Trutharchivist

Due to seeming lack of interest among my followers (I know 3 of you still upvoted it, but for some selfish reason I decided it wasn't enough), I decided to not make entries on relatively less important Jewish holidays. That is to say, the next entry will be next week, about the holiday of Shavuot - unless I'll see a reason to cancel that one, too. The question, then, is this: is there any demand for a random ramble on Jerusalem? If so, please reply (not sure I trust upvotes, can decide otherwise). 

Thank you, and have a good day!

P. S., I'll appreciate it if you reply during the next 10 hours, give or take. At the very least, about 15 hours from now will probably be the limit.

You know, I actually had another one of my Jewish holidays rambles now, but then I thought that, well, I'm not 100% sure many people are actually interested. The only indication I have is the amount of upvotes I got, and it got lower with Independance Day and the Holocaust Rememberance Day. It could either be attributed to those being more national holidays - in which case what I have to write today might attract more interest - or the fact they aren't as major as Pesach and its likeness. In which case I have no idea whether or not what I wanted to write today is any better. Really, with all honesty, I'd like to hear your opinion. Do you rather I stopped with those? Did you not care much for them andaren't really interested that much? Do you prefer I'd focus on the major, widely accepted holidays and not write about controversial things? Do you enjoy getting a random ramble every week?

Honestly, I seem to live on feedback from people. Not my best quality, and perhaps I should make an effort to stop being like that, but when the only replies I get are from a fellow Jew (with all due respect, Nath, thanks for your replies)... Well, it can make me wonder whether or not there's an actual point to me writing those. I mean, he knows most of what I'm writing anyway.

But this is a digression. Today (or tomorrow, depending on one's perspective) is Pesach Sheni, lit. Second Pesach/Passover (yeah, I avoid using the standard translation on its own). What does that mean? Does every holiday get a redo a month afterwards? Why isn't this second Yom Tov of Pesach called that? And does that mean we avoid eating leavened stuff again?

Well, I'd have answered those questions in order, but the first one is long and will contain answers to the others, so... Yeah.

The story of Pesach Sheni starts 3335 years ago, in the days of the Torah - the Books of Moses, the Pentateuch, whichever name you want to call them. Unlike Pesach, this is mentioned exactly once in the Bible and doesn't have too many complicated laws, which means you can just go to Numbers 9, 6-14 and read the entire story! I'll tell it here anyway, but you can also go check.

So, here's the thing. Remember that sacrificial lamb we talked about in the Pesach ramble - the Pesach sacrifice? The one Jews are required to eat during the first night of Pesach, though it's not done nowadays because we don't have the Temple? Yeah, that one. So, say we live in the days of the Temple. All the people of Israel go there to sacrifice their Pesach lamb, but... some people just couldn't get there in time. Maybe they were caught in the traffic; maybe they were sick; maybe they were ritually unpure, couldn't get ritually pure in time for Pesach, and thus not allowed to get into the Temple or eat from the meat of a sacrifice. Basically, every option of being under obligaiton of making the sacrifice, but being unable to do so under circumstances that aren't in your powers to prevent. So, what about those guys?

In most other holidays, we'll just tell them "too bad" and move on. You missed the time of shaking the Lullav is Sukkot? Well, too bad, but this commandment has a time limit. You passed it, so there isn't a way back. But for some reason, it's different with Pesach. Why?

Well, "why" is a big question. We'll focus for now on the causal answar to this question, which is more the answer to how did this come to be? Simple. A few people who were under those exact condition the first time in history this sacrifice was made since the Exodus from Egypt went to Moshe (you know him as Moses), and asked him a simple question: "why should we be kept from making the sacrifice?" Essentially, for all they knew, they were fine by the laws. But they regretted missing the reminder of their Exodus just a year ago, and being unable to slaughter and eat the Pesach lamb, so they asked Moshe if there's any way they could get a redo. So Moshe went and asked G-d... Who said yes.

There were rules and regulations for that, too. Most of the rules of the sacrificial lamb from the month before apply here too. Not the leavened bread one, not really, though one is required to eat it with a matza. It's also important to note that this works only when it's something not under your power, and only if the majority of the people of Israel made the sacrifice on time. You must have the opportunity, if not the ability, to make the sacrifice.

Nowadays, Pesach Sheni gets a mention mostly in that we don't say Tachun (hope you remember that from my previous essey!), and some people eat a Matza at this day. In a way, it's considered the day of second chances (to celebrate them, not a lucky day because there's a commandment against considering a day lucky. Kind of, it includes this among other stuff). It's also the only special day on the Jewish calendar to be given it's speciality directly by G-d due to a request from the people, and that isn't actually forbidden from working at! Which makes it kind of unique all around.

Now, in four days there's another special day (though a minor one), and in two weeks there's another national/religious day. Let me know if you're interested in hearing about them - in three weeks there's another major holiday, Shavuot, so I will write about it at least but I may not write about those other two. Ask me questions if you have them!

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!

All right. I know it's only been a week since my last SU, but that's just how things go. Truth to be told, I actually should've written this two days ago; I didn't because working on my phone would've been kind of hard. Now I have my computer, and so we go. I started on it yesterday, but... it was a busy day. I wasn't in a proper state of mind to finish it.

Yesterday was Israel's Independance Day, and the day before it was the Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers and terrorism victims. I could tell the story of why those days - that's what I originally planned to do - but you know what? Let's start with a simple question: are those Jewish holidays?

I mean, you'd think it's pretty simple. Israel is the only Jewish country in the world, so its national holidays are automatically Jewish holidays, right? But when we talk about Judaism the religion, instead of the Jewish ethnicity and nation, it suddenly becomes complicated. Many Jews world wide will tell you that no, those holidays are Israeli national holidays and not Jewish holidays. People in Israel celebrate them, outside of it - why should they? Others will go in the opposite direction, say that all Jews worldwide should celebrate the Israeli Independance Day with religious rituals - special prayers, mostly. Some will tell you that the State of Israel is the Devil's handiwork, and if anything this should be a day of mourning.

No one can really say, in the name of all Judaism (and even in the name of all Orthodox Judaism), whether or not it's a religious holiday. They can try, but in classic Jewish manner they'll just argue over it with some people. So, I can only explain my stance, and try to explain the others, too. Obviously, it all comes down to one's view on Zionism.

Now, I plan on writing a more elaborate essay on the history of Zionism, so I'll be brief here - Zionism started as a solution to the antisemitism problem (in that it's a problem everybody hates Jews) from secular Jews, so most religious leaders were opposed to it. Some did think there is a religious ideal in returning to Israel and founding a state here, others thought that to seek independance is a sin (long story, honestly - I'll get to it), and yet others just thought joining a secular enterprise will cause more people to leave Judaism.

I, personally, am from a group that to this day sees the State of Israel as part of a religious ideal. This is kind of complicated, because Orthodox Jews await the Massiah for ultimate salvation and the end of days - building the Temple in Jerusalem for the third time, etc. The land of Israel is holy to us, sure, but is there really a religious ideal to found an independant state there? We-ell... I'm not sure. Honestly, I was more born into this worldview than acquired it after deep thought. What I can say is that there is an assumption this will lead up to the comming of the Massiah. Historically, it's pretty evident (ever since the days of the Hasmonean dynasty) that Jewish independance is only necessary in the case it's impossible to keep the commandments otherwise (see Antiochus IV Epiphanes, nicknamed Epimanes - the mad. See also Epmperor Hadrian). Even the original return to Israel after the first exile, as depicted in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, was still under the Persian rule. The Torah does call for Jewish kingship - in Deutronomy 17, 15: "be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite." (this translation contains an interpretation that while being the standard understanding, is not wholly loyal to the original wording.) - which may well be the source of this idea, but there is still room for different interpretations. It might be that we celebrate it for the miracles we believe G-d gave us during our war for independance, against the surrounding countries.

So, people of this group - religious Zionist Jews (I only know about Orthodox, there are Reform Jews that support Israel but I'm not sure if they see it the same way) - celebrate the IID (I know it's not the best acronym, but let's keep things short) with a few additions and alterations to the daily prayers, taken from the changes made for other holidays - adding a few Psalms, mostly (though this isn't gettingto the full extent, I honestly think elaborating will just be confusing). They also celebrate the same way most secular Jews do - with barbecues and watching fireworks and flypasts, and other stuff.

Some Jews, though, don't think the State of Israel is such a wonderfull thing that they should change their prayers for it. There's an old story that goes around, about the leader of the Haredi (Ultra Orthodox) Jews in Israel at the time of the founding of the state. As a preface, I'll say that during certain days of the calendar that are considered happy, Jews say the Hallel - six certain chapters of Psalms. In most of the year excluding those days - and some other days that are considered happy but not happy enough to say the Hallel - we say a certain set of prayers called Tachanun. One more detail - David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel and its first Prime Minister, wasn't religious, and probably never went to a synagogue during his days as a Prime Minister. Anyway, this leader of Haredi Jews - the Hazon Ish - said when asked that he prays like Ben-Guryon in the Independance day prayers: he says neither Hallel nor Tachanun. The basic idea behind this stance, I think, is that there are some things to be thankful for in the founding of Israel; but it's not a step forward to ultimate salvation and the coming of the Massiah, and it's not important enough to give thanks to G-d the way we do in Channukah, for example. (I don't use this example just because Channukah is one of the more well-known Jewish holidays - there is more to it, as you can note from my brief mention on the Hasmonean dynasty. Do inform me, here or in a PM, if you want an elaboration.)

Then, there are Satmar Hassidim. Those are the guys who do say Tachnun (and obviously don't say the Hallel) in IID. Furthermore, if by happenstance they get to this part of Tehillim (the Hebrew name for Psalms) during this part of the year (which they did this year, apparently) - they'll make sure not to say it during this day. They'll add it to the previous day or something - everything to avoid seeming to say the Hallel during this day. Those people claim that the State of Israel is the Devil's handiwork, that Jewish independance in Israel before the Massiah comes is not only unideal but actively sinfull, especially since said independance is led by secular Jews. Not being a Satmar Hassid (and not having studied the book their Rabbi wrote on the topic, sadly), I can't really elaborate much on their opinion - just say that there is an elaborate rationale behind it (I did mention an entire book written on the topic). Anyway, when someone tells you about anti-Zionist Jews - it's them and other, similar groups, who truthfully and honestly believe Jewish independance in Israel is problematic, and that trying to achieve it is at least part of the reason G-d punished us with the Holocaust (seriously. It was said by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum of Satmar, a Holocaust survivor himself).

Anyway, this is a partial summary of the different stances among Orthodox Jews towards the Israeli Independance Day, not getting into more elaborate disagreements inside some of the sects. Hope it was interesting to read about it!

One more thing I want to add before finishing with this very long SU, though, is this: for 60 years now, during the IID, the International BIble Contest for Jewish Youths is held in Jerusalem. It's for Jews worldwide during their teenage years, on the Hebrew Bible specifically - no New Testament, obviously. And while there is some try there to void the Bible from its religious context (believe it or not), I still think it deserves a mention in a post about the religious side of the holiday. Out of all the events of the IID, this is the only one I really care about watching - and I can answer the easier questions there, most of the time. I tried out for it once, but... well... I failed, pretty early on. Doesn't make me like the event less, though!

Thank you for reading this far, have a good day/afternoon/evening/night/morning/whatever other part of the day you're at while reading this!

So, tomorrow's Yom HaShoah, the Israeli Holocaust memorial day. I'm writing this as a continuation to my SU about Pesach, even though this is actually a national day, and not a religious one.

I shouldn't have to remind anyone what the Holocaust was. Just for the record I'll say it anyway: an organised genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazi regime during WW2, during which 6 million Jews - approximately a third of the entire Jewish population worldwide at the time. 

My family is relatively lucky. On my mother's side, most of my great-grandparents were already in Israel when the war started. My maternal grandfather's mother went out of Europe in the nick of time. My mother's maternal grandfather was the only one from that side to have been to the camps.

On my father's side we're French Jews; some ran away to Switzerland, some hid in the rural areas of France. My paternal grandfather's father served at the army at the time - he was at the Maginot line. Guess where he ended up? As a prisoner of war, though, he got better conditions than the Eastern Jews.

All of my great grandparents had relatives who died in the Holocaust, though. Siblings. Parents. I could even tell a story or two about how my great-great-greatuncles and aunts died, and maybe I'll do that later. Right now, though, I want to write about the general history of the day. Why is the Israeli Holocaust memorial day tomorrow, instead of closer to D-day, or the day the extermination camps were destroyed? What happened during this fateful day, the 27th of Nissan in the Hebrew calendar?

Well, nothing to do with the Holocaust. Apparently, it was used as a memorial day for casualties during the Arab revolt, two years before the World War even started.

Still, there is a reason for it to be at this time of year beyond an existing memorial day. The reason is the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

You see, at the time - the first few years of the state of Israel - the Israeli Jews had a perception that Jews should fight back when oppressed. They kind of looked down on those who survived because they didn't fight back - seeing them as "exilist Jews", so to speak. So the memorial day was dedicated to the brave heroes who fought back - and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the biggest Jewish revolt against the Nazis. Of course, the Nazis destroyed the Ghetto and killed most of its population afterwards, but it hit them hard.

I'm never going to be able to tell the actual full story, so short version: for a long time, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were sent away to Extermination camps. That was standard at that period - every now and then there would be a round of picking people to send. But the Jews at the Ghetto didn't know they were sent to die - which is why they didn't revolt at first. They thought it will heighten their probability of death.

But then, a woman who was rescued from an extermination camp came and told them the truth. That convinced them to get up and fight. There were a couple of underground organizations that had fighters and weaponry. And so, next time the Nazis came to pick who to send, they revolted. They successfully got the Nazis away from the Ghetto and secured its grounds. The Nazis came again the day before Pesach and failed to take the camp. But after that victory cost a bit to much to the Nazis... Well...

They sent a larger power and destroyed the revolt, killing all the Jews who stayed at the Ghetto. They burned the houses and destroyed the synagogue, and if some of the none warriors stayed alive after that, this was soon remedied. 

So, not so successful. But they went down fighting, and took many SS soldiers with them. And that was the important point in the eyes of Israel's leaders back then. There was only one problem, though: the day the uprising supposedly started, the 14th of Nissan, wasn't really fitting for a memorial day, being the day before Pesach. Even though the leadership of Israel was mostly secular, they didn't think it'll go well. So instead, they stuck to an existing memorial day at the same month. Apparently so, because I honestly never heard of that before. I just found it on Wikipedia. The reasoning I heard for it was far more contrived, though, so I'll leave you with that reasoning and move on to the next topic.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel didn't like the idea, though. You see, according to the Halakhah, one isn't supposed to mourn during Nissan. I mean, if a relative of his dies or something he can mourn, but public mourning is more problematic. And this is why next week you'll hear me talk about religious repercussions of the Israeli Independence Day, but this week I'm not talking about that. It's because it doesn't really have any and shouldn't have any. Instead, the CRI decided that the fast at the 10th of Tevet will be declared the "general Kaddish day". What it means is that: when a person dies, his relatives say the mourner Kaddish on his grave, every year, at his date of death. But what if you have no idea when your relative died, or where he's buried? Well, the latter isn't that much of a problem (you can say the Kaddish in every synagogue, as long as you have ten people with you), but the solution to the former is this: the general Kaddish day, when you say Kaddish on your loved ones if you don't know their death's date. It kind of works as a religious stand in to the Holocaust memorial day.

Hope that was informative and interesting! I'm going to keep this up with even relatively minor Jewish dates and holidays, as much as I can. If someone prefers otherwise - they may speak up. Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day.

All right. Another random ramble! This time, my excuse for avoiding the forum is low traffic - there aren't many people following it. The again, what I mean to tell here is mainly exposition to Judaism - and at least three of my followers are Jews themselves, while I think at least one of the others already knows what I meant to say. Which make this ramble's point a tad more moot than it would be otherwise.

Anyway, tomorrow's Pesach, AKA Passover, and since there isn't much Jeish knowledge floating around this forum, I thought I'll explain about it a little. Depending on the interest, I might go on to start a series of essays I'm actually capable of writing with no farther research - simple essays, about Jewish holidays and their meaning. So, if you're interested in that - do say so. To the Jews I'll say: do check to see if I forgot something important.

Anyway, let's begin.

Pesach (as it will be referred to in this essay, wording explanation later) is the first holiday in the Hebrew calendar of the Tanakh (=Old Testament, for Christians), in which the first month of the spring is also the first month of the year. Nowadays, the Hebrew calendar year is considered to start six months earlier - hopefully we'll get to that in another day. Anyway, random interesting fact: the ancient Roman calendar, an ancestor of the modern Gregorian calendar, also used to start at spring in March - January and February apparently didn't exist. Which I'm still having trouble understanding, but it works with December being the 10th month.

But that's just about the time. Why, and how, do we celebrate Pesach?

Well, according to the Tanakh, the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt - our nation becoming a nation and gaining its freedom - happened on the 15th day of the first month. Nowadays, this month is known by the name "Nissan" - a name from Messopotamia. This was the conclusion of the Ten Plagues with the Plague of the Firstborn - at exactly midnight the night before, all the Egyptian firstborns died, leading to the Pharaoh of the time deciding to let the Israelites go. During the day before, the Israelites were required to sacrifice a lamb for each family and spread its blood on their lintels. G-d promised them that if they'd do that - He will pass over their houses and protect then from the Plague. Or that He'll step on their houses, figuratively - both interepretations of the word are possible. The sacrificial lamb was known as the Pesach sacrifice, and was observed for generations as long as the Temple (or the Tabernacle before it) stood.

There are a lot of rules about the Pesach sacrifice. Some of them differred between the original first sacrifice and how it was observed later, but most don't. Either way, nowadays it's not practiced, so we'll go on to the things that are practiced.

During this day, and the week following it (starting from sunset the day before and ending after the stars come out on the seventh), it is forbidden for Jews to eat anything leavened. Or, well, anything leavened that is made from one of specific five kinds of grains. Either way, that ends up being very limiting to one's diet. One is not allowed to hold leaven during this week, too - we burn it the day before. The 1st and 7th day are also Yamim Tovim (lit. "good days"), which means all work is forbidden except for things required to make food. And during the first evening, at the night we were supposed to eat the Pesach lamb (oh, yeah, it's the kind of sacrifice you eat, forgot to mention that), we make a Seder.

What is a Seder? The literal translation of the word is "order", and it's kind of what this is: an organized evening plan, that includes mostly a retelling of the Exodus, along with eating certain foods as reminders for specific things: Carpas, which can be any one of a myriad of vegetables, is mostly an appetizer (eaten a very long time before the feast); Matzah, unleavened bread, to remind us how our ancestors didn't have time to let their bread be leavened before exiting Egypt, and as a "food of the poor", that was probably all our ancestors cold afford during their slavery time (that last part of the explanation is a tad more iffy); and Maror, a bitter vegetable - most people eat lettuce, some eat Horseradish or other vegetables - this one is to remind us of how bitter and hard it was for our ancestors in slavery. We also eat some sort of sandwich of the two last ones together, because when the temple existed we were to do so with those and the sacrificial lamb. In addition, we drink four glasses of wine throughout the Seder, each at a different point - some, myself included, drink non-alcoholic, natural grape juice (I can't stand wine). We pour another glass that is supposedly for Eliyahu (Elijah) the Prophet. This part is... kind of a long story. Suffice it to say there's a specific reason why we drink four glasses, and the same reason could indicate on five instead of four.

That's it for the basic practices of the holiday, I think - I'm a bit tired when I write this, so I might've forgotten something important, but I rather think I only left out non-obligatory practices (not talking about legumes, or the Hallel, or... IDK). Something else that is important in relatio to the Seder: it's all centered around the telling of the story of Exodus, especially to one's children to keep the traditions going. Due to that, there are many practices that are mostly to keep the children awake and to make them ask questions.

Honestly, I planned to write here about the importance of questions in Judaism, but it's getting late and this status update is already long. So, suffice it to say I think questions are very important and encouraged in Judaism.

Anyway, that has just been a try at randomly explaning Pesach to gentiles. Honestly, it's kind of the most central holiday in Judaism - though Hannukah is somewhat more known, probably due to it often conciding with Christmas. As a matter of fact, Hannukah is one of the lesser holidays.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and have a good day.