Trutharchivist

At this (Hebrew calendar) date, three years ago, Rav Adin Even-Yisrael (better known as Rav Steinsaltz, ז"ל) died.

Why am I mentioning this here? That's a good question. It has two parts: why I mention it, and why I do it here. The answer to the first one is somewhat easier than the second: I mention it because I find that in some ways, though I hardly ever talked to him, though I don't read his books all that often, I'm still connected to him in some way. I didn't study under him; rather, I've learned from people who did, or sometimes people who learned from people who learned from him, at least a little. My high school was founded (supposedly) in his vision.

So, let's assume for a moment that this is a sufficient answer. Why am I writing this here? After all, most of my audience are non-Jews, with about two to three exceptions. Rav Adin didn't write much for gentiles - unlike Rav Sacks (ז"ל), for example, who was the chief rabbi of Great Britain. So, how does any of this relate to any of you?

Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe it will end up being irrelevant for you. But I feel like sharing ideas I believe in, and many things from my faith, so I might as well try to talk about this, too. Maybe this is a mistake; maybe after just a few seconds I will erase this whole thing. I don't know.

In no way can I actually do justice to Rav Adin. I hardly knew him, and what I heard of him can be - and was - summarized better by others. Most Jews know him from writing commentary on the Talmud. But while those commentaries were indeed a lifetime achievement, it hardly gets even close to summing up who he was.

He was a teacher; he founded an institute with the motto "let my people know". I think I've heard in his name (though I'm not sure of it) that if you get to choose between ignorants or heretics - the latter might be preferable, since they at least know what they disagree with. In a way, sometimes, when I write my esssays on Judaism here, this goes through my mind - that people need to know. 

Something I've heard many of his students say is that he wanted to leave everyone with a constant drive to do more, to move onward. 

There probably are many other things I can say about him. But as I said, I would do a bad job of it. I really don't know how to better focus this. In any case, Shabbat is coming, so I kind of have to stop here.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day

Well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury I mean, those who read my status updates, I'm happy to say that no year-long wait is necessary for the next installment in my history of Judaism series - it's already here! In it I talk about Ultra-Orthodox Jews and their resistance to emancipation, secular studies and religious changes - mostly from the angle of Rabbi Moshe Sofer, AKA Ḥatam Sofer. Do tell me if you feel it's lacking in anyway, or if you really liked it, or just... comment in general your thoughts. 

And here are the previous entries about Haskalah and Reform Judaism.

Hope you enjoy reading! Have a good day!

Tomorrow evening is Tish'ah b'Av, the Ninth of Av. The day of the Temple's destruction, said to be the saddest day of the Jewish calendar. (Is that enough of a summary?)

This is a (if not the) central day of mourning for Jews, for multiple resons - including, for example, how central the Temple was to Judaism before it was butrned to the ground. This is also the point in time that is considered the beginning of exile - even though there were still many Jews living in Israel in the time after the destruction, it was the beginning of the sign that... we can just as well ive abroad. Our holy place lay in ruins, and there's not much point in coming to it again.

According to tradition, both the First and Second Temples were burned during this day - the First 2445 years ago, the Second about 1954 years ago (give or take). During the time of the First Temple it was literally the beginning of the exile - the Babillonians took most of the Jews around and carried them to their land, leaving only a few - we'll talk about them at the next fast day, the Fast of Gedaliah. In the Second Temple's time, though, carrying the Jews to exile wasn't the Romans' top priority, and so it came to be that the biggest Jewish communities remained for centuries in Israel and Babillon. 

But, since with the 17th of Tamuz we went over a story from the Torah (the Pentateuch) which is said to be the spiritual origin of the fast, we'll do the same here - because the same is true. It was not long after the Isrelites left Mt. Sinai, after staying there for nearly a year. The people of Israel are getting close to the promised land, and at this point they believe they're going to enter it very soon. Just then, the Israelites come to Moshe asking him to send people to look around the land and tell them how it is, and in which ways they should go. This story - the story of the biblical Spies - and the Golden Calf are both well-known stories, but I honestly have no idea what can be assumed of people's biblical knowledge here, so I'll tell it anyway.

Those twelve people Moshe picked - one from each tribe, including his star pupil (so to speak) Hoshea bin-Nun - go to the land of Canaan to look at it. Before they go, though, Moshe slightly changes Hoshea's name to Yehoshua - better known as Joshua. Yeah, that's Moshe's successor. Anyway, they go around it for fourty days and bring back some fruits, then tell Moshe and the Israelites that the land is indeed very good - but the people around there are too strong for them to conquer. Caleb son of Yefune (of the tribe of Yehuda, which gives Jews their name) then speaks up to contradict his fellow spies, as does Yehoshua, but the people don't seem to believe them and they all start crying that evening, saying they're all going to die. For that, G-d punishes them with fourty years in the desert (including the years they already went through), and says that none of this generation outside of Yehoshua and Caleb will enter the Promised Land. 

The sages add to that that the night when all the Israelites cried? That was the 9th of Av. When G-d heard them cried, he said: "you cried tonight for nothing, I'll give you something to cry about for generations to come."

That is the first event that happened at this day. The next events are the two destructions of the Temple. Honestly, there are quite a few things I can tell about both times: the First is well-documented in the Tanakh itself, and the Second is documented in the Talmud (which, granted, was written a while later but they had traditions on what happened). But, I think I should be considerate and focus on the Second.

So, there was the revolt. Then the Romans sent their legions to stomp it. There was much fighting in all of the land, but especially in Jerusalem, which was put under siege. There are a couple of stories I can tell - like how Jerusalem is said to have been destroyed due to Kamtza and Bar Kamtza (the names of two people, the latter might've been the former's son) - but I think I will keep two important points and not try to tell it all.

The first point is the food storage. It is said that when Jerusalem felt under siege there were three rich philantropists (you could say) in Jerusalem, each promising to provide to the people in their own way, from their storages of food, drink and wood. With those storages the city could stand for a while - perhaps a year or two. The issue was... there was a group of especially violent rebels, who didn't like the abundance of food. Maybe too much of it was going to more reach people; maybe they just wanted to make the people of Jerusalem more desparate. Either way, they've burned the food storage.

the second is the religious Jewish leadership. One of the elder rabbis of the time was Raban Yohannan Ben Zacai. He saw the state of hunger in Jerusalem and knew it was only a matter of time before the city got destroyed - and with it, the religious centerand all the wise men there. His nephew was one of the leaders of those rebels I've mentioned earlier - the terrorists, I guess you could call them - who at this point also kept the city's gates from the inside, so that no one will betray them for the Romans. So Raban Yohannan went to talk to his nephew (whose name was Ben Batikh), and asked him to allow him to get out of the city. Ben Batikh, knowing that his people will never allow it, advice Raban Yohannan to pretend to die - because Jewish tradition does not allow leaving a dead body inside the city, so the terrorists will let Raban Yohannan's students to get his body outside. So Raban Yohannan did so, went to meet the Roman general, and persuaded him to leave alone the city of Yavne with it's wise men. Some of the sages criticized Raban Yohannan for his actions; they said that since he succeeded persuading the Roman general to leave one city, he might've been able to save Jerusalem and the Temple. But in the end, it's not really likely he'd have succeeded had he went fo such a lofty request.

If you want to learn of the story more fully, there's an Israeli sem-animated movie made two years ago which was also apparently dubbed to English named Legend of Destruction that tells those stories and a few more. I couldn't find a free online way to watch the English version, sadly, but the Hebrew version can be found on YouTube (under the name אגדת חורבן).

Anyway, both Temples were destroyed that day. The next event occured barely seventy years later - at the Bar Kokhva revolt, the last time Jews had independance in Israel until the founding of the State. Bar Kokhva ruled the area for two years, but the romans crushed him too - and the city of Beitar, whiich was Bar Kokhva's capital (probably because he failed to take back Jerusalem), was destroyed. After that, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple mount were plowed by the Romans, a sign of utter ownership (I think).

And... We're done now, right? Those are all the things listed in the Mishna, after all. Five things, if you count them (each Temple counts separately). Nothing else of interest happened since, right?

Wrong. I mean, yeah, not every pogrom since occured on that exact day (actually, there was for a time an additional fast for Ashkenazi Jews over pogroms during another day - I debated whether or not to talk about it when the day came around, but decided against it). Still, there's at least one more painful event for Jews that is said to have occured at this day.

You remember when Colombus accidentally reached America looking for India? Well, a few more interesting things happened at the time. For one, the Spanish Reconquista was finally over, and a Christian Catholic king, Ferdinand the 1st, finally reigned over all of Spain. And one of his first decrees after settling on his throne? Banishing all the Jews from his kingdom.

Now, it shouldn't have been viewed as this bad an event, really. After all, Jews were previously banished from England, France, and every single princedom in Italy (and probably Germany, too). It wasn't anything new, per se. Well, maybe the forced conversion and the Inquisition were a tad new. Plus, the Spanish Jews lived mostly under Muslim role up until that, which was much more tolerant toward them. True, the Reconquista was advancing for a while now, but they may not have expected such a change. Maybe this banishment was more thorough than the others - though I doubt you could get much more thorough than the banishment from England. No Jew lived there for four centuries, until the days of Cromwell. Anyway, to go back to the topic, this banishment was devastating on the Spanish Jews. Many of them converted but secretly kept the commandments of Judaism - those are called the Anusim, which means "those who were forced against their will [to convert]". Many others fled to Portugal - until they were banished from there, too. Others fled to the Ottoman Empire, which accepted them with open arms, because Jews were known to help greatly with the finances of every place they lived in. Others went to various places in North Africa or to the Netherlands, or to Italy. Those are the Spaniard Jews, and they are the reason that to this day, Jews from Muslim countries are often called Sepharadim in Hebrew. Many of them probably truly are descendants of the exiled - telltale names include Toledano and Abarbanel. Why do I say all that, though? Because the day the decree was enforced, according to tradition, was the 9th of Av.

As I said, this is a day of mourning. It's a fast day, but due to the mourning part it has additional prohibitions. Plus, it's one of the two hardest fast days - some of the prohibitions during it exist only in it and Yom Kippur. Those prohibitions include, in addition to not eating or drinking, not wearing shoes made of leather, not washing oneself, not lubricating and not commiting sexual acts. All those prohibitions are set from sunset to sunset - for about 25 hours.

The mourning additions include a prohibition on sitting on a chair higher than about one foot, studying the Torah except for things related to the Temple's destruction (or doing most any action that isn't related), plus not putting on Tephillin - black leather boxes that every Jewish man puts on every day on his forehead and arm. All those hold only until midday - except maybe the Torah study, I'm not 100% sure.

During this day we read the book of Lamantations, which was written about the Firt Temple's destruction, according to tradition by Jeremiah. There are also additions to the evening and morning prayers - themselves lamantations on the events that happened to our ancestors that are related to what happened that day, and on many other things that happened during our years of exile. There are also readings from the Torah, and from the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

This day is considered the saddest day in the Jewish calendar. But I've talked quite enough about it (though I didn't even get to mourning traditions for the week/nine days before it, or to the fact that the last meal before the fast has to include only two dishes and can't include meat or wine - though at least the first part of this prohibition doesn't hold on the meal before it), so I'd rather finish with something happier, as is traditional among Jews: when you end a book with something sad and depressing, you add afterwards something happier. This does not apply to the books of the Tanakh, though - only to reading them. In any case, the happier part:

There is a tradition among Jews, that the Messiah - the one destined to deliver us from exile and lead us again, the descendant of king David's line - was born (or would be born, depending on many things) at Tish'ah b'Av. The idea behind it is that "from the ashes a fire shall be woken". G-d never leaves His chosen people in destruction without creating a remedy first. We always hope for the Messiah's coming, as it could be every day - and when he comes, all of those fasts made for rememberance of the Destraction won't be necessary anymore, and furthermore - are prophesized to become holydays, days of celebration.

בבניין ירושלים תנוחמו, with the reconstruction of Jerusalem may you be comforted.

Thank you for reading, and... Well, I'm not sure I can just say "have a good day". Unless the Messiah will come, tomorrow (well, the day after, but you get it) won't be a good day for me, or for any Jew (at least practicing religious ones). Still, I guess, one must hope, so have a good day!

(Hope I didn't come of as preaching, I'm obviously talking about my faith here. The Christians among you believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah, that he already came once and you are waiting for his Second Coming, but I don't, so...)

So, I have updated my essay about Reform Judaism! It should be in a somewhat better shape now, I think it'll be its final form. here's a link to it.

Please read and comment your thoughts about it, I would greatly appreciate feedback. My next essay is going to either be about Ultra-Orthodox or Conservative Judaism - I'm debating whether to go on the tradition-change scale (on which Conservative Judaism is next) or on the historical chronology - for which Ultra-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Judaism come first.

In the case you've missed my first essay on this series of the history of Judaism during the Age of Enlightenment, here it is - I talk there about the Haskalah movement, which is more or less the Jewish equivalent of Enlightenment.

So, golem. Plural form in Hebrew: glamim. In English: golems. Meaning in Mishnaic Hebrew: dumb, more or less. Common meaning in modern times: a legendary human-like creature made of clay and animated using Kabbalah (usually a piece of paper with holy names on it is included). You've probably heard of those at some point - they're not uncommon in Fantasy novels nowadays. You could perhaps call them the Jewish contribution to the Fantasy genre.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan. I mean, yeah, I love Fantasy, and my Judaism is a huge part of my identity, so connecting the two would naturally interest me. And it does. But like my many complaints about underrepresentation of Judaism in Fantasy literature, I just don't see glamim as a good representation. I'll get to it in more depth later - because I want to first give address the origin of the golem. Not etymologically - I'm afraid I didn't do much research on why a word for a dumb person became the word for an artificially created human - but where did the idea of an artificially created human originated from. 

Well, the first time I know of that mentions such a thing is the Talmud (Sanhedrin 65B): it says that one Amora (a sage of the Talmudic era) created a man and sent it to another Amora. The other Amora trued talking to him and when he didn't reply he realized he was created by his friend and told him to turn back to dust - which he probably did. Afterwards two Amoras are said to have created a calf using Sefer Yetzira (lit. Book of Creation) and ate it. Anyway, we see here that: a. Supposedly, some people can create living beings using knowledge from a certain book, and b. The creation is distinct from humans by inability to speak, or perhaps inability to understand human languages. There has been later some halachic discussion on whether killing such a man is forbidden, and even later - on whether such a man can join a minyan - there are things that require ten Jewish men older than 13 to say, so does such a man that was created count? The discussion over both questions is not very elaborate, but it exists. Anyway, this also gives us Sefer Yetzira as the origin of the ability to create people. This book still exists and is known today - it's one of the oldest books of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, we have. To my knowledge, though, it doesn't explain in detail how can one create a man - it deals more on how G-d created the world, from the little I know of it.

Not much is said about creating people like this for centuries - until about the 18th century, when people started telling stories about the Golem of Prague. The story goes that Rabbi Yehudah Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, created a golem using Sefer Yetzira to help him against blood libels and anti-Semitic stuff in general. The golem served as Maharal's aid and was mute and deaf - and also very strong. There are many tales about him - mostly about blood libels being disproven and such things. The last story says that Maharal forgot one week to turn him off before Shabbat (I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's what it says. He used to turn him off every week, apparently), so the golem caused mayhem and promptly was shut down. Its body is said to be in the attic of Maharal's synagogue - the Altneuschul in Prague. It's forbidden to go to the attic - I'm being serious, they don't let people go up there - though some people probably do enter every now and then. I don't even know if people still pray in this synagogue (I never was to Prague myself, otherwise I would've checked), but it's something of a tourist attraction.

The sad part of it all is really how most people remember Maharal just because of thus story. He wrote plenty of books that people study to this day, but outside of Jewish places of learning he's mostly the guy who created a golem.

Anyway, that's the most famous golem story. There are at least two others I've heard of - both end with the golem malfunctioning somehow: one grew uncontrollably, another was asked to oil a wagon's wheels and oiled the entire wagon. Both were subsequently turned off - somewhat less dramatically than in the Prague golem's story. None of them was known to speak.

Yeah, yeah, I've mentioned this part quite a few times. I think it's rather important: in the creation of Adam, the first human, G-d is said to breath the breath of life unto him, and thus man became a living being - only the old translator Onkelos interprets it a tad differently. He says that Man became a speaking creature. Speech is something unique to human beings, and so is (supposedly) not for men to give. It doesn't make mute people to any less human, but this is probably why every golem in the original folklore is mute.

And now for what I hinted on in the start: what's my problem with this representation of Judaism? It's understandable if we're talking about things like Feet of Clay, which just uses glamim as a Fantasy creature without anything of the Jewish context, since it doesn't even try to do that. But what about the Golem and the Jinni? This book occurs in our world, and does present Jewish (and Syrian-Muslim) culture. 

So, yeah, I just wrote the whole thing because someone offered me this book as possibly good Jewish representation. And the thing is, I've read this book (well, the first book, a sequel was published two years ago) a while ago. I still more or less remember it. I think I've somewhat liked it at the time. But I'm not sure I'd go for it as good Jewish representation.

Why that is? Well, let's start from the fact glamim are connected to Kabbalah. Now please, don't assume that this is all Jewish mysticism is about - creating glamim - because it's not. Just like most of Judaism, it's a way to study the Torah - focusing on how G-d created the world, more or less. I didn't study it much, for multiple reasons - one of them being a traditional prohibition against studying it before turning 40 and being well-versed in other parts of the Torah (in this case used as a term for the entirety of Jewish religious texts). And that's rather the point: by focusing on glamim, one tends to focus on Kabbalah - not only that, it's a very specific branch called Kabbalah Ma'asit, or Practical Kabbalah, which is uncommon even among people who do study Kabbalah. There's no way you'll get it right, but even ignoring that, it's taking a very specific part of Judaism and taking it somewhat out of context. Whether Practical Kabbalah is an actual possible practice or not (I'm not going to get into that right now), it's not really a good representation of Judaism as a whole. Now, it's not all focused on that; there are points where the Jewish community of New York is present. I still think it's not much, and while my memory is fuzzy about it, I think a lot of it is non-religious people and that it shies away from actually presenting much of the religious community. Plus Kabbalah is basically treated as magic, but I can get where that comes from.

Anyway, hope that explains why I don't think the Golem and the Jinni is a good Jewish representation, and why I might be hesitant on reading books that supposedly where inspired by Kabbalah. Maybe I'm just speaking nonsense, maybe I failed to explain the depths of it all. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed reading that.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

While you were busy reading my latest holiday ramble (or not), I've finished writing the next entry in my History of Judaism series! It should be easy to find from this status update, it's in my blog here - you just press on the bar where it says activity, there you'll see blogs - go there. The latest one is titled Reform Judaism - but if you didn't read the last one, make sure to go over it first! Hope you'll enjoy reading it!

So, well, I said 40 days and 40 days have passed! Thus, I'm obligated to make another entry in my Jewish Holidays posts - this time, though, it's the first fast day in our list. One note, though: in the chronology of the events that led to creating those fast days - the siege on Jerusalem and its destruction by invading forces twice - this is actually the second fast day, the one about breaching the walls. I'll get to it in a minute.

So, why forty days from Shavuot? You probably didn't ask yourselves. Well, I don't care, I'm going to answer it anyway! You see, right after the Mt. Sinai Event, Moshe went up to the mountain and stayed there for forty days and forty nights, learning the Torah from G-d. And during the last day... Well... Down in the camp, the Israelites made the Golden Calf. And since tradition says Shavuot was the day of the Mt. Sinai Event, it also says that tomorrow - Yud-Zain b'Tamuz, the 17th of the month of Tamuz - was the day the Calf was made. So, in a way, the other events for which we mourn during this day are said to stem from this event. I'm not sure whether I need to elaborate on what the Golden Calf was? Basically, forty days after being told not to worship false idols, the Israelites forced Aharon to take their gold and make an idol of it! Then the next day Moshe was told to get down from the mountain because his people have sinned, he prayed for G-d to forgive them, then he went down, and seeing the Israelites worship the Calf he threw the Tablets of the Covenant on the ground, destroying them. He then destroyed the Golden Calf and was basically very angry at the people of Israel - though he still kept praying for G-d not to abandon them. That's the extremely shortened version. So now, let's fast forward to why this day was made a fast day.

They year is somewhere around 70 to the yet-to-be-created Christian calendar, about 3830 to the Jewish count. Jerusalem has been under siege by the Romans for some time now, and lately some idiots inside burned the provisions. There is infighting in the city, hunger, and the state isn't good. Then the Romans, led by Titus (who would later become a Caesar) successfully breach the walls. It... Didn't make things any better. It took the Romans three weeks to completely conquer the city and burn down the Second Temple.

But wait a minute, I hear you ask, why did the Romans come over in the first place? Well, the latest Roman governors in Provincia Judea were greedy, and the Jews in the area didn't like their rule for a couple of reasons. So, some of them decided to rebel: they murdered the Roman governor and prepared for the battle with the Romans, who inevitably sent their forces to quiet down the rebellion.

Most of what known to historians about this period comes from a Jew named Flavius Josephus, who belonged to one sect of the rebels but later joined the Romans. Oh, yeah, the rebels had multiple sects, each one with a different idea about what they're trying to accomplish. To add to that, there were many sects in Jerusalem who resisted the rebellion in the first place - it was one of the more militant groups that burned the food, though. Anyway, Josephus lived and wrote in Rome, so his writings did go through some censorship, probably.

Anyway, maybe I'll go over the siege of Jerusalem in more detail for Tisha b'Av in three weeks - the fast day for the burning of the Temple. For now - more random points:

During the days of the First Temple, the Babillonians breached the walls about a week earlier - at the ninth of Tamuz (according to the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible). We don't fast that day now, though, either because the Second Destruction was more recent and generally worse, or because we assume the people back then made a mistake counting and breaching the walls happened at the 17th back then, too. 

There are two more events said to have happened at this day: one, the Tamid (lit. Always) sacrifice, two lambs sacrificed each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon-evening (before sunset), was stopped - either during the very same siege of Jerusalem, or during another siege, when two brothers of the Hasmonean dynasty fought one another. The other is when someone named Aposthmos burned the Torah - he probably was a Seleucid or a Roman.

So, this is a fast day. What does it mean? It means we don't eat or drink from sunrise to sunset - though there are two fast days that starts at sunset like other Jewish holidays, those also have different rules to them. There are also changes to the daily prayers, including a reading of the Torah at both the morning and afternoon prayers, reading from the Prophets (specifically, in this case, Isaiah) during the afternoon prayer and a few additions to the morning prayers called Selikhot, lit. Apologies.

During a fast day, we are supposed to reflect and repent what sins we might have committed, be they against G-d or each other. There is an idea in Judaism, that if the Temple wasn't yet rebuilt and salvation didn't come yet, it means we are just as sinful as our ancestors from the time of the Temple's destruction. The Sages say that the Second Temple was destroyed due to Jews hating each other and fighting among ourselves (which is probably also true practically, and not only in the religious sense). So, a few generations ago a Jewish Rabbi named Rav Kook said that (inaccurate translation, but as much as I can manage): "if we were destroyed, and the world destroyed with as, for unreasonable hatred - we shall rebuild, and the world with us, by unreasonable love." Honestly, I have no idea how to translate it any better.

Anyway, may the Temple be rebuilt swiftly, during our days, amen. Thank you for reading, and have a good day! To the Jews among you, fast well!

(Waiting for an inevitable message from a Jew who doesn't fast.)

For this Shardversary I wanted to do something different. So, I decided to post a status update during my Hebrew calendar Shardversary instead of the Gregorian one! I had to check it, since I didn't bother noting the day back then, but it's not that hard to keep track of. I would say, though, that it surprised me a little.

You see, this is my third year here - the amount of time @Tesh was here when I've joined, meaning she just doubled it about a month ago. Anyway, it's not hard to realize this was during the pandemic. But, unlike what you may have thought, it was after quarantine basically ended for me - a month or so after I've returned to my Yeshivah, to studying in capsules. This leads me to a short digression about my Sanderson history, which I probably mentioned in the past.

My older brother recommended Sanderson to me when I was somewhere in the middle of high school. I honestly don't remember the exact time. I can tell that I've first read Elantris a tad over four years ago, and it led to me reading both Mistborn and Stormlight (I think), but I was done with that quickly. And it actually wasn't my first Sanderson book - but I'm digressing from my digression.

Anyway, through the year between reading the entire published Cosmere and me signing up to the Shard, I had precisely one person to talk about the Cosmere to. And it became clear pretty quickly that he did not share my enthusiasm. This is nothing all that new; as a matter of fact, my family having trouble dealing with my rambles and rants was an issue for years, and I've been lamenting over the fact no one I know has read exactly the books I have for a long time. The funny part is, during quarantine my sisters bought and read the entire Mistborn trilogy... But they probably didn't have the patience to listen to me either. Now my sister made a presentation about Allomancy for a college assignment and needed my expertise, so ha to that! Anyway, to return to the topic (again), my brother suggested that if I wanted to discuss the Cosmere with people - I should just sign up to the Shard. So I've lurked around for some time, and after some time I decided I want to sign up.

I'm still not sure if it had the desired effect.

Anyway, things have changed since; I'm not sure I can say that I integrated into the community or found people who enjoy my rambles and rants (you guys do seem to enjoy at least some of them, but probably not all), but it did drag me to join Discord, and gave me the idea of my reading group, and taught me a few things about the world and people. Like how people can be kind and polite in the Internet, for example.

That's the point where I list all the people I interacted with and befriended, right? Supposedly. Well...

I can try. But honestly, after trying to write things about people... Maybe I'll try it during my Gregorian Shardversary, maybe not. I'm not sure I can do it very well right now.

Some of the people I'd have mentioned if I had the mind for it: @Knight of Iron, @Ixthos, @AonEne, @Ed Venture, @The Bald Brandon, @Amira, @Lego Mistborn, @ash's_eyes, @theTruthshaper and possibly a couple of others.

Anyway, those previous three years were fun, and I hope for more good times here!

... Even if I'm not really active except for random posts about Judaism. I'll get around to writing my next installment in the History of Judaism essays, I just need some more resources!

Thank you for reading, and have a good day.

All right, then. It has only been a week, but I did warn you! So, let's start talking about Shavuot!

First thing first: Shavuot is the only Jewish holiday that doesn't really have a date. I mean, with the way the current Hebrew calendar works it always hits the same date - 6th of Sivan - but its time isn't defined that way. To explain that, I'll have to go back to something I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention while talking about Pesach.

During the second day of Pesach, while the Temple in Jerusalem stood, the first butch of harvested barley was sacrificed - it was called the Omer sacrifice. Until it was made it was forbidden for Jews to eat from the newly harvested grains - nowadays it's forbidden for the entirety of the day. Those grains are called Chadash (lit. New), and as odd as it may sound this term is going to become relevant in the future in my blog posts, so keep it in mind if you plan on reading those when they come! Anyway, from the day of the Omer, we are required to count seven weeks - forty nine days (including that very day), and by their end, the 50th day is Shavuot. The time of counting is called Sefirat HaOmer (lit. The Counting of the Omer. Omer means a sheaf of grains, but it sounds odd if you fully translate it and for some reason the word isn't commonly used in modern Hebrew), by the way, and I might've mentioned it had I written a post about Lag BaOmer (the 33rd day of the Omer) - but I cancelled this one, so hurrah for that.

Anyway, during this 50th day another sacrifice was made from the new harvest - this time made of wheat, and one of the rare occasions when leavened bread was brought to the Temple! Though, unlike the Omer, it was eaten by priests. There's a rule against sacrificing leavened bread on the altar in the Temple, I don't really want to go over it. In addition to this bread, there was a special sacrifice of two lambs - which was different from regular holiday sacrifices due to it being eaten by priests, basically. It'll take too long to really explain all that. This sacrifice allowed to make sacrifices from the new grain (eating was allowed since the Omer, sacrificing wasn't), and was the starting shot of bringing the firsts of one's agricultural products to the Temple! Only from certain fruits which were considered ones that "the land of Israel is praised for": grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. As you may notice, most of those give fruit during the summer - mostly at the time between Shavuot and Sukkot (in about 4.5 months), with the latest being harvested at least by Chanukah (2 months after Sukkot). And that's the timeframe people were required to bring their first harvest of those fruits - it's called Bikurim (lit. Firsts, I guess. Not sure there's a good translation for that), and that isn't a term you need to remember.

And that's all the Torah - I mean the Pentateuch - tells us about this holiday. Some people nowadays remember it as "the holiday of Bikurim", but people don't really think much about the bread sacrifice. The thing is, the Pesach sacrifice gives its name to the holiday, and has an entire evening dedicated (partly) to remind us of it. This sacrifice does neither, and thus is only remembered in books. So in the end, Shavuot is almost the standard Yom Tov. It's only one day, which is forbidden to work at, though doing things required for food is allowed, to some extent. Supposedly I could just explain about that.

Fine, fine! Stop scratching your faces, all the Jews in the audience! I'll get to it!

So, in the Written Torah it is true that not much more is said about this holiday. But unlike I implied so far, it wasn't considered by the Sages of the Oral Torah to be just an agricultural holiday. Instead, they found a historical event that it represents.

Now, a small tidbit: without the Sages' teachings, one would assume only one Jewish holiday actually commemorates past events (or maybe two, or three, or... I'll get to it) - that being Pesach. All holidays that appear in the Torah are to commemorate the Exodus, but Pesach is specifically on the date it originally was and is wholly centered around it. Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and, yes, Shavuot, all go with no mention of any event occuring in their date due to which they're placed there. The later holidays - first Purim, then Chanukah - do commemorate certain events, as do the fast days. But, considering the lack of specific events connected in the text to the holidays, you'd think there's no need to connect them ourselves. And you might be right, but the Sages did it anyway. And after this long and kind of boring exposition, we'll get to the heart of the topic: the Giving of the Torah on mount Sinai.

Now, there is a basis to this connection: the Mount Sinai event (can't believe I'm calling it that, "event" is the wring word) occured somewhere during the 3rd month from the Exodus, according to scripture. When you go 50 days forward from the middle of the 1st month you inevitably end up at the beginning of the 3rd. Tradition says the Israelites camped at Mount Sinai at the first day of this month, and has a more-or-less detailed chronology of how the Event itself happened at the 50th day from Pesach. Part of the idea is that the Israelites counted the days of the Omer to the Event in preparation for it, ridding themselves from ideas and thought from the time they were slaves in Egypt. And so, the holiday of Shavuot - literally meaning weeks, so named after the seven weeks we count toward it - became a day of celebrating the Reception of the Torah.

That, then, is what actually makes this day unique: we don't have to eat unleavened bread or sit in a hut during it, but we celebrate the essential heart of our religion: the scripture. One could discuss on what exactly Moshe - and through him, all the Israelites - received at this event, but be it just the Ten Commandments or the entirety of the Torah, we celebrate it all. But what does that entail?

Well, though there are no unique commandments relating to this day, there are certain traditions: through Shavuot's night, many people remain awake and study the Torah - be it the Written, Oral, or really any kind of religious text there is (which is actually covered under one of the two, but no matter that). Some people read a certain prepared text that includes the beginning and ending of every book in the Tanakh (the Old Testament, for the Christians among you), with a few portions of some of the books that are read between the beginning and end of said book - ones that are deemed relevant for the day. It also includes the beginning and ending of every Mishnah tractate, and some more stuff I don't really remember. The people who pulled an all-nighter usually pray the morning prayer - Shacharit - at the earliest time possible, and tend to fall asleep during the parts that don't require much talking of them. Some people only study for a portion of the night and do get some sleep, though - they are necessary for certain things according to the Halachah, which is really not something you'd want me to get into, there were too many tangents here as it is. 

Another tradition is to eat dairy products. Well, not only dairy products - meat isn't forbidden during that day, though you can't eat it at the same meal with dairy products - but at least one meal will be mostly those. There are multiple rationalizations for that: one claims the Torah was compared to milk in the Song of Songs (a bit dubious in a way - why not eat mostly honey, or water, or wine? All are things the Torah was compared to). Another is far more convoluted though - it says that when the people of Israel received the Torah, there were many rules for meat they didn't really keep until then, which meant they had a lot of work to prepare for it. So in the meantime, they ate dairy products, because the rules for those are much less elaborate besides the "not with meat" part. And the fact milk from non Kosher animals is forbidden.

During the morning prayer, we read the Ten Commandments from the Torah (a portion of the Torah is always read during holidays), the beginning of Ezekiel (a portion of the Nevi'im, Prophets, is also always read in holidays), and the book of Ruth. I'm not going to go over why the beginning of Ezekiel - it's mainly because it's a huge revelation of G-d, and the Mt. Sinai Event was a huge revelation too - and Ruth is read because it occured at around this time of year, deals with someone accepting the Torah on herself, and also a connection between king David (who was the great-grandson of Ruth) and the holiday, which I honestly don't have the willpower to explain right now.

Anyway, that has been my ramble on Shavuot! Next time is going to be in forty days (give or take), regarding the fast days and the destruction of the Temple. Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

So. Three replies and four upvotes! Indicating at least one person upvoted without replying. Ah well. Due to my skewed judgement (and the fact I kind of want to write it), I deem that enough to try and write a ramble about the holy city of Abrahamic religions - which also happens to be my home for all 22 years of my life.

First, I'd like to add a tidbit on why I'm writing it today - this is the anniversary of the day in the Six Day War during which the Western Wall was taken by Israeli forces, commemorated to this day as Jerusalem Day. Now, Jerusalem has a long and complicated history on which I plan to elaborate a little here, so we'll get to it.

Jerusalem, then. As previously mentioned, it's considered holy for Christianity, Islam and Judaism - but no matter your stance, Judaism is obviously the oldest of the three. And since I'm a Jew, I'm probably going to tend to talk about that angle more - but I'll start with the Bible anyway, so there shouldn't be many discrepancies.

The city of Jerusalem is first mentioned by this full name in the book of Joshua - where its king is stated to create a local coalition to fight the Gibeonites, since the latters allied with the Israelites. This will probably not be considered very important to the history of the city, though - so let's go back a bit to an older mention of a similarly named city: after Abraham defeated the four northern kings who came to establish dominance over Canaan, he met someone named Malchizedek, who was king of Shalem (often transliterated as "Salem". Go figure) and a priest to "the most high G-d" - supposedly, a monotheistic priest in a world full of polytheism. According to tradition, Shalem is actually an old name for Jerusalem - it's more apparent in this transliteration, because in Hebrew there's actually another syllable in place of the latter E - the city is called Yerushalayim (the last part is pronounced like "lime"). The first part of the name is said to come from the Binding of Isaac, which is claimed to have occured on the Temple Mount - Abraham calls the place "Hashem (used here in place of G-d's name) Yir'eh", lit. "the LORD shall be seen", or something similar. Jerusalem, then, is said to be a blend of the words "Yir'eh" and "Shalem" - thus, Jerusalem. Either way, the city didn't fully get it's modern importance until the days of Kind David.

Now, some background: the city at the time was ruled by the Jebusites, gentiles of the original population of Israel. It's briefly mentioned in the story of the Levite's Concubine (the least said about it, the better), when the titular Levite refuses to stay there for the night because it's a non-Israelite city. He goes on to the Benjamite city of Gibe'ah and the rest is history. Later, the first Israelite king - Shaul (often transliterated as Saul) - will make Gibe'ah his capital - possibly due to it being a central city of his tribe, Benjamin. After King Shaul died, the tribe of Yehudah (=Judah), after which Jews are called, crowned David as king in Hebron - another important city that was in their estate, you might be already familiar with it. At first, he wasn't king over all Israel - the rest of the tribes accepted Shaul's son, Ish Boshet, as their king. To make a long story short, some people assassinated Ish Boshet, brought his head to king David and were immediately executed for treason against their king (meaning Ish Boshet. David was like that), which led to David being accepted as king over all of Israel. Up until then, Hebron served as his capital. But it was really far south from the rest of Israel, and was probably a tad over-representative of David's own tribe above all others. So, king David went to instate a new capital - Jebus, AKA Jerusalem.

Why there? Well, maybe there were historical records of the Patriarchs being there - which would be odd, because Hebron was definitely home to all the patriarchs, in addition to containing their tomb. Maybe bacause it was closer to the middle of the land. It was also right on the border between the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin (=Benjamin), the tribes of the ruling monarch and his predecessor, respectfully. In this way (and by his marriage to Michal, Shaul's daughter), King David based a connection to the previous king. It was also not far south from the previous capital, so there's that. So King David went to Jebus, conquered it, renamed a part of it "Ir David" (lit. "David's City") and made it his capital. Later he brought the Ark of Covenant there (save me Raiders of the Lost Ark references, please), and planned on building a Temple - only to be told this would be his son's job. Which it was - King Shlomoh (Solomon) built the First Temple in Jerusalem, which stood there for 410 year, according to tradition.

A lot of things happened there, for better or worse, and this is already a bit too long, so I'll do it with long time skips: the kingdom of Israel was separated into two - most of the Jews you'll meet nowas=days come from the southern kingdom of Judea, which contained both Judah and Benjamin and had Jerusalem as a capital. The city was sieged by Assiryan armies and miraculously saved, only to fall to the Babilonians a couple of decades later. It served under them until the kingdom of Judea rebelled once too much and it was destroyed, along with the Temple in it. Fast forward 70 years - the Persian kings allow Jews to rebuild the Temple, and in the process Nechemiah also rebuilds the city walls. The Persians are conquered by Alexander the Great, who dies and the area is left between the Seleucids and Ptolemys. Not a pleasant situation, really. None of those rulers tries to destroy the Second Temple - the closest anyone came was Antiochus the 4th of the Seleucids, who tried to turn it to a Hellinistic temple (I think). Then the Hasmonean dynasty rebelled and reinstated the Temple, using Jerusalem as the Jewish capital once again. Inner fights led to the Roman Empire taking over business, and the central city of Provincia Judea was (I think) Jerusalem. That would be about the time Yeshua of Nazareth, better known as Jesus Christ, was active. I don't really know the full extent of his activities, but he acted against certain things with the Temple (which, I forgot to mention, was rebuilt completely by Herod), and for some reason some things he did aggravated the Romans, who chose to hang him on a cross, as was the traditional execution at the time. Little did they know what their empire would look like in a couple of centuries.

Yeshua was said to be active in Jerusalem and executed there, which is why the Christians consider this a holy city. They mostly don't care about the Temple (though there may be Christian sects that do care), or myriad of mentions made by the Prophets (unsurprising, considering that most of the prophets we have the books of nowadays lived around Jerusalem). Anyway, not long after Yeshua's execution (a couple of decades), the Jews in Jerusalem rebelled again... with disastrous results. The Romans laid waste to Jerusalem, and the religious Jewish center there was transferred to Yavneh.

The following years weren't kind to Jerusalem: the final Jewish independance in Israel before the modern state, founded by Shimon Bar Kokhva, couldn't liberate Jerusalem and fell two years later anyhow. The Romans renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, a temple to Jupiter was built in place of the old Temple, and Provincia Judea was renamed Provincia Syria Palaestina. It was a while before Jews returned to it. 

In a few centuries, the Roman Empire changed its official religion to Christianity. Emperor Constantine I allowed Christians to enter the city (they were previously forbidden, as were Jews), and instituted Christian holy sites in the city. During the following centuries the Jewish center in Israel was at the north, in Tiberias and Zippory - though the Talmud written in Israel was still known as the Jerusalem Talmud. It was finished way earlier than the Babilonian one - not due to the superior wisdom of the Israeli Jews, but because the Romans and Byzntians made sure to make trouble to the Jews under their role - the Babilonian Jews had the pleasure to be ruled by the Parthians, who were more sympathetic.

Fast forward, Jewish population in Israel still exists (though I'm not sure about Jerusalem) and shows some resistance to the previously accepted Jewish center in Babilon (the Romans are gone by now - though Byzantion still exists). Not long after, come Muhammed, prophet of Allah. I've never read the Quran, so I'm not sure about the details, but to my knowledge Muhammed was said to ascend to heaven via the Temple Mount, tying his donkey to the Western Wall - a supporting wall of the mount built by Herod to support his expansion of the mount, considered somewhat holy for it's closeness to the Holy of Holies - the part of the Temple where the Ark of Covenant was being held. Anyway, Muhammed founded Islam, and his people - the Arab tribes of the Arab Peninsula, said to descend from Ishmael son of Abraham - went out to conquer the land. I don't know if they targeted Israel and Jerusalem for their holiness or for being the passage to Africa - probably both.

Those events weren't to the liking of the Byzantian Empire, which was Orthodox Christian. So it called out to it's western Christian (=Catholic) allies, for a holy crusade to retake the holy sites from the heretics and heathens. Retrospectively I find it funny - Islam is partially based on Christian teachings, so they did to the Christians what the Christians did to Judaism, and the Christians reacted poorly to that. In any case, it took some time fo the Christians to actually organize such things - I believe Jerusalem was under Muslim role for a couple of centuries, though the specific Muslim sect that ruled there changed a few times. During the Muslim role Jews were allowed into Jerusalem - though honestly, a few centuries in (after a few crusades already conquered and lost the city), a Jewish rabbi named Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman (AKA Nachmanides) reported only two Jewish painters, brothers, who lived in Jerusalem. It may have been a result of the crusades - Jews tended to fare better in Muslim countries. 

Speaking of the crusades, let's go back to them. The first one, I believe, was led by Godefroy de Bouillon. There is an old Jewish legend that ties him to Rashi, a well-renown Jewish interpretor and rabbi of the time who lived in France. The legend is probably wrong, so I'm going to ignore it for now - with just a side mention that Rashi also wrote a lament on Jewish congregations that were destroyed by the Crusaders. Godeefroy was just the first of many (IIRC; I might be mistaken on him being the first) to try and take Jerusalem from the Muslims. He succeeded, temporarilly, and founded the Kingdom of Jerusalem - which lost Jerusalem pretty quickly.

Following is a series of wars between Christians and Muslims over Jerusalem. This ramble is long enough as it is, and in my opinion it's pretty boring, so I'll get back to Jews in the city. I mentioned the Western Wall already; since the loss of ritual purity (not elaborating, it's a thing that exists) Jews had Halachik issues with climbing the Temple Mount, the most holy site to Judaism - the place G-d chose, as mentioned many times in Deutronomy. Thus, they holiest available Jewish site was the Western Wall - the pretty much only remaining wall from something related to the Temple (at least, remaining relatively whole. The Southern, Eastern and Northern supporting walls still exist to some extent), and the closest to its original location. So it was considered a place Jews went to for prayers. But it's not really all.

Among the well-renown Jews that went to Jerusalem are Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller who reported an existing Jewish community in the city; legends say Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (actually prior to Benjamin of Tudela) reached the city and was killed there by a Muslim horseman (dubious due to a few reasons, including the city being under Crusader role at the time); Maimonides said that he "entered the Great and Holy House and prayed there" while he was in Israel, this being assumed to be the Temple Mount; after the burning of the Talmud in Paris, Rabbi Yechiel of Paris was said to come to Israel and plan to reinstate the practice of sacrifices on the Temple mount as a first step toward the temple (some historians doubt he ever came to Israel, much less succeeded in any such endeavour); Nachmanides got there, as mentioned above, and to this day there is a synagogue named after him in the old city - supposedly built there at around the time he lived in the area. Nachmanides himself, BTW, is known to have fled Spain due to prosecutions after he won a debate against the ruling Christians. That was long before Jews were completely banished from Spain. Which just reminds me, forgive me for the lack of dates. Everything mentioned in this paragraph was during the 12th-13th century, give or take.

At this point in history, Jews were divided to Spaniards, Ashkenazi, Mizrachi etc. This is important due to another story - that of Hurvat Rabbi Yehuda He-Hasid (lit. Ruins of Rabbi Judah the Pious). It's a synagogue that was founded in Jerusalem at around the 15th century, named after a Jewish Rabbi from three ceturies before. It was an Ashkenazi synagogue, and due to various reasons and unfortunate events relating to this synagogue, during some time in the 18th century Ashkenazi Jews were forbidden from entering Jerusalem. At the time, the city was controlled by the Othoman Empire - which also built the walls currently surrounding the Old City. The Othoman Empire, BTW, accepted with open arms the Jews banished from Spain at the same time. Those of you who have sharp eyes might notice an indication here: while life in exile were bad all around, Jews were better accepted under Muslim role. It might be interesting to wonder why that is, and how is it that it turned around during the previous few centuries, but I'm digressing. From the time of the banishment of Jews from Spain in 1492 onward, there were a couple of occasions Jews went to Israel (and sometimes Jerusalem). Though for a time Safed and Tiberias contained many of the Jews in Israel, Jerusalem was still known to be the holy city (though somtimes considered one of four such cities).

During the 18th-19th centuries, the students of the BEShT (known as Chassidim; I'll get to them in my essays about Judaism at some point) and of the Gra (oh, gosh, it'll take me a while to explaain that, too. I'll get to it, really!) came to Israel, starting settlements mostly at the north - but a few of them, including one named Avraham Shlomo Zalman Zoref, came to Jerusalem and entered it - under the guise of Spanish Jews, because it was during the time Ashkenazi Jews were forbidden from entering the city. I peobably only mention him because his grandson founded a major settlement in Israel, and was involved in the expanding of Jerusalem outside the walls.

I also forgot to mention a Kaballic yeshivah named Bet E-l that also was in Jerusalem during the time. Honestly, I'm probably missing a lot of people. We're also getting close to the time of Zionism, so I'll just briefly mention people I know of: Moshe Montefiore was an rich Jew from England that gave financial support to Jews in Jerusalem and supported the expansion of Jerusalem: he built the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls and added a few lines to the Western Wall (the smaller rocks on the top). Many, many important Jewsih rabbis lived in Jerusalem at this time, like Rav Kook, Reb Arye Levin, Rav Zevi Pesach Frank, Rav Zolty, Rav Meshash, Rav Sonnenfeld, Rav Elyashiv, and if I'll try to go over them all I'll never stop. So let's go back to the founding of Israel.

You see, the Zionists were mostly secular, but even they understood the historical importance of Jerusalem. As did the UN - because in their plan of dividing Israel between the Jews and the local Arabs (oh, yeah, I skipped the Brithish conquest of the area from the Othoman empire. That happened), they claimed Jerusalem as an international city. But the founders of Israel wanted it to be the capital, and Ben Gurion, who ended up being Israel's first prime minister, saw it as a high priority to have Jerusalem. Plus, at the time, it had a sizable Jewish population - for centuries, one of the city's four quarters was Jewish. But many arabs lived here too, which made the city a battlefield. To make a long story short (again), the city ended up being split into two, with the Old City being in Jordan, while the western part was mostly in Israel. The part where I currently live - coincidentally, not far from the ancient city Gibeah - was at the time mostly barren, with maybe a house here or there, and was under Jordan role. As a matter of fact, on the hill theorized to be Gibeah where the palace of Shaul was, King Hussain started building a palace for himself.

The cituation of Jewish Jerusalem wasn't very good (and probably the same in the Jordan side), considering the fact it was close to a border with enemy country. And that is how things stayed, until nineteen years later.

At 1967, the surrounding arab countries prepared to war against Israel, those being Egypt, Syria, Lebannon and later - Jordan. Those countries didn't like the existence of a Jewish country in the middle of their Muslim area. So they decided to go over it. From what I hear of the time, people in Israel were in distress: the country was young, it was attacked from all directions and didn't receive much help from other countries. The situation seemed practically hopeless, to the point of people telling dark jokes about the last person to leave the airport needing to remmeber to turn off the lights. To be gathered from that is that many people considered leaving Israel.

And then, the state of Israel struck first. They eliminated most of the air forces of the surrounding countries in one day; during the skirmishes at the north and south they not only kept their ground, but went into enemy territory - conquering the Golan Heights in the north and the Sinai Penninsula in the south. And since Jordan joined the war... well...

There were fights over Jerusalem. They were bloody, that I can tell. I've heard parts of this story quite a few times, but can't say I remember much of the details. What I can say is that a unit of paratroopers went (by foot) into the Old City via a gate named "the Lions' gate" (mistakenly, it's not really lions etched above the gate) and successfully took it back. at the 28th of Iyar, the 5727th year in the Hebrew calendar, they reached the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, proclaiming "Har HaBayit Beyadenu!" (=we have the Temple Mount).

That was the day of reunification of Jerusalem under Israel's role. Well, basically. The Temple mount was later returned to the Waqf of Al-Aqsa (a mosque at the edge of the mount, often confused with the Dome of the Rock - which is a building over a holy site, but not a mosque, that is situated where the Temple originally was), and he has some jurisdiction there ever since - Jewish pilgrimage there is limited in certain ways, but it's still technically under Jewish role. Many Jews immediately went to the Western Wall, and during the upcoming holiday of Shavuot the place was flooded. There were houses built in the area that were destroyed to create what is known today as the Western Wall Plaza.

And that has just been my latest ramble, this time about Jerusalem. Please note that farther histroical essays will be cut to parts and uploaded to my Blog (if the feature still exists when I get to it). For some reason, I did not realize how much material I planned on covering and how it'll cause me to skip a lot of points. I'll consider making essays about Jewish life during exile, the land of Israel and other random notes. Trust me when I say, unless you're a Jew who knows some history you don't really know half the meaning of some things I've mentioned. I didn't even get to the many names of Jerusalem, Prophecies about it... It's a city rich with history - like all of the Four holy cities, but actually the most of the four. Just a tidbit - the whole "four holy cities" thing isn't supposed to say there are three more cities just like Jerusalem; those are just the four biggest Jewish population centers in Israel during a certain period of history. Anyways, I should really finish now.

So, um, thank you for reading! Have an absolutely wonderful and spectacular day! Hope you're not regreting accepting this ramble...