  Why would they vote for such a horrific resolution against Israel ?  What's in it for them?  What do they have in common?
            
Muslim Majority Countries
1. Algeria:  34,895,000 of 99% Sunni/Sufi Muslims
2. Bangladesh: 162,221,000 of 89% Sunni Muslims
3. Chad:  5,041,690 of 54% Sunni Muslims
4. Egypt:  79,089,650 of 90% Sunni Muslims
5. Iran:  76,923,300 of 98% Shi'a Muslims
6. Lebanon:  4,196,453 of 60% Sunni/Shi'a Muslims
7. Malaysia:  27,730,000 of 60.4%  Sunni Muslims
8. Morocco:  33,723,418 of 99%  Sunni/Sufi Muslims
9. Oman:  2,577,000 of 93% Kharijite Muslims
10. Pakistan: 172,800,000 of 97% Sunni/Shi'a Muslims
11. Qatar:  744,029 of 77.5% Sunni Muslims
12. Senegal:  11,658,000 of 94%  Sunni/Sufi Muslims
13.Sudan:  43,939,598 of 70% Sunni Muslims
SA, CA Countries                            Problematic Counties?                         African Countries
1. Brazil   
2. Dominican Republic                               1. China
3. Nicaragua                                                2. Russia                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1. South  Africa                                                                                                                                                        

   Mexico (abstained)                                  3. Vietnam                                              2. Mozambique
                                                                      4. Mauritius (Island)                                3. Nigeria
  
We had our first run-in with Muslims in 624.  Mohammad died in 632.  
624: Muhammad broke with his Jewish supporters because they refused to recognize him as a prophet and adopt Islam. He chose now to emphasize the Arabness of the new religion and has his followers face Mecca when praying instead of Jerusalem. In the end, all the Jews were either banished or executed.
634-644: Umar (c. 591-644) reigns as the second caliph. The Muslims subjugate Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Garrisons established in the conquered lands, and the Muslim rulers begin to take control of financial organizations.   
638: Caliph Umar I enters Jerusalem.
711: With the further conquest of Egypt, Spain and North Africa, Islam included all of the Persian empire and most of the old Roman world under Islamic rule. Muslims began the conquest of Sindh in Afghanistan.
715: By this year just about all of Spain is in Muslim hands. The Muslim conquest of Spain only took around three years but the Christian reconquest would require around 460 years (it might have gone faster had the various Christian kingdoms not been at each other' throats much of the time). Musa's son, 
October 10, 732: Battle of Tours: With perhaps 1,500 soldiers, Charles Martel halts a Muslim force of around 40,000 to 60,000 cavalry under Abd el-Rahman Al Ghafiqi from moving farther into Europe. Many regard this battle as being decisive in that it saved Europe from Muslim control. Gibbon wrote: "A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. 
911: Muslims control all the passes in the Alps between France and Italy, cutting off passage between the two countries.
916: A combined force of Greek and German emperors and Italian city-states defeat Muslim invaders at Garigliano, putting Muslim raids in Italy to an end.  

Today we are fighting ISIS whose goal is to establish again a Muslim worldwide caliphate.  The Christian establishments seem to be viewing their days through the new Muslim view which is prevailing in such international institutions as UNESCO.  We notice this the most in their Jerusalem Declaration   which ignores our Jewish historical facts.  

There is also the Venice Declaration of 1980 that was issued by the European Community which tried to force Israel to survive in a smaller segment of Israel than had been promised which wanted the tiny state, after being attacked from 1947-49, 1956, and 1967 and again in 1973 to go back to the original time out borders after surviving all these attacks!  I'm afraid that the Europeans were pacifying the Arab League with it, something I've also seen the Pope do by fawning over Jordan on his visit and ignoring Israel.   These Europeans were trying to make nice with the Arabs who had been angered by the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.  We saw the holy sites of Jews and even the survival necessities of Israel sacrificed by the European Community in exchange for petrodollars.  As they say, money speaks louder than truth.  Whatever they learned in their churches about right and wrong were ignored for that all-mighty paper dollar or Euro, whatever they were bargaining for.   

It must be remembered that the Arabs calling themselves the Palestinian Arabs, were never a people.  They were a hodgepodge of Arabs from the surrounding lands of israel since there never was a country or state called Palestine.  The only thing that binds them together is their Arabic language.  Before May 14, 1948, many called themselves the Syrian Palestinians.  

I'm afraid that UNESCO has set out to islamize Jerusalem and to delegitimize the State of Israel in this Venice declaration.  The European Union has continued to view this as valid.  Though Great Britain probably has economic reasons to pull out of this Union, it's one less country attacking Israel with it.

No connection between the Temple Mount and Judaism?  They dismiss 

all our history? Islam is a newcomer, as Mohammad died in 632 CE, and the

Mosques came after this date.  

                                                                  

It's called The Temple Mount because Solomon's Temple stood here and was built in his time.(961-920 BCE).  Solomon was the son of King David who ruled from 1010 to 970 BCE.
                                                                               

Abraham (1948 BCE))  prepared to offer Isaac on Mt. Moriah, which is where the Temple Mount is built over.  
Jews and Muslims  alike share Abraham as the father of their people.   The 3 important people of the Jewish history were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

The Jewish religion originated with Abraham's grandson, Jacob whose father was Isaac, brother of Ishmael who is said to be the father of the Arab people.  Being Islam wasn't created until by Mohammad (570-632) they acquired their historical stories through hearing Jewish stories first, and have Abraham sacrificing their son, Ishmael. Judaism and Islam are separated by 2, 600 years!  
                                                                        

 King David (1010 BCE-970 BCE)  made Jerusalem the capital of united Israel in 1010 BCE.  Just read about it in II Samuel of the "Old Testament" or Tanakh as we say in Hebrew.  He was buried there.  

King David knew King Saul, Israel's 1st king, very well.  Ask the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan about Jerusalem being a Jewish city.  They know of their history which is that they came from King Saul's tribe of Benjamin and are part of our 10 Lost Tribes that the Assyrians kidnapped and took as Israel's assets-prizes to be used as slaves or sold into captivity. Their government voted for this terrible resolution?  He or she must not have been a Pashto, then. 
                                                                     

King David's son, King Solomon ((61-920 BCE) , built our Temple on the original  threshing floor because of its historic value to our history.  After it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 597 and 586 BCE, the Jews were returned from Persia 40 years later and rebuilt it where it stood on the threshing floor until 70 CE when the Romans destroyed it and took the city.  
                                                                     

Everyone serves in Israel for Defense,
men and women.
IDF is Israel Defense Force

Not only do Israelis have to be on constant guard for attacks from enemies surrounding them, but are attacked by the very institution that helped to create them in the first place!  it's another form of infanticide!  The parent is trying to kill their own creation, their child, and a teeny one at that.  In ancient Rome, they did things like that when they had an emperor like Nero and Caligula.  Jews were the parents of Christianity which was started by Jews, and here we are again.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Resource: http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-new-unesco-resolution-on-occupied-palestine/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/islamchron.html
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/member-states/countries/

Miracle Gift To the World From Abraham: Moses and Torah

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

The awesome Torah. which we all received through Moses, is the biggest miracle of all.  Moses was Abraham's gggggrandson through his parents of Amram and Jochebed, grandfather Kohath, ggrandparents Levi and Milkah, gggrandparents Jacob-Israel and Leah, ggggrandparents Isaac and Rebeccah, and gggggrandparents Abraham and Sarah of the 2nd millennium BCE.  Abraham was born in c1948 BCE and Sarah was his niece.  So Moses is Abraham's direct descendant.  He  carried  the Cohen gene, for he made his brother Aaron the 1st Cohen, and must have been carrying the J1 haplogroup, the male line of their DNA.

So in the 15th paragraph, Abram, for that was his original name, was told about his descendants by G-d.  They shall be aliens in a land not their own, and they will serve them and will be oppressed by them for 400 years.  His descendants would not be able to take the land G-d was giving to them until after the 400 years of oppression.   That nation G-d shall judge who oppressed them, and afterwards your descendants will leave with great wealth.  The 4th generation (here one generation may mean 100 years)  shall return to where we stand, and then he speaks of the Amorites' wickedness, yet to come.  
                                                                       

Moses on Mt Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments
A list of to-dos and not to-dos to a people for the 1st time

Our history says that G-d dictated this phenomenal piece of literature, history, genealogy and legal  laws to follow a moral code and be a people others would want to emulate.  It is something we could not by ourselves create even in this day and age, and this was written over 3,328 years ago,  started  when Moses was 80 years old.  We figure Moses was born in 1391 BCE and died at age 120 in 1271 BCE, so this was written in the 40 years of the Exodus leading 650,000 from Egypt to Canaan.  That would place the writings starting in about 1311 BCE and concluding in 1271 BCE when Moses died.  The Torah thus was started 3,328 years ago                                              

                                                                       
First of all, it would have been no easy matter for Moses to journey back to Egypt after being gone for 60 years and start this trek at age 80 over desert lands.  Hopefully he had a camel and lots of food and water with him packed up on those humps.  Then the journey out of Egypt with the leadership of  the 12 tribes of Jacob and other freed slaves of other people and sorting out the organization, food, disciple and rules on the way must have been exhausting.
                                                                       

We know it tried his patience at times, and his anger is written into the Torah when he struck a rock, or dealing with people yearning for food they did not find on the road.  What road?  That's another matter.  There was no road.  They were traveling on ground not traveled on before and could not lose their way.  Yet it took them 40 years to move 603,550 people to their destination.  The distance was only about 480 miles and a car could have driven it in 9 1/2 hours on route 90 in today's world not even as a crow flies, but in a distance from Egypt to Eilat and then up north to Israel.

He had only  601,730 people with him when he arrived at Canaan after traveling 40 years having lost 1,820 after these 2 generations went by.  The older generation died on the way and he arrived with a new generation who had not experienced slavery, only walking or riding the distance.  That's what was expected and needed to happen.
                                                             

Moses needed to educate anyone who would read about our history, so he started at the beginning with Genesis (Bereishis).  Brilliant. What an introduction!   Nothing would make sense when he started to tell us how to become a great society that would be the most moral this planet had ever seen if we didn't have a beginning of this story.    Moses had been educated as a prince of Egypt and could have heard of histories found on clay tablets in Ur, today's Iraq.  Egyptians would have had to travel 1,072.1 miles and by car it would take more than 21 hours on route 90 to get there to obtain some of these tablets.  A camel traveled about 15 miles a day back then.  It would have taken a caravan 2 months of traveling to get to Ur. The Creation story is but a small fraction of the Torah.  He tells us the creation of the mountains and valleys and the creation of the people who give meaning and purpose to the universe they live in. This 1st of the 5 books tells how this family  became the Chosen People.  It tells us how events in the lives of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were portents for the future history of their descendants.   As the chosen, we were the ones to accept the responsibilities, a hard position to be in, but we did.  

The themes of Genesis are: Making Choices, winnowing through them  and the tests we met..  This universe is a mixture of good and evil, and it is each one's responsibility to choose the good and spurn the evil.  We see Noah as an example of not following the crowd in a corrupt society.  Abraham stood tall when everyone else failed.  Isaac and Jacob win over Ishmael and Esau.  Jacob's family carries on the legacy of the Patriarchs.  A great person must overcome adversity, and we see Abraham tested.  

The clay tablets told a story similar to Genesis.  "Sumerian cuneiform, dating back to the Third Dynasty of Ur, which ruled southern Iraq more than 4,000 years ago.

"Much of the Hearst Museum collection of tablets - heavy on the recording of animal sales and grain purchases - was long considered "kind of garbage can, mundane stuff," said Carnahan. Scholars were more interested in finding tablets that told epic tales and myths.

On clay tablets at Ur was found the 7th Century BCE Gilgamesh flood myth of ancient Mesopotamia  dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (circa 2100 BC)..  It  is a flood myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh.  Many scholars believe that the flood myth was added to Tablet XI in the "standard version" of the Gilgamesh Epic by an editor who utilized the flood story from the Epic of Atrahasis.   A short reference to the flood myth is also present in the much older Sumerian Gilgamesh poems, from which the later Babylonian versions drew much of their inspiration and subject matter. " This story told on clay tablets parallels our account Moses tells in the Torah.  My belief, and many others' feelings are that stories like this are based on fact.  People had reason to explain to their children how some things came about.  Moses heard it from G-d, and he may have heard of the story in his Egyptian classes as well, though it was certainly not an Egyptian tale amplifying their unique religious beliefs.  

"Mesopotamia was known in antiquity as a seat of learning, and it is believed that Thales of Miletus (known as the 'first philosopher') studied there. As the Babylonians believed that water was the 'first principle' from which all else flowed, and as Thales is famous for that very claim, it seems probable he studied in the region. Intellectual pursuits were highly valued across the region, and the schools (devoted primarily to the priestly class) were said to be as numerous as temples and taught reading, writing, religion, law, medicine, and astrology. 

                                                 

Chaos Monster and Sun G-d 

There were over 1,000 deities in the pantheon of the gods of the Mesopotamian cultures and many stories concerning the gods (among them, the creation myth, the Enuma Elish), and it is generally accepted that biblical tales such as the Fall of Man and the Flood of Noah (among many others) originated in Mesopotamian lore, as they first appear in Mesopotamian works such as The Myth of Adapa and the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written story in the world. The Mesopotamians believed that they were co-workers with the gods and that the land was infused with spirits and demons (though `demons’ should not be understood in the modern, Christian, sense)."  

                                                 

How the world was created

Noah and the flood

After the creation story, Moses gets right into the genealogy  and story of our people in Genesis.  His writing is concise but to the point.  After all, he had to bring along on the trip sheepskins all rolled up to use as paper was not invented in those days yet.  That would have been heavy and bulky, as it had to last a long time, or he would have had to use skins from sheep they had killed for meat, and go through the trouble of preparing them.  Thus, the story of the flood was an historic event that had happened long before Moses' time and was recorded by others in Mesopotamia and Babylon.  The 5 Books of Moses was not a book of fairy tales but honest accurate reporting and recording.   Genesis ends with the Patriarchal family becoming a nation that has been purified and is noble, ready to withstand a terrible exile in Egypt and follow Moses to Mount Sinai.  

                                                      

Then he told about the Exodus (Shemos) itself in detail.  The nation of Israel takes shape and learns about faith.  Where the family had entered Egypt as a family of the viceroy, Joseph, and felt very privileged for that, Egypt resented the growth of this immigrant people and it became their undoing being they were made slaves.  This chapter has the miracles that Moses performed to sway the Pharaoh to release them after 400 years.  It's a chapter of Redemption.  The climax is the construction of the Tabernacle (Temple), the resting place for G-d's Presence, of overpowering holiness.  

                                                                         

After Exodus the 3rd chapter was named Leviticus (Vayikra), about the offerings to bring to the one G-d.  It covers information about the Cohens or Priests and laws of the Temple service with them.  It's about sacrifices, but by bringing an offering, comes closer to G-d and elevates his level of spirituality.  We modern people reading this are the product of 19 centuries of living without the Temple in our life and this part seems odd to us.  Wherever the Torah speaks of offerings, it uses the 4 letter name of G-d that signifies His mercy.  The offerings are the way He gives us to rejuvenate ourselves, to bring ourselves to elevation and purity into our lives.  Maybe its just as simple as in sacrificing our time to think of G-d.  

                                                                  

Numbers (Barnidbar) is the 4th chapter of the Torah and tells in detail about the wandering in the Wilderness that took place and problems in entering the land once again that Jacob's 70 people had left due to a famine for Egypt 400 years previously.  It has the counting procedure that Moses used and the sum of the people in the census taken. It tells how the children emerged strong and courageous and ready to claim their destiny as heirs to the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  

                                                    

Foreseeing Solomon's Day and making wise choices

Deuteronomy (Devarim) is the 5th and final chapter of the Torah.  This summary of the story, and is what makes the organization of the Torah so special and modern, was also referred to as the Repetition or Review of the Torah by the Mishneh Torah.  it was the prophet Moses' last will and testament to his beloved people where he warned them of potential pitfalls and inspired them to rise to their calling.  This was Israel's introduction to the new life they would have to forge in Eretz Yisrael.  They would plow, plant, and harvest.  They would have courts and a government.  They would have social relationships and the means to provide for and protect the needy and helpless.  They would need strong faith and self-discipline to avoid the problems and temptations of their pagan neighbors and false prophets.  

The function of the Torah was reemphasized with the laws and Moses' appeals to the conscience of the people.  This chapter didn't review everything he taught but went over things needed for Israel's new life in its land.

                                                   

Deuteronomy  was heard from the mouth of Moses.

Moses told it using the type of words like the prophets would use who came after Moses. They also heard G-d speaking and then would tell the nation of Israel the next day.  They heard the prophet's comprehension of the words heard by them.   It ended as all good literature should, rounding up what was told throughout this book of Moses.    

People today act bad enough.  I can't imagine how bad bad was before the flood.  The killing that went on at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE was horrendous.  Romans stood by unnerved by the smell of death, the starvation and the blood running in the streets.  So they are also today at the slaughter in Aleppo, Syria when so many have been killed, women and children alike.  Those very people of the Middle East who dished it out to the Jews and others have been on the receiving end as refugees fleeing their destroyed land.  No, people have not yet learned or changed much since the days of Moses.  The science has evolved but the people have not kept up with it.  Their genes do not mutate very fast for understanding to evolve.  Only education will bring it on, like Moses proved, by changing a nation over 40 years after 400 years being held down as slaves.  Moses, however, had help from the higher power of G-d.  

Update: 12/20/16 1:00pm G-d telling Abram the future of his descendants, critique by Elisheva Pickthorn

 Resource:Torah, Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series by Rabbis Scherman, Zlotowitz. 

 https://www.raptureready.com/faq/faq220.html

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

Our Miracle of Chanukah Story's Enemy, Antiochus IV and His Wife, Laodice IV

Our Miracle of Chanukah Story's Enemy, Antiochus IV and His Wife, Laodice IV

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

Our Chanukah celebration is that of success in a war against the Greeks in 164 BCE that had to do with being overrun by an empire's army and our precious 2nd Temple.

The Greek king in the story was Antiochus IV Epiphanes who had seized the throne and had been king for 11 years, being he was a son in the Seleucid Empire.  It was a Hellenistic state ruled by the Seleucid dynasty that had been in existence since 312 BCE, after Alexander the Great had died.  What had happened was that at Alexander's death,  his vast kingdom was divided among his generals.  A power struggle had engulfed all the nations of the Middle East, and Israel-meaning Judah,  had found itself under the sway of the Seleucid Dynasty of Greek kings who reigned from Syria.  So the Greeks now had another state that was their neighbor and they were not friends, but were then  taking over.   This Greek king had taken the throne in 175 BCE and his error was in taking Judah for he would die the next year in 163 BCE.

                                                                           

Statue of a Seleucid prince without a crown

The Seleucid Empire was a major center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the Greek customs and where a Geek political elite dominated, mostly in the cities, of course.  Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly stopped after many defeats in fighting the Roman army.  They had already defeated Ptolemaic Egypt, their old enemy and no longer could due to Roman demands.

Seleucid kings had been ruling their empire from Syria until the invasion by the Armenian king Tigranes the Great and their ultimate overthrow by the Roman general Pompey.

                                                                 

One of first Seleucid Kings, Nicatore

Antiochus decided to use very aggressive Hellenizing activities that were designed to de-Judaize the Jewish community in Judah that they had taken.  "In the narrative of I Maccabees, after Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods.  Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias' place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah. After Mattathias' death about one year later in 166 BCE, his son, Judah Maccabee, led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Hellenized Jews, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed pagan altars in the villages, circumcised boys and talked  Hellenized Jews into helping them. The term Maccabees was used to describe the Jewish army,  taken from the Hebrew word for "hammer".  Thus, Judah Maccabee was called The Hammerer.  

https://unitedwithisrael.org/bronze-coin-dating-back-to-maccabean-revolt-discovered-in-jerusalem/?

The revolt itself involved many battles, in which the light,quick and mobile Maccabean forces gained notoriety among the slow and bulky Seleucid army,and also for their use of guerrilla tactics. After the victory, the Maccabees entered Jerusalem in triumph and ritually cleansed the Temple, reestablishing traditional Jewish worship there and installing Jonathan Maccabee as high priest. A large Seleucid army was sent to quash the revolt, but returned to Syria on the death of Antiochus IV.   Its commander, Lysias, preoccupied with internal Seleucid affairs, agreed to a political compromise that restored religious freedom."

                                                                     

Antioches IV on a coin

The result was that it provoked a full scale armed rebellion, the Maccabean Revolt.  Efforts to deal with both the Parthians and the Jews as well as retain control of the provinces at the same time proved beyond the weakened empire's power.  The Parthians " at its height  stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce." 

 Antiochus IV  died during a military expedition against the Parthians in 164 BCE.  Over the years of Greek domination in religion and attitudes, many Jews had begun to embrace the Greek culture and its hedonistic, pagan way of life.  They had become pawns in Antiochus' scheme to obliterate Judaism.  They had invaded the Holy Temple, desecrated it and robbed it of its treasures.  Many Jews had been massacred and the survivors were heavily taxed.  The ultimate sin by Antiochus was in placing an idol of Zeus on the holy altar and force Jews to bow before it under penalty of death.  He had forbidden Jews to observe their most sacred traditions such as the Sabbath and the rite of circumcision.  Then he proclaimed himself a god, taking the name "ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES-the Divine.  Even his own followers had mocked him by calling him Antiochus Epimanes-the madman.

                                                                     

Laodice IV

Maybe now that the scene has been set, we can understand some of why his wife should have been mad, also.  Laodice was a priestess and her mother was Laodice III.  This Greek princess who became the Head Priestess and Queen of the Seleucid Empire had been appointed as such by Antiochus III in 193 BCE.  The state cult she belonged to was dedicated to her late mother, Laodice III in Media.  She later was married to 3 kings of the Seleucid Empire, all her brothers!

This made Laodice to be of Greek Macaedonian and Persian descent.  She was one of the daughters of Antiochus III the Great and Laodice III.  Her paternal grandparents were the former Seleucid Monarchs, Seleucus II Callinicus and Laodice II, while her maternal grandparents were King Mithridates II of Puntus and his wife Laodice.

Her parents were 1st cousins since her paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were brother and sister; children of Antiochus II-Theos and Laodice.  This was an extreme endogamous family group.

Laodice married her eldest brother first,  Antiochus, her sibling in 196 BCE.  They had a daughter, Nysa.  Then her brother-husband died. Then it was arranged to marry her next brother, Seleucus IV Philopator.  They had 3 children; 2 sons, Antiochus, Demetrius I oter and a daughter, Laodice V.  They became king and queen and reigned from 187 to 175 BCE.  Then Seleucus died.  Then she married her youngest brother, Antiohus IV Epiphanes who at first co-ruled with his nephew, Antiochus and adopted him as his son who he had later assassinated in 170 BCE.  Laodice bore him 2 children:  a son Antiochus V Eupator and a daughter, Laodice VI.  Her 2nd son, Demetrius I Soter was sent as a political hostage to Rome.

                                                                                                                       

Chanukah Gelt
win in game of Dreidal

Dreidal with letters that stand for:
a great miracle happened there-
Nes Gadol Hayah Sham
nun, gimel, hay, shin

                                           

Chanukiah

As we remember Chanukah and this historic struggle that we had with another and much different culture that almost overtook us, we contemplate on the miracle that ensued of the eternal lamp in the Temple that had but a drop of oil in it, enough to last for a few minutes at the most, but kept lit for 8 days!  The special oil menorah had 7 lamps, a natural number-days of a week (6 days of creation and 1 day of rest).  Why did it burn for 8 days, the time it took the runner to go and fetch more oil for the lamp?   A miracle, a number outside-higher than nature and above time itself, associated with the coming of the Moshiach-may he come speedily in our days.

Only 213 years after the victory of retaking our 2nd Temple and gaining back our religion, The Temple would be burned down; destroyed in Rome's occupation of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Our people would be expulsed from our Holy City of Jerusalem for a short while,   and Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrachim Jews, depending on their route fleeing, would be so named.  It would become another chapter in our long history of Judaism.s

Now, here's music from the stage play, Hamilton, singing about Chanukah

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/221839

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucid_Empire

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

Your Chanukah guide 1996-Lubavitch World Headquarters

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

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-major-hannukah-story-judahs.html

Labels: Anatiochus IV Epiphanes, Chanukah, culture, Greek Kings, Laodice, oil lamp,Seleucid Dynasty, Syria, Temple, wife