thunderation12-24-07

Thunderation! An Integrated Jewish Timeline © 2007 by David Birnbaum

Office of David Birnbaum: [email protected]



Thunderation!

An Integrated Jewish TimeLine

copyright 2006 by David Birnbaum, NY

publisher:J Levine / MILLENNIUM

New York

scheduled publication date:March 2008

will be available on AMAZON

all rights reserved

no commercial reproduction - in whole or in-part

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November ‘07 : copy editing underway for publication

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In Tribute*

In Tribute

to

Dean Henry Rosovsky

*Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Harvard Universityfrom 1973-1987

Lead-in…

kol ha-olam ku-logesher tzar m’od,gesher tzar m’od

v’ha-i-kar, ha-ikarlo l’fa-ched,

lo l’fa-ched klal

v’ha-ikar, ha-ikar,lo l’fa-ched klal

*

All the world

is like a narrow, frail footbridge

But the important thing,

the really important thing….

is not to be afraid…

not to be afraid…..at all….

*

- modern day Jewish folk song



Thunderation!

*** Integrated TimeLine ***

with a Jewish focus

from Infinity to present day

Thunderation! Quest for Potential (ongoing: infinitely)

Thunderation! Advanced metaphysical realms concretize (some-time between Infinity BCE and 15 billion BCE)

Thunderation! “Creation!” a/k/a The Big Bang (Cosmic Center ~15 billion BCE)

*** a half billion years transpire ***

[The first 26 Elements (of the Periodic Table) are created in-the-process]

Thunderation! (~14.5 billion years ago) Supernovas (collapsing hi-mass stars)

…start creating the heavier Elements in their imploding cores

that is, the ELEMENTS (of the Periodic Table) heavier than Ele-ment #26 - IRON

…..there are over 90 ELEMENTS heavier than IRON uncovered-to-date

…the ELEMENTS are created in the massive fusion reactions in the super-heated and super-compressed imploding-and-exploding cores of the Supernovas…

Supernovas, as well -# Seed their respective galaxies with heavy Elements,# Heat their respective galaxies with the energy of their radiation,# Stir up their respective galaxies with the force of their blast







waves,and, last-but-not-least,# Cause new stars to form

(note: Stars with at least 3x the mass of our sun, are potential candidates for “Supernova” status)

Thunderation! Galaxies continue to emerge… and then the Milky Way coalesces (~14 billion BCE)

*** ~10 billion years transpire ***

Thunderation! The Sun (4.6 billion BCE)

Thunderation! our Solar System (4.5 billion BCE)

*** half-a-billion years transpire ***

Thunderation! the first living Cell (4.0 billion BCE) i.e. “Life”

- Including bacteria

Thunderation! Photosynthesis (3.9 billion BCE)

*** Four hundred million years transpire ***

Thunderation! DNA: first strand of DNA (3.5 billion BCE)

*** ~1.5 billion years transpire ***

Thunderation! Possible massive global ice-age (2 billion BCE) “Snowball Theory”

*** Half-a-billion years transpire ***

Thunderation! organisms with CELL NUCLEUS CON-TAINING DNA (1.5 billion BCE)


Thunderation! multi-cellular life appears (1 billion BCE)


Thunderation! Cambrian explosion (~540 million BCE)

[Some 50 phyla (basic body plans) ‘suddenly & simultane-ously’ appear… the first appearance of complex animal life…

With the appearance of complex animal life, Predator-Prey dynamics manifest, as well.

Note: The “Cambrian Explosion” has never even near-ad-equately been explained by mainstream science… [author’s note: as mainstream science is too ‘bounded’]

Darwin apparently viewed the “Cambrian Explosion” as one of the principal objections that could be lodged against his Theory of Evolution by natural selection…

*** 80 million years transpire ***

Thunderation! LIFE moves ashore (~460 million BCE)


Thunderation! AMPHIBIANS (~390 million BCE)


Thunderation! the first FORESTS (~335 million BCE)


Thunderation! DINOSAURS (235 million BCE - 65 million BCE)






(From the start of the Dinosaurs to the start of Birds)

Thunderation! BIRDS evolve (~150 million BCE)


Thunderation! FLOWERS evolve (~114 million years ago)


Thunderation! MAMMALS evolve (65 million BCE) and flourish


Thunderation! earliest HOMINIDS (precursors of human lineage) (4 million BCE)

[French and Chadian paleontologists - and The Science Chan-nel (1.1.07) - assert that the “Toumai” male fossil, discovered 2001 in western Africa, Djurab Desert, northern Chad, is the earliest HOMINID, standing 4’ high at age 20, with a nuclear family group of about six… and peg him at 7 million BCE… i.e. 230,000 generations back… but the Wikipedia consen-sus (1.3.07) is that Toumai, whatever he is, is not the earliest HOMINID, but rather a pre-cursor of HOMINIDS]

The famous “Lucy” fossil was discovered in 1974 in east Africa in Ethiopia. (The American anthropologist Johanson who discovered her was listening to the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as he unearthed her remains… hence, “Lucy”)… Lucy (3.2 million BCE) is considered by consensus to be the first clear-cut HOMINID fossil, and HOMINIDS, as a group, are dated by consensus back to 4 million BCE)

*** ~3.2 million years transpire post-Lucy to > modern HU-MANS ***

Thunderation! first modern HUMANS (130,000 BCE)

[Homo sapiens (Latin for “wise/knowing man”)… first fossil record: Africa]

It will now take 128,300 years until Lech L’chah (Abraham) in 1700 BCE;

So, if a generation is 30 years, it will take 4,276 generations from this (first modern HUMANS) point (4 million BCE) until Abraham…… as counter-posed to the ~123 generations from Abraham to our present point in 2007 ….so, the period from Abraham to the present, represents only ~3% of the time duration since the appearance of ‘modern HUMANS….

*** ~119,000 years transpire ***

Thunderation! Agriculture (11,000 BCE)

{5500 BCE Egyptians weave flax into fabric, i.e. flax threads were woven together to create fabric for the first time}

{4400 BCE HORSES domesticated… power… transporta-tion… warfare}

Thunderation! Early Bronze Age (c. 3500-2000 BCE)

{Invention of WRITING… organization of CITY STATES}

{~3500 BCE Sumerians develop a phonetic alphabet; Most of the surviving records are of business transactions}

{~3500 BCE Bronze made for the first time - Copper was





combined with tin, which created the new metal that could be used in many tools}

{~3250 BCE Paper made of Papyrus Reed - The first known paper was produced in Egypt. The central pulp of papyrus reed was split, dried and glued together}

{~3250 BCE Hieroglyphic Writing - The Egyptians devel-oped a system of recording/writing known as hieroglyphics, which initially told the story with pictographs}

[~3200 BCE Sumerian civilization begins… a system of City-States developed along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers (In modern-days, this is Iraq)]

{~3000 BCE First chariots and wagons - The wheels were made of wood and were very heavy and cumbersome ini-tially, as is to be expected}

Thunderation! Narmer [Menes] (~3050 BCE) generally considered the First Pharaoh, founder of the “First Dynasty” (of Egypt)

Thunderation! ~2800 BCE, China, semi-mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Exemplars

…according to Chinese legend, the Three August Ones and the Five Emperors ruled…they were sage-kings and moral-exemplars…

…one of them, The Yellow Emperor is positioned as the royal ancestor of the Han Chinese

….note that the earliest written record of China’s past dates from ~13th century BCE (the time of the Jewish Exodus)…Shang Dynasty…these written records were inscriptions (spiritual/religious-related) on bones and shells…known as the ‘Oracle Bones’

…the Shang Dynasty spanned ~250 years…from 1300 BCE to 1046 BCE… it incorporated 31 kings, from Tang to Zhou-of-Shang….

over the span of the 250 years, he Shang Dynasty moved its capital six times, the last time to the city of Yin (modern-day Henan….east-central China)….traditionally considered the ‘cradle of Chinese civilization’

….succeeded by the Zhou Dynasty (under King Zhou-of-Zhou), invoking the so-called ‘Mandate from Heaven’…a celestrial invocation to be repeated by succeeding claimants to the Chinese thrown over-the-centuries… (I use this line effectively with my 3 kids)

Many of these centuries were to be ‘Zhou Dynasty centuries’, as this dynasty, China’s longest, spanned 800 years (and 37 emperors)…

In 221 BCE, Qin defeated the other six states, including the Zhou, and finally unified China

(more below at that time period… Qin Dynasty)

[author - Wherever you hear that so-and-so ‘unified’ a coun-try, do not assume that this was a nice and sweet ”Boy Scout operation”]

Thunderation! Imhotep, vizier of Egypt, designs and con-structs the Pyramid of (Pharaoh) Djoser (2630 - 2611 BCE)

[First stone pyramid (as opposed to mud-brick) : The Great Step-Pyramid Complex of Djoser at Saqquara; Central pyra-mid rose about 20 stories tall; Imhotep, doctor, sage, archi-tect, astronomer and High Priest, is also credited as a founder of the Egyptian and Masonic mystery traditions (author- sounds right)]





Thunderation! ~2560 BCE, Great Pyramid of Giza

[a/k/a “Khufu’s Pyramid”… tomb of CHEOPS (a/k/a Khufu) Fourth Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh… approx. 7 year construc-tion… was also the world’s highest man-made structure (at 480.9 ft = 146.6 m) until 1300 CE… although height was certainly not its primary defining historicity… for-the-record, the Great Pyramid was eventually first surpassed in height (only) 3,652 years later (by 13.4 m….i.e. several feet) by the Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England in 1092]

{Mathematical development 2000 BCE, Babylonians devel-op a mathematical system based on units of 60… they divide the CIRCLE into 360 units/degrees}

{Cotton, 1900 BCE, used for the first time… by Harappans (Indus Valley, ~Pakistan) who become the first to grow and weave cotton into fabric}

Thunderation! Stonehenge (~2500 BCE)

[& the sophisticated civilization which spawned it over many, many centuries….but which subsequently disappeared]

(The Stonehenge edifice-setup itself seems to have been a combination spiritual/religious/astronomical edifice, mark-ing, as well, seasonal solsticesvia the sun’s projection through its carefully-laid-out archi-tectural apertures…)

Thunderation! Hammurabi & his Code, Old Babylonia (1792 BCE - ~1750 BCE)

[First known comprehensive legal code… pre-dates the To-rah by ~500 years]

Thunderation! Shang Dynasty, China, (commencing 1700s BCE)

[Extending ~600 years… to ~the time of Torah - at Sinai]

Thunderation! “Lech L’chah ” (Genesis: God to Abraham: “Walk from your land…”) Ur Kasdim, Middle East, 1700s BCE

{”… and from the land of your forefathers, and go from your birthplace… unto Canaan… the land which God bequeaths unto thee”}

[Middle Bronze Age c. 2500-1600 BCE - Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos and Israelites in the Middle East and Near East]

{”Great Stone Palace” of Knossos, Crete, Mediterranean… extraordinary 1300 room edifice built over 300 year time-span 1700-1400 BCE (some contractors take longer than others)… political and ceremonial center of Minoan civiliza-tion… indoor plumbing… complex and highly-sophisticated water and drainage systems… to keep it cool, mostly con-structed of stone palace…hence the name}

Thunderation! Joseph, now Viceroy of Egypt, 1522 BCE, reveals his identity to his brothers (who, jealous of him, and not particularly enamored of his ego, had sold him into slav-ery ~2-3 decades back) [but it does take a pretty large ego to be Viceroy of Egypt… so, you do need to be careful who you sell into slavery…

Thunderation! “BitYa”, daughter of Pharaoh, rescues baby Moses from the bull rushes ~1300 BCE, banks of Nile River, Egypt

[BitYa’s rescue of baby Moses will significantly impact world history… Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Babylonian, Persian - and later British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Moslem, Byzantine, Ottoman et al. - empires - all, of course, heavily





impacted by the “Giving of the Torah” by Moses… unfolding of Judaism, then Christianity, Islam, Protestantism, et al.]

(BitYa is referred to in the Torah only as “Pharaoh’s daugh-ter”; she is ‘named’ later by Jewish Medrashim: BitYa a/k/a BatYa - “Daughter of God”…one of the most beautiful and transcendent names ever assigned in the span of Judaism).

1250 BCE -1260 BCE: Moses stats confronting Pharaoh (possibly Hatsheput)

Thunderation! EXODUS (not the movie) ~1250 BCE

(pharaoh of Egypt: possibly Amenhotep II)

Israelites escape/exit Egypt with panache… organized into 12 tribes…

… shortly thereafter also, in parallel, into three ceremonial levels:1) Highest: Priesthood (Ko-hen), Prime Temple ceremonial;descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses2) ‘Levite class’: Levites (Lai-vi) Temple ceremonial3) Nation-as-a-whole: Israelites (Yisrael)…

with the first two categories both from the Tribe of Levi (of the 12 Tribes)

Meaning, one of the 12 tribes is LeviFrom that tribe,if one was a descendant of Aaron, one was a Kohen;If one was from the Tribe of Lavi, but not a descendant of Aaron, one was a Levite

After 40 years in the desert, the Israelites finally establish themselves in Canaan through a series of military victories and political ententes.

Thunderation! “Mattan Torah” (Giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai), Sinai Desert, ~1250 BCE) via Moses

Monotheism codified… 613 Precepts [mitzvot] for the Jews [including the more complex laws of Kashrut, Shabbat, Temple-related]…the ‘dignity of man’… focus on the God of Israel… including, of course, the 10 Commandments… metaphysical themes embedded within the Torah…

There are 7 Precepts [mitzvot] mandated for all-mankind from the time of Noah…known as “(The Seven) Noahide Laws”[6 of the Laws are prohibitions: (on)idolatry; murder; theft; sexual promiscuity; blasphemy; cru-elty to animals;1 of the 7 laws is a requirement:Just Courts & Laws

…..the ‘Giving of the Torah’ will change the world forever-more…a sui generis epochal event…

Over the centuries, the Jews will reach the heights - and then the depths - as an historic consequence…

the Jews will protect the Torah; the Torah will anchor the Jews…

the Jews will have both a uniquely stellar-dynamic journey and, then, an exceedingly tortuous-brutal fight-for-survival, equality, dignity…..

perspective: The extreme-polar opposites are not coinciden-tal… Having reached a zenith (Receivers of the Torah at Si-nai) , the Jews are permanently a subtle threat to claimants of cultural or spiritual primacy; The more the Jews are de-graded, it will be felt, the lower the threat





Thunderation! Women’s Rights, Sinai Desert ~1250 BCE

[Granted by Moses via rulings concerning ‘b’not Tzlaf-chad’, the five daughters - and only survivors - of their deceased fa-ther, Tzlaf-chad. (biblical, Sinai desert…shortly after Sinai, just noted]

Thunderation! Joshua conquers Canaan ~ 1200 BCE; ‘the walls of Jericho fall’

Israelite leader Joshua, successor to Moses camps outside the heavily-fortified city of Jericho, and sends spies in to recon-noiter…their main ally inside the city is the prostitute Ra-hab…subsequent to the conquest of the city, only Rahab and her family are spared…

Thunderation! ~1250 BCE - 1200 BCE Philistines arrive on Israel’s coastal plain

They establish themselves along the Mediterranean coastal plane of Israel… nomadic pagan warriors originally pos-sibly from Crete… they establish five city-states: Ashdod, Ashqelon, Ekron, Gath, and, last but not least, Gaza.

…they will be a thorn-on-the-back-of-Israel for hundreds of years

perspective: how did those smart Israelites allow those Phi-listines to hold that (strategic)waterfront property?It is believed by military historians, that the Philistines had ‘entered the ‘Iron Age’ before the Israelites…and that the Phi-listines possessed iron chariots (see Shoftim [Judges] 1:19) and iron swords…so, battle during rain or flood-time, wher-ever possible, would neutralize the Philistine advantage…

….Against another iron-chariot-enabled foe, (”900 chariots of iron” - Shoftim [Judges] 4:3) King Ja’bin of Ha’zor…

it is possible that the flooding River Kishon was pivotal in Judge Devorah/General Barak’s overwhelming of the forces of Ja’bin’s General Sisero’s forces (Shoftim [Judges] 5:1): “The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Ki’shon.” see immediately following >

Thunderation! Prophetess & Judge DEVORAH leads the Israelites, Canaan, 1100s BCE

[Her Commanding General, Barak - together with (appar-ently pro-active) freelancer homemaker Yael - respectively, defeat and assassinate Canaanite general Sisero]

Thunderation! 1100s BCE : Gideon becomes Judge ( and warrior-commander ) of the Israelites…..mandate to deliver Israel from the Midianites and Amelekites…

chooses only small cadre of 300 highly-motivated, fearless and classy warriors(Iconic King Leonidas of Greece will employ similar strata-gem at Thermopylae with his immortal “300″ [i.e. the same precise number of warriors] ~675 years later, and march, as well, into immortality)

Gideon also important progenitor of ‘psychological warfare’

Arming his warriors with torches, trumpets and noise-mak-ing clay pots,and then attacking-at-night in full fury, trumpets blaring, torches alit, pots shattering, Gideon and his attacking & sur-rounding 300 seem to the Midianites like 3,000 - or 30,000 - and the Midianites retreat across Israel…

After prevailing over Israel’s enemies, master strategist Gideon nevertheless declines to be King, telling the Jews that God was their ruler





BATTLE of TROY: (actual historical event which is the source for the legendary tale of Troy), Asia Minor, captured 1184 BCE in the Trojan Wars….by the Greeks united under Agamemnon….after lengthy siege.the torrid mythical ro-mance of Helen of Troy (”the face that launched a thousand ships”) with (Prince) Paris, heir to the throne of Troy, is op-tional…Paris got Helen, but lost everything else…

Thunderation! Samson, 1100s BCE, Gaza, Palestine

[Mercurial and Herculean figure Shimshon ha-Gibor….Ac-cording to the Book of Judges, Samson is betrayed by Del-ilah, who has cut his NAZIR-ite hair, thereby eviscerating his strength. He is then enslaved by his mortal enemies, the Philistines. Samson is bound, shackled, and tormented by his Philistine captors at their pagan rites at the Temple of Dagon….Samson thereupon brings down the colossal temple roof upon the 3,000 assembled Philistines, their rulers and priests - and upon himself….

…to be known, as a consequence - down-through-history - as “the Samson Defense” (meaning, of course, taking your enemies down-with-you)]

Thunderation! First king of Israel, King Saul, (1047 BCE - 1012 BCE)

Goliath: 1012 BCE: David ( future King of Israel ) slingshots the giant Goliath (Golyat), Kingdom of Israel under King Saul (~1012 BCE)

Mt. Gilboa: King Saul, first King of Israel, killed by the Phi-listines at the Battle of Mount Gilboa ~1007 BCE, along with his son, Jonathan

From the dirge of soon-to-be king, David:

b’chayehem u’v’mosamlo nifra-du….

*m’nisharim ka-lu,

u’me-arayot ga-vei-ru…*

Eich naf-lu gi-bo-rim…In life or in death !

*

Never parted,*

They were swifter than eagles,They were stronger than lions !……

*How the mighty have fallen…

Samuel B (Shmuel Beth)1: 23…..25 (quotes non-continuous)

Thunderation! King David ~1000 BCE

David’s lifespan: 1037 BCE - 967 BCEDavid’s reign over Judea alone: 1007 BCE - 1005 BCEDavid’s reign over Judea and Israel: 1005 BCE - 967 BCE

David attacks and captures Jerusalem; Jerusalem becomes City of David (993 BCE) and capital of the Kingdom of Israel…

Acclaimed battle hero, warrior, musician, poet and author

Credited with penning (majority of) the PSALMS,known as the Psalms of David (Tehillim)

David depicted in extraordinary terms biblically - in both





Book of Samuel [Shmuel Aleph] and Chronicles [Sefer Di-vrei ha-Yamim] - along with major character flaws.

Tenacious, phoenix-like, ultimately victorious, multi-faceted

immortal - via both pen and sword…

Fathers Solomon (the Wise)…. King of Israel

Thunderation! “First Temple” (of Israel) completed by King Solomon, Jerusalem (~950 BCE)

(Solomon’s legendary Temple will last ~ 364 years….To be destroyed by the Babylonians 586 BCE…..Solomon’s Temple is de facto the successor to the (portable) Tabernacle [Mishkan] the Israelites used during the bulk of their 40-year sojourn through the desert, back post-exodus from Egypt…

Solomon’s Temple (to be destroyed by the Babylonians 586 BCE) will in-due-course be succeeded ~50 years later by the Second Temple built in the early 500s BCE primarily under Persian Jewish satrap Zerubavel…..

the Second Temple will then undergo an extraordinary and historic renovation (if not, total re-building) under King Herod the Great ~500 years later in the latter-half of the first century BCE….only to be destroyed, in-turn, by the Romans ~70 years later in 70 CE…..

Solomon will play the “Wise & Peaceful” (and quite wealthy) king - juxtaposed to his father’s “Warrior-Poet” role…Of course, his father had done the “heavy lifting”, but the two are both at the apex of the Jewish pantheon…

Clearly, with the erection of The Temple (a/k/a The First Tem-ple…a/k/a The Temple of Solomon) under freedom, peace, prosperity and historically grand boundaries - while under a

wise and benevolent ruler - and as direct heirs to “Sinai” just 300 years earlier - Judaism achieved an extraordinary apex point…)

Thunderation! Israel split into two kingdoms (796 BCE) (not good)

Jeroboam, King of Israel in the northRehoboam, King of Judah, in the south

Thunderation! (prophet) Isaiah [Yishayahu] (~770 BCE - 700 BCE)

Thunderation! ~750 BCE Romulus founds Rome (along with his younger brother - and future doomed victim of frat-ricide - Remus)

764 BCE: Amos begins to prophecy755 BCE: Hosea begins to prophecy753 BCE: Zecharia leads Israel as king752 BCE: Menachem leads Israel as king740 BCE: Pekach becomes king of Israel739 BCE: Yotam becomes king of Judah736 BCE: Micah begins to prophecy735 BCE: Ahaz becomes king of Judah732 BCE: Hosea becomes king of Israel

Thunderation! Assyrians overrun Northern Kingdom of Is-rael 722 BCE… initially under Shalmaneser V and then un-der Saragon II

Assyrian ruler Saragon II (father of Sennacherib) asserts in his Annals that he carried away 28,000 (Israelite) inhabitants from Samaria region (middle/northern Israel) ….. i.e. “The Lost Ten Tribes” …

{ author’s note: My ‘current wisdom’ is that they were dispersed. }





then Saragon II re-populated the Samaria region with people from Cuthah in the Assyrian Mesopotamian area… these new inhabitants formed a new Samaritan (or Samarian) population known as the Cuthim… with their hybrid-religion, part Jew-ish, part Pagan… and their temple on Mt. Gerizim… with the Jewish component of their religion not quite evolving apace with mainstream Judaism over-the-centuries-to-come.

Thunderation! (Assyrian) Sennacherib attacks Jerusalem (~700 BCE)

Sennacherib (son of Sargon II) attacks Jewish King Heze-kiah’s rebellious Judea; He sacks 46 towns and villages, but fails to take Jerusalem; According to Melachim Beth (Kings II 19:35) God slayed the entire Assyrian camp of 185,000 troops the night before the anticipated battle. The Greek his-torian Herodotus (in his Histories 450 BCE) relates a parallel divinely-appointed mega-disaster-saga befalling Sennach-erib’s army the night before it faced the Jewish forces…

{660 BCE Empire of Japan established by Jimmu Tenno}

{621 BCE Greek Lawgiver Draco drafts a proposed legal code for Athens

-with severe punishments, generally the death penalty, for all crimes, hence the word ‘draconian’ (extremely harsh)}

Thunderation! Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar defeats and eclipses Assyrians (606 BCE)

Thunderation! Lao Tzu / Taoism / Tao Te Ching (~600 BCE)

Thunderation! (prophet) Yechezkel (593 BCE) [Ezekiel]

Jerusalem Temple I under siege by Babylonians… whose em-

pire, in turn, is to fall within 50 years - to Cyrus the Great’s Persians, who are to be benign to the Jews…

destruction of Temple I: 586 BCE, 9th day of Jewish lunar month of Av (Tish’a B’Av) by Babylonians… pivotal (disas-ter) day in Jewish history.

The Prophet Yechezkel is exiled along with the Jewish peo-ple to Babylon, but, all-things-considered, a relatively non-brutal exile, if an exile can, indeed, avoid being described as brutal… the Babylonian Empire falls to the Persians in 539 BCE, essentially freeing the Babylonian Jews…

200 years later, the Persian Empire will, (unfortunately for the Jews) in turn, fall to Alexander’s Greeks over the 334-331 BCE time span… successor regimes to Alexander, will, ~ 200 years later, include Antiochus, enemy of the Maccabees…]

Thunderation! Buddhism founded (~563 BCE) by (Prince) Siddhartha

Thunderation! The “Writing on the Wall” (Book of Daniel 5:1-31)… 539 BCE or 538 BCE

Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin (Aramaic)… deciphered by Daniel for the Babylonian King Belshazzar, successor to Ne-buchadnezzar.

[Belshazzar (profanely) uses sacred golden and silver ves-sels, which had been removed from the (Jewish) Temple by his predecessor Nebuchadnezzar (who had conquered Jeru-salem and sacked the Temple in 586 BCE… Belshazzar and his Court (blaspheme God by) praising the gods of gold and silver… immediately the disembodied fingers of a human hand appear and write on the wall of the royal palace the words noted above… Indecipherable to the king’s Court for reasons unknown… Daniel, an exile from Jerusalem and for-





merly of high office under Nebuchadnezzar is sent for…

Daniel to Belshazzar:

‘Mene Mene’ = God has numbered the days of your kingdom, which will now be brought to an end

‘Tekel’ = You have been weighed in the balance (of the scales of merit/justice) and have been found wanting

‘Upharsin’ = Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians

Belshazzar is, according to lore, slain that night (apparently by his sones);

Cyrus the Mede, of Persia, (later to be known as Cyrus the Great) becomes ruler of Babylon and of the general area.

Daniel rises to great prominence as the pre-eminent admin-istrative leader of Babylon…the pre-eminent of the “Three Presidents”….presumably a triumvirate

Later, temporarily caught in political intrigue, he finds him-self in a Lion’s den - protected, however, apparently by the God of Israel from all harm (It is good to have allies in high places.)

After Daniel’s deliverance, Cyrus the Great issues a decree encouraging reverence for “the God of Daniel” (6:26)

In the 3,000 year history of the Jews, there was no greater friend of the Jews than….Cyrus the Great

Thunderation! 539 BCE Persians under Cyrus the Great now dominate the Near East

Thunderation! Edict of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus I), Emperor of Persia, 538 BCE

[Cyrus pro-actively facilitates the return of the Jews (~50,000) from Babylon to Israel…

… as well as the return of the sacred vessels, which had been taken from the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. He also provided funding and total political support for the rebuilding of the Temple…. Cyrus emerges as the pivotal and key player in the building of Temple II…]

Thunderation! Darius the Great (Darius I) becomes king of Persia 522 BCE

[Cyrus’s two sons are killed in the bloodshed surrounding Darius’s ascent to power…

Darius, who will battle on all fronts, will reign for thirty-six tempestuous years… Among other exceptional legacies, he constructs the legendary capital of Persepolis…he expands the empire from the Indus River on the east to the border of Macedonia (Greece) on the west…

Darius is known as well for acute financial, legal and orga-nizational skills… 111 Post Stations are set up with horses and riders, the first ‘pony express’… Darius organizes the empire into twenty provinces, each under a separate gover-nor or satrap…

Under Darius, Daniel back in Babylon, held the office of the first (pre-eminent) of the “three presidents”…thus Darius has effectively but a Jew (a Jewish exilee and prophet, no less) in charge of the former Babylon (which had conquered and exile the Jews)

Under the auspices of Darius-designated (Jewish) Persian





satrap in-charge of Judea, Zerubavel, the work of rebuilding the Temple resumes… It is carried forward to completion and consecration by the year 515 BCE under the stimulus of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah…

But there are items permanently missing items from the First Temple, the ‘Temple of Solomon’ including the core and iconic ‘crown jewels’:the Ark of the Covenant - and the Ten Commandments

Their fate, a mystery for all-time…

500 years later in ~19 BCE Herod effects a very major and extraordinary renovation… see encyclopedia articles on Herod’s Temple renovation a/k/a ‘Herod’s Temple’ for im-portant clarification and amplification]

##########################################

#### INSERT: Achaemenid Dynasty of Persian kings ####

# 559 BCE Cyrus (Kurus) the Great [Cyrus I]becomes king ofa coalition of tribes in Persian territory calledAnsan, and defeats the King of the Medesfive years later in…# 550 BCEestablishing the Achaemenid Empire(named after an ancestor Achaemenes)# 539 BCE Cyrus conquers Babylon -and allows exiled leaders of the subject nationsto return home# 530 BCE Cyrus succeeded by his sonCambyses# 525 BCE Cambyses conquers Egypt# 522 BCE Darius, (a descendant of Achaemenesand a cousin of Cambyses) [Darius I]

‘the Great’ takes control upon Cambyses’ death# 486 BCE Xerxes I << Queen Esther maybe here ( but some say later)succeeds his father Darius I …ill-fated campaigns against the Greeks (notablyMarathon under his father, and then Thermopylae)along with scattered revoltsin Persia, weaken the Achaemenid Empire# 465 - 424 BCE Reign of Artaxerxes I# 404 BCE Egyptians revolt against Persia,gain independence, until the later arrival of theGreek conqueror Alexanderthe Great in the 330s BCE# 424 - 423 BCE Xerxes II# 423 - 404 BCE Darius II (Ochus)# 404-359 BCE Reign of Artaxerxes II# 358 - 338 BCE Reign of Artaxerxes III# 338 - 336 BCE Reign of Artaxerxes IV# 336 - 330 BCE Reign of Darius III# 330 BCE Alexander the Great defeats Darius IIIand conquers Persia

##### end of insert #####

————————————————————

[author’s note: The Achaemenid Dynasty had de facto incu-bated the Babylonia Talmud]

Thunderation! ~491 BCE Confucius - Chinese thinker and social philosopher - transitions…

Approximately at age 60, the Chinese minister Lu Long (to be known only later as Confucius), resigns his high Ministe-rial post at Court…

Confucius will spend the last ~decade of his life traversing





and wandering China, teaching morality, family values, the importance of inter-personal relations, justice and sincerity… with a sprinkling of statecraft…

Both the series ‘The Five Classics’ (which he used) and the ‘Analects of Confucius’ (which actually post-dated him) were (actually) written by others….

… no extant works…extraordinary legacy traversing Asia and beyond

Confucius lived ~551 - 479 BCE…

Thunderation! Battle of Marathon… (490 BCE)

Rebellious Athenians (Greeks, that is) defeat the expan-sion-minded Persians (of Darius I) in this particular battle…”nenike’kamen!” (see following)

[… an Athenian herald, Pheidippides, runs between 21 - 25 miles ( from Marathon to Athens) and conveys the news of the victory to the Athenians… By legend, and according to the historian Herodotus, the Athenian runner dies from ex-haustion upon proclaiming in triumph upon reaching Athens “We were victorious !” {the one-word Greek exclamation is “nenike’kamen!”}…

Note: the current “Marathons” are a little longer, 26.2 miles = 42.195 kilometers.Why?At the 1908 Olympics, the Marathon route was laid-out be-tween Windsor Castle (Berkshire County, outside of London) and the Royal Family box in the Olympic Stadium in Lon-don, with a distance of 42.195 km; This distance was codified in 1921 (13 years and three Olympics later, after the London Olympics) by Rule 240 of the IAAF - International Amateur Athletic Union - members of which were presumably Yale

graduates mesmerized by royalty…]

Thunderation! Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE) (off the east coast of Greece)

Outnumbered between 50 to 1 and 100 to 1, depending on how one calculates the assembled forces and their allies, King Leonidas of Sparta (Greece, of course) and his valiant “300” make their legendary “last stand” against the overwhelming forces of Persian Xerxes the Great (son of Darius I)… the valiant Spartan forces lose the battle of the Pass of Thermo-pylae (on Day #3)… but, presumably inspired by Leonidas and the “300”, the Greeks ultimately decisively prevail, first at the naval battle of Salamis and then, at the land battle Plat-aea, ending the greek nightmare - the putative Xerxes expan-sion-invasion into Europe.

Thermopylae justifiably occupies a unique place in Greek and Western lore.

Thunderation! (Jewish-born) Queen Esther, Persia, (478 BCE)

[Esther and her uncle Mordechai turn-the-tables (and gal-lows) on Haman, Viceroy ( probably) of Xerxes I (a/k/a Achashverosh), Ruler of Persia…

The First Persian Empire (Achaemenid Dynasty) spanned from 648 BCE (Cyrus the Great, founder) until 330 BCE (Darius III),

The Persian Empire falls at the famous Battle of Gaugamela - to the military phalanxes and advanced-and-daring strata-gems of the young Greek/Macedonian conqueror from the west, Alexander the Great… who was outnumbered more than 5:1 by Darius III’s defending Persians…





Few battles inhistory have ben analyzed more than Guagamela

Via his long-range advance-Scouts, Darius II knew that Alex-cander was coming,

and, even though Darius knew that he overwhelmingly out-numbered Alexander, Darius had a full appreciation for Alex-ander’s ‘talent-basket’

Via messenger, Darius offered ”a deal” to Alexander not to attack. He offers Alexander land - alot of land… But, Alex-ander declines.

Alexander ‘wanted-it-all’

The battle shapes-up at Gugamela

The massive Persian army squares-off againstthe much-smaller, but ‘hi-voltage’ Macedonian army of Al-exander

Alexander employed several new stratagems in-tandem, at Gugamela in 331 BCE,( “on the 34th day of the lunar month” ), but the crucial tacti-cal maneuver is universally acknowledged, as follows:

Alexander psyches-out Darius’s Persians into opening a sub-tle gap in their lines,and then Alexander cartwheels into a a lightning-charge - led by himself and his fiercest battalions - in wedge-formation right into the belly of this subtle gap - blasting the subtle gap into an open V-shaped channel - and now charging straight at Darius’s ‘High Command’. The Persian ’center-of-gravity’ is thrown off-balance; The ’Persian center’ implodes. Persia is hisory.

Thunderation! GREECE! (776 BCE - 146 BCE)

[Greek warfare, Olympics, democracy, math, philosophy, lit-erature & architecture… Alexander (the Great), son of Phil-ip, dies in 323 BCE at age 33 after cross-continental swath of extraordinary conquests, including the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, former Babylon, Persia and India…

Alexander was a conqueror of mythical stature, who, as far as these matters go, wasbenevolent to the conquered territories - and, as-a-rule, be-nevolent to even to the hitherto Royal Families of the respec-tive conquered lands…

Thunderation! “Ezra the Scribe” (Ezra ha-Sofer) returns from Babylon to Jerusalem (459 BCE)

[Believed to have led about 5,000 additional Jewish exiles living in Babylon, back to their home city of Jerusalem… credited by many scholars as the author of the Book of Ezra and the Book of Chronicles I (Sefer Divrei ha-Yamim I)]

Thunderation! Nechemia appointed governor of Judea (445 BCE)

Appointed by Artaxerxes I of Persia (who had captured Bab-ylonia)[satrap Nechemia (Jewish) returns from Babylon and rebuilds Jerusalem city walls… is governor for probably 33 years, with a 2-year interlude back in Persia at the 13-year mark]

{370 BCE Romans commence their legendary road building. The first road ran from Rome to Alban Hills, and was used primarily for military traffic, as that was, of course, the pri-mary purpose of their road network…}

Thunderation! Age of Pericles 460 BCE - 429 BCE

Pericles, a young Athenian aristocrat, becomes the dominant





Greek politician… a period of expanding democracy at home, and increased conquest and imperialism abroad. Greece will attempt to walk this schizophrenic line and, to a great extent, “gets away with it” in the history books.

Thunderation! Peloponnesian Wars 431 BCE - 404 BCE… Sparta vs. Athens

Thunderation! The Great Assembly, Jerusalem (410 BCE - 310 BCE)

[120 member “Anshei Knesset HaGedolah”…(a/k/a The Great Synagogue) counted among its renowned members the last of the prophets - Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi]

—–

399 BCE Socrates ( in Greece ) is accused of corrupting Athenian youth, and gets death sentence

Thunderation! Revolt of the Jews against Artaxerxes III in Persia (350 BCE)

—–

350 BCE: Crossbow invented in China.

338 BCE: Philip of Macedon ( father of Alexander [ to be ] Great ) unites all Greece under his rule.

338 BCE: early Roman coinage

336 BCE: Philip of Macedon assassinated ( probably by his wife, mother of Alexander )

335 BCE: Aristotle teaches in Athens

Thunderation! Ramifications of Alexander the Great’s de-feat of Darius III at Gaugamela, 332 BCE

Epic historical battle…one of the pivotal battles of all time..Alexander displays his tactical genius and routs the Persians

Alexander conquers Palestine from the Persians in the pro-cess, and “Hellenization” of Palestine/Judea commences.

The Persian potentates had been “good for the Jews”. ‘Hel-lenization’, under-the-Greeks, however, will trigger a series of extraordinary inter-locking events…these events will in-clude the Jewish Revolts against Rome, the destruction of Temple II, the ascendancy of Christianity, and the eventual morphing of the Roman Empire to an increasingly anti-Jew-ish Christianity…the morphing of Rome to Christendom will embrace subsequent grave persecutions of the Jews scattered through the far-reaches of Europe, which will unhinge the Jews for centuries…

Thunderation! Alexander the Great dies in Babylon 323 BCE…

massive empire carved up by his generals… succession wars

Thunderation! 300 BCE, Euclid

A Hellenist living in Alexandria, Egypt, publishes ELE-MENTS - a 13-volume treatise on geometry…and on the an-cient Greek version of number theory…

Euclidean Geometry will employ:- Postulates (axioms) << highest level ’laws’- Propositions (theorems) << derivations from Postulatesand then,# Proofs of theorems



Euclidian geometry is a self-contained construct of mathe-matical and formal logic, of elegance - and perfection. [Per-fection is nice.]

Euclid’s work, the “ELEMENTS” (originally in Greek) has, according to the going-wisdom, gone through over a 1,000 editions, and is considered the most successful ‘textbook’ ever written. Of course, it was written as a Treatise, not nec-essarily as a textbook. [the classic sequence is: Treatise > Textbook > Name of a small rock band] (”Elements” is avail-able very readily in toto on the Web, in English, among other languages, via Google or other search engines).

{289 BCE Ptolemy II of Egypt builds first known large Light House…

on an island at the mouth of the Nile. The Lighthouse was 400 feet high, and according to lore could be seen from 40 miles away;However, the horizon distance can be calculated by formula. So, let’s analyze it’s view-ability by formula, not just ‘lore’.The ‘Imperial formula is:horizon (in miles) = the square root of [1.5 x height ( in feet )];so, the square root of [1.5 x 400 feet]orthe square root of 600, which equals = ~ 24.5so 24.5 miles as the horizon distance;

As opposed to the 40 mile figure quoted in ‘lore’

But how much do you add for the light on top of the lighthouse?Depends on how bright the light… (but not an extra 15.5 miles with 250 BCE lighting technology)

250 BCE: Parthian kingdom founded in the Middle East and Near East

…led by the Arsacid dynasty…arch-enemy of the Roman Empire to the west…reaches greatest extent ~125 BCE un-der Mithriadates…lats about 500 years ( until ~ 250 CE )

250 BCE: The Septuagint ( meaning, The Seventy ) ….A Greek Ruler [Greek King of Egypt Ptolemy II Philadelphus] has the Jews ( 72 scholars ) initially translate the Five Books of Moses into Greek …plus, other books from the Tanach later translated over a two-century span - …a/k/a “LXX”…( 70 in Greek numeration, rounding-of from the numeration of 72, i.e. LXXII )

240 BCE Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, determines the value of Pi,- and along with Pi, ready-calculations as to the area of a circle, of course}{230 BCE Aristarchus, Greek mathematician and astronomer, is the first recorded person to place the sun, moon and planets in correct orientation with each other…….known as heliocentric theory… his ideas were rejected as wrong and as impious…

it took the world a little while to catch-up with his think-ing: about 2,000 years, when Copernicus re-proposed the same and the doctrine was finally accepted… known as Aris-tarchus of Samos, with Samos being an island off of ancient Greece}

{August 2, 216 BCE Carthaginian General-in-Chief Han-nibal routs the Romans at the legendary Battle of Cannae (southeast Italy)

- relatively near Rome, after crossing the Alps in the winter with 30,000-40,000 men, 6,000 horses and some surviving elephants…

Vastly outnumbered, invader Hannibal uses an original strat-agem to draw-in the Romans, and then pretty much annihi-





lates their 87,000 man army…

Hannibal gets an “A+ for Creativity” at Cannae

Considered by many mlitary historians to be - alongside of previously-noted Gagumela - one of the greatest tactical feats in military history, and against-the-odds, battle victories of-all-time, and certainly the greatest-ever miltary-encounter de-feat of Rome ( although Rome itself prevailed after Cannae }

In any event, facing numerically-superior forces, Hannibal, instead of lining-uphis forces head-to-head against the massed Romans,instead assembles them in a V-formation,with the point of the V,like a dagger,pointing straight at the Romans

When the Romans advance, Hannibal feigns weakness,and gradually, gradually‘collapses’ the front pointed-part of the V,steadily drawing the Romans deeper-and-deeperinexorably into the womb of an encirclement

Then, Hannibal signals a full-scale attack - from all directions,- a de facto lethal‘double-envelopment” ( in military-speak)- and annhilates the Roman army

( The estimated extraordinary count of 50,000 Romans killed in one day,is a unique figure in military annals. )

Eighty Roman senators were either killed or captured at Can-nae, as the Roman senators had come-along-for-the-ride, anticipating basking-in-the-glory of a dramatic victory over Hannibal

Military historians speculate that if Hannibal had pressed-the-advantage and marched on nearby Rome itself, he would have prevailed… The weight-of-evidence is, indeed, on that side of the argument… however, Hannibal paused, and his “might have, should have” remains hypothetical…. Rome would not be caught vulnerable again… for a long time…

Thunderation! (the first) Great Wall of China begun in 221 BCE by Qin

By First Emperor of China Qin Shi (reigned locally, then na-tionally, over 260 - 210 BCE time span)… the Wall would be built along 1,200 miles of China’s northern border. It was between 20 - 50 feet high, and 18 - 30 feet wide, with a roadway on top… Qin Shi actually reigned under the name First Emperor… he unified China… regarded by many as the Founding Father of China.

The Great Wall’s more muscular successor would be built 17 centuries later, over a 300 year time span… 1400 - 1700 CE… further south… 4,000 miles long under the extraordi-nary Ming Dynasty.

Thunderation! Xian, China 3rd Century BCE

Terra Cotta Army, (meaning, Clay Army) Xian necropolis (meaning, City of the Dead), Shaanxi Province, China, buried 210 BCE… by (same above-noted First) Emperor Qin Shi.

[Vies with Egypt’s ~80-90 pyramids as the pre-eminent (sur-viving) man-made “Wonder-of-the-World” from Ancient times… 8,000 (80% of) life-size CLAY replicas/represen-tations of personal battalions - in formation - and in battle dress with weaponry and chariots - of First Emperor of Chi-na, Qin Shi… 38 year crafting (note, vs. 20 for the Great Pyramid of Giza, in particular) by 700,000 workers leading up to Qin Shi’s death in 210 BCE… his (clay) ‘warriors’ (in







full ‘battle dress’) interred with their (actual) leader upon Qin Shi’s death]

175 BCE: Antiochus IV Ephipanes ascends to the Seleucid throne

Thunderation! 2nd century BCE, Antiochus

169 BCE Greek-Syrian Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes - successor to the Egyptian Ptolemies, who, in turn, are one line of the successors to Alexander the Great - outlaws Judaism, and on December 25th, profanes the Temple…among othger things, ordering a statue of Zeus erected inside… provoking the Maccabees [the HASMONEANS] into rebellion….

Thunderation! Maccabean [HASMONEAN] Revolt! (~167 BCE – 162 BCE…)

…sparked and led by the Maccabean family of Jewish priest Matisyahu and his five sons…

Matisyahu refuses to allow anyone to sacrifice to the Greek gods - and slays a Hellenistic Jew who attempts to do same. The revolt is on.

“Mi L’Adoshem, ai-lye”- Battle cry of the Matisyahu the Maccabee

”He who is for God, follow me!”

*

The Jews will follow him into battle - and will ultimately pre-vail…after two-and-a-half decades of battle.

The five valiant sons of Matisyahu lead the rebellion: Jochan-an, Simon, Ezra, Jonathan and Judah

By 166 BCE, Matisyahu dies, and son Judah succeeds him as pre-eminent leader of the revolutionary forces. While Mati-syahu was more Priest that Commander, Judah is more Com-mander than Priest; His actual taken-name is actually “Judah the Hammer”, i.e. Judah the Maccabee.

Judah the Maccabee, Revolutionary Commander, recaptures Jerusalem by 165 CE …. The Jew are offered an entente by the Greek-Syrians offering them religious freedom but under continued Greek rule. The Maccabees decline. They have heard that line before.

The Maccabean insurgency will continue another 23 years in the endeavor to shake-off Greek-Syrian rule totally, and achieve total political independence. One after the other, Mac-cabean commanders are killed in battle, Judah in 160 BCE, and his successor Jonathan in 142 BCE. Another crushed by a charging Greek-Syrian military elephant in battle. Finally, tha same year 142 under the command of Judah’s surviving brother, Simon - Priest, Warrior and Master Statesman - the Greek-Syrians now under Demetrius II - grant the Jews com-plete politcal independence.

After 25 years of almost unrelenting battle against the re-gional succesors of Alexander the Great, total Jewish inde-pendence is restored.

Now, under the command of Judah the Maccabee previ-ously, the Jews had restored the Temple…complete with the miracle of the oil lamps…. Commander and High Priest Ju-dah the Maccabee instituted the Holiday of Chanukah…..to-be-celebrated for-the-centuries-to- come : for eight, festive, candle-lighting days each December to this day (starts on the Hebrew calendar day Kislev 25)

Judah the Maccabee - valiant, astute, dedicated to his Priest-hood, faithful son and triumphant battle commander, libera-





tor of Jerusalem, re-dedicator of the Temple, then killed-in-battle - bequeaths a bona fide immortal legacy.

Like his legendary father Matisyahu, Judah represented the triumph of spiritual Will over temporal Power.

***

130 BCE: The Pharisee thrust in Judaism begins to emerge; Theyy will eventually become essentially synonymous with Judaism post-Hillel, around the time of Jesus….

HASMONEAN: Judah’s (Judah the Maccabee) extraordi-nary legacy…..

- of victorious resistance and redemption is so powerful that the Romans 250 years later will attempt to hunt down and slaughter all of his descendants in Judea - to preclude another Maccabean leader emerging from the clan to challenge them, as Judah did, the Greeks]

[HASMONEAN: Two decades after Judah Maccabeus de-feats Antiochus, his brother Simon Maccabeus in 145 BCE sets up a Maccabean Dynasty.

- Thus a revolutionary family shifts gears and asserts a ‘royal claim’ to leadership, a claim far from universally welcome by the Jews… a corruption-plagued dynasty which will prevail 100 plus years before becoming a client kingdom of Rome in 37 BCE, with the installation of Rome-backed (technically non-Jewish) Herod-the-Great as King of Israel.

Spanning ~100 years, the Hasmonean dynasty/kingdom was the only independent Jewish state to exist in the four cen-turies post-the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians in 586 BCE… and was essentially the last prior to the modern State of Israel (1948 CE)…

the Hasmonean Dynasty effectively ended when Judea be-came a ‘Client Kingdom’ under the Herodian Dynasty (~37 BCE) de facto controlled by Rome…

Vicious civil war between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, grandsons of Simon the Maccabee, founder of the Hasmo-nean royal dynasty, had presented political and military vul-nerability - which was then adroitly exploited by Roman General Pompey to secure control of Judea… Pompey then tangles with Julius Caesar over Judea, among other issues…

Then, when Pompey and Caesar die, (48 BCE and 44 BCE respectively) leading to yet another civil war back in Rome, there was a brief Hasmonean resurgence backed by the Par-thians, only to be crushed by Roman Emperors Mark Antony and Octavian…

…Jewish self-determination was only briefly re-established by Bar Kochba in the early Second century, only to be deci-sively ended by Rome yet again shortly thereafter.

Remember that when Matisyahu and his five sons revolted against Antiochus, Matisyahu and Judah were not necessary angling to establish a dynasty… and the Jews do not neces-sarily crave for any individual, let alone a family, and let alone a family abusing its power, reigning over them…

{144 BCE Huge AQUEDUCTS bring water to Rome……

- as the Romans had developed hydraulic cement which does not dissolve in water, allowing the Romans to build larger aqueducts}

HASMONEAN: (back-at-the-ranch) February 135 BCE, Si-mon Maccabeus and his two sons are assassinated

- at the instigation of his son-in-law (the Judean) Ptolemy (not



the Roman General Ptolemy)… however Simon’s third son, John Hyrcanus, emerges from the maelstrom and assumes leadership and kingship, incorporating an aggressive lead-ership style, which included the historically unusual forced conversion of the Idumeans (Edom) in the north-east regions of Greater Israel at that time… and a campaign against the Samarians, (in middle-northern Greater Israel) including the destruction of their temple on Mt. Gerizim…

[HASMONEAN: 76 - 67 BCE, reign of Shlom-Tzion - Sa-lome Alexandra, the only regnant Jewish Queen ever, over Judea. ( no, Golda Meir was not a queen )

During her reign, her son Hyrcanus II was named her succes-sor and installed as High Priest. In sync with the Pharisees, Shlom-Tzion reorganizes the Sanhedrin according to their wishes. This effectively morphs the Sanhedrin from a quasi-House of Lords (of the aristocracy) which it had become, into a ‘supreme court’ - for the adjudication of religious matters and justice, which was its very original mandate. Shimon ben Shetach, the head of the Pharisees, is said to have been her brother. Salome was the last ruler to die as the head of a fully independent Jewish state in Israel until the formation of the modern State of Israel in 1948, 2015 years later.

[HASMONEAN: 79 - 40 BCE Reign of Hyrcanus II as High Priest…

- but power apparently resided in the hands of his machia-vellian adviser Antipater the Idumaean. (You always have to watch out for those Idumaeans)

HASMONEAN: Hyrcanus II reigns as king from 67 - 63 BCE

[HASMONEAN: Hyrcanus II - allied with Aretas, King of the Nabataeans, marches on Jerusalem

- the stronghold of his adversary Aristobulus. During the siege, the forces of Hyrcanus II commit two inter-related acts which incense the majority of the Jews and brand him forever:

1) The besieged forces in Jerusalem (under Aristobulus) needed a pascal lamb for the Passover rites, and negotiated a purchase of same from the besieging forces - for the appar-ently huge sum of 1,000 drachmas. Instead of sending in a pascal lamb, as agreed and paid-for, the besieging Hyrcanus II forces malevolently and insultingly send in a pig.

2) The pious ONI, (Oni ha-Magel) along for the march with the forces of Hyrcanus II, refuses to advocate Hyrcanus’s cause post-pig-incident and is consequentlystoned-to- death by Hyrcanus’s forces.

The two actions in-concert give Hyrcanus II a niche in in-famy in Jewish lore.

The internecine fighting also has other consequences…

Thunderation! 63 BCE (Roman) General Pompey

- enters Judea with his forces and, allied for the moment with ( Maccabean- dynasty ) Hyrcanus, captures Jerusalem for Rome in 63 BCE (from Maccabean-dynastyAristobulus)[Hyrcanus later executed by Roman-backed Herod thirty-two years later in 31 BCE]

The internecine Jewish fighting between Hyrcanus and Aris-tobulus had given General Pompey of Rome the opening to capture Jerusalem with minimal cost. The internecine fight-ing was an offshoot of HASMONEAN total squandering of the political capital bequeathed to them by Mattisyahu and his son, Judah the Maccabee.

Summa Metaphysica II: God and Good © 2005 by David Birnbaum


The Jews are not the Romans or the Persians or the Baby-lonians. Victory does not entitle the general to dynasty. And the Maccabean victory over Antiochus bequeathed no moral imperative for Maccabean (HASMONEAN) rule over the Jews.

General Pompey appoints (the weak) Hyrcanus as a puppet-government symbol via the High Priest-hood, and Pompey dispatches Aristobulus, nemesis of Hyrcanus, and pretender to the Jewish throne, back to Rome in chains.

Meanwhile, the puppet Hyrcanus has not only his main mas-ter, Pompey, on-his-case, but the old intriguer Antipater still manipulating full-time backstage. Later emperor Mark Ant-ony will in 40 BCE , 23 years later, strip Hyrcanus II of all titles, and then bestow the kingship on Herod.

Thunderation! 63 BCE-37 BCE, Hasmonean (Maccabeean) rule continues

- but under the ‘protection’ and supervision of Rome. Hasmo-nean rule has a dark side to it. See encyclopedia articles for more of the depressing saga.

Thunderation! 49 BCE Julius Caesar defies the Roman Sen-ate and crosses the Rubicon (river)….

- seizes power and reigns from 49 BCE… soon as ‘Perpetual Dictator’ of Rome

[Marks the historical transition from the

450 year-old “Roman Republic” (510 BCE to Julius Caesar 44 BCE)

to

The commencement of the “Roman Empire’]

But Caesar’s reign is to be short-lived (see below, only five years…)

Thunderation! Julius Caesar, Emperor of Rome, assassinat-ed, Ides of March 44 BCE

‘Et tu Brute’ ? ’… “You, as well, Brutus?” - Caesar - accord-ing to Shakespeare - as Brutus, a former friend of Caesar, had joined the rebels to assassinate Caesar and restore the Republic from the hands of the now-dictator (Caesar).

[ there is actually an antecedent biblical parallel, to the fa-mous line Et tu Brute’ … The biblical parallel is from Samuel I ( Shmuel Aleph) 900 years prior -“Ha-gam Sha-ul ba-N’veim” - Is [ King] Saul as well with these false prophets ?orto put the words in Greek-style Et tu, Saul ? ( wink) }

but, back to Caesar…

The rebels were known as the ‘Liberatores‘, and included Cassius, brother-in-law of Brutus. After the initial knife thrust by Casca was deflected by Caesar, apparently approximately 60 senators participated in the knifing/assassination of the Emperor/Dictator, including, of course, prime protagonists Brutus and Cassius…

The assassins in March 44 BCE hoped to restore the normal (quasi-democratic) running of the Republic, but the denoue-ment was another Roman civil war, which led eventually to the almost-permanent establishment of the (military dicta-torship) Roman Empire - by Caesar’s adopted heir Octavius (Augustus)

Summa Metaphysica II: God and Good © 2005 by David Birnbaum






so, Julius Caesar has the “last word” after all…

Caesar is front-and-center on the stage of world history, with details of his life recorded by many historians, including Plu-tarch and Strabo…

Caesar authored the work Commentaries on his military cam-paigns

…was a political rival of the famous orator Cicero, and we know Caesar somewhat by the flowery and legendary oratory of Cicero (not to be confused with the Canaanite general Si-sero - with an “S” - of 1,000+ years prior)

Thunderation! 40 BCE, Rome (Emperor Mark Antony) ap-points Herod as King of Judea…

But Herod assumes control only in 37 BCE after prevailing in war with the invading Parthians who tried to ‘crash the Roman invasion-party’ in Judea… Roman Emperor Mark Antony executes the leader of the Parthians, Antigonos.

Herod arose from a wealthy and influential Idumaean family. The Idumaeans were successors to the Edomites (of Hebrew Bible note… descendants of Esau a/k/a Esav) in south-east-ern Judea/ west Jordan.

As noted above, when the Maccabean (HASMONEAN) John Hyrcanus conquered Idumaea in 130-140 BCE, he required all Idumeaens to obey Jewish law or leave; Most Idumaeans apparently converted to Jewish practices at that point. But not necessarily, formal circumcision-conversion by the males. But ‘formal circumcision’ is not a small matter in conversion of males.

So, while King Herod identified himself as Jewish and was considered as such by much of contemporary Jewish society,

according to Jewish law he (technically) was not. But, ‘tech-nical’ is generally a ‘deal-breaker’ in Judaism. Jewish history remains somewhat schizophrenic on the Herod matter, and prefers to just refer to him as Herod the Great. Of course, to the Orthodox, there is no havah-amina (Talmudic/Aramaic for: ‘no starting-point to the question’….no circumcision; not Jewish; no discussion )

Herod was, indeed, a “super-achiever”, but ‘Herod the Hom-icidal Paranoid Megalomaniac’ would probably be more pre-cise appellation. Presumably that is why the Roman Senate in 40 CE “elected him” as King of the Jews. For Herod was a kindred spirit to the Roman Senate. He was “one of them”: power-crazed; homicidal; dysfunctional; ready, willing-and-able to murder his own children to advance his personal glory and power. And a pretty good builder (wink)

Thus, in any event, matters now come full-circle, with an Idumaean-neo-Jew now displacing a HASMONEAN as king of the Jews and Judea. Remember, that Thus, in a bizarre twist of history, while the Edomites were sidelined by the patriarch Isaac way back in biblical times, an Edomite/Idu-maean ends up as ruler of the Jews.

Interestingly, the Romans will effectively crown Herod as “King of the Jews”,and will then, 73 years later, mock Jesus with the same ap-pellation, “King of the Jews”, with a placard around his neck, as Pilate and functionaries crucifies him.

but, back to Herod…

Note that importantly, as well, Herod was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, the machiavellian manipulator of Hyrcanus… until Antipater was poisoned in 43 BCE that is… (possibly by Herod himself, his very son)





A tax collector was ‘pinned’ with the poisoning of Antipater and executed by Herod, but historians are not-so-sure that Herod himself was not the culprit. Tax collectors had better things to do than tangle with the monster Antipater. And it would later be manifest that one of the most dangerous posi-tions on earth to be in, was to be part of Herod the Great’s nuclear family.

In any event, Antipater, who pulled-the-strings behind Hyrca-nus’s rule, now from-his-grave exerts dominion over Judea via his son Herod. Even if his son had murdered him (Antipater)…

Herod’s brother-in-law and competitor, Aristobulus III, the High Priest, will mysteriously drown at a party, as well.

With Herod’s machiavellian father and maneuvering brother both dead, Herod is free to concentrate on being Herod the Great.

Moving-right-along, Wikipedia notes: “ 29 BCE: Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his wife Mariamne I. She learns of Herod’s plans to murder her, and stops sleeping with him. Herod puts her on trial on a trumped-up charge of adultery. Writings state that Mariamne I was calm and serene at her execution at the age of 25 years, having given birth to 5 children in 7 years”.

Later in 29 BCE Herod has his mother-in-law Alexandra ex-ecuted.

28 BCE Herod executes his brother-in-law Kostobar.

Thus, one father, one wife, one mother-in-law, and two broth-ers-in-law of Herod are now dead ‘prematurely’. (The main dining room table in Herod’s palace dining room, would in-creasingly have stately empty chairs around the table at fam-ily gatherings…)

Herod commences historic Temple mega-Renovation & Ex-pansion: ~22 BCE

- the newly renovated temple to be popularly called ‘Herod’s Temple’, to replace the Temple re-built initially ~500 years prior under the Persian satrap (the Jew) Zerubavel.

Hereod’s Temple complex will be, perhaps 10-20x larger than Zerubavel’s…(so ’renovation’ is an understatement)

With the entire Temple Complex constructed on a perfectly horizontal carved-out plateau, and made of white stone, and with the central Temple itself constructed exclusively of glis-tening white marble, Herod’s Temple - his ‘finest hour’ - will be one of the Wonders of the World. Glistening-in-the-Jeru-salem-sun, at the top of the plateu, the Temple would awe anyone approaching…

And it represented not just fine architecture, and not just a nation, but an attempt at a higher level of existence.

Counterpoised against Herod’s glistening white hilltop white marble Temple,where doves are sacrificed to God,1,426 miles to the west is the symbol of Rome - the gladia-tor amphitheatre - where human prisoners are pitted against each other - and against wild animals - as ‘blood sport’ to the howl of the crowd - and for their “daytime entertainment”. A very refined group - and Empire - for sure. The State-spon-sored gore-and-sadism in the public ampitheatre, would only be trumped by the licentiousness in the Palace itself.

There is so much human blood spilled, that pleasantly aro-matic “Stone Pine” trees are planted surrounding amphithe-atres in foreign countries. Burning the pinecones will mask the smell of the blood. And, actually, the word “arena” itself





actually means sand, a reference to the thick layer of sand necessary to soak up the running blood.

Thus, the dichotomy of the two emblematic structures

Roman Amphitheatre v. Jewish Temple

This is the symbolic backdrop.

Gladiator contests v. Psalms.

Two civilizations practically from different‘Ages of Man’.

Before the Jews shed Roman military blood, the Roman Em-pire is very wary of messing with the Jews. Not because it cannot crush them, but because it is wary of moving against this particular entity - as the Jews have a lock on the ’spiritual high ground’ - both via their books - and tradition - and via their symbolic Temple. The Jews are certified intellects and the Jew are attempting to ‘play at a higher level’. And the Jews are certified warrors. To destroy the Jews, one would need to destroy not only their fighters - spiritual descendants of the Maccabees, and not only their symbolic Temple - a wonder of the World - and not only their books - allegedly God-given, and not only their intellectual-spiritual leadership - a formidable group; One would have to destroy their reputa-tion. And that was very, very difficult - unless one radically played with the facts. That was the missing piece…. And when the Roman siege of the Old City of Jerusalem - hous-ing this very Temple Complex - began in 68 CE, then, all of a sudden, as if on-cue, there was very significant and ongoing ‘background static’ undermining - with a vengeance - this very reputation. The campaign against the Jewish reputa-tion would be launched by the gospel writers ( anonymously pennned, but later attributed by the Church). The first gospel ”Mark” would be penned anonymosly contemporaneous ( ~

68 CE - early 70s CE ) with the Roman siege and then de-struction-of of Jerusalem in 68 CE. All the Gospels, as if on-cue - will smear the Jewish reputation.Thus, while the Romans - via physical battering rams - phys-ically assaulted and then destroyed the cities of the Jews, the New Christians - via literary literary battering-rams - assault and then destroy the reputation of the Jews.

Thus, an ‘execution’ of sorts takes place via the Canon Gospels.The 1000-year earned-high-level-reputation of the Jews is de facto “executed” via literary-assassination in the four Canon Gospels. The former high-level Jewish reputation is then substituted-for by a Gospel-construct-insert: a nefarious creature.

Outgunned and outnumberd, exile and to some extent, enslaved, The Jew found himself in a sea of Romans and Christians and then Roman-Christians. His reputation was doomed. He was cast as a ‘pariah’. And, after his ‘reputation’ was doomed, his descendants would be physically doomed.

The Canon Gospels will peform this ‘execution’ four times-over. If one hypothetically, magically transported the four Gospels back-in-time to Abraham ~1800 years prior, the progenitor of the Jews himself after reading the four Canon Gospels once-through, would himself would become an anti-Semite. Let alone, a random eight-year-old random Roman Empire child exposed to this material. Every sunday.

but, first, back to the newly renovated Temple…

As opposed to Zerbavel’s Temple precinct, which was appar-ently relatively modest (perhaps 150 meters x 50 meters or ~500 feet x 165 feet ….or ~similar to a medium-sized Amer-ican suburban synagogue complex today), Herod’s Temple Complex is magnificent, perhaps 5x-10x the square footage.







Before construction commenced by Herod, the wary Jewish Temple governing authority required Herod to quarry at least all the foundation and central Temple stone before commenc-ing any construction….

They had good reason to be wary of the mega-construction… the largest foundation ‘bricks were to weigh 628 tons (we know the weight, since these ‘bricks’ still exist today, in-place)

Inasmuch as only Kohanim (Jewish ‘Priest’ class’) are per-mitted to enter the central zones of the Temple, 1,000 Ko-hanim are trained as masons and stone-cutters …and presum-ably did the central assembly themselves…

Start-to-finish, it is not clear how long the entire process took; Estimates range from 3 years to 25+ years… But Herod was good at ‘completing projects’, and an experienced ‘tro-phy project’ mastermind, …So, the Temple itelf is completed probably within 24 months, with the entire extraordinary Temple Complex essentially complete within fourteen years ( by 8 BCE )…“He who has not seen the Temple of Herod, has never seen anything truly beautiful” - contemporary First Century BCE wisdom saying

note: The Temple functions (including karbanot [animal sacrifices]) apparently continue seemlessly uninterrupted throughout.

Thunderation! Battle of Actium 31 BCE

Roman power-player Octavian defeats Roman power-player Mark Antony in decisive naval encounter (on the Ionian Sea off the Roman colony of Actium in Greece)

The pivotal battle considered to mark the transition from the

Roman Republic to the Roman Empire ( meaning into essen-tially a military dictatorship).

Octavian’s fleet commanded by the legendary commander Agrippa. Mark Anthony supported financially [and emotion-ally] (wink)] by the legendary beauty, his lover Cleopatra VII, Queen of Ptolemaic Egypt.

{ author: ‘Fact is stranger than fiction’ in the Actium saga. }

Octavian’s victory enables him to further consolidate his power; He “accepts” the designation of “Princeps” (”First Citizen”) and accepts the title of “Augustus”. He is now close to being a Greek god.

…now, back to our boy, Herod…

25 - 13 BCE Herod also builds Caesarea Maritima - (the port city of Caesarea) in honor of his patron Caesar back in Rome, and complete with another temple, this one dedicated to the ’divine spirit’ of Augustus. Thus, Herod is an “equal-opportunity temple builder”:one for you (the Jews) - and one for you (the Romans)…

Herod is the ultimate ‘juggler’ - or ‘tightrope walker’….His ’survival skills’ are second-to-none….. Unfortunate he didn’t leave a memoir, however nefarious, on the subject of IN-TRIGUE - to match his building and political legacy.

12 BCE Emperor Augustus intercedes and stops Herod from putting both his sons from his first marriage (to Mariamne I who he had executed) on trial, as well… but Herod later ex-ecutes them in 7 BCE anyway… as well as another son (also named Antipater) in 4 BCE.

Thus, on reflection, with regards the issue as to whether Herod was - or was not - to be included in the “neo-Jew-





ish pantheon”, best that we not include-him-in… sub-optimal role model.

And what of the Idumaeans (the Edomites)?

As if matters were not incredible enough, on the eve of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus in ~69 CE, 20,000 Idumaeans ap-peared before Jerusalem to fight on behalf of the Zealots.

And their denouement? The Idumaeans apparently faded out of existence in the Second Century CE some time after the multiple Jewish Rebellions against Rome. Presumably. this ‘fade-out’ of a loyal Jewish ally-entity was ‘not discouraged’(if not actively aided and abetted) by Rome.

10 BCE Herod finishes adding-on an artificial harbor at Caesarea

8 BCE: work complete on the final Outer Courrtyards of Herod’sa new Temple

a cutting-edge achievement

Thunderation! HILLEL! (prime: 30 BCE - 10 CE)

Humanistic-focus Jewish sage and scholar…one of the most important figures in Jewish history… “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself!” …Hillel integral to the development of the Tal-mud…intellectual/ religious counter-point/foil to Shamai…”School of Hillel” (Beit Hillel) generally prevails in Talmu-dic final resolutions… Hillel: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow..That is the whole Torah”… both sages in Jerusalem, their tenures and Schools overlapping with birth, nearby of the progenitor of Christianity…Hillel’s teachings, whose-time-has-come, are accepted and codi-fied…Within 25 years of Hillel’s teachings, similar themes will be centerpiece-theology of a related group……Thunderation! Jesus born ~4 BCE

(John the Baptist born same year…)

# Jewish population worldwide: ~8 million# Total world population: 200 million - 300 million# So, Jewish population as a percentage of total world popu-lation: ~3.2%(the vicissitudes of subsequent history would “very signifi-cantly” lower that percentage)# % of total world Jewish population living in Herod’s Judea: ~33% = ~2.64 million

=====================

The most sophisticated societies westward across the Atlan-tic, of the Americas at-this-point-in-time, were apparently located along the Andes Mountains of Peru and in the central valley of Mexico, north.

The ancient city of Teotihuacan was built - probably by the Totonac people - in central Mexico starting 200 BCE; The largest pyramid, The Pyramid of the Sun, was completed by 100 CE; The city reached its zenith ~ 150 CE-450 CE, when it was the center of a powerful culture, possibly radiating-out well over a 1,000 miles.

At its peak, the city housed 150,000-250,000 people, covered over 11.5 square miles, was laid-out in very broad avenues at right angles, and had a sophisticated underground water-con-duit system. Most interstingly, the city had no fortifications or military structures.

It contained a special district for religious worship, with the above-noted Pyramid of the Sun - 65 meters ( 214 feet..17 stories) high- dominating the horizon. The religious district centerpiece was a spectacular ’Avenue (in honor) of the Dead’ with an associated major plaza at its terminus, complete with architectured pond.





Note that the iconic ancient Peruvian city of Machu Piccu (“The Lost City of the Incas”) only comes into existence over a 1,000 years later ~1450 CE.

===========================================

now, back to Judea…

3 BCE King Herod the Great dies

… Matters will now move-apace. “Tensions rose higher when pagan Rome took over the appointment of the Jewish High Priest in 6 CE “(Wikipedia) including the later appointment of Caiaphas in 27 CE;

(Jewish-Roman fighting will break out 33 years later in 66 CE).

Subordination! 6 CE onward…

As noted, the Jewish ‘High Priest’ at the Temple is no longer appointed by the Jews, butby the ruling (pagan) Romans; The title ‘High Priest’ remains, but after 6 CE in-substance the High Priest is now an agent of the Roman Procurator in Jerusalem. “Agent” is the nice word; “Lackey” - or “Stooge” or “Puppet” is the not-nice word.

Caiaphas did not represent the Jews.Caiaphas represented Rome.

The Romans put him in place ( he was appointe by Procurator Valerius Gratus in 18 CE), propped-him-up for 15+ years un-til the Crucifixion, and provided his costume ( “High Priest”) Start-to-finish, he was a Roman creature.

The Jewish fatal blunder was in not shutting-down the entire Temple appartus when the Temple was compromised - by Caiaphas’ appointment in 18 CE. Caiaphas was a ’cancer-

at-the-core’. Not shutting-down the entire Temple apparatus, was an unconscionable blunder. Certain areas - and the Tem-ple is one of them, have no margin whatsoever for ‘compro-mise’. ‘Compromise’ in certain areas is ultimately fatal. And this situaton would prove to be the very extreme examplar.

No one will ever know the precise actions later, if any, of Caiaphas, relating to the saga surrounding Passover eve 33 CE. There is no first-hand documentation, only after-the-fact hearsay inserted ~35 - 55 years after the actual events. But it is indisputable that Caiaphas was an agent of Rome. Rome was his master - and his sole master. Caiaphas was a sycophant foisted onto the Jewish community, and was not its chosen or accepted representative. Defiling the Temple day-after-day by his very presence, allowing for many years (sacrilegious) twice-daily sacrifices on behalf of the Emper-or, and a bane to the Jewish community, the Roman-stooge Caiaphas was probably the single most disliked individual in the world - by the Jews.

This point is pivotal, because Christian tradition will (incor-rectly) ‘spin’ Caiaphas as the de facto leader of the Jews, and will falsely spin him as a political figure of very signifi-cant temporal power. Christian tradition will then position Caiaphas as directly responsible for the alleged hand-over of Jesus to the Romans. But Caiaphas had no police power - and the Romans needed no handover. Jesus had been in the Roman’s gun sights for three days. Antonia Fortress - the Roman observation post and garrison - and later, the place to where Jesus was brought by the Romans after his arrest by the same Romans, to become a ‘Station-of-the-Cross’ - was literally in the northwest corner of the colonnades surround-ing the Temple. Jesus was Public Threat #1 to the Romans. And they knew very exactly who he was - and where he was. They needed no alleged Caiaphas handover, no alleged Judas betrayal and no alleged Judas-kiss to locate him. With 12





disciples in-tow, Jesus was as visible as the Jerusalem sun (or moon). Jesus had been stirring-up-trouble at-the-doorstep of Antonia Fortress at-the-Temple for two-three days. He was the quintessential ‘marked man’. The Romans were carefully monitoring him, waiting for the excitement to ebb, and hop-ing for a low-profile context - to bring him in…at a quiet lo-cale, if Jesus and his group could somehow be arrested - and optimally under-cover-of-night- and optimally outside the resonant city walls…

The absolutely lowest-profile context would be in the dark hours after the Seder - when the Jews - all the Jews - would be exhausted and deep asleep from the late Seder meal, gen-erally from around ~8/9pm - Midnight/1am. Sometimes, still later in the morning. And in the early-morning hours after the Seder, is, indeed, when the Romans arrested Jesus. After the long evening Seder - complete with mandatory four goblets of wine over its duration - even a nuclear bomb nearby would not awaken a Jew in Jerusalem.

Now, back to the Caiaphas front…

Caiaphas did not truly represent anyone except himself. The Romans thoroughly controlled Jerusalem. Indeed, Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate had come from Caesarea to Jeru-salem for Passover to make absolutely, positively sure that there were no troublemakers shaking-things-up. Messianic Leader Jesus of Nazareth was as high-profile a threat to Ro-man order as there ever was in Jerusalem. His every-move would be watched. His location 24/7 would be tracked.

Caiaphas never ‘controlled’ Jesus to begin with, to be in-position to ‘hand-him-over’. Caiaphas was nominally pre-eminent only on the Temple grounds - and by day. Jesus, however, was arrested by the Roman soldiers at Gethsemane Garden at the edge of the Valley of Kidron, on the outskirts of Jerusalem - in darkness - by the Romans, the ‘controlling

authority’, as the Romans were the only local entity in the “arresting business”.

However, as Caiaphas is universally despised in Judea at-that-time - he is, indeed, an easy ”mark’ for any ‘brand-ings’… from any quarter - especially 50 -500 years after-the-fact. The gospel-spin positioning Caiaphas as possibly the front-and-center arch-villain, and the ongoing dramatization of same, will achieve historical traction, to great destructive effect on the Jews. He makes a nice demon, but, respectfully, he was totally powerless.A powerless and roundly-despised Roman puppet, propped-up by the Romans to give the Jews a fig-leaf that they were not a subject-people.

The venomous ‘brandings’ of various parties whose positions or even names potentially connect them to Judaism - are nu-merous and unrelenting in the Gospels. As a Jew, it is numb-ing to even go through one of the Gospels. The cumulative brandings, indeed, achieve the desired effect: the “branding of the archetypical Jew”.

To set-the-stage for demonizing the Jews, the gospel writ-ers will first shade history, to re-spin the power-dynamics as regards Rome. The gospels will first neuter Rome: its power, control, authority and ruthless-ness. Because the gospels have plans to prop-up the alleged power another group: the Jews.

So, while the all-powerful Roman organs-of-state must be downgraded by the gospel-writers in the re-spinning of the Jesus drama, the powerless Jewish communal organs, must conversely be rehabilitated and turbo-charged - or even total-ly re-invented by the gospel writers - as allegedly viable and powerful entities…to allegedly be suitably powerful to cause - or be a catalyst-for - accessory-to-the-execution-of-Jesus .





All components of the re-writing of the historical saga, would be shaded to comport to one of the prime political objectives of the gospels: the demonization-of-the-Jews. All compo-nents would be brought in-sync. Roman power in-the-time-of-Jesus is neutered by the writers; alleged ( nefarious) Jew-ish power is manufactured. This ‘positioning’ occurs both during the ’first-round’ penning ( often anonymously) of the gospels during and right-after the First Jewish-Roman War, and then in the Cannonization and attribution of the Canon Gospels ( and their possible editing) - as Christian power is solidified and institutionalized post-Constantine - as the vast Roman Empire becomes Christian.

Pontius Pilate, Roman Procurator, industrial-scale crucifier - depicted by Josephus as ruthless, cruel and decisive - is never-theless positioned and depicted in the gospels as quite-the-op-posite: as vacillating and indecisive. The actual pre-eminent power-player - with total and absolute local power - Pilate is now pictured in the gospels as needing the imprimatur and police-assistance of the subject group, the Jews. This neuter-ing of Pilate by the gospels, is necessary for the gospel-writers to make-way, of course, for the gospel-fabricated construct of magnified-power of Caiaphas and of other Jewish entities -ir-respective of whether fuctional or fictitional.

****

Then, parlaying the justified negative reputation which Caia-phas already had amongst Jews of Judea, the gospels will now turn him into a total monster for-all-time, across the en-tire planet - newly, amazingly somehow responsible - almost single-handedly - for the arrest, then death of the Christian deity by the Roman Procurator.

A powerless sycophant appointed by Rome and foisted upon the Jews, Caiaphas is malevolently re-spun by the gospel writers into a powerful political entity, direct accomplice to

Pilate - as well as the ’standard bearer’ of those same Jews. All of these inter-related gospel-spins would be “news to the Jews”.

The Caiaphas vignette is but one of a series of vignettes spanning the entire gospel-demonization of the Jews. Se-rial-demonization. Threaded-through the entire four gospels. Demonization - in stereo. Which is the precise intent. If one hears a demonization enough times - in multiple variations and modalities - the “sale” ismore likely to be made.

Respectfully, these alleged sinister vignettes must be dealt with one-by-one - inasmuch as cumulatively they cause great destruction. This may be uncomfortable to go through, but cu-mulatively it will be more than illuminating. For, the ‘WHOLE’ here is far more diabolical than the ’sum-of-the-parts’. Note that in this TimeLine we will ‘only’ deal with the several (three or four inter-related) major ‘demonic’ brandings.

Now, respectfully, it is, shall-we-say, ‘interesting’, that we find ourselves in the challenging position 2000 years after-the-facts of having to unmask an ongoing 2000 year-old character assassination, but that is the reality we find our-selves in. The ‘good news’ is that the trashing is so egregious and disconnected from objective reality, that unmasking it, is frankly not exceedingly difficult.

33 CE: Showdown at Caesarea

Non-violent/Passive Resistance #101

Pilate instructs his centurions to carry into-Jerusalem under cover of darkness - their official Roman ensigns, ( ~regimen-tal ‘battle standards’) which bore medallions of the emperor’s image ( i.e. of now deity-cult Augustus ) - and brings them to Antonia Fortress, contiguous to the Temple Complex ….





The Jews are furious - as it smacks of paganism at the Temple Complex.

Angry Jews from Jerusalem and the countryside assemble in Jerusalem and then march in protest 90+ miles to Pilates headquarters in Caesaria Maritima on the Mediterranean coast….Pilate refuses to budge. The regimental ensigns are to remain on the Temple Mount.

The protestors then bring the city center of Caesarea to a halt by staging a 5 day non-violent sit-down strike - first opposite Pilates palace…Pilate still does not budge.

Then, after 5 full days, they assemble peacefully in the main public Square ( the agora) to attempt to present a petition to Pilate…Pilate refuses to accept the Petition…

But, Pilate does mass columns of centurions, and threatens to ’slice the Jews into pieces’ if they do not return home imme-diately to Jerusalem…The protestors do not budge…

Pilate orders his troops to draw-their-swords…The Jews do not budge.

To preclude giving Pilate a pretext to massacre them, the pro-testors fling themselves down to the ground ready to die…

Silence.

The Jewish protest leaders then announce to the Romans that all the protestors are fully prepared to die for their religious honor…Pilate pauses.

….then backs down ! - and advises that the offending ensigns on the Temple Mount will, indeed, be removed from Jerusalem

the 33 CE the Jewish protest-leaders understood that, in prin-

ciple, Rome wanted no bloodshed… that Rome would tend to back-down every single time, as long as Roman honor was not challenged and no provocations offered…

In retrospect and hindsight, clearly this was the optimal route to ‘force Rome’s hand’ , but the approach required thorough, thorough discipline and very, very carefully chosen encoun-ters…with fully-committed and fully-motivated protestors - fully prepared to die - and not blink

So, to encapsulate conceptually, on the ‘tactical chess-board’:[ Jewish moral authority + passive resistance + willingnes to die ]would trump[ Roman military might].

( Mohandas GANDHI, [and the legendary philosophy of Sa-tyagraha - resistance to tyranny through civil disobedience - attributed to him in the mid-20th century] not-quite-born-yet for 1,833 more years… )

The astute First Century Jewish mastermind, behind the ‘Caesaria Satyagraha’, whoever he was, understood full-well that the Romans wanted ‘total local control’…But that if one yielded total local control to them, they would be vulnerable to moral protest, as, what the Romans truly feared, was an out-of-control nationwide conflagration

Historical pivot-point: 33 CE Jesus executed by Roman procurator Pontius Pilate

… son of God in Christian tradition…

…a Galilean Jewish teacher and preacher from the Jewish perspective





Thunderation! bucking Caligula, 39 CE

In 38 CE - five years after the Roman execution of Jesus in Jeru-salem, Emperor Caligula in Rome declared himself a god - and ordered his statue to be set up at every temple and synagogue across the empire. Jewish riots broke out in Alexandria, Egypt.

In 40 CE riots by the Jews again break out over the same is-sue in Alexandria.

In 40 CE (Hellenistic-Jewish philosopher) Philo of Alex-andria (a/k/a Philo Judaeus) 20 BCE - 50 CE …. heads of a delegation of Alexandrian Jews importuning Caligula in Rome regarding the anti-Semitic Alexandrian conflagration. In Judaism, Philo is more regarded as a prominent histori-cal hybrid philosopher figure than necessarily as a ‘Jewish philosopher’ per se. He is more ‘a philosopher who was Jew-ish’. Judaism remains ambivalent towards him - We sort of ‘like him’ and are proud of him, but he is not quite one of our ‘standard bearers’. ( Philo himself may have liked being in that ambiguous zone…)

[Philo is known for synthesizing Greek and Jewish Thought. As both bodies of thought are (at that particular point-in-time) monotheistic in substance, and Aristotelian in style, a clean synthesis with a Philo-spin is effected, without intellectual acrobatics necessary].

In 40 CE Jews in Jamnia (Yavneh, Central Israel) destroy an altar to Caligula (Emperor of Rome)

Angered by the destruction of the statue of himself in Jamnia, Caligula, back in Rome, ups-the-ante and orders a statue of himself be erected in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem;

The Jews of Judea gear-up for revolt against Caligula and

Rome: The Jews are ‘locked & loaded.’

Fearing a conflagration, Roman governor of Syria (with dominion over Judea), Publius Petronius, slows-down and delays the construction of the statue for nearly a year. Cal-igula is made aware of the delaying action, but is strangely simpatico to Publius’s maneuver blocking his own (Caligula) request, inasmuch as while Caligula is somewhat mad, he is not suicidal. Quite-the-contrary. The salient point is that the Roman Governor is careful not to overplay-his-hand as regards Jewish religious honor. The local Roman rulers are attuned to the sensitivities of ‘Jewish honor’, and, as a matter of policy, wish to avoid going over Jewish ‘red lines’. And the Jews of Judea in the ‘first century’ have no shortage of ‘red lines’. But the Romans, with dominion over the world’s greatest empire, are sometimes wont to over-reach, some-times with deliberate orders from Rome, sometimes through overly-impetuous subordinates. On some level, with the hu-bris of empire, and with their own hyper-aggressive Roman legions as a backdrop, they are hard-wired to ‘press to the max’. The Jewish right-wing (or far-right wing) however is not particularly interested in the nuances of the Roman ma-cho psyche. With no referee to intervene, the two ‘forces’ - one politico-military and one politico-spiritual - continu-ously grate against each other… intermittently skirmish… and are perhaps fated to eventual collide (not once, but three major times within a ~70 year time-span ~67 CE - 137 CE.

In 41 CE - Caligula’s assassination (unrelated to the Jews) in January, 41 CE in Rome ends that particular (putative statue-in-the-Temple) incendiary issue, but…

In 62-64 CE In Jerusalem, Roman procurator Gessius Flo-rus steals Temple taxes (by all accounts apparently), further ‘bringing-matters-to-a-boil’ - and strengthening the political position of the (Jewish) Zealots… who continue to ratchet-up for rebellion.





Thunderation! The Sicarii ~50 CE - 70 CE

Extremist splinter-group of Jewish Zealots who attempted to expel the Romans from Judea.

[The Sicarii concealed sicae - small daggers - under their cloaks, hence the name of the group. At assemblies and pil-grimages to Jerusalem, they assassinated their enemies, en-emy sympathizers and purported enemy sympathizers - and often lamented vociferously after-the-killings to conceal their own role in the killings. Sicarii means ‘dagger-men’.

They are associated historically (along with the Zealots) with the destruction of Jerusalem’s food supply when the city was under incipient Roman siege c. 66CE, with their (difficult to understand) logic being that their actions would preclude ne-gotiations with the Romans. This action has not been viewed kindly by Jewish history.One of their leaders, Eleazar ben Ya’ir, escaped the Roman onslaught and fled with others to Masada, where he became a pre-eminent leader in that resistance saga and eventual mass-suicide.

Thunderation! First (major) Jewish Revolt against Roman Empire, Caesarea, Upper Galilee. Palestine-Israel-Judea, 66 CE

[Nero has been Emperor of Rome since 54 CE;

The price of internal civil war in Judea between Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, was a mortal weakness which General Pom-pey of Rome had exploited to gain control back in 63 BCE with relatively minimal effort. The proud Judeans bristled at Roman rule, and the Zealots viewed the Occupation through their own lens. The end-result of the initial internecine Jew-ish fighting was ultimately to be an unmitigated national di-saster on a grand catastrophic scale.

In 66 CE, Hellenist provocations of mainstream Jews in Gal-ilee provoke a Jewish attack upon a small Roman garrison. This is the first shed blood. Roman blood, that is.

It will prove a fateful turning-point - both for the Jews at that time, and in the span of Jewish history. Shedding-blood at any time is a very serious matter. Shedding the bloodof the soldiers of the Roman Empire - after Rome had given the Jews very considerable autonomy and very considerable (by Roman standards) prerogatives as regards the Temple State - was not, shall-we-say, ‘optimal’.

The Jews have just kicked ’superman’ (i.e. the Roman Em-pire) in the shin. And ’superman’ is not amused.

But, then again, neither are the Jews.

Rome then dispatches an Expeditionary Force, the Roman 12th Legion, as a ‘show-of-force’, to quell the disturbances. The Jewish nationalist-religious rebel forces, trying to throw-off the ‘yoke of Rome’, elect to up-the-ante themselves…

The Roman Expeditionary force is ambushed-in-force and attacked by Jewish rebel forces at Bet Horon pass ( the pre-cise locale of an earlier Maccabean victory ~200 years pri-or) outside of Jerusalem… the Roman 12th Legion (Legio XII Fulminata) is routed… 6,000 elite Roman legionnaires are killed in pitched-battle with the Jewish Forces… To add to the Roman humiliation, the 12th Legion’s Eagle ‘battle standard’ (its aquila), inviolable, has been lost to the Jewish Forces, as well…

The Jewish forces additionally seize dozens, if not hundrds of artillery pieces and other armnaments, to be used effect-vely later in the defense of Jerusalem

This resounding engagement-triumph by the Zealot-alliance





will resound to the far-reaches of the Roman Empire… “Rome is vulnerable” ….but prove one of the great “pyrrhic victo-ries” (false/illusory victories) in the annals of mankind…

However, in the short term the rebel victory is electrifying…

From the rebel perspective, the Jews had thrown-off the yoke of the Syrian-Greek empire 200 years prior - against-all-odds - and Rome has left the Jews no choice but to fight again - for their freedom, dignity and honor.

An oberver from the moon, surveying the vast power and tenacity of Imperial Rome, would say that the Jewish rebels were clinically insane.

But the same observer might have said the same thing when the Maccabees first took up arms…or when Jewish leader Gideon challenged Amalek…or when Prophetess Devorah challenged Canaan and prevailed…or when Moses chal-lenged Pharaoh…and on-and-on…with ‘many notches on the gunbelt’ of the Jewish nation…

Tenacious, tactically adept, highly motivated, with a legacy of victory, fighting on and for their homeland, and apparently perfectly willing-to-do-die for their freedom and honor, the Jewish rebel forces of Judea, empowered and emboldened by their belief in the God of Israel, will just-as-soon bring their enemies down with them….

Having played at the zenith of both the spritual and temporal world, on-and-off for 1,000 years, the Zealots of Judea are re-ally, truly not interested in subjugation by pagan, idolatrous, licentious if not depraved, Rome…

In isolation, the Bet Horon victory was glorious. But, in context, it brought the full wrath of a powerful, aggressive, wealthy, proud, marauding and, last-but-not-least, slave-hun-

gry empire down upon Judea. The rebels might be valiant and strong. But Rome was vastly stronger.

A tremor has gone throughout the far reaches of the Roman Empire. Having shown vulnerability, ‘invincible’ Rome will now need to send a counter-salvo right back across the far reaches of the Empire…

Basically, an Immovable Object (Judean religious honor and freedom) has collided with the excesses of an Irresistible Force (Roman Empire dominion). But Rome knew a little about will and tenacity itself. And Rome maintains not only the will, but the resources and power in-reserve, as well.

For the rebels, at-stake is greater autonomy and protected religious honor. For Rome, at-stake is their control of a key geographic nexus-point, which completes, as well, their en-circlement of the Mediterranean…But beyond the immediate geographic stakes, the Roman ‘aura of invincibility’ across the entire Empire, is now at-stake, as well

Rome had an appetite for slave labor, and an aversion to de-pendencies mowing-down its soldiers. Rebellions here-and-there provided ‘opportunity’ as well.

Therefore, for multiple reasons and considerations, some strategic, some tactical, some practical, Rome now had Judea in its gunsights…

Subsequently, over 20% of the entire Roman expeditionary army is mobilized for battle, and marched into Judea, one army from the north; one from the south - to crush the electri-fying Jewish revolt. With Rome marching back on recently-seized Jerusalem, the Jews will be “pre-occupied”…

As for Jerusalem itself, Jerusalem was an internationally rec-ognized ‘trophy’ city, and Rome, master of symbolism, was





not oblivious to the magnitude its global importance.

Thunderation! First Jewish-Roman War [i.e. First Jewish Rebellion] (66-73 CE)

[Death estimates range from 600,000 - 1,300,00 Jews… Josephus states that during the siege of Jerusalem 500 peo-ple were crucified each day in front of its walls. (the figure sounds high, although it is widely disseminated post-Dumont - D.B.) “There was no room for crosses and no crosses for the bodies” (- Dumont) (sounds melodramatic - D.B.) . ¨By the end of the siege of Jerusalem, tens of thousands of cruci-fied Jewish bodies encircled Jerusalem -”facing it” from atop the Roman-built encircling road. - Dumont (the figure sounds vastly exaggerated - D.B.) … note: The encircling road was built to isolate and starve Jerusalem - and was built at the same height as the walls of Jerusalem. (quotes from Dumont - History of the Jews - as cited, along with the other data in Wikipedia, “The First Jewish-Roman War”)].

Thunderation! Masada! 73 CE

“Last Stand of the Jews”

….and eventually, mass-suicide,of the 960 Jewish “Zealot” rebels against Rome’s ~20,000-man Tenth Legion,Masada Fortress, Negev Desert ( west of the Ded Sea )

subsequent to the destruction of Temple II in nearby Jerusa-lem… during Jewish-Roman War I 70 CE…..about 2 years prior

… Masada, under the leadership of Eleazar ben Ya’ir, held out for three years…

Masada, a former Herodian retreat/refuge , was located in

the Judean desert south of Jerusalem, near the Dead Sea. The Zealots used Masada as a base to raid and harass the nearby Romans. The Roman governor of Judea, Lucius Flavius Sil-va marched against Masada with the Roman Legion X ( 10th Legion) Fretensis, and laid siege to the fortress…

After the besieging Romans failed in attempts to breach the defense, they elected to construct an earthen ramp, using thousands of tons of stones and earth. After the Romans had 99% completed their massive siege ramp, and were poised for their final assault, the Jewsh rebels of Masada made a decision:

The 1,000 defenders of Masada elected to commit mass-sui-cide. That night.

Rather than fall into the Roman hands (the next day), which would have led to a dire fate of one sort or another, the Ma-sada defenders will send a signal to all eternity.

And that is exactly what they did.

2,000 years down-the-road, troops of the Israeli Armored Corps and of the Givati Brigade and other IDF (Israeli De-fense Forces) troops will take their Oath of Duty at high noon…overlooking the Judean desert far below - from on top of the 100 degree sun-baked plateau of Masada…

”Masada shay-nit lo ti-pol”…

*

”Masada shall not fall again”

====

now, back on the Jewish v. New-Christian front…





In the span from the Roman siege of the Temple ( ~ 68 CE when the first of the Canon Gospels start making-an-appear-ance) to the writing of the last of the four Canon Gospels ( ~113 CE ), the early founders of Christianity are attuned to the degree of resonance, among their various constituencies, of their key themes:

The Virgin Conception; the Resurrection of Jesus; The Trinity.

Now, the Jews have their centerpiece mega-certified event: Mt. Sinai, with 600,000 ( asserted) witnesses to the events re-lating to the Exodus from Egypt: epochal Mt. Sinai, The Red Sea splitting, the Ten Plagues et al. The Jews had bought-into the concept of strict monotheism; They revered Moses and they revered the Torah. Future generations post-Sinai may have had huge doses of skepticism as they had not witnessed matters first-hand and/or were reluctant to yield any auton-omy to any asserted deity, or a general agnosticism, but a huge and intellectually-talented constituency, generation-af-ter-generation would renew its faith and commitment. Often intense and with total commitment. And with large families to carry on the Masorah ( Jewish tradition and law). The Jews will stick with the religion of their forefathers.

However, to many non-Jews, the New Christian themes will find some resonance. The themes, however counter-intuitive to the Jews, are more appealing to the gentiles, than the neo-pagan themes of some of their forefathers; There is some re-ceptivity.

The progenitors of the new Christians understand that, by-and-large, the Jews are a ‘lost cause’ as potential recruits. The Jewish numbers relative to the non-Jews are small ( the Jews are at-that-point 3% of the world’s population), and the percentage of Jews buying-into the emerging Christian theol-ogy is miniscule. The Jews can be ‘written-off’ as potential

devotees of the Jew, Jesus.

However, within the multitudes of the non-Jews - and the Ro-man Empire has many millions of non-Jewish denizens - there are ‘possibilities’. So, the posture of the new Christians both towards the Roman Empire, itself, and towards the sensitivi-ties of its inhabitants, now assumes a very important role.

Rome is home to millions of potential Christian recruits. And Rome has just crushed the Jews. But, Rome has recently ( 37 yers prior) crucified Jesus, progenitor-extraordinaireof Chriustianity.

As context, note that in the non-Jewish groups there is, as well, perhaps some not inconsiderable resentment towards the ’exclusivist’ Jews of the Temple State of Judea.And these exclusivist Jews are now, shall-we-say, ‘down-for-the-count’ as a consequence of their ill-fated rebellion. Having been knocked-off-their perch,the Jews will have no shortage of former status-competitors or ego-competitors, receptive to viewing the total decimation of these ( at lesast formerly) ‘elitist Jews’.

As a sociological rule-of-thumb,

once an elite individual (or group)is knocked-off-his-perch,and prostrate,there is no shortage of disturbed individualslining-up to stomp the former-elite’s head into the ground yet further,figuratively - or literally

But, ‘down-for-the-count’ - or not - the Jews heretofore had historical legitimacy, plus a certain gravitas and aura. And, after all, they were “The Jews”: direct heirs of Abraham- Isaac- Jacob- Moses -David and Solomon.





And, aside from their aura and gravitas, if any were still left standing, they might still employ their credibility and very formidable ‘intellectual guns’ - aimed at Chritian theology.

For, the New Christians were positioning Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. But if the Jews themselves came after them intellec-tually, with their credibilty as representing the actual Jewish nation - the New Christian theology and credibility could be undermined. Because, as-matters-turned-out, the consituency of the New Christians, was not Jewish at all. It was gentile, and almost 100% non-Jewish.

So, the Jews, ‘even down-for-the-count’, remained a potent threat to the legitimacy of the New Christians. The salient threat.

The Jews, the initial target-audience for Jesus, were objec-tively clearly now definitely not a ripe market in the mid-First Century post-Temple - especially as compared to the twenty times-larger non-Jewish market. And, as discussed, not only were the Jews not a good market for proselytizing, the Jews, by virtue of their historical standing and legitimacy, were an ideological- intellectual-status threat to the entire new Chris-tian movement.

So, best to undermine the Jews - every-which-way ( trash them, demonize them, diabolical-ize ) - before they regained their balance - before they ‘got-of-the-floor’ - and intellec-tually challenged the authenticity of Jesus and of the new Christian theology.

As alluded to, the Jews were not necessarily ‘the most popu-lar kids on-the-block’ in the Near East and Middle East. They were monotheistic - and they were different. And they used to have that fancy Temple, ‘which they made a big deal about’. And they were ‘exclusivist’.

In any event, recently crushed by the Romans, the Jews were not-in-a-positionat-this-moment-in-time, to challege any ’gentle spin’ by the new Christian evangelicals…

So, the ‘bad news’ to the new Christians - was that the Jews were mainly a ‘threat’, not an ‘opportunity’.

The ‘good news’ to the new Christians, however - was that the Jews were now very vulnerable - having been essentially crushed by the Romans…- and with no shortage of ill-wish-ers on the sidelines. Increasingly under stress - physical, emotional financial - dispersed and exiled- and, last-but-not-least, totally distracted, the Jews were light-years below their former strength vis a’ vis the new Christians. Finally, they were indeed, vulnerable.

So, to summarize the landscape at that-point-in-time re: the Jews

Target market: noIntellectual threat: yesStatus threat: yesCredibility threat: yesGravitas and aura: yesHistorical legitimacy: yesVulnerable: YES, at-long-last - subsequent to the siege, then destruction, of Jerusalem

The major components of the multi-prong ’direction’ for the early pilots of Christianity, starting in 68 CE, as the Roman destruction of Judea moves apace, are clear.

(!) Play to Rome.

(2) Undermine the Jews. From every conceivable direction.





(3) ‘Distance’ Rome from the crucifixion of Jesus - to what-ever extent possible

(4) Simultaneously achieve (2) and (3) by assigning heavy blame to the Jews -for the (Roman) crucifixion of the Jewish teacher/preacherJesus

The Canon Gospels 70 CE - 110 CE (later to become ‘The New Testament’)Mark ( author: unknown; not contempora-neous;later ascribed by the Church to Mark the Evangelist)Matthew ( author: unknown; not contemporaneous;later ascribed by the Church to Matthew the Evangelist)Luke ( author: unknown; not contemporaneous;later ascribed by the Church to Luke,the companion of Paul )[ oldest suriving manuscript is ~200 CE ]John ( author: unknown; not contemporaneous;later acribed by the Church to John;[This is ‘John the Evangelist’,not the earlier iconic ‘John the Baptist’] ***

All four personages above are known as Evangelists. The precise identities of the four writers are not necesarily uni-versally accepted, outside of Church dogma.

All four Gospels were originally written in Greek, a differ-ent language than Jesus and his disciples used - which was Hebrew and Aramaic.

The dates which most of the world ascribe to the writings of the gospels, diverge from the dates which the Church as-cribes.

The gospels were intended for a far different audience ( pri-marily Gentiles) than the Jewish common people to whom Jesus preached.

All four of the gospels were not necessarily written in Judea/Palestine.Any one gospel was not necessarily written en toto in Judea/Palestine.

The gospels as we know them today, may very well have been carefully edited at the point that they were instituded as the CANON GOSPELS, meaning as the centerpiece dogma/Bible of the Catholic Church. The Church position would be that they were not edited.

The primary purpose of the gospels is to expound the glory of Jesus.

Thus, given all-of-the-above, the fact that all four gospels may intersect on a given point,especially on a particular vignette - or a portion of a vignette - libelous to the Jews,does not necessarily mean that the particular incident ever occurred.

The 4 particular gospels were selected out of a greater pool of gospels by the early Church Fathers ( initially apparently-Irenaeus in particular) to be the canon, hence the name The Canon Gospels.

Note that this book steers well-clear of core Christian dog-ma. This work respects all religions - to the extent that they do not gratuitously defame others and endanger other’s lives. Only several gospel-asserted vignettes which are particularly destructive to the Jews - and which have significantly im-pacted Jewish history over-the-centuries - are brought into focus.

***

Traditional Christian scholarship will place the Gospels ~50s





to 100 CE as opposed to the generally accepted convention 68 CE - 110 CE. This is a pivotal issue in several respects. We will briefly touch-on both the CONTEXT ISSUE and CRED-IBILITY ISSUE.

( Jesus was crucified in 33 CE )

CONTEXT ISSUE:Commencing in 68 CE, Rome commenced its siege of Je-rusalem. By 69-72 CE, the Jews were pulverized by the Ro-mans. The Jewish leadership was either dead, in-chains or on-the-run. If the Canon Gospels are written from that point onwards, as per the going-wisdom, one can make-the-case that the Gospels are attacking the Jews ’when they are down’ - and when they cannot answer. That, the Gospels are trying to deliver a “coup de grace”, a “death blow” to their former ideological adversaries. That, having proved to be mortal and vulnerable, the Jews had ‘whetted-the-appetite’ of their hith-erto jealous neighbors, the non-Jews of Judea and outwards, for their total defamation and destruction. And the Gospels plan to help-this-along. With a vengeance.

CREDIBILITY ISSUE:Every year is important here, because the Gospels, written in the latter part of the 1st century and beyond, are not contempo-raneous with the key vignettes in them relating to the pivotal death-of-Jesus saga 33 CE and surrounding vignettes… Thus , the further the distance from the actual saga, the greater the credibility gap, particularly in the cases of defamatory and in-consistent vignettes regarding their idological foils, the Jews).

*********

The extremely negative (often grotesque) portrayals and vi-gnettes relating to Jews in the Gospels will harshly and le-thally impact the Jews for 20 centuries to this day. The effect will be to demonize the Jews. The veracity of each and every

of the major vignettes, however, will be challenged by histo-rians, particularly in the last 250 years.

The stigmatizations of the Canon Gospels will prove ‘radio-active’ to the Jews. The Gospels will steadily undermine the reputation of the Jews collectively - and individually -and will unrelentingly undermine the entire fabric Jewish life in Eu-rope, inexorably leading to the doom of millions. The descen-dants of historic and legendary warriors Joshua, Gideon, David and Judah the Maccabee, and of intellectual standard-bearers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon, will be re-cast as second-class humans, if indeed, human, at all.

The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’. The gospel racon-teurs had ‘good news’ about Jesus’s purity and divinity; But they had very bad news for the Jews. The Jews were to be systematically trashed. “Down-for-the-count” and very, very pre-occupied by a “little- something” called the Roman Em-pire, the Jews were to be “fair game”.

The Jews were decimated on one front by the very-visible iron-fist of the Roman Legions, and from-the-rear, on a sec-ond major front, by the character-assassinations of the gos-pels. One front visual; the second front almost invisible. The two attacking forces - one physical, one propaganda, would feed upon one another. And, in-combination, pulverize be-tween them, the descendants of King David and Judah the Maccabee.

Caught between two attacking forces, both intent on ‘break-ing them’, the fabric of the universe of the Jews of Judea would become ‘undone’. They would implode as the explod-ing core of a supernova star, casting its components off to the far corners of the galaxy. Presumably, never to ’stand again’…

To grasp what is ‘happening-in-the-picture’, one must un-





derstand the historical context in clearer focus, and then one must endeavor to “connect-the-dots”.Attempting to “connect-the-dots” of the anti-Jewish vignettes, will show that chronologically and logically the ‘dots’ simply cannot be connected. The time-sequences break down. The internal logic breaks down.The tableaux featuring evil and conspiratorial Jews, simply cannot have taken place as described, if at all.

Consistency-wise, the anti-Jewish vignettes break down, as well. The ‘fact pattern’ of one will tend to undermine the ‘fact pattern’ of the next.

“Connecting-the-dots” from a “demonization-of-the-Jews” perspective, however, will unfortunately reveal a pattern of an ominous and deadly gambit (elucidated below).

The Roman Wars (against the Jewish rebellions of Jesus’s Palestine) - which decimated the Jewish community - brack-eted (66 CE - 135 CE) and consequently spanned the entire period of the writing and initial promulgation of the Canon Gospels (68 CE - 110 CE)… Thus, the Jews will be “dis-tracted”, to put it mildly, for the entire duration of the writ-ing and initial promulgation of what were to emerge as the “Canon Gospels”… First appearing in the midst of the Ro-man assaults against the Jews, the Canon-gospel vilifications of various Jewish icons in the Gospels could not realistically be challenged by the Jewish elite and opinion leaders of that time- as1) The Jews were under siege by the Romans in one form oranother at-that-point-in-time…a) The religious elite was either fighting, dead or enslavedb) In war-ravaged Judea, every household was fighting foreconomic survival, as well, and would prioritize puttingfood on-the-table, and trying to stay alive and free,before necessarily engaging time and energy with the myriad of Christian polemics

2) The Gospels are written in Greek, a language at that time anathemato the Jewish politico-religious elite (note: Jesus himself used Hebrew and Aramaic)3) There were numerous gospels being circulated, and4) these gospels were often single manuscript5) these manuscripts, often slight variations on the same themes, were often long and tedious to plumb through

The “devil” was literally “in-the-details” here, with the de-monization more a ‘composite’ than one single libel; That is the point of this focus, of course. The ‘demonic composite’.

This ‘demonic composite’ then achieves ’critical mass’ - and pretty quickly - when 4 individually-demonizing gospels are stiched-together as one entity - and then positioned alongside the Tanach ( the Jewish bible ) as a parallel ’Testament’. A parallel bible.

***

A reader of the four gospels even once, cannot help but walk away hating every Jew who ever walked-the-planet. The amazing thing, once this demonization-gambit is employed - as ‘Holy Writ’ in libraries, in schools, in Church and at-home - is not that there is anti-Semitism; The amazing thing is, rather, that even after 17 centuries as the object of this institutionalized hatred, there is even one single Jew still left standing on the planet.

***

The “Canon Gospels” as we know them, were only initially ‘canonized’ by(later-to-be Saint) Irenaeus [of Lyons] c. 185 CEThis was later re-ratified by the Council of Rome 382 CE and





other synods to follow in the triumphant-over-Rome Chris-tian 4th century.As noted, the 4th century marked the de facto conversion of the Roman Empireto Christianity, with the full power of the Empire now behind Christianity.

At this point the Jews were decimated, scattered and margin-alized. Howeverto the newly aligned Roman-Christian hierarchy, the politi-cally irrelevantJews had one, and final, more crucial role to play: historical scapegoat.

In the latter part of the First Century, and going-forward, with Rome triumphant in Greater Judea and overwhelmingly dominant in Europe and the Mediterranean, it would not be politically optimal for the gospel-writers to direct too much animosity or blame for the death of Jesus on Rome; Going-into the latter part of the Fourth Century and moving-for-ward, with Rome now in alignment with Christianity, Rome clearly had to be sanitized and exculpated, to whatever extent possible, of guilt for the Roman crucifixion of Jesus, the pro-genitor of Rome’s new-found religion. This would require finesse… and more particularly, some considerable toying with the historical record.

In-tandem, potential anger towards Rome for the killing of Jesus by Rome,had to be deflected. One cannot convert the masses to Chris-tianity,and not entertain the possibility that anger would be coiled against the Roman Empire’s leadership for its historic deicide (i.e. killing of Jesus).

This would be accomplished by an inter-related series of ma-neuverings:

1) Culpability for the killing of Jesus would be subtly shiftedto the Jews by the Canon Gospels - and to-be-honed Church traditions2) Jewish icons would be demonized and trashed in the Gospels- and related3) A demonic image of the Jew (the Jew as devil) would be implantedin the conscious and unconscious minds of the Christianand Roman masses4) Any Jewish suffering as a consequence, would be given a patina of theology, indirectly, at-a-minimum, legitimizing abuse and persecution of Jews

Thunderation! “The Great Sanhedrin”, primarily the ~100 year period 63 BCE - 68 CE

[Pre-eminent successor entity to The Great Assembly noted above) Jerusalem, (as noted, primarily between 63 BCE and 68 CE although various Sanhedrins and variations thereof existed on-and-off for hundreds of years both before and af-ter]. [Assembly of the 71 greatest Jewish judges and scholars of the times; the humanistic-focus Hillel and his direct de-scendants hold the top position, nasi, president; at its zenith, the august Legislative-Judicial-Halakhic body and one of the most esteemed and revered Jewish institutions in Judaism’s entire 3,000 year history; According to both Roman sources and Jewish sources, by 30 CE, for sure, the Sanhedrin had ceased prosecuting capital cases (i.e. potential death-sen-tence cases)

The central allegation in the Canon Gospels as regards the Jews - and, disproportionate-or-not, the most destructive al-legation of all-time against the Jews - is that in 33 CE the (Jewish) Sanhedrin allegedly tried and convicted Jesus and allegedly handed-him-over to the Romans at the Jerusalem residence venue of the alleged Trial. (This seemingly contra-dicts other Gospel sagas having the High Priest directly com-





plicit, but we are dealing here strictly with the “Sanhedrin vignette”. The Temple Priesthood is a separate and distinct entity from the Sanhedrin. The Priesthood runs the Temple; The Sanhedrin adjudicates issues relating to Jewish Law)

The “Sanhedrin allegation” is fraught with historical and lo-gistical contradictions, and indeed, impossibilities. Corner-stone doctrine in the Gospels is roughly as-follows (as the narratives diverge from each other): Leading into the Pass-over Seder evening, (33 CE) the First Night of Passover, Je-sus is a free man. As the night unfolds, he has his traditional Seder Meal a/k/a “The Last Supper” with his disciples. Then, Jesus and his disciples go to the Garden of Gethsemane, pre-sumably post-Seder, post-midnight.

Arrested by the Romans still during darkness (in the same Garden of Gethsemane), Jesus is crucified that very day by Pontius Pilate.

Now, if the (alleged) Sanhedrin trial was before Passover, the Gospel sequence breaks down (as how could Jesus then be a free man - and, indeed, how could he be alive - going-into the Seder - plus other anomalies and inconsistencies)

If the (alleged) Sanhedrin trial (as Gospel-asserted, in a Jeru-salem dwelling) was during the night of Passover, the Gospel sequence again breaks down. (as how could Jesus be in two places at the same time - in the several remaining darkness hours post-Seder, plus other anomalies and inconsistencies. To comply with other components of Gospel doctrine, Jesus would need have been arrested by Caiaphas post-midnight; witnessed one of Caiaphas’s crew have his ear cut off; be whisked to a Sanhedrin meeting inside Jerusalem; face a full-scale Sanhedrin trial including (false) witnesses, be cross-ex-amined carefully by his his interrogators, endure beatings and other vicissitudes, all by daybreak. Breathtaking, for sure.

An action-packed ~5 hours. Unless Odysseus emerged from Greek legend to lengthen-the-night, the ‘timing’ is ‘challeng-ing’ here.

But, interestingly, no mention is made in the Gospels of an alleged Trial during the night of the Last Supper. In addition, the 71 judges of the Sanhedrin (who were generally in their 60s-90s) would all have had to leave their respective families post-Seder, post-midnight, post- 4 ceremonial cups of wine spanning the multi-hour Seder, (simply not happening) for a bizarre and halachicly forbidden taboo enterprise)

If the (alleged) Sanhedrin trial was AFTER the night of Pass-over, the Gospel sequence again fatally breaks down. (For, if the Romans arrested him during that Seder night, and then execute him that same day, how does the Sanhedrin end up with him yet another night later-on - plus other anomalies and inconsistencies)

Thus, an alleged Sanhedrin Trial could not have taken place before, during, or after the First Night of Passover. That pret-ty much ‘covers the bases.

Note:According to John, Jesus was executed by Pilate the day (Nissan 14) leading-into Passover that evening.According to Luke and Matthew, he was executed during the day (Nissan 15) after the Last Supper.According to Mark (14:2) Jesus was executed after Nissan 15.

No comment.

Modern scholarship dismisses the libel of a Sanhedrin Trial - as a fabrication. Any alleged Sanhedrin trial could only have taken place in “limbo time”. Meaning, respectfully, it never happened. It is a fabrication. The ‘construct’ breaks down on multiple levels. There are multiple internal contradictions





and mutually exclusive scenarios.

From a Jewish perspective it was forbidden. From a Roman perspective, a Sanhedrin Trial was illegal. Historically, it is not plausible. (The third and fourth Gospels, Luke and John, omit completely any alleged formal trial of Jesus by the San-hedrin.)

Branding the Jewish leadership of group as being a major ac-cessory to the killing of the progenitor of another Religion, is not a light matter. Politically convenient or not to the writ-ers of the Gospels, the libel is as serious and as incendiary a charge as can be leveled. Plausible or not, disproportionate or not, corroborated or not, sequentially possible or not, the alleged Sanhedrin Trial libel (and the consequent charge of deicide -against the Jews as a whole) will lead to the deaths of millions of Jews as a consequence.

The timing of an alleged Sanhedrin Trial does not jive; the sequences do not jive; the historical record does not jive; The Romans controlled all the levers of power. The Romans executed Jesus. But ‘the crowd’ will be manipulated by the resonance of the Gospels to call for Jewish blood. Aside from the impossible internal contradictions and discrepancies of the Gospels-construct regarding an asserted Sanhedrin Trial, one should note that no corroborative evidence has ever been produced in 20 centuries - that, indeed, any trial ever even took place.

As a ‘backdrop’ and for additional context, note -# The Sanhedrin no longer held significant powers in 33 CE.# The Sanhedrin did not meet at night.# The Sanhedrin did not meet on Jewish Holidays.# The Sanhedrin no longer tried ‘capital cases’ (death-penalty cases)(as noted explicitly in the Gospel of John, by the-way).# The Sanhedrin did not conduct midnight trials.

# The Sanhedrin did not hold surreptitious trials.# The Sanhedrin required bona fide witnesses.# The Sanhedrin required careful due process.# The Sanhedrin met only in the Temple court; not in private dwellings.# The Sanhedrin - 71 judges - could not possibly fit into a room in an Old City dwelling.# The Sanhedrin did not hold ‘snap trials’ ever, nor would it be legally (halachicly)allowed to.# The Sanhedrin was led by its NASSI (president), not by the High Priest,as incorrectly elucidated in the Gospels.By definition, if a rump run-away entity - large or small - was led by the High Priest,then whatever it was, if it ever existed at all, it was not the Sanhedrin.# It would be illegal by Jewish Law to turn anyone over to Occupation Authorities.# It would be halachicly taboo to put any individual at-risk for crucifixion.( notwithstanding John 19:6…”When the chief priests saw him, they cried out, saying. Crucify him. Crucify him…)# The Sanhedrin never sentenced anyone to death over its entire historic span;Every individual Sanhedrin historically was under self-im-posed restraint not to be labeled a Bet Din Katlanit - “a Killer Court”. No Sanhedrin wanted to go anywhere near that ap-pellation. And, indeed, no Sanhedrin ever did issue a death sentence. Over multiple centuries, in different manifesta-tions.

“Any alleged capital trial by the Sanhedrin of Jesus is thus a convenient historical fabrication.”- Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Jewish History, NYU, “Double Injustice”, (Journal of) Reform Judaism, April 2004





‘The wholly suppositious trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin is”, points out Pierre van Passen in Why Jesus Died, “pure fabrication, causing its utter rejection as unhistorical and un-true by a long and impressive line of savants [and scholars] from Reimarus and Strauss to Loisy, Guignebert and Eysin-ga.”’- Betty McCollister, The Humanist, July-August 1993.

The alleged ‘pivot event’, on which 20 centuries of hatred, defamation and killings is hinged, respectfully, never even occurred. It is fabrication - concocted for the historical con-venience of demonizing the Jews - and then, later accentu-ated for the purpose of advancing the political interests of the Roman Empire, and those aligned with it.

The Sanhedrin indeed dissolves completely 68 CE due to the Roman counter-onslaught, as the Jewish community around it implodes under the Roman assaults, destructions, and sub-sequent exiles.

###########################

##### INSERT: Jewish rebellions against Rome:# First Major: 66 CE The Great Revolt;# Second Major: 115 CE - 117 CE,the Kitos rebellion;# Third Major: 132-135 CE, the Bar Kokhba revolta/k/a Bar Kosiba revolt a/k/a Bar Kochba revolt

# plus an additional (4th) significant revolt:The “War against Gallus: 351 -352 CE

#################################

##### INSERT: Roman Rulers 63 BCE - 135 CE #####

The pre-eminent Roman rulers spanning the captureof Jerusalem by Pompey (63 BCE) and the three Jewish

rebellions (through 135 CE) are listed along with somesalient events relevant to our Integrated TimeLineduring period of latter days of First Roman Republic:——————————————————

# Cicero and Antonius arethe two Roman Consuls63 BCE[Gen. Pompey readily captures Jerusalem63 BCE after adroit alliance with one of thetwo contending Jewish forces in the internalJewish civil war]

# Various Roman 2-Consul leaderships63 BCE - 60 BCE

# The First Triumvirate60 BCE - 53 BCECaesar/Crassus/Pompey

# Pompey52 BCE - 49 BCE

# Caesar49 BCE - 44 BCE[Caesar crosses the Rubicon (river) 49 BCE]

# Mark Antony/Octavian (Augustus)/Lepidusknown as “The Second Triumvirate”44 BCE - 33 BCE[Herod named tetrarch of Jerusalem 42 BCE]

# Octavian(Augustus)33 BCE - 27 BCE(but Octavian not ruling as emperor yet)

# During subsequent period of Roman Empire:





———————————————

# And the Roman emperors:

# Octavian (Augustus a/k/a Caesar Augustusa/k/a Augustus Caesar)27 BCE to 14 CE[Herod dies 4 BCE; Jesus born ~5 BCE]

# Tiberius14 CE to 37 CE[Jesus crucified by Pontius Pilate 33 CE]

# Caligula37 CE to 41 CE

# Claudius41 CE to 54 CE[“Letter to Alexandrians” ( i.e. Alexandrian Jews)]

# Nero54 CE to 68 CE[1st Jewish Revolt ~67 CE;General Vespasian dispatched to Judea]

# [”Year of the Four Emperors”:Galba; Otho; Vitelius….Vespasian68 CE]

# Vespasian69 CE to 79 CE[son Titus ends Jewish Revolt I in 70-73 CE]

# Titus79 CE to 81 CE[Arch of Titus;Vesuvius erupts 79 CE ;

Fire of Rome 80 CE;multi-year notable public romance with(Jewish ‘royal’) Berenice]

# Domitian81 CE to 96 CE

# Nerva96 CE to 98 CE

# Trajan98 CE to 117 CE[2nd Jewish Revolt (Kitos) 115 CE-117 CE]

# Hadrian117 CE to 138 CE[3rd Jewish Revolt (Bar Kochba) 132 CE-136 CE]

##### end of the insert #####

############################

The ‘historian’ JOSEPHUS (the contentious Jewish person-ality/ scholar/ rebel commander/ historian-prisoner/ Roman-guest-in-retirement) / (traitor?) is the primary source of in-formation for this period. It is hard to categorize ‘Josephus’, but it is clear that he ‘adapts’. His works are sometimes not 100 percent consistent. His depiction of events, in particular, is suspect, as he was beholden to his Roman patrons, particu-larly Titus (who maintained him alive - after his first career as a Jewish commander within the original northern revolt) However, overall his credibility among scholars is relatively high, notwithstanding all of the above, interestingly enough. Presumably his ’stellar ego’ kept-him-straight. ]

Thunderation! (Rebbe) AKIVA (15 CE - 135 CE)





Tannaic sage, rabbi, martyr at hands of Romans; political/rabbinical backer of Jewish rebel Bar Kochba - and his revolt - 132-135 CE - Jewish-Roman War III. Both protagonists tor-tured and/or killed by forces of Roman Emperor Hadrian.

Thunderation! “ANNALS” by the Roman historian Tacitus (55 CE - 120 CE)

[well-studied excerpt:

“Christus [Christ] from whom the name is derived… was ex-ecuted at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius.”

“….at the hands of Pintius Pilate”. Period. No assistant or as-sociated executioners.

Like the Arabic accounts, and, indeed, like the Arabic ac-counts of Josephus, there is no mention at all of any partic-ipation or collaboration of any Jews whatsoever, or by the (Roman-appointed) Jewish ‘High Priest’ or of any trial or in-stitutional action by the Sanhedrin]

—–

( The scarce allusion to Jesus in Joephus relates to him as be-ing the ‘brother of James”, i.e. James the Just. The authentic-ity of this passage has been challenged. Meaning, there may have been no mention of Judas in Josephus. )

Thunderation! Bar Kochba Revolt 132 CE

The Jews rise up in revolt after the Romans build a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. While the Romans are originally forced-out of Jerusalem by the forces of Bar Kochba, three years later Roman armies under the command of Julius Severus retake Jerusalem and sack it… Bar Koch-

ba’s prime backer, Rebbe Akiva, and the other Ten Martyrs are torture-executed by the Romans… memorialized in Yom Kippur liturgy to this day (Aseret Harugei Malchut)…

===========

Thunderation! Tannaic Period 70 CE - 200 CE

The debates on the Oral Law - and decisions of the Tannaim are contained in the Mishnah, the Bereita and the Tosefta (as well as Midrashic compilations).

Thunderation! the Gospel of Judas (~150 CE)

[Surfaced in the 1970 CE - 1993 CE time frame; partially re-constructed by 2006; incendiary historical document; now de facto controlled by National Geographic Society; document turns Judas’s alleged nefarious role on-on-its-head 2,000 years into the saga.

The Gospel of Judas (which may or may not be bona fide) amplifies on the theme running through the Canon Gospel of John ( see, in particular John 13:23-33) that Jesus actively facilitated his arrest, i.e. that Jesus facilitated his own mar-tyrdom.

Weighing all that I have studied in regards this matter, my own (intuitive) ‘take’ on-the-matter would be more nuanced than either of the classic analyses, more of a hybrid…..

something along these lines…

======

start:Jesus, an entity of very, very high consciousness, surely knew that he would be arrested by the Romans if he stirred-up the





Passover Holiday pilgrims at the Temple

However, Jesus intuited that if the Jerusalem crowds were ignited by his message and deeds, he might de facto end up in control of the Temple - and of Jerusalem - and of Judea and onward…

And, if the crowds were not ignited by his message and deeds, his almost-certain crucifixion might give him a place in Di-vine immortality…

>> end <<

==========

This informal more-nuanced schema noted just above would, respectfully, comport with our understanding of the high-lev-el-consciousness Jesus, and our sifting-through the anecdotal and occasional historical bits-and-pieces of data and anec-dotal-tale flowing forth from that year 33 CE…..

*******

But, any rendering-of-events which includes a choreo-graphed-by-Jesus crucifixion-by-Pilate as a potential out-come, renders Caiaphas, Judas and the Sanhedrin as morally thoroughly irrelevant to the high-stakes drama, whatever their actual role…as it is, after all, then Jesus himself pull-ing-the-strings…

Only the renderings-of-events which have Jesus innocently walking into the jaws of death - even though he is most ob-viously on a fatal collision-course with the control-oriented Pontius Pilate - can possibly re-orient enough-of-the-play to leave-an-opening for an attempt to Demonize the Jews - and exculpate the Romans, to whatever small degree.

****

While Jesus and his entire family and all of his disciples were Jewish, the vilification by the Canon Gospels of various Jew-ish icons will have disastrous ramifications for the Jews.

The heavily pejorative renditions of a disciple - “Judas” in particular - whose (assigned) name obviously so very closely sounds like the name “Jew”, will, as well, have grave conse-quences for the Jews over the centuries to come.

When the non-attuned ‘ear’ - for all time - hears “Judas”, it registers “Jew”.

In twentieth century Nazi Germany: the yellow “Jude” star patch

The symbolic and subliminal message from the “Judas vi-gnette”:the Jews are evil incarnate.

The Greek “Ioudus” of the New Testament (the Canon Gos-pels, which were written in Greek) is derived directly from the name Judah. The English word “Jew”, in turn, is derived directly from the Latin Judaeus. In Greek, Latin, Spanish, English and French, the names Judas and Jew are closely interlinked.

Note that the Roman name for the province which we call Judea, was Iudaea.

But, note that the original Greek name Ioudus is the name used in the Gospels. Magically, the name Ioudus is NOT em-ployed in the Christian dramatizations (of the Greek-written Gospels);only the incendiary “JUDAS”





In Mark (c. 68-73 CE) the first of the four Canon Gospels, Ju-das is mentioned, but is not a villain. The subsequent Gospel of Matthew (c. 70-100 CE) which ratchets-up the demoniza-tion and trashing of Jewish icons on other fronts, suddenly introduces the demonization of Judas. Matthew is laced with diabolical motifs of various Jewish icons allegedly betraying for money. Matthew’s Jewish vignettes are, respectfully, not that dissimilar from the notorious motifs in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (see amplification below). Any objective analysis will confirm this.

The last of the four Canon Gospels, John, (c. 90-110 CE) [in the King James Bible 6:70, 6:71 and 7:1] which crescendos the motifs of the allegedly diabolical Jew, outright positions Judas as emblematic of the (allegedly betraying and complic-itous-to-murder) Jews. Psychologically, by the advent of the Gospel of John, the target audience has already been primed to the villainization of Jewish icons - by the first three Canon Gospels (known, by the way, as the Synoptic Gospels [c 68-100 CE]) . The Gospel of John (c. 90-100 CE) will now ratch-et-up the demonizations further, and then directly go after the Jews as a people, on several fronts. Respectfully, a primitive-but-deadly ‘hatchet-job’ cloaked in piety and Greek literary prose.

To be precise, Matthew and John, in particular, target, brand, stigmatize and demonize “the Pharisees” (rabbinic Judaism). But the Pharisees are the pre-eminent group in Judaism then. And, during the years that the New Testament was written, the other Jewish sects disappeared. Basically the Pharisees = Judaism. Demonizing the Pharisees, demonizes the Jews. They are one-and-the-same.

Weighing the texts and the demonizations, anti-Semitism is de facto enshrined as core doctrine, no matter which way one twists-and-turns.

From a purely academic perspective, through the lens of a scholar of Christianity:

“The [alleged Judas] betrayal remains purposeless, use-less and unintelligible, whichever way we turn” - Charles Guignebert (1867-1939), JESUS p. 455, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, Questia, Online Library.

(Guignebert was Professor of History of Christianity, The Sorbonne)

Perhaps “purposeless” theologically. But not “purposeless” psychologically or politically or symbolically. The demon-ization of Judas will achieve one of the strategic goals of the Canon Gospels. Among other objectives, the Jews are trashed and de-legitimized.

Thus, the original arch-enemy, the Jews, are rendered as ever-more villainous. Presto. Rome finds its culpability magically reduced. Those so-bad Jews must somehow be re-sponsible….

The IMAGE of the Jew which the Gospels are conjuring, is further demonized.

(Saint) Jerome (374 - 419 CE) denounces Jews (author: The verbiage is too incendiary to reprint here) “… of whom Judas was the model”

(Saint) Augustine (415 CE) …”The true image of the He-brew is Judas Iscariot…”

Thus, the demonization gambit of the Canon Gospel authors is further concretized by latter-day Church pillars. But this would be a logical extension for sincere religious devotees, not able to pierce through the gambit. Diabolical/Demonic IMAGERY is thus more formally codified as emblematic doctrine.





Before Mark, the first of the Canon Gospels, Judas is not even mentioned. That applies to the pre-Canon Gospel writings of Paul, as well.

W.B. Smith, G. Volkmar, and Hyam Maccoby, among others, have argued that Judas never even existed.

As regards the arrest of Jesus: From the Roman perspective, Jesus was doomed before Passover commenced at sunset. He was over their ‘red lines’. Jesus of Nazareth represented their worst nightmare: a self-proclaimed miracle-worker, the lead-er of a Jewish messianic following - stirring-up the throngs - from the central court of the Temple - on the eve of Passover. Jesus was the very center-of-attention.

Jesus, according to the Gospels (see also Gospel of John: 12:12-16) entered Jerusalem greeted by the people in a cele-brated processional (”On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to met him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord”-John 12:12-13) on a symbolic white donkey, (”behold thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt” - John 12:15). This all fulfilled a messianic tem-plate to some, on the eve of Passover, with Jesus then lectur-ing and/or hectoring the Priests in the central Temple Court, and overturning the tables of money-changers and the chairs of the dove sellers, at the periphery of the Temple Court, with the masses of Jewish pilgrims converging into Jerusalem and onto the Temple Mount and at-hand at the goings-on…

Jesus was throwing-down-the-gauntlet against the powers-that-be, whether Jewish or Roman; The Jews may have run the day-to-day operations of the Temple, and the Jews may have been given some trappings of power, but the Romans held 99% of the reins-of-power.

Jesus was very clearly positioned by his words - and by those of his ardent followers - as a potential messianic savior. And his quasi-triumphant processional - through the legendary Golden Gate at the nexus of Judea - at this nexus-day of the year, the eve of Passover, raised-the-stakes even higher. Je-sus posed a maximal potential threat to Roman authority, and Jesus was consequently doomed. Jesus was not oblivious to the tableau here. There was no way the Romans could - or would - allow this potent threat to their power to gain fur-ther traction. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Empire’s enforcer in Judea, most certainly knew quite, quite precisely where the messianic Jesus was, and most certainly Pilate didn’t need any mysterious back-channel from one of Jesus’ disciples. On the contrary, the whole point of the Jesus processional into Jerusalem, was to win the hearts-and-minds of those in Jerusalem, not to scurry in-the-shadows. By Gospel ac-counts, Jesus was, after all, dead-center in the Temple Court-yard, preaching and debating - and, last but not least, creat-ing significant uproar there, at “Ground Zero” of the nexus of Roman power, probably for up to three days.

Note that the (walled) city of Jerusalem is not particular-ly large. It is approximately the size of Manhattan’s Cen-tral Park (which is 3 extra-long Manhattan ‘avenue blocks’ wide, by 51 street blocks long) And all entry and exit into the walled city of Jerusalem was quite easily monitored via its eight medium-sized stone gates ( now there are 7). And while Central Park has trees and foliage, the city of Jerusalem does not. Many very low-lying structures, yes; Foliage, no. In ad-dition, ramparts (stone walkways along the Old City’s outer walls) - then and now - surround the city, greatly facilitating observation and communication.

Jesus’s trumpeted processional into the city leading-into the Passover holiday, as conveyed in the Gospels, had to be quite well-known within the walls of Jerusalem - to even the blind





and deaf. His whereabouts, by definition, could not be “be-trayed” per se, as it was Jesus and his disciples who had trum-peted his precise whereabouts to all to begin with. By Gospel accounts, there were multiple hi-volume goings-on related to Jesus of Nazareth in the processional into the city and at Temple courtyard that day. Included would be Jesus’ hi-vol-ume attack on the money-changers and overturning the chairs of the dove-sellers. Now, one cannot betray the whereabouts of a party, when that party is on ‘center stage’, basically tele-graphing his dynamic presence and aura to the entire city and beyond… This was ‘high drama’ and very public drama.

[Money-changers - were necessary to change {repeat: change} (pagan) Roman coins - to more politically-correct ( and halachicly correct ) Judean coinage for the Passover Temple ‘tax’ and for the purchase of animals to sacrifice; In-terestingly, the historian Ben-Sasson notes that between the years 28 and 32 CE in particular, “the coins struck by Pi-late bear pagan symbols in the form of cultic objects ….” So, respectfully, that coinage absolutely- positively had to be changed. By money-changers. Known in contemporary times as ”Currency Exchange”, whether Deak Perera or American Express or Credit Suisse, Currency Exchange is in any inter-national airport worldwide.

The money-changers were necessary, as well, both to change sundry coinage from around the Mediterranean, and, as well, to change large Judean coinage for smaller Judean coinage, appropriate to the purchase-price of the sacrificial animals.]

Now, the Canon Gospels (68 - 110 CE) will stigmatize the following Jewish icons:The (Jewish) Sanhedrin;The (Jewish) Elders ;The alleged (Jewish) disciple Judas from Judea - and through that symbolism, the Jews, Judea and the iconic Judah Maccabee;The (Jewish) Temple Priests;

The (Roman-appointed but Jewish) High Priest (see above);The “Jewish crowd” (but only in the last Canon Gospel - John)

So, on-the-one-hand, the Church will ‘package’ the Canon Gospels as part of a “Bible Set”, i.e. the “New Testament” juxtaposed against the “Old Testament’ - and derive credibil-ity from the juxtapositioin and ‘packaging’. Simultaneously, the Church will then totally trash the icons of the Jews, the direct heirs of the “Old Testament”.

“USE” - and “ABUSE.”

USE the Jews’ bible to gain credibility for the “New Testa-ment”;Then, ABUSE the very same Jews.

Note, of course, that the Jews are not ‘buying-into’ this “Old Testament” vs. “New Testament” terminology or juxtaposi-tion; To the Jews there is only the Tanach, one Bible, and it does not include - and cannot be juxtaposed against - the Cannon Gospels & related…

Thus, when the Christians use the term “The Bible” - and when the Jews use the term “the Bible”, they mean different things. The Jews never incorporate the Christiuan writings under the umbrella term ( “the Bible”); But, the Christians incorporate the Tanach under the umbrella term ( “the Bi-ble”), especially when going-to-print with “Holy Bibles”. ( note: Loosely used, the term “the Bible” is sometimes used by lay Christians to mean their “New Testament” only. )

back to the Cannon Gospels…

Now, the Jew Jesus may have preached love to his fellow Jews; But the Gospels will incite unprecedented virulent ha-tred against these very same Jews. The Romans crucified Je-





sus; Then the Gospels crucify his people.

Historians will ultimately challenge - and find fatal-flaws in - the veracity of each and every one of these Gospel vili-fications of the Jews. But tens of millions of Jews will be denegraded and persecuted and have their lives destroyed in-the-interim.

The vilifications will be entered in the four gospels (later to be anointed as the Canon Gospels) - as “gospel truth” - 35- 75+ years after the general saga unfolded. And who could challenge the Gospels?

The vilifications will each have a different ‘fact pattern’ in each of the Gospels. None of these incendiary vilifications - which will be Death Warrants to millions - will ever be pre-cisely the same, and none will ever to this day be accompa-nied by any documented corroboration. As noted, the core Demonizaton, the libel of the Sanhedrin, is a virtual impos-sibility and has been widely discredited. The other vilifica-tions either fail independently, or fall-as-dominos when the main domino - the Sanhedrin vilification domino - falls. All the other vilifications of the Jews are dependent on the core libel of the fabrication of a Sanhedrin trial. And there was no Sanhedrin trial.]

Matthew and John, in particular, are additionally laced with virulent anti-Semitic verses and themes.

[check Search Engines / keywords:

anti-Semitism Gospel of Matthew]

anti-Semitism Gospel of John]

Going-into the period of the Jewish-Roman Wars (commenc-ing 66 CE), the (Early) Christians were, indeed, a harassed

minority by the Romans, and, shunned, at a minimum, by the Jews, and intermittently harassed and/or persecuted accord-ing to sundry sources.

And, indeed, the Christians were to endure very severe perse-cution under Rome - and indeed, torture and death in Rome’s notorious Colosseum. There are several noted Christian mar-tyrs in this era, including one woman, in particular.

However, several hundred years into Christianity, the Chris-tians were to pick up a particular patron, who would effect one of history’s greatest “role reversals” - Roman Emperor Constantine.

but, for the moment, back to our TimeLine…

Roman Emperor Hadrian in 131 CE renames Jerusalem ‘Ae-lia Capitolina’ - and forbids the Jews to enter. “In an effort to wipe out all memory of their bond between the Jews and the land, Hadrian changed the name of the province from Iudaea to Syria-Palestina, a name that became common in non-Jew-ish literature.” - Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People (p. 334 of the 2002 Harvard University Press edition)

Thunderation! Irenaeus (Saint Irenaeus 120 CE – 202 CE) b. in Asia Minor, now Turkey

[…Irenaeus was pivotal in codifying the four gospels not-ed above as being the exclusive Canon Gospels…and this is more than a hundr years before the Constantine evolve-ment]

On another front, as relates to philosophy, there is the well-regarded “Irenaen theodicy” (philosophical response to Evil)… very similar to the predecessor rabbinic “nehama de-kissufa” ( “un-earned bread”) theodicy]





Thunderation! completion of the “Mishnah”! (170 CE– 200 CE)

[Started about 400… 600 years earlier in Bavel and Jerusa-lem… exposition of the Law by the Scribes (Soferim) - par-ticularly Hillel and Shamai [and their respective followings, noted above], and its elaboration by the Tannaim (~high level sages) of the 1st and 2nd century, particularly Akiva [noted above]… final compilation by Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi - Rab-bi Judah, The Prince]

Thunderation! The Mishnah is redacted by Yehuda ha-Nassi ~200 CE period

….Rabbi Judah the Prince….b. 135 CE; dies 219 CE…in Eretz Israel primarily in the 179-219 CE period…Rav Ye-huda ha-Nassi is referred to as “REBBE” and as “Rabbeinu ha-Kodesh”… was the son of Rebbe Gamliel II… and his life was intertwined, according to lore, with that of Roman ruler Marcus Aurelius…

The Amoraim Period 220 - 500 CE:

The amoraim - the rabbis of the Talmud - redact the Mishnah (of the tannaim) noted above.

Constantine (272-337 CE) morphs into a ‘force multiplier’ for Christianity, in general - but also for the Canon Gospels, in particular. And the Canon Gospels carried within their cor-pus their intense toxicity towards the array of Jewish icons laced through their pages.

As noted, the Gospels trash an array of Jewish icons. As the Gospel series moves forward, they all more-or-less all paint the same brush-strokes re: the Jews -

diabolical/ sinister/ money-obsessed/ betraying/ murderous/conspiratorial / bloody-handed / Christ-killer

The cumulative result of this torrent of stigmas is the conjur-ing of a demonic amalgam: a sinister IMAGE of a demonic and diabolical entity.

A grotesque caricature is crafted - and then carefully nur-tured - by the Church

One can practically visualize the diabolical Image as one reads this… tail optional.

note paraphrase, then text: (from John 13)And when Jesus had given Judas the bread to designate him (Judas) to go and reveal Jesus’s identity to Jesus’s enemies, “Satan entered unto him (Judas)”

So, “Satan entered into him (Judas).”The quintissential literary assassination of all-time.

so, according to Saint John,Jesus designates Judas to go to his enemies; Then, notwith-standing the fact that Jesus is driving this saga, “Satan en-tered” Judas. Hmmm…

Jesus DESIGNATES; then Satan ENTERS Judas… And, of course, Judas is positioned to represent the Jews…so, ac-cording to the Gospel-Imagery-Construct, the Devil entered the Jews

Very sweet.

But actions - including demonization gambits - have conse-quences

Watch, now, the black smoke slowly curling-up skyward from the so-tall brick chimney of the Auschwitz cremato-ria…millions murdered





Do not pay attention to the screams…

Do not pay attention to their pain and agony

for John has said.. “The Devil entered him (Judas)”

This conjured diabolical IMAGE (constructed to represent the Jews) will permeate the consciousness of Christendom, in general, and Greater Europe, in particular, for the centuries to come. “Passion Plays” and “Passions of the Christ” movies would re-package and re-play - re-enforce - and re-embed - the Imagery into the consciousness of Greater Europe

The incendiary and pervasive destructive power of this le-thal conjured IMAGE - projected by the Gospels into both the conscious and subconscious - will take on a life-of-its-own. Impressionable European youths will be primed over-the-centuries for a lifetime of negativity towards Jews. At-a-minimum, wariness or ill-will; At-a-maximum, hostility or outright hatred, and mass murder.

Diabolical Imagery will be passed-on father-to-son, genera-tion-to-generation. It will become part of the culture itself.

The Jews - heirs to the legacy of Abraham, Moses, King Da-vid and King Solomon - would be demonized, trashed and then cast as sub-human. They would be an object of manu-factured hatred of the highest intensity.

This pervasive virulent hatred would figuratively and liter-ally fling the Jews from the peaks of Mt. Sinai - to the ovens of Auschwitz and the blood-soaked muck-depths of the Babi Yar ravine.

The Jews ( those who remained alive, that is) would (almost, almost) forget who they once were.

The progenitors of Monotheism, and the receivers of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, would now be cast to the very periphery and depths of European society, at best. At worst, they faced terrible suffering and deaths. For sure, they faced unrelenting opprobrium.

Now, once any group is stigmatized and cast or pigeon-holed as demonic or sub-human, ‘bad things start happening to good people’ - steadily and inexorably. Any group less tena-cious and resilient than the Jews, would probably have be-come totally unhinged many times over as a consequence. The discriminations, defamations, persecutions, houndings, expulsions and killings would, indeed, prove relentless.

Demonization tends to be a self-fulfilling slander. As the dig-nity, civil rights, means-to-livelihood, self-esteem, and inter-related self-confidence of the target-group are increasingly stripped-away, the fabric of the target-group will generally tend to become ‘undone’. The group will tend to become more insular. It may be forced ‘on-the-run’ with all the mul-titude of trauma and problems which that entails. It will then become increasingly easier and easier - and indeed, self-ful-filling - to ‘make-the-case’ that ‘they are not like us’.

If, however, notwithstanding the unrelenting assaults, the target group is still unbowed, its members are attacked as ‘elitist’ and ‘arrogant’. And, of course, ‘insular’.

Once the integrity and credibility of an individual or a group is undermined, members of the group have to work ‘twice-as-hard in life’ just to survive. Once their basic humanity, decency and legitimacy is challenged, the situation becomes ‘problematic’. Survival itself is threatened on an ongoing ba-sis, let alone dignity and livelihood - and advance.

A low-level ‘bonfire of hate’ is lit - and maintained for centu-ries. Any clever demagogue or tyrant can readily stoke-the-





fire and bring it to “full flame”. The demagogue can whip-up the very lowest stratum of society against the target group, meaning, in this case, the Jews. Hate and fear are highly con-tagious. Love spreads slowly; Hate, rapidly. And the dema-gogue or institutional power can ride-to-power on that wave of hate. Once power has been accrued by the hate-monger, a survey of his constituency will find it receptive to ongoing tribulations, if not worse, for the target group. After all, that was a key raison d’etre of the particular movement in the very first place. That is a charter pillar of this little ‘club’. And, of course - Hate unifies.

The hate-mongering can be crude and ‘from the streets’ - or subtle and from ‘the palace’. Either way, the result is the same: Power to the demonizer; Suffering to the target group.

For seventeen centuries subsequent to Constantine, the Jews - who in 66 CE had routed the vaunted Roman 12th Legion to protect the honor of the Temple of Solomon, and the liberty of the descendants of Abraham - will be cast as diabolical, evil social pariahs in Greater Europe - and will both literally and figuratively, ‘gasp for breath’.

Note that in Matthew (c. 70-100 CE) - and in variations there-of in the other Gospels and related Early Christian texts - on the first day of Passover, Judas (in 33 BCE) is first alleged to have betrayed - for ‘thirty pieces of silver’ - the where-abouts of Jesus - who had preached front-and-center at the Temple court the day(s) prior… then moving along with this pejorative portrayal of events, Judas, having repented (in the Matthew version) ends up (in the Matthew account) alleg-edly then throwing the same tainted silver right back into the Temple, (and in this Gospel only, hangs himself) whereupon the chief (Jewish) Priests and Jewish Elders then allegedly purchase (a field to bury strangers in) - the ‘field of blood’ ( Matthew 27: 8 ) - since the (alleged) silver is (now, also al-legedly ) ‘the price of blood’( Matthew 27:6 ) The incendiary

‘blood theme’ is continued a few sentences later in Matthew in verse 27:25. ‘All the (presumably Jewish) people (alleg-edly) answered, “His (Jesus’s) blood be on us and on our children” …

So fine.[Sorry, Jewish children… Life is unfair]

But, respectfully, the two grotesque caricatures of Judas con-tradict…

Is Judas the FIRST caricature - the slimy money-grubbing betrayer-for-silver?orIs Judas the SECOND caricature - the diabolical-blood-drencher - who immediately throws the silver back- and somehow metaphysically drenches the Jews in some sort of ‘blood culpability’ for all-time ?

Slimy-money-grubber or Diabolical-blood-drencher?

One - or the other - please

From the sequence-of-events, logically they cannot be both.

Is Judas greedy for the SILVER - or is he rabid for BLOOD?

Please enlighten us - so we are aware of the ‘Demonization du jour’

Respectfully, the Demonizers cannot ‘have-it-both-ways’ - (one would think)Gospel-writ or no Gospel-writ

For, Judas cannot have simultaneously both -# kept the silver





and# immediately thrown-back the silver

Very confusing.

Very confusing to follow this symbolic character assassina-tion of Judas, i.e. the Jews.

Pray tell,

Is it “thirty pieces of silver” or thirty litres of blood ?

The Jewish children of Europe, Centuries #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, and #20, consigned by-the-Church to lifetimes of denigration, do wish to know:

Are they-slimy-money-grubbing or diabolical-blood-drenching?

From which direction, should the Jewish kids defend?

Even grotesque Demonizations need at least a ‘fig-leaf’ of veracity…one-would-think…

But, of course, these were the ‘gospel truth’ Canon Gospels

—

A parallel ‘contradictory-setup’ was alsoin-place vis a’ vis the knowledge of the whereabouts of Jesus in Jerusalem

Much attention is given in Christian lore and in the Gospels themselves to the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem - and to the subsequent uproar Jesus caused in the Temple Court, perhaps 3-days-running, under the very eyes of the

Roman garrisonheadquartered at the edge of the Temple colonnades

Jesus is quite ‘Front-and-Center’

But then, magically, assorted Jewish icons are fingeredby the gospels- as having ‘betrayed’ the location of Jesus…..

Meaning, as having betrayed the locale of the ‘Front-and-Center’ Jesus, with 12 disciples in-tow

Assorted diabolical ‘betrayal & handover actions’ are as-cribed to sundry Jewish icons

But there is a fatal contradiction here…

Either one or the other:

If Jesus (with 12 disciples in-tow) caused a 3-day-uproar in the Temple Courtyard, his whereabouts would be clearly widely known;If the whereabouts of Jesus and his 12 disciples were not widely known, he could not have possibly just-previously made a 3-day commotion under the very noses of the hyper-controlling Romans in the epicenter of Jerusalem.

Respectfully, even the Gospels cannot have it both ways…forever

Thus, respectfully, the basic foundation upon which the unre-lenting Jew-bashing plays out, is structurally unhinged. The ‘foundation beams’ of the entire ‘betrayal’ construct simply do not fit together.

The time-venerated ‘betrayal gambit” is, respectfully, a non-starter





—-

Moving-right-along, the blood demonization motifs, in any event, will layer-onto the demonization Imagery of the first two alleged vignettes (Sanhedrin, Judas)…

However, aside from the somewhat amorphous demonization motifs of ‘blood money’, ‘blood & betrayal’, etc. , there is now a new “ticking time bomb”: the BLOOD LIBEL.The ‘blood & betrayal’ theme will be embellished-upon. This ‘BLOOD LIBEL’‘ticking-time-bomb’ will finally explode in full fury in the 12th century, first in the William of Norwich case, where-upon all the Jews of Norwich, England were slaughtered; The incendiary libel will then continue thereafter, exploding in-termittently through the centuries: through the 20th century Beilis Trial in Russia and the Kielce pogrom in Poland - and even into Jewish communities in Syria and beyond.

The Jews are not ‘into” blood. There are severe and tough Biblical and Rabbinic restrictions proscribimg Jews from blood. But, the facts are not allowed to interfere with the li-bels.

(see Search-Engine keywords: blood libel against Jews).

The amalgam of the inter-related - and almost unrelenting - defamations and diabolical imagery will achieve critical de-structive mass. And will feed upon itself.

The writers of the gospels will stitch-onto their writings vari-ous grotesque caricatures of sundry Jewish icons and figura-tive representatives, and then later proclaim these trashings as ‘Holy Writ’. Aside from the direct defamation of the Jews, these defamations will drive a moral wedge between Jesus and the Jews, his root-nation. While Jesus is portrayed as of Immaculate Conception and all-purity-and-saintly attributes

and basically representing the “Forces of Light”, the Jews are painted, icon after icon, as diabolical and sinister, and basically as representing, the “Forces of Darkness”.

Light vs. Darkness

Good vs. Evil

Saint vs. Sinner

Virgin purity v. Diabolical corruptness

Redemption vs. Damnation

Angelic vs. Demonic

Godly vs. Satanic

Selfless vs. Greedy

Pure vs. Impure

No stone - or theme - is left unturned.

The facts are not allowed to interfere with the Demoniza-tions.

Judaism most certainly allows the healing-of-the-sick on Shabbat, and most certainly in-the-synagogue, but the Jews of Mark’s synagogue (Mark 3:4) are castigated for their al-leged ”hardness of their hearts” (Mark 3:5) that they ( the Jews, allegedly) might “accuse him (Jesus)” - and are then demonized for allegedly plotting to “destroy him” over the healing.“Destroy Jesus” over the healing?Why should the Jews destroy Jesus over the healing ?Healing is a Divine imperative for the Jews - including on





the Sabbath.There is indeed a specific imperative that ‘Pikuach nefesh docheh shabbos’ - that one is definitely permitted to even vio-late other Sabbath prohibitions to save a life…And if the healing is in the synagogue itself, there is certainly a clear imperative to effect the healing.

Mark is in a rush to show that Jewish law is insensitive. But to do so, he must invert Jewish law. He must turn it inside-out.

A sub-motif of the gospels is that ‘LAW’ (of Moses) is inher-ently trumped by ‘LOVE’. The Jews, however, believe that the two ( LAW - and LOVE ) live side-by-side, with both imperatives - Law - and Love/Sensitivity - finding an entente. Judaism does believe that Love carries with it, Responsibil-ity. Judaism would plead gulty to that charge.

Respectfully, it is only if one distorts Jewish Law, that can one trumpet ‘insensitvity’.

Unfortunately, in the gospels, Judaism is painted and carica-tured icon-by-icon in far worse imagery than in the “Syna-gogue-healing mini-saga’; It is painted in the brushstrokes of ‘the hellish and hell’. While Christianity is painted - icon-by-icon - in the brushstrokes of ‘the heavenly and celestial’. And as victim - of the diabolical & evil ( Jews).

Christian theology, dogma, and light culture will methodi-cally aggressively paint the Jew -the torch-bearer of the Ten Commandment - as the total antithesis of everything and any-thing positive and redemptive.

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”(John 1:17)

So, Moses, according to Saint John, alas, was not quite ’truth’.

Only ‘law’.

Read John 1:17 - and weep.

A simple - but lethal - stratagem.

BLACKEN-the-Jews from every conceivable angle. And UNDERMINE everything about them. From days past - to days future.

The Church will “make the sale”. Over and over again.

“Buy-into our package; Support our team; because we’re the Forces of Light against those quite diabolical Forces-of-Darkness Jews”.

First ‘setting the stage’ subtly, then ratcheting-up the tem-perature.

Church hierarchies will employ the same deadly, but politi-cally useful, stratagem in-parallel. Church sermons. Parochi-al school. Sunday school. School plays. Bedtime stories.All hiding behind the ‘holiness’ of the Gospels.

A tiny, almost miniscule minority in a sea of Christianity, averse to stepping-into a church or plowing through Gospel texts, the Jews will not even fully grasp the depth, breadth or intensity of the lethal campaign being waged against them unrelentingly and on multiple levels. A full-scale multi-lay-ered Image Demonization war is being waged against them. Directed and orchestrated by the highest echelons. Playing the same themes, but with just slightly different melodies, country-after-country, text-after-text, polemic-after-polemic, year-after-year, decade-after-decade, century-after-century. From the Gospels. From the pulpit. From school text book. Through Story Tale and crude tales. The Jews ‘do not stand a prayer’. They will be numbed and decimated by the intermi-





nable and unrelenting onslaughts - psychological, verbal and physical. The Church will hold itself morally innocent and pure, while the mob subsequently gang-rapes the Jewish 16 year old school girl….and while the Church metaphorically gang-rapes an entire people.

A demonic (Jewish) ‘straw man’ is manufactured by the Church: A grotesque caricature, as noted. “The demonic Jew”. The Church can then ‘campaign against’ this manufac-tured ‘straw man’. The Church can ‘rail-against’ this manu-factured diabolical ‘straw man’ from Gospel and from pulpit. It can ‘campaign’ against this conjured evil mirage, which the Church has itself, of course, fabricated.

The Church can focus all potential anger (of the masses) towards this conjured mirage. It can ‘rally support’ against this conjured mirage. The strategy will prove extraordinarily ‘effective’ over the centuries in consolidating and advancing the power of the Church. Of course, millions of those Jew-ish children condemned by Matthew’s pen will be degraded, denigrated and persecuted, if not also tortured and murdered, in the process.

The Church’s power will be strengthened on several levels - as the Jews are positioned as the focus of hatred and ire. Schematically, ‘Jesus will be hijacked by the Church’ to pro-mote and foster hate against the Jews. Millions of Jews - the nation of Christianity’s own progenitor - will de facto be is-sued Death Warrants by the Church, as the Church relentless-ly pursues the consolidation and expansion of its temporal power prerogatives.

Initially (~33 CE - ~100 CE) Judaism per se (as opposed to its icons) will not be openly vilified, until Matthew and John (c. 90-110 CE). But these two incendiary gospels are 50% of the later-to-be canonized gospels.

The very Early Christians (~30 CE up until John) are attempt-ing to recruit the Jews to this Jews-for-Jesus movement, and, Jesus himself, is, of course, Jewish. The Early Christians will not directly demonize the Jews per se. However, a transition takes place over time, where a new religion, a new testament is being heralded.

Thus, a fine line is walked, at least initially: Trash the Jewish icons, not the Jewish nation per se. A very wide spectrum of key Jewish icons will be unrelentingly trashed and demon-ized. Trash a wide-enough spectrum of a nation’s icons, and you’ve effectively trashed the nation - while your ‘hands are clean’. Almost.

Later, with the Gospels of Matthew and John, and then still later, with the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity (312 CE), there will be a convergence of in-terests between Rome and its Church to actively politically crucify the Jews as a whole. Jewish history, particularly after Constantine converts, will pivot(i.e. further implode) as a consequence of its now institution-alized ongoing vilification by the Canon Gospels, now dis-seminated with the full governmental and economic power of the Christianized Roman Empire. The Jews are now in a murderous vise.

An invisible stratagem is being concretized in-place against them. Few Jewish families in Europe will not, over the cen-turies to come, bury-their-dead prematurely, as a direct con-sequence.

At this 4th century (Constantine) point-in-time, a still-addi-tional lethal and diabolical theme is layered-on: (Christian) “Theological Anti-Semitism”: With the Jews increasingly persecuted and suffering, the updated Christian theological line is not that persecution of the Jews is bad, but, rather, that Jewish persecution is ’self-inflicted Divine ‘punishment’ for





Now, re-engineering history to ‘blame-the-Jews’ might achieve some limited traction, but the Cross was, after all, a Roman symbol and execution instrument. And the masses of the Roman Empire were more attuned to Imagery than the nuances of political history.And the Image of Jesus nailed to the Roman cross was, after all, already widely disseminated.

However, if ‘Demonization of the Jews’ could be layered-on to the historical-record-tampering, complete with diabolical and sinister Imagery, the animus of the masses towards the Jews, could indeed potentially be ratcheted above a quantum level above any animus towards Rome. Thus, both Rome and the Christian hierarchy, now newly connected-at-the-hip, had a confluence-of-interests to more aggressively promulgate the demonization of the Jews. And then implant this toxic Imagery deep in the consciousness of Christendom and the Roman Empire. This objective was apparently pretty high on the ‘To Do List’… for the next several centuries… and the objectives were essentially achieved.

The Jews of Greater Europe were now politically naked and de facto under permanent siege. They were trapped in a diabolical and lethal killing ground encompassing all of Europe… A proud, talented, industrious and spiritual people would, step-by-vicious-step, be ushered straight into Dante’s Inferno.

Rome, at the time of Jesus (early 1st century) several hun-dred years prior, had controlled Judea and the entire police apparatus and the entire crucifixion process. However, post-Constantine, Rome was certainly not about to be the entity held accountable for the death of Jesus; Deflect the blame. Convict & sentence those First century Jews - retroactively. Then, funnel, and if necessary, unleash, Europe’s fury at the contemporary Jews.

purported ‘deicide’ (the death of Jesus)…… ‘So, don’t blame the Church (for hate-mongering and inciting-to-murder)….’Clearly, the suffering of the Jews must be Divine Will.’

This approach, although packaged in theological terms, falls into the time-honored genre of ‘blame the victim’.

Now, clearly, Rome, the new patron of Christianity, (~330 CE) was the entity which killed Jesus in-the-first-place (33 CE). This is undisputed. This is a big problem for Rome, which is now encouraging the millions of denizens of the empire to adopt Christianity. How are the masses to respond to (or take seriously) an Empire which killed its own Deity? However, the ‘blame the Jews’ and ‘brand the Jews’ approach would ‘solve’ many moral and political problems for the Ro-man hierarchy. It would actually attempt to emotionally dis-tance Rome from the killing of its newly adopted GOD, by focusing rage towards the Jews, as the arch-villain of the his-torical saga. In addition, any persecution of the Jews, always presumably an amorphous threat in any event, would thus de facto be legitimized.

Let’s not let any decency interfere with the plans here…

Thus, initially in Centuries 1-3, the Jews are demonized to create a chasm between them and Jesus vis a’ vis potential converts; After Constantine the Jews are demonized with an even greater vengeance, to make absolutely, positively sure that any anger regarding the crucifixion of Jesus, be deflected from Rome, and directed unequivocally towards the Jews. For several thousand years or so….

Constantine’s ideological heirs controlled the organs of the empire. At the same time, the Jews, once the elite denizens of the proud and independent Temple State of Judea, were now a tiny and dispersed minority in Constantine’s vast geo-political turf.





“Hiding in plain sight.”

The ‘well’ had indeed been ‘poisoned’.But not by the Jews - and not with classic poison.The “wells of Europe”of the Dark Ages had been poisoned by clerics - and with ’hatred’.And all of Europe would drink of its toxic waters.

Demonic imagery - resonates. It resonates consciously and unconsciously. It is a toxic bonfire - only waiting to be lit by the next pyromaniac.

Exposed to a subtle and not-so-subtle torrent of anti-Semitic demonizations-of-the-Jews from infancy, in Church, Sunday School and by Story (Demonic) Tale, the Catholic child by age 14 will have a demonic IMAGE of the Jew well-embed-ded permanently in both his consciousness and subconscious. He will then carry the embedded demonic Imagery with him his entire lifetime. He may forget the precise particulars, but the demonic IMAGE will be there.

No aspect of Jewish life, from cradle to grave, would be un-touched by the toxic Imagery and the toxic context. A Jewish individual would face one obstacle after another in navigat-ing through life. Indeed, no Jewish life in Greater Europe would thereafter be safe.

To encapsulate, four highly-charged vignettes, in particular, will be employed by the Canon Gospels to effectively de-monize the Jews:

(1) An alleged Sanhedrin Trial & conviction of Jesus…and alleged handover to Rome - casting the Jews as confederates in the execution of Jesus.

(2) An alleged betrayal by (an asserted disciple of the name) Judas for ‘30 pieces of silver’ - to reveal Jesus’s whereabouts

In tandem, anti-Semitic persecution of any stripe would be explained away, if not exculpated, under the protection of the mantra - ‘Divine punishment of the killers of GOD’. The Jews are thus, first DEMONIZED by the Church. Then, their consequent persecution and related, is theologically JUSTI-FIED by the Church. This double-barreled-motif is the over-riding historical context for the next 17 centuries of (frighten-ing) Jewish history.

It is necessary to understand the underlying context, however uncomfortable for many concerned, in order to understand Jewish history - or Western history - subsequent. The Canon Gospels are a taboo subject to challenge. But, respectfully, millions of Jewish children and adults have been murdered as a consequence of the vilifications therein, a million Jewish children in the 1940s alone.

There would be no “loaves of bread” or “flasks of wine” for these children.Another fate, far darker, would be bequeathed to them.

Anti-Semitism, and the consequent unrelenting demonization and persecution of a miniscule minority over the subsequent seventeen hundred year stretch-of-history post-Constantine - across Europe and Euro-Russia, is not some mysterious dark phenomenon.

Demonized - and grotesquely caricatured - by the Church, the Jews, were now an instutionally-sanctioned target across the far reaches of Greater Europe. Young or old; Rich 0r poor; Religious or secular; the malcontents of Europe would even-tually home-in on them.

The ‘paper trail’ of the demonization is in all public libraries and churches. And quite-a-few hotel rooms.The ‘smoking gun’ is not concealed; It is bound and out-in-the-open.





- so the Jewish Priests can allegedly hand over Jesus to the Romans - casting the Jews as betrayers of Jesus and painting-the-Jews as money-grubbers.

(3) An alleged key role in all-of-the-above for Caiaphas, Ro-man lackey - and ‘High Priest’ of the Jews.

(4) An alleged purchase by the Jewish Elders and Priests- with the same’30 pieces of silver’ (now, allegedly immedi-ately returned by the same allegedly money-grubbing Judas) - of an alleged ‘Field of Blood’ - casting the Jews into some sort of bizarr blood-association with the crucifixion… for all-time.

[Note, as well, that the formerly allegedly money-crazed Judas has apparently thrown the silver right back into the Temple Court (being, alas, apparently, not so money-crazed, after all.]

All four vignettes have been discredited.

Cumulatively, the four alleged vignettes demonize with over-lapping dark themes:

Sinister / Corrupt / Conspiratorial / Money-crazed / Diaboli-cal / “Blood Money” / Demonic / Christ-killer i.e. Christian GOD-Killer.

“Character assassination” of an entire people.

These intertwined four Gospel vignettes alone, will perma-nently put the lives, property and dignity of Jews at high-risk….The vignette-constructs will effectively ‘set up’ the Jews as ‘fair game’ in the eyes of the masses.

The Church top echelon, and specifically the ongoing Col-lege of Cardinals (an institution uninterrupted since 1056) - masters of Imagery for a 1,000 years - have always been quite

acutely aware of the lethal dynamics here. Their robes are scarlet - and their hands are scarlet. Shall I repeat?

Wikipedia Dec 8, 2007:Scarlet (color)In the Roman Catholic Church, scarlet robes - symbolizing the color of arterial blood - are worn by Cardinals as a sym-bol of their willingness to defend their faith “unto the shed-ding of (their own) blood”

Respectfully, the word(s) in parenthesis should be(Jewish)

meaning, the Wikipedia entry should read“………………as a symbol of their willingness to defend their faith “unto theshedding of (Jewish) blood.”

The Church will call the four key allegations noted above - ‘history’, “Holy Writ of saints, and ”immutable”,irrespective of “where the chips ( i.e. Jewish bodies) may fall”

although:

# Fraught with internal inconsistencies and contradictions;

# Penned decades after-the-fact;

# Penned without any corroboration; and

# Presented with thoroughly amorphous and contradictory chronology

and time-inconsistency.

# Clearly “incendiary”





Others will call these vignettes simply coarse, vitriolic hate-lit-erature (dressed-up in fancy prose - and as alleged history).

The Church will figuratively douse and drench the Jews with virulent toxic- imagery-kerosene; And all that it will take lat-ter-day demagogues to create a conflagration, will be to light-a-match of incitement.

Inferno after inferno will be created; Cathedral after cathe-dral will be inaugurated; The Church’s power will be con-solidated. Grace.

Millions (of Jews) will suffer terribly and will die terrible deaths as a consequence.

Combine -

a) The wall-to-wall vilification of Jewish icons (by the Canon Gospels 68-110 CE).

b) The morphing of the Roman Empire to Christendom (313 CE and onwards)

and

c) Theological anti-Semitism: the “Perpetual punishment” theme: the wide dissemination of the theme promulgated by Church Father Eusebius of Caesarea (in 325 CE) that the Jews are perpetually guilty and consequently perpetually punished for rejecting Christianity and/or allegedly conspiring to have Jesus killed by the Romans.

d) Christianity’s interest in de-legitimizing the Jews.

e) Rome’s interest in deflecting anger for the Crucifixion of Jesus - to the Jews- and Greater Europe is transformed into one large “killing field” of the Jews… for the centuries to come.

There would be a convergence of interests by the Roman Empire and by Christendom, which were now inter-locked, to demonize the Jews, a tiny and miniscule minority barely hitting the radar. It would consequently be ‘politically cor-rect’, ‘socially correct’, and ‘theologically correct’ to de-monize the Jews. This would not be lost on any two-bit rac-ist or big-shot-demagogue. Hate “was-in-the-air”. The Jews were a tiny and vulnerable minority. The concept “Tyranny of the Majority” would morph to a totally new lethal dimen-sion “The majority’s demonization and persecution of a tiny minority”. The Jews of Greater Europe were the target - and the Jews of Greater Europe were on a vector towards death.

A climate of hatred and contempt towards the Jews, a tiny minority, was fostered.

The ‘pump of hatred’ is primed.

On an ongoing-basis - for centuries ongoing - the Church de facto ‘incited-to-riot’ -

Every last misfit in Europe was given a focus for his twisted anger, and a legitimacy to abuse and torment the Jews, for starters.

The list of Church-directed or inspired discriminations and persecutions of the Jews is voluminous and long.

[see www.shofars.org/persecution/default.htm]

The list of vicissitudes which, as a consequence, fanned-out beyond Europe over-the-centuries, is not short, either…

The original demonizations remain intact to-this-day in the Canon Gospels. Meaning, the ‘kindling wood’ of hatred to-wards the Jews remains intact and still burning…





All Jewish history, post-Gospels/Constantine/Augustine up through the Holocaust, will essentially be contending with the demonizations by the Gospels and related Church machi-nations. The Jews may not have paid much attention to the Gospels, and if they did, may not have taken these Gospel vignettes all that seriously, but the masses of Greater Europe have taken the Imagery quite seriously. Deadly seriously.

Like the mythological Roman god JANUS, the Catholic Church would have two opposite faces:

LOVE THY BROTHER - as an exemplar - regarding non-Jews.

HATE THY BROTHER - as an exemplar - regarding the Jews.

The face of LOVE - to non-Jews.

The face of HATE - towards the Jews.

Theologically ‘justified’, of course.The ultimate betrayal - of Jesus’s teachings - and of abso-lutely everything Jesus was all about, to begin with. Not to mention the targeting of Jesus’s “mother nation”.

The Church would meticulously paint its celestial Sistine Chapel frescos, while it simultaneously painted a very lethal Imagery-caricature of the Jews. Through Demonization, Im-agery and suggestive, if not explicit oratory, it de facto gave the ‘green light’ to the mob to commit atrocity. Ongoing. Intermittently, for seventeen hundred years, right through the mid-20th century. Plain-and-simple. The masses had the Church’s imprimatur to wink, if not to participate. And, in-deed, the masses would do both.

Beautiful cathedrals, and beautiful church music and beaut-

ful sistine Chapel frescoes, and beautiful Vatican pomp and pageantry, respectfully, do not exculpate an institution from acting with decency.

“Crimes against humanity” can take many forms.

An undercurrent of venom towards the Jews was created and nurtured by the Church over the centuries. This toxic under-current would flow around the world. Any hate-pretext which achieved even limited traction, would be able to unleash its pent-up toxins.

Thus, the Church will - undr the cover of the Gospels - fos-ter anti-Semitism through the venomous Imagery which it promulgates on a daily basis worldwide. Then, when anti-Semitic incidents or discriminations or mass murders unfold, the Church will posture:

Pre-Holocaust, the Church will de facto “shrug” : “The Jews as victim; What can one expect?”

Post-Holocaust, the Church will “wring-its-hands”. “The Nazis as ‘bad guys’; What can one expect?”

“Demonize” in private to the Christian audience;“Posture” in public to the world audience.

“Demonize”, then “Posture”

This will be the Church’s m.o. (modus operandi) for seven-teen centuries. Period.

The Church figuratively provides the gunpowder to the mis-fits and thugs of Europe; Then when the thugs ‘pull the trig-ger’, the Church ‘postures’.

The Church first conjures-up a grotesque caricature of the





Jew, then actively and aggressively promulgates and dis-seminates this caricature for seventeen centuries around the world; Then when the Nazis ‘take-the-bait’, and torture and mass-murder millions, (with the Nazi Death Camps placed, not in Germany, but in heavily anti-Semitic Poland) the Church self-righteously ‘wrings-its-hands’… ”How terrible those Nazis were… they are not Christian”

And, post-Holocaust, with hard core anti-Semitism now (at least temporarily) out-of-vogue post-Hitler, the Church will not actually significantly change the demonization gambits sprinkled through its culture, but will ever-so-nobly suggest a new theme… ‘Dialogue’… Dialogue with ‘our brothers’ (the remnants of) the Jews….

“Demonize”, then “Dialogue”

The Church may feel it has some unique mandate from Heav-en to demonize a group when it is politically convenient to do so, to play ‘silent partner’ in the meat-grinder it put the Jews through for 17 centuries, but, respectfully, as a random single example of just one of the millions of victims of this little gambit, focus through a time lens into the Auschwitz Gas Chamber in December 1944, ………..

focus on just one single person……

Focus on a now quite-alone-in-the-world, humiliated Jew-ish eight-year-old girl, brown-haired, blue-eyed Rachel Tan-nenbaum - originally of an upper-middle-class cosmopolitan Budapest, Hungary household complete with Friday Night Sabbath white-linen-on-the-polished-wood dining table and silver candlesticks for the lit Sabbath Candles….22 months prior pulled-out of her 1st grade classes. Then, 22 months ago, she had two fine parents, 1 older brother and 1 younger sister.

But now, 22 months later, late in 1944, she is quite, quite alone - and quite, quite terrified. After a nightmare 90-hour wretched Death Train freight-car-horror-ride packed with 250 other former members of Jewish society jammed into the same Nazi freight car, with basically no food or sanita-tion, a noxious, catastrophic, hellish death ride. Rachel Tan-nenbaum, is now on the final stages of a torture-vector to hell. ‘Greeted’ at 3am in the 0 degrees centigrade cold, upon the sliding-open of the freight-car doors at the Auschwitz Death Camp fright-train disgorgement platform, by howling German Shepherds and Nazi Storm Trooper hand search-lights, Rachel Tannenbaum has now entered the epicenter of a parallel universe - the ‘Kingdom of Death’. Her sib-lings are missing; Her parents are dead from the train “ride”. All she has, clutched-in-her-left-hand, is her dad’s small pocket-watch, which she salvaged from the horror-carnage inside the freight train. Coated in grime, among other ter-rible humiliations, Rachel Tannenbaum is now forced into a huge cement-block building to disrobe the remnants of her now human-soiled clothes…Then ‘ushered’ by guards into a 500-person freezing ’shower room’; But the foul-smelling heavy disinfectant coating all-around makes-it-clear that this is, after all, the notorious Nazi Gas Chamber, no longer a surreal nightmare but a real and heavily noxious Nightmare. Parents gone, Siblings gone, Dignity gone. Hope now gone. Spirit destroyed. Naked and alone and desperately clutch-ing the small pocket-watch. Shivering. Humiliated. Starv-ing. Alone. Alone….among hundreds of other terrified and trembling still-barely-alive females. Now, all painfully and quite slowly and quite, quite horribly asphyxiating to death on the hydrogen cyanide gas from the Zyklon B pellets be-ing dropped-into the ’shower’ chamber. Surrounded by hun-dreds of frantic, screaming, vomiting and terrified other girls and their naked trembling mothers…the dead and the dying now piling-up on each other’s agonizing bodies in-their-death-throes….actually creating a writhing pile-up - of the dead and the near-dead - against the bolted metal door….. as





brown-haired 8-year-old Rachel Tannenbaum’s left hand fi-nally releases its desperate grip, and drops the pocket-watch, her blue veins slowly start exploding - and her lungs convuls-ing - in November 1944 in Auschwitz’s Gas Chamber Num-ber 2… Eight-year-old trembling Rachel, at this moment-in-time, gasping-now for- her very final breaths, surrounded by the purplish-now, screaming near-dead, may have at-this-point-in-time somewhat failed to discern the Church’s im-mortal moral grandeur…and failed to appreciate all the very fancy-footwork of the fancy Greek prose in the gospel-truth Canon Gospels….

===========================================Anti-Semitism: through the centuries:

[See The Anguish of the Jews, by Edward H. Flannery, Mac-millan, New York, 1965 (Doctrinal) Imprimatur - Cardinal Spellman]

see Search Engines - keywords:

anti-Semitism and the Church

anti-Semitism in the Gospels

the Church and the Jews

the Crusades and the Jews

Torquemada and the Jews, the Spanish Inquisition

The Goan Inquisition (in India via the Portuguese)

The Church and the Holocaust

Thunderation! Mani is crucified in 276 CE by the Sassanids (in Mesopotamia)

[- for (platonically) preaching the incorporation of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroasterism into one religion - to be known as “Manichaeism”]

Still another Jewish revolt - 351 CE - this directed against Roman Emperor Gallus Caesar (making it the 4th most sig-nificant recorded Jewish revolt against Rome)

now, back to our little TimeLine…

Thunderation! [Emperor] Constantine, Rome (300s CE)

[Roman Emperor Constantine converts himself (312 CE) and de facto converts the empire - and folds paganism into a morphed Christianity… meaning that Rome converts to the religion whose de facto progenitor it originally condemned and executed by crucifixion 300 years earlier]

Thunderation! 358 CE Hillel II creates a mathematical cal-endar for calculating the lunar months

Thunderation! Roman Emperor Julian 361 CE - 363 CE al-lows the Jews to return to Jerusalem - and gives permission (not exercised by the Jews) to rebuild the Temple

Thunderation! Augustine 354 CE - 430 CE

[Baptized 386 CE … pillar of Catholic Church…]

Thunderation! 392 CE, Division of the Roman Empire by Theodosius I

[Theodosius, Emperor of Rome, bequeaths# the eastern half of the Roman Empire to his son Arcadius, with its capital in Constantinople, and# the western half of the empire to his son Honorius, with its





capital in Milan, and later Ravenna]

[410 CE Rome is sacked by Alaric, King of the Visigoths]

[455 CE Rome is sacked by Geiseric, King of the Vandals]

Fall of the Roman Empire (final death-throes):84 years later, 476 CE, is the year generally accepted as the end of the (western) Roman Empire, which actually appar-ently fell ultimately - after the multiple-sackings - more as a political implosion over several decades.

527 CE Justinian from the Eastern Roman Empire attempts to wrest control of major portions of the western empire, in-cluding the re-conquest of Rome.

[Justinian commissions a uniform re-writing of Roman law, 529 CE, supervised by Tribonian 529-534 CE - and to be known through-the-ages as “the Justinian Code” Corpus Ju-ris Civilis (Body of Civil Law)…

It sounds majesterial, but unfortunately, it incorporates, as well, severe restrictions and discriminations against the Jews (’Servitus Judaeorum’). About two hundred years after the Roman Empire began morphing to Christianity, anti-Judaism now gets enshrined into Roman Law itself. [ Precursor to the Nuremberg Laws 1400 years in-the-future. ]These now-codified discriminations, (”they shall enjoy no honors”) would severely impact Jews throughout Europe for many hundreds of years….Among other abominations, us-ing Hebrew at all was forbidden and reciting the core-prayer the Shema (”Hear O, Israel, the Lord is our god, the Lord is One…”) was totally banned in particular…Among its more machiavellian features: A Jew who converted to Christianity was entitled to inherit his or her father’s estate, to the exclu-sion of the still-Jewish siblings. ]

[540 CE Bubonic Plague rampages throughout Justinian’s empire

- (a/k/a Justinian’s Plague) and surrounding Europe… in many areas 50% succumb and die… estimates range up to 100 million dead…Jews often blamed - and often harassed or persecuted or killed, as a consequence….a dire saga in Jewish history… ]

[Justinian suppresses all non-Christians, including the Jews… The Jews of Borium, who had politically challenged his military policies, are forcibly converted]

Thunderation! “Excalibur” - legendary sword - of legendary King Arthur ( ~ Celtic) - in legendary Camelot - in real 5th-6th century; also the name of a legendary jewel collection in New York ..

By 610 CE, the Eastern Roman Empire falls into the rule of the Greeks

- and morphs into the (Middle Age) Byzantine Empire a/k/a Romania or Basileia Romaion.

The Byzantines continue to call themselves Romans, how-ever. This Byzantine-Greek-Roman Empire falls, in turn, to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE, ~850 years later.

Consequently, start-to-finish, if one counts from the begin-ning of the Roman Republic in 510 BCE (centered in Rome) to the very end (in 1453 CE) of the morphed eastern ‘Roman Empire’ - the Byzantine-Greek-Roman Empire - (centered in Constantinople), we are talking about a ‘run’ of well over 2,000 years.

At its territorial peak, under Trajan in 116 CE, (~45 years after Masada) Rome controlled approx. 2,300,000 square





miles of land surface. As a frame-of-reference, modern-day Italy is 116,000 square miles.

Note that one year before his ‘division of the Roman Empire’, the same Theodosius codified the legacy of Constantine, and made Christianity the official religion of the empire February 27, 380 CE.

Dark Ages (a/k/a The Middle Ages) commence: 476 CE;demarcated ending: 1,000 CE

Thunderation! Rome! 510 BCE > 476 CE

Fancy Roman-soldier uniforms, but brutality abroad; Fancy buildings in Rome itself, but gory spectacles are the center-piece of the ‘culture’

Ongoing brutality in Rome’s Colosseum/Circus (built in-part by 20,000+ Jewish captives from Jerusalem, 70 CE)]

Thunderation! Shila Dynasty (57 BCE - 935 CE) Korean Peninsula]

[1000 year golden empire stressing peace, spirituality, and learning, particularly during its 500 year zenith in the 400s-900s CE, a/k/a Unified Shila Kingdom]

Thunderation! Savoraim 550 CE - 700 CE - the Jewish sages of Persia

- who fine-tuned the Talmud Bavli (the Babylonian Talmud)

Thunderation! papacy of (Saint) Gregory the Great (c. 540 CE - 604 CE)

‘Si antem de veritas scandalum sumitur,utilus permittur nasci scandalum

quam veritas reliquatur’

*

Though the Truth may be scandalous,‘tis better to expose the scandal,

than to abandon the Truth’

This is the same Gregory who codified the pejorative version of Mary Magdalene (i.e. the vilification that Mary Magda-lene was a prostitute.

Jewish traditions, in the very rare cases where they encounter the issue, do not ‘buy-into’ the pejorative version. If anything, they are intrigued by the female disciple Mary Magdalene. It is unclear why Gregory et al. would wish to cast severe as-persions on the (Christian-asserted) pre-eminent witness to one of the two crucial miracle-pivots of Christendom, the Gospel-asserted Resurrection (the other being the hard-to-document ‘Immaculate Conception’)

Thunderation! Mohammed! (570 CE – 632 CE)

The historic ‘Hegira’ of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina…

Mohammed, prophet of Islam, one of the most influential religious and political/military leaders of all time…

Thunderation! The Khazars establish a Jewish kingdom in the 7th century

[“The Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia…founded an independent Khaganate in the Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea (southeastern part of Eu-rope) where over time Judaism became the state religion.





At their height they and their tributaries controlled most of what is today Southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the Caucasus (includ-ing Dagestan, Georgia) and the Crimea” - Wikipedia 8/07]

Thunderation! Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) reaches present form c. 550 CE - 700 CE

Rabbinics ‘Ravina’ and Rav Ashi play key roles in its final organization……The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discus-sions and debates pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. The Talmud has two major components: the Mish-nah, which is the first written compendium of Judaism’s Oral Law; and the (much more extensive) Gemara, a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanach ( Torah-Neveim-Ketuvim i.e. the entire Jewish canon).

The Gemara, in turn, is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature. The whole Talmud is traditionally also referred to as the SHAS (a He-brew quasi-abbreviation of, the “six orders” of the Mish-nah)… [Talmud Bavli is the same as Talmud Babli which, as noted prior, is the Babylonian Talmud]

The Talmud - as it reached its pre-commentary form in 700 CE - represented an approximately 1,000 year effort.

As redaction and commentary have been added-on subse-quently, as of the year 2,000, the Talmud & ongoing com-mentary represent a 2,300 year continuous endeavor.

Not unhinged by pogrom, plague, persecution, exile or com-munal displacement.[Daf Yomi is daily regimen undertaken to study the entire Talmud Bavli one daf (one SHEET, i.e. two actual pages), one day at a time. On that daily basis, it can be completed

in a cycle of seven years 5 months. 5422 pages total (2711 SHEETS = dafim). Pages are complex and long. 130,000+ people worldwide currently (September 2006) participate in-parallel in an ongoing synchronized endeavor. The Daf Yomi ‘calendar’ is available via Google search. The next official culmination of the (7 year and 5 months) study cycle is Au-gust 2, 2012. Note that the cycle-commencement and struc-ture were conceived and set by the organizers of the current (international) program]

Thunderation! 691 CE, Dome of the Rock completed (by Caliph Abd al-Malik), Old City, Jerusalem

Thunderation! 700 CE, Chinese invent gunpowder…

they combined salpeter, sulphur and carbon to create the sub-stance… used primarily for fireworks initially…

Thunderation! Battle of Tours, (Poitiers), France 732 CE

[Frankish warlord Charles Martel (the Hammer’) turns back the Muslims (under the command of Abdul Raman Al Ghafiqi)]

[The appellation “the Hammer” echoes Judas Maccabeus… Judah the Hammer, of 900 years prior]

Thunderation! 793 CE, Vikings raid the British island mon-astery of Lindisfarne

[Marks the start of the ‘Viking Age’… particularly in the British Isles… will tangle with the Franks, as well… under the Viking Rollo will then take over the Normandy region (northern France)… but several generations later, the Nor-man descendants of these Vikings, now speaking French and identifying themselves as French, effect in 1066 CE the watershed Norman Conquest (of England) and become the





ruling aristocracy of England… ruling England, whether in fact, or later only by title, down through the centuries down through contemporary Queen Elizabeth (and, yes, Princess Di)… Thus the Vikings project across Europe and down through world history, albeit in morphed form.

Thunderation! 800 CE, Charlemagne, (son of King Pepin the Short and grandson of Charles Martel)… 46-year reign

… the Frankish conqueror of Italy, regarded by many as the founding father of both France and Germany, and sometimes referred to as the Father of Europe, crowned Emperor by Pope Leo on Christmas Day… Christianizes Europe, including the Saxons, at the-point-of-the-sword… lore has it that he had 5 wives, 20 children plus 5 mistresses… Charlemagne main-tains a protective posture and consequent very close ties with the Pope, significantly increasing the Church’s influence… His rule is associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of the arts and education in the West.

Thunderation! GAONIM - Gaonic period, the earliest Talmud commentaries (c. 750 CE - 1000 CE)

Thunderation! Saadia Gaon, b. Egypt, his zenith: ~928 CE

[Head of legendary Sura Academy in Babylonia; author of many works, primarily in Arabic, including the philosophical classic “Emunoth ve-De’oth” (roughly translated -Beliefs & Tenets… completes his Siddur - Jewish Prayer Book 940 CE]

Thunderation! ~1000 CE / Rabbinu Gershom

Takkanot of Rabbeinu Gershom / The Legal Adjustments (into Orthodox Jewish Law) of Gershom ben Judah (c. 960 CE - ~1035 CE)1) A prohibition on polygamy2) A prohibition on summarily divorcing a woman against

her will[ but Divorce per se, after discussion and/or mediation re-mainsthoroughly permissable]3) A prohibition on reading the private mail of others

His bans are considered binding on (Ashkenazic) Jewry to this day.

…Mainz, Germany…a/k/a Rabbeinu Gershom M’Or Hago-lah (Our teacher Gershom the light of the exile)….

his unilateral edicts are pretty unique in Jewish tradition…but by the force of his stature, his will has prevailed over-the-centuries…

Thunderation! Paper Money! printed in China, 1023 CE

Thunderation! RASHI born 1040 CE, Troyes, France

The pre-eminent Commentator;

Over his 65 year lifespan, will write legendary and endur-ing Aramaic commentary on the Torah; on most of Neveim (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Biblical Writings); as well as on most of the oft-studied tractates of the Talmud…

…a giant in Judaism

Thunderation! Chinese invent Movable Type (CLAY) Printing Press 1041 CE

1045 CE: Alfasi moves to Fes, Morocco

Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi….a/k/a Isaac Hakoen Alfasi…a/k/a “The Rif”…( 1045 -1103 CE) authors Sefer ha-Hal-achot ( Book of Jewish Laws )… teacher of Rav Yehuda Ha-





levi, author of the Kuzari

Thunderation! 1048 CE Omar Khayyam born in Iran (Persia)

… authors poetic work - the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, among other works …. distinguished mathematician… dies 1131

1054: “The Great Schism”: The major blocks of the East-ern Orthodox Church split-off from Roman hegemony. Their center-of-gravity will be Constantinople. In 2007 there are now about 250 million constituents total of 14-15 separate autocephalous hierarchal churches which recognize each oth-er as “cannonical” Orhodox Christian churches. Combined total constituents in the last half 2007: ~ 250,000,000.

CRUSADES commence 1095 CE……..widespread killings of Jews as a backdrop…

[Nine Crusades into the Middle East, with Jerusalem as the penultimate target 1095 - 1291 CE]

Thunderation! Battle of Hastings, 1066 CE, Norman con-quest of England

[William the Conqueror (Norman) defeats King Harold II (Saxon)].

—

1068 CE: Oxford College founded in England

1099 CE: First Crusade captures Jerusalem … The “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem” begins

Thunderation! TOSEFOT (1100s CE) France

[Authoritative Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud by a school of French rabbis …generally presented in all gema-ras (Talmud editions)….. complement the works of Rashi to which they are linked on several levels].

Thunderation! Abraham Ibn Daud, b. Toledo, Spain, Span-ish-Jewish astronomer, historian, and philosopher (1110 CE - 1180 CE)

[Philosophical work “Emunah Ramah” (The Sublime Faith); religious tradition chronicle Sefer ha-Kabbalah (Book of Tradition) plus others]

Thunderation! Maimonides, 12th century

Moses Maimonides….( a/k/a Maimuni ) …”the RAM-BAM”…. Spain, then Egypt (1138 CE - 1204 CE)

[A towering figure in Judaism; The Commentary on the Mishnah (Perush HaMishnayot); The Book of Command-ments (Sefer HaMitzvot); Code of Jewish Law (Mishne To-rah a/k/a Sefer Yad HaChazaka); The Guide to the Perplexed (Moreh Nivuchim); Letter to Yemen (Iggereth Teiman)… Maimonides (and Aristotle) are later rigorously critiqued in classic Or HaShem by Hasdai Crescas of Barcelona, late 1300s… who, in turn directly influenced Spinoza (Dutch, 1600s)… (note: RAMBAM is acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon)]

Thunderation! Thomas a’ Becket, Archbishop of Canter-bury, assassinated December 1170 CE in Canterbury Cathe-dral, England by knights allied with King Henry II

[Formerly a very close political ally of Henry II, Becket, upon becoming Archbishop in 1162 CE, shifts-gears and moved to dramatically increase Church rights, independence and prerogatives vis a’ vis the Crown…..was canonized by





Pope Alexander in 1173, four years after his assassination….a year later (in 1174), at the “guidance” of the pope, Henry II effects his famous ‘barefoot in the snow’ penance at Becket’s tomb in Canterbury]

Thunderation! Saladin conquers Jerusalem from Crusaders (1187 CE); allows Jewish settlement

Thunderation! the Samurai warriors emerge as the ruling class in Japan 1192 CE

[Beginning of the Shogunate; There were three Shogunates (Bakufu) in Japan:Kamakura 1192-1333 CE

Muromachi 1338-1573 CE

Edo (Tokugawa) 1602-1868 CE

The Shogunate, (in parallel to many of the reigns of the Ro-man Empire) although romanticized, was a feudal military dictatorship]

Thunderation! Marco Polo (1200s CE)

[Travels to Emperor Kublai Khan’s Court; Chinese gov-ernment service & then produces “Travels of Marco Polo” (1271–1295 CE period); visits Jerusalem in 1275 CE]

~1200 CE: Franciscan Order of Friars is founded ( by Saint Francis of Assisi )

Thunderation! Magna Carta signed 1215 CE

King John of England muscled by barons… some power shifts from the king to the nobles

Most Western history books treat the Magna Carta as an ep-ochal document…..

Thunderation! Printing Press KOREA (c. 1250 CE)

[Korean (Choe Yun-ui) invents IRON Movable Type Print-ing Press in the East; Gutenberg of Germany ~1436 CE does same 200 years later in the West… Gutenberg commences with printing the Bible and achieves immortality (in the West, that is)… IRON movable-type defined the revolution]

Thunderation! 1263 CE ‘The Disputation of Barcelona’ (Spain)

In front of King James I of Aragon; between the monk Pablo Christiani (a convert from Judaism) , and Rabbi Nachman-ides (the Ramban). “ Wikipedia: “At the end of the disputa-tion, the king awarded Nachmanides a monetary prize and declared that never before had he heard ‘an unjust cause so nobly defended.’ Nevertheless, the Dominicans claimed vic-tory and Nachmanides was exiled and his report of the pro-ceedings was condemned and burned…”

Other historic disputations (disputationes) include:

1240 CE Disputation of Paris (during the reign of Louis IX of France (St. Louis)1375 CE Disputation of 1375 in Spain1413 CE Disputation of Tortosa, Spain staged by the Avi-gnon Pope Benedict XIII

These disputations - under the aegis of powerful Christian personages - tend not to have “happy endings’ for Jewish interests.

back to Nachmanides….Nachmanides ( 1194- c.1270 CE)…”The Ramban”…Moshe ben Nachman Gerondi….Catalan





original, part lore… Note that kabbalistic writings are more-often-than not a creative continuum of thought/spirituality and creative hypothesis…Drawing from the past and from the going-wisdom to-date, but with the contemporary au-thor’s neo-kabbalistic signature on it…..Any philosophical or kabbalistic work not tethered to the past, simply does not fly in Jewish tradition…The issue is balance……Walking-a-fine-line…Too much anchoring and the new work lacks dynamism; Too little tethering, and the work is not taken se-riously…By contemporary times, however, de Leon himself, in-any-event, has achieved quite formidable parallel iconic standing…Note that while the Zohar is penned in Aramaic, de Leon’s other known work, Sefer ha-Rimon (The Book of the Lemon) is penned in Hebrew; Meaning, if the Zohar is more de Leon than bar Yochai, he (de Leon) certainly went to very formidable lengths to conceal the fact. Meaning, by writing it in his second or third or fourth language, not in his primary milieu, Hebrew, he is investing quite heavily if this is fraudulent. In other words, de Leon would need to have deceived his fellow Jews both about his writings - and about his character. Pulling-off a double- deception of this mag-nitude is unlikely. Meaning, finally, that I am respectfully dubious of Scholem’s pejorative analysis.]

Thunderation! (First) Golden Age of Jewish Philosophy, Spain (1200s… 1400s… CE)[Spain and surrounding coun-tries… zenith of Sephardic Jewry… Abarvanel, Maimonides [Rambam], Nachmanides [Ramban], Gersonides [RaLbaG], Abraham Ibn Ezra, Ibn Daud Rabad I (a/k/a Ravad I), Ibn Gabirol, Karo et al. … until cataclysmic persecutions/expul-sions in the 1490s…]

Thunderation! RaLBaG - GERSONIDES, Rav Levi ben Gershon, (1288 CE - 1344 CE)

Better known as Gersonides, (and who can argue with a guy known by each of 3 separate appellations?) rabbi, philoso-

rabbi, philosopher, physician, and biblical commentator…. then moves to Jerusalem, where he founds the now-historic Ramban Synagogue…most famous work: the masterwork, Commentary on the Torah.

Thunderation! Thomas Aquinas completes Summa Theo-logica ~1271 CE

[Summa Theologiae - the original Latin name… Aquinas born 1225 CE, dies in 1274 CE at age 49 of illness while enroute to the Second Council of Lyons… canonized 1323 CE….writing metaphysics/philosophy in the Aristotelian tradition within a Christian framework… along with some anti-Jewish sub-themes and brandings… towering figure in Church phil-osophical-religio tradition… holds the ‘Aristotelian throne’ in Church tradition, much the same as Maimonides (d. 1204 CE) of 70 years earlier, holds the ‘Aristotelian throne’ in Jew-ish tradition…Maimonides’s works are most definitely dis-seminated through Europe preceding Aquinas by 70 years… the connection and striking parallels between the two corpus-es of writing is of significant historical note, and worthy of future very careful inspection]Jews expelled from England, 1290 CE, by Edward I…the “legal” vehicle was the “Statute of Jewry”…Jews invited into Poland, 1343 CE, by Casimir the Great.

Thunderation! Moses de Leon, c. 1250 -1305 CE , a/k/a Moshe ben Shem Tov, born, Leon, Spain[De Leon penned the extant version of the legendary Zohar, the pre-eminent iconic work of Kabbalah… de Leon ascribes the themes of his 1700 page opus to traditions from the spiritual giant Rav Shimon bar Yochai of the 2nd century (thereby anchoring the work in highly formidable spiritual legitimacy)…Scholem, the 20th century kabbalistic historian, believes the work is more de Leon, and less bar Yochai, meaning, less grounded in quintes-sential historical legitimacy… Like many kabbalistic works, the reality may very well lie somewhere in-the-middle: part





pher, mathematician, astronomer/astrologer, and Talmud-ist. Born at Bagnols in Languedoc, France.[His philosophi-cal classic is: “Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem” (The Wars of the Lord). In the 20th century actually has a CRATER on the moon named after him by astronomical society: “the Levi Crater” (seriously)… and the contiguous “Rabbi Levi ‘A’, Rabbi Levi ‘D’, Rabbi Levi ‘L’ and Rabbi Levi ‘M’ forma-tions…so, next time you’re-on-the-moon…. ]

Thunderation! Notre Dame Cathedral - Paris completed 1345 CE…

after 182 years construction (commenced 1163 CE by Bishop of Paris de Sully)[Widely considered the finest example of French Gothic architecture; in early 1900s Victor Hugo writes his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame crafted around the structure]

Deathration! Black Plague, 1347 CE - 1351 CE devastates EuropeContemporaneously, Europe turns on its Jews as al-leged culprits; Black Plague hits Jerusalem 1348…

Thunderation! (Chinese) Ming Dynasty naval expeditions under the command of Admiral Zheng, 1405 CE - 1433 CE

[Admiral Zheng’s seven expeditions traverse a good portion of the globe, but the exact extent is not known for sure. The first armada in 1405 carried 28,000 men, and was composed of 300+ vessels, including 62 super-sized Treasure Ships. Admiral Zheng’s multi-decked Treasure Ships could carry up to 500 troops each when configured for military use; Ac-cording to the “1421 Theory”, one of Zheng’s fleets reached the Americas that year. Theory aggressively challenged. Zheng’s multi-decked Treasure Ships had nine masts, and were roughly ten times the size of European vessels of 80 years later. The largest Treasure Ships were 600 feet long - or twice the length of a football field - or 6/10 the length of the

20th century’s longest cruise ship, the superliner the Queen Mary. To put matters in-perspective, the entire 3-ship fleet of Columbus could have fit on the deck of just one of the 62 Treasure Ships in Zheng’s fleet, which pre-dated Columbus’s sojourn by half a century…Ming Dynasty spans 1369 CE - 1644 CE…following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty…founder of the Ming is Emperor HongwuEnor-mous super-scale construction projects, including renovation of the Grand Canal, renovation-expansion of the Great wall of China, and the construction of the Forbidden City in Bei-jing …The Ming is ruled by the Hans, the largest Chinese ethnic group…and eventually succumbs to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng

Thunderation! Joan of Arc, 15th century, France

Heroine to Roman Catholic France at age 17 (1429 CE) after she rallies French troops to lift the British siege of Orleans;Two years later in the Hundred Years War - at age 19 (1431 CE) in Rouen, France, she is captured and burnt-at-the-stake by her British captors….She enters immortality… Her ‘burning-at-the-stake’ will not advance British fortunes, to put it mildly; Joan of Arc later canonized 1920 CE]

Thunderation! Inca Dynasty, Peru, 1438 CE - 1553 CE

Spanish Inquisition start: 1481 CE

Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the rulers of Spain, declared the Spanish Inquisition. All the Jews in their territory were compelled to convert to Christianity or flee the country. While some converted, many others left for Mo-rocco and North Africa. Estimates are that between four and eight thousand secret Jews (Morranos) - or perceived secret Jews - were burnt alive. [Wikipedia 1/1/07] Confessions were ‘extracted’. Torquemada was the notorious chief Inquisitor of the Church. His name becomes synonymous with EVIL





ticed their faith while posturing as Christians

…1492 is the same year as the voyage of Columbus, hence the suspicion that not only part of his crew, but Columbus, as well, may have been Jewish, especially since he apparently used Hebrew serifs in his penmanship (How many Jews even know Hebrew serifs?)

…in any event, the Spanish (then Portuguese) expulsions changed the contours of Jewish demography, flinging the elite Iberian-peninsula Jewish community, across the far-reaches of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and beyond…( to Po-land, South and Central America )Of those who settle in Arab lands, the Establishment of Israel 450 years later in 1948 will again radically rock the status quo yet once again for them…

Underground or overground as Jews many will tenaciously hold onto their distinctive and rich Sephardic traditions

Thunderation! “SAFE HAVEN” for the Jews - in the Mus-lim and Turkish world: 1492 CE through early 1900s CE most often the cae, but with notable exceptions

[Upon-the-heels of Expulsions from Spain, Portugal et al. commencing 1492……Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire is-sues a formal invitation to the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal - and even sends ships to safely bring Jew to his country]

Ghetto of Venice, the first of its nefarious genre, established 1516 CE….the ghetto structures remain intact to this day, complete with modern-day Glatt-Kosher restaurant on the famous gondola-laced canal.

Thunderation! Cortez burns his ships! (1519 CE) eastern Mexican shore

incarnate. (Note that the crimes of the Inquisition, (and they were many) affected Moors and Moslems, as well)

Thunderation! Da Vinci (1452 CE - 1519 CE)The master.

Thunderation! The Medici, 15th century zenith. Italy

Standard-bearer Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449 CE - 1492 CE) leader of Florence during the Golden Age of the Renais-sance (midway through the Medici family 400 year Time-Line).

[The Medici family was a fabulously wealthy and formidably powerful Florentine political family group from the 13th to the 17th century. The Medici produced three popes (Leo X, Clement VII, and Leo XI) and several rulers of Europe, in-cluding Catherine de Medici (1519-1605) Queen of France, and Marie de Medici (1573-1642) Queen and Regent of France. The family heavily financed the Arts, and played an important and historic role in the beginning of the Italian Re-naissance. It intermittently ferociously tangled with the Vati-can, as well (when it wasn’t controlling it, of course)]

—

1486 CE: Italian siddur ( Prayer Book )

INFAMOUS EXPULSION: 1492 CE Jews driven from Spain…….the infamous Alhambras Decree

Ferdinand & Isabelle the perpetrators

some Jews accept the Cross, while well over 100,000 ( pos-sibly up to 200,000 ) leave……

… this is 11 years into Spanish Inquisition (see above) which was primarily focused on Marranos - Jews who secretly prac-





entering Jerusalem (through the Golden Gate, at least) Otto-man Sultan Suleiman I sealed off the Golden Gate in 1541.

Suleiman takes Jewish tradition very, very seriously. And is defending against a myriad of threats.

The Muslims also built a Muslim cemetery in front of the gate, in the hope that it would be a deterrent, of sorts, to even the precursor to the Messiah, Elijah, to pass-through, since Elijah is a Kohen (Jewish Priestly class…precluded from traversing Jewish cemeteries). (A JEWISH cemetery would have theoretically been a tougher deterrent in this drama. )

In any event, one must credit Suleiman for attempting to ‘cover-all-bases’.

The ‘Golden Gate’ remains visible - and visit-able albeit sealed to this day.]

1554 CE: Cordovero establishes a Kabbalah academy in Safad (Israel )… Moses benJacob Cordovero …( 1522 - 1570 CE )

Thunderation! Suleiman the Magnificent, 1553 CE, Otto-man Empire

[Protects Jewish civil rights; orders the Imperial Divan Courts to expose the lies of Blood Libels against the Jews; Jerusalem declared an ‘open city’ for all faiths; religious peace…{author: kishmo ken-hoo - He is indeed magnificent, as per his appellation} …Ottoman Empire peaks in 1683]

1567 CE: Jeshiva Jewish university founded in Poland1577 CE: Hebrew printing press in Safad1580 CE: “Council of Four Lands” (Va-ad Arba Aratzot) meets for first time - in Poland…70 delegates from 4 lands met as a council in Lublin, Poland….to discuss issues of im-portance to the Jews….for almost 200 year time span…

[… so his troops have no option of returning home… their only option is conquest… pre-cursor to his Assault/Conquest v. Aztec Kingdom]

Thunderation! Luria (The “Ari”) 1534 CE - 1572 CE, Safed, Palestine

[Safed, Upper Galilee… founder - Lurianic Kabbalah… “Se-firot” et al.… from Luria… through… Vital… through… Tishbi…]

(a/k/a “the Arizal” - meaning, the Art of Blessed Memory)

[author’s note: I deal extensively with Lurianic Kabbalah in my own work: Summa Metaphysica]

Thunderation! 1537 CE, Ottoman ruler Sultan ‘Suleiman the Magnificent’ rebuilds…

the city walls of Jerusalem, 7 of the 8 gates, and the Tower of David

Why not the eighth gate?

The ’eighth gate’ is the legendary ’Golden Gate’, the gate that Jesus of Nazareth rode through in his legendary proces-sion into Jerusalem in the days leading-into Passover

The gate is located in the middle of the eastern side of the Temple Mount.

In both Jewish and Christian traditions (but more emphasized in Christian tradition) this is the gate through which the Mes-siah will enter Jerusalem.

But, neither the Jews, nor the Muslims believe that Jesus is the Messiah. So, to preclude the Messiah (of the Jews) from





and which were these “Four Lands” ?Greater Poland, Little Poland, Ruthenia and Velhynia …………..hmmmm

Thunderation! El Greco (Spain, Italy 1541 CE - 1614 CE)

Thunderation! The Protestant Reformation, 16th century, founding four major church traditions:

The LUTHERAN tradition

The REFORMED/CALVINIST/PRESBYTERIAN tradition

The ANABAPTIST tradition

The ANGLICAN tradition

Thunderation! “Shulchan Aruch” Code of Jewish Law, mid-1500s CE

[Major and historical compendium of Jewish Law - known as the ‘Set Table’ -compiled by “the Mechaber” - “the Com-piler” - Rav Yosef Karo [a/k/a Bet Yosef] also spelled Caro; (through his Sephardic orientation) - Spain-Portugal-Pales-tine, written mid- 1500s; His work is juxtaposed by the ~con-temporaneous “Mapah” (“the Table-cloth”) ‘placed’ on the ‘Set Table’ by the RAMA, Rav Moshe Isserles (through his Ashkenazic orientation) Cracow, Poland, also, mid-1500s;

This double-magnum opus - the Shulchan Aruch -while chal-lenged in its day, in subsequent times and to this day thor-oughly dominates Orthodox Jewish Law……; Both works are generally published ensemble, with one or the other at the top of the page;

Direct predecessor works include: the rigorous work Beth Yo-sef (by Karo himself) and the TUR (by Rav Jacob ben Asher);

Most prominent successor works include, among others, the “Aruch Ha-Shulchan” (by Rav Yechiel Michel Epstein) and the “Mishnah Brura” (by the Chafetz Hayim, Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan)]

Thunderation! 16th century, “Le-cha Do-di” Friday evening prayer;

key Kabbalat Shabbat service prayer; composed by Kabbal-ist Rav Shlomo HaLevi in the 1500s CE…

[Only this particular poetic greeting of the Sabbath (“Bride”) received the imprimatur of the ARI (Luria, noted above) for inclusion in the prayer service; acrostic of the composer’s name embedded in the first letter of each stanza… receives renewed injection-of-vigor over the centuries, including in the 21st century by a certain well-known synagogue on 88th street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side]

Pope Paul IV, 1555 CE:

Papal bull forces Jews to wear yellow hats; same papal bull confines Jews to ghettos, and bans them from working in most professions; [Same (yellow) color, concept and tactics employed 400 years later by the Nazis in their first-stage as-saults on the Jews… possibly so they could point to Church precedent to the masses - or be politically “bullet-proof” from potential Vatican attacks (no comment)]

Thunderation! The MAHARSHA (1555 CE - 1631 CE), Cracow, Poland

[Rav Shemuel Eliezer Eidels, highly sophisticated and wide-ly used commentary on the Talmud and its primary commen-tators, RASHI and Tosefot - noted above]

Thunderation! John Dunne (England 1573 CE - 1631 CE)





bridge, MASS, 1636 CE)…

Spanish Portuguese Synagogue (Manhattan, 1654 CE)… Touro Synagogue (Newport, RI, 1658 CE)

Thunderation! late 17th century, Pachelbel’s Canon (~con-certo) in D Major by Johann Pachelbel

Major published works primarily in the 1683 - 1699 CE pe-riod, (Austria and Germany)

Thunderation! Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer, German (1685 CE - 1750 CE)

{1690 John Locke, English philosopher, publishes the “Two Treatise of Civil Government” advocating the limiting of monarchy, presenting the concept of a ‘social contract’ be-tween those governing and those being governed… His works are influential in developing the theories of democracy}

Thunderation! Baal Shem Tov, born 1698 CE in Galicia (now in Ukraine);

Died 1760 CE Lithuania (now in Ukraine).

[In print, the acronym BESHT is used… A towering figure in Judaism… Founder of Hasidism; But Hasidism today has radically evolved from Hasidism at that time… For a major historical Jewish personage, the BESHT is a total anomaly; According to lore, he was a terrible student, and probably spent more time in the woods connecting with nature, than connecting with his Gemara books; He was never an ordained rabbi or scholar in the classic sense. He left no books. How-ever, from my perspective, it would appear that he tapped-into cosmic currents astutely. Considered by Judaism to be a populist, which is accurate, his doctrine of panantheism - that the whole universe is a manifestation of the Divine

& fellow British poets

Thunderation! 1588 CE, “The Defeat of the Spanish Armada”

Spanish Armada of 128 ships attacked by the 116 ships of the British Fleet in the English Channel, hoping to forestall the Spaniards from landing their troops. The outnumbered Brit-ish Fleet prevails. The Spanish Armada retreats.

Thunderation! 1590 CE - 1613 CE Shakespeare’s greatest works (b. 1564 CE, d. 1616 CE)

…works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets… plus assorted poetry

…British… born and raised Stratford-on-Avon… later ven-ues include the Globe Theatre on the Thames (River)

…Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Becket and on-and-on… into immortality…

(an’anderer antisemit)

Thunderation! Copernicus * Galileo * Newton * Maxwell * Planck * Einstein * String Theory (1600s CE - present)

Thunderation! 1600s CE the Dutch painters Rembrandt and Vermeer

(False Messiah) Shabtai Zvi wrecks havoc 1626 CE - 1676 CE

Chmielnicki massacres in Poland 1648 CE - 1655 CE against Polish gentry (~65,000 murdered) and the Jews (~65,000 murdered) [some non-mainstream estimates are very signifi-cantly higher]

Cromwell re-admits the Jews to England ~1655 CE.Thunderation! Harvard (Divinity School) founded (Cam-





Mesillat Yesharim The Path of the JustDerech Hashem The Way of GodDa’at Tevunoth The Knowledge of UnderstandingDerech Tevunoth The Ways of Reason

1744: Mayer Anschel Rothschild born in the ghetto of Juden-gasse in Frankfurt-am-Main( Germany); founder of financial and political dynasty via his five sons who he stationed in five European capitals; The clan will single-handedly signifcantly advance the fortunes of the Jewish people over a 200+ year span.

Thunderation! Jeffersonian Democracy! (Philadelphia, 1776 CE)

Extraordinary and enlightened Founding Fathers

A lucky country to have this sophisticated group as its Founders

“Checks-and-Balances”

“Bill of Rights”

….but true Emancipation of all the Slaves to come only lat-er…subsequent to the Civil War 89 years later………13th Amendment 1865…….apparently, not All Men were created equal in 1776….

…..enfranchisement of women, only much later….sparked by Susan B. Anthony multi-decade crusade in the 19th cen-tury and the related movement….19th Amendment to the US Constitution giving women the right to vote ratified (13 years after her death) in August 1920…

***

From the get-go, the Jews breathe true freedom - enshrined

Being - of course, flies in the face of classic mainstream Jew-ish doctrine (which is neo-Aristotelian). Of course, it was the BESHT who was correct (according to your illustrious author’s philosophy works)

Some of the better-known Hassidic sects today include the Bobover, the Breslover, Gerer, Lubavitch (Chabad) and Sat-mar Chassidim.]

[Historical note: Opus Dei, the unique Roman Catholic or-der founded later in 1928 in Spain, has as its core doctrine, themes almost verbatim from the BESHT - to the effect that daily life is a path to sanctity. Founded by (Saint) Josemaria Escriva, Opus Dei is currently under the prelature of Bishop Javier Echevarria. Opus Dei is treated as a ‘personal prela-ture’ of the Pope]

[Baal Shem Tov means “Holder of a Good Name (i.e. a good reputation)”].

Thunderation! Vilna Goan 1720 CE - 1797 CE

… from Vilna (now in Lithuania - Ukraine), intellect and Tal-mudic scholar extraordinaire…

[Scholar, kabbalist, prominent antagonist of Hassidism; Eli-yahu ben Shlomo Zalman ‘Kremer’… in Hebrew, known as ha-Gaon m’Vilna]

Thunderation! 1735 CE “Luzzatto” leaves Italy for Amsterdam, where he will write his ethical/mystical masterpieces….

a/k/a The RaMHal (b. 1707; d.1746)…Moshe Chaim Luz-zatto…rabbi, mystic, philosopher, ethicist

In Amsterdam (his day job was- Diamond Cutter) he will write -





in the charter of their new country - probably for the first time since the time of Judah the Maccabee ~1900 years prior

While residual issues remain, the Jews will flourish in Amer-ica, particularly going-into the 21st century…

Thunderation! French Revolution (1789 CE – 1799 CE) and Napoleonic Code (1804)…

- including Emancipation of the Jews in Napoleonic France and within its sphere-of-influence… French Jews guaranteed full civil rights.

Thunderation! Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart & Ludwig van Beethoven, Austria, (late 1700s CE).

1791 CE: Russia ( Catherine the Great ) creates the Pale of Settlement…at the western border of Imperial Russia…for Russian, and then, Polish Jews of incorporated Polish territo-ries…at its peak contained over 5,000,000 Jews……eventu-ally decimated by Nazi murder squads during WWII

Thunderation! Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet et al., British, 1800s CE (1809 CE - 1892 CE)

Thunderation! 1813 CE Simon Bolivar leads his first libera-tion military campaign in Latin America

…of aristocratic family, credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia….widely venerated and beloved in Latin America, and known as “El Libertador”, The Liberator.

Thunderation! Waterloo 1815 CE

Napoleon (French) defeated by Wellington (British) at his-

toric Battle of Waterloo, (north-eastern) France

… puts a final end to Napoleon’s campaigns… also marked the end of the “HUNDRED DAYS” period after Napoleon returned from exile on Elba.

…Napoleon (previously exiled to Elba, off of Italy, 9 plus months before his escape) now to spend the balance of his life imprisoned on the island of St. Helena in the South At-lantic, ~1000 miles west of Africa…

Thunderation! Mormon Church founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in Fayette, NY, April 1830

Thunderation! 1836 CE, First visit of Sir Moses Montefiore (later of “Montefiore’s Windmill” fame) to Jerusalem

Thunderation! 1836 The Alamo!

Battle between the Republic of Mexico and rebel Texian forces, during the Texian fight for independence - “The Tex-as Revolution”. The battle took place at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas in Feb-Mar 1836.

The 13-day siege ended with the death of almost all the defend-ing force. But the holdout became legendary…”Remember the Alamo!”….and the Texian revolution went on to ultimate victory - and secession from Mexico.

The defenders - in-death - “snatched victory from the jaws of defeat” ( as we say in-the-trade)

1848 CE: Salanter moves to LithuaniaRav Yisroel Lipkin Salanter (1810- 1883 CE ) founder of the Mussar movement (Ethics to be given the very highest prior-ity) in Orthodox Judaism





presidents to-date: Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Revel; Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan (temporary); Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin; Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm; Richard S. Joel

1886: JTS : Jewish Theological Seminary founded in NYone of the academic and and spiritual centers of Conserva-tive and world Judaism;extraordinary impact on world Jewry;see also related, reknowned and notable: American Jewish Univesity, L.A.; Seminario Rabinico Latino Americano, Buenos Aires; Shechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusa-lem.

Thunderation! Johannes Brahms, Composer, mainly Vien-na, Austria 1800s (1833 CE - 1897 CE)

Thunderation! Renoir and Rodin, France (both c. 1840 CE – c. 1919 CE)

Thunderation! 1896 CE, ”Cairo Genizah” exposition by Solomon Schechter of England

A genizah is a set-aside storage area or ‘depository’ in syn-aogues, yeshivas where worn or damaged Jewish books or papers ( potentially containing God’s name) are sequestered for periods of time - until ultimate burial in a cemetery - to honor God’s name on them by precluding their untimely de-struction. A genizah thus also potentially becomes a ‘time capsule’, of sorts.

A major genizah - dating from medieval times - in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, Egypt ( now called Old Cairo, Egypt) was ‘discovered’ and brought to the world’s atten-tion in the mid-1860s by the Jewish traveler and researcher Joseph Sapfir.

Combined with two other smaller Cairo troves of related ma-

Thunderation! 1854 CE, U.S. Commodore Perry’s “Black Ships” force the opening of Japan to the West (sort of)

1861 - 1864 CE: American Civil Warlike all civil wars, painfully pits “brother-against-brother” of-ten literally from the same nuclear familycatastrophic casualty toll…625,000 soldier deaths alone……..ends slavery

1868: First ( British ) Prime Minister-ship of Disraeli ( Febru-ary-December 1868)( Benjamin Disraeli was born to Jewish parents; Religiously, it gets complicated later )

1869 CE: Suez Canal opened November 17, 1869 in the Mid-dle East… financed primarily by French investors… Canal linked the Mediterranean and the Red Sea… The 103 mile-long Suez Canal shortened the distance from the Orient to Europe by 5,000 miles… Canal was 10 years in construc-tion…Egypt’s strategic importance ascends…}

1874: Second (British) Prime Minister-ship of Disraeli

1875: HUC: Hebrew Union College founded in Cincinatti; Reform; oldest Jewish seminary in the New World: campus-es: Cincinnati, NY, L.A., Jerusalem; founded by Rabi Isaac Mayer Wise in Cincinnati; notable faculty have included Magnes, Glueck, Butenweiser and Lauterbach.

1882 CE: Hovevei Zion Russian Zionist group, founds Rishon L’Tzion settlement ( the first Zionist settlement) in Palestine, financially-backed by Baron Edmund James de Rothschild.

1886: Yeshiva University founded in NY( Orthodox….Modern Orthodox ); a leading multi-faceted American University;logo: Torah u-Madah ( Torah & Modern Knowledge);





terial, ultimately over 200,000 Jewish pieces ( manuscripts et al. ) were ‘unearthed’. The chief scholar associated with them subsequently is the British scholar and rabbinic Solo-mon Schechter. See his listing a little further down [1902]…

Now archived ( 140,000 at University of Cambridge, Eng-land; 40,000 at JTS in NY; 11,000 in John Rylands University Library, Manchester, England), they are curently being digi-tized. [If you have several years, you can go through them after you finish Thunderation! . ]

1890 CE: Nathan Birnbaum, Austrian, Secretary General of Zionist organization Agudath Israel, and previously, founder in 1883 of KADIMAH…coins word ‘ZIONISM’ in his jour-nal Self Emancipation… ZIONISM was defined as “the na-tional movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland - and the resumption of Jewish sovreignty over the Land of Israel” …. Ready. Aim….

Thunderation! 1897 ( August 29 ) First Zionist Congress, Bsasel, Switzerland, presided over by Theodor Herzl…. and Birnbaum

Thunderation! “J’ACCUSE !” article electrifies France… Paris, (Jan 13, 1898)

[French journalist Emile Zola accuses eight generals of the French Army General Staff of covering up the innocence of framed Jewish artillery officer Captain Alfred DREYFUS (exiled to Devil’s Island [off the northeast coast of South America] three years earlier in 1895) - in front page banner headline piece of L’Aurore, Paris literary newspaper].

Thunderation! ENERGY: fire * steam power* electricity *atomic energy

1902: Solomon Schechter becomes president of JTS ( Jewish

Theological Seminary ) in NY

6 years earlier, his 1996 original exposition ( ~100,000-pages of exhibits ) of the manuscript treasures of the Cairo Geniza, revolutionized the study of Medieval Judaism.

Romanian-born English rabbi, Schechter founds United Syn-agogue of America, and is architect of American Conserva-tive Jewish movement…posthumously, a network of Con-servative Jewish day schools is named in his honor

1903 CE: Wright Brothers soar

Thunderation! E=MC2……. Zurich, Switzerland, 1905 CE

1907: Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem founded ( world-renowned range of programs through Mas-ters degrees) …slated to move from Mt. Scopus to ‘Russian Compound’ in Jerusalems’s city center

1912 CE: Szold founds HadassahHenrietta Szold ( 1860-1945 CE ) founds Hadassah Jewish Women’s Organization…rescues 22,00 Jewish children from Nazi Europe… among other less intense ongoing fraternal and social services worldwide…powerhouse organization…Szold was also Talmudic scholar and Zionist leader…born in Baltimore, MD, the daughter of a rabbi

1913 CE : Hashomer Hatzair founded….Socialist-Zionist youth movement founded in Galicia, Austria…illustrious history…center-of-gravity transplasnted to Israel

Thunderation! 1917 CE, British conquest of Palestine, and General Allenby’s entry into Jerusalem

Thunderation! “Balfour Declaration of 1917”





Thunderation! “the French bench”: Duffy (1877 CE - 1953 CE); Henri Matisse (1869 CE - 1954 CE); Claude Monet (1840 CE - 1926 CE; George Braque (1882 CE - 1963 CE)

1924 CE: “Technion” - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel…founded by the German-Jewish fund, Ezra ..origi-nally classes taught in German…switches to Hebrew post-WWI

There are more Nobel laureates connected with the Technion, than there are with many continents

1929 CE: B’nei Akva founded in British Mandate of Pales-tine… largest youth movement of religious Zionists in the world

passive Thunderation! Gandhi, India, prime political activ-ity: 1930s CE, early 1940s CE…

Gandhi pioneered Satyagraha - resistance to tyranny through civil disobedience… founded upon “ahumsa” = total non-violent Passive Resistance.

[Born 1869… a British-educated lawyer, he fought for Indian rights, first in South Africa, then in India… against oppres-sive taxation and widespread discrimination… for an end to ‘untouchability’… after assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, leads nationwide campaign for the alle-viation of poverty… and for liberation of women… for other causes, as well, including the pivotalSwaraj = independence from foreign domination…(self-government)credited with compelling/ motivating the British to eventu-ally quit India after WWII… after approximately 1 1/2 de-cades of passive resistance and civil disobedience… many thousands of Indians killed… British Empire exits post-WW II, but at its own pace… in India, recognized as Father of the

[Letter from the UK’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, who was seen as a representative of the Jewish people…

“… The British government “viewed with favor the estab-lishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish peo-ple…”

(not to be confused with Balfour Declaration of 1926 relating to British Commonwealth dominions)].

1917 CE: Bais Yaakov school movement founded

- by seamstress Sarah Schneirer in Krakow, Poland… now worldwide…full-time schools for religious (often Haredi) Jewish girls…close connection with Agudath Israel Jewish religious movement

Thunderation! 1918 CE, Dr. Chaim Weizmann lays Founda-tion Stone for Hebrew University

….on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem (… 7 years later, Hebrew Uni-versity inaugurated in 1925)

{1919 CE Treaty of Versailles… harsh (and humiliating) terms imposed on Germany at culmination of WW I … League of Nations created}

Thunderation! Haganah (Jewish ‘Underground’) formed in Palestine (1920 CE)

[Forerunner to Palmach (elite Strike Force)… established 1941 jointly by the Haganah and British military due to a temporary (~one year) convergence of interest… ultimately incorporated into backbone of IDF - Israel Defense Forces post-1948 War of Independence]





Kristallnacht! November 9, 1938, “Night of Broken Glass”, Germany

A Nazi government-inspired nationwide riot against the Jews and Jewish institutions and property… Approximately 100 - 250+ Jews were murdered, and another ~30,000 sent to con-centration camps…

On the property-front, over 7,000 Jewish shops were van-dalized, and approximately 1,670 synagogues (essentially practically every synagogue in Germany) were destroyed or damaged.

Nazi Invasion! Germany invades Poland, Sept 1, 1939

England, France and several British Commonwealth nations immediately ‘Declare War’ on Germany

1939 CE: British ( MacDonald) White Paper…limiting to-tal Jewih emigration to Palestine over-the-next-five years to 75,000…backtracking on the Balfour Declaration to appease this time the Arabs, the lifeline to Palestine is 95% cut… is-sued May 17, 1939

Nazi Death Camps / Concentration Camps: 1938 - 1945

AUSCHWITZ1,260,000 Jews murdered140,000 non-Jews murderedCategory: “Death Camp”Location: Poland

BELZEC540,000 Jews murdered here60,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Poland

Nation, profound effect on civil rights aspirations and tactics worldwide… Gandhi’s humanity impacted humanity glob-ally to this day… but, assassinated in 1948 after British had already quit India, by a Hindu radical]

Thunderation! *COMMUNICATION: * assorted modalities * language * alphabet * telegraph * telephone * teletype * Fax * satellite * CellPhone * Internet * Web* Google (late 20th century) [IPhone in the early 21st :)]

Thunderation! Rav (Abraham Isaac) Kook, Palestine (1865 CE - 1935 CE)… masterwork “Lights of Penitence”

[author’s note: Kook was uniquely extraordinary and extraor-dinarily unique]

1934 CE: Weizman Institute of Science founded in 1934only offers graduate programs and only in the sciences…Re-hovot, Israel…world renowned

Thunderation! Oct 1934… beginning of the ‘Long March’ of Mao Zedong

The legendary ‘Long March’ was actually a brutal retreat by the Chinese Communists from the Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek..but Mao’s leadership during the (asserted) 8,000 mile trek, consolidated his support among the members of the Communist party…

It is far-from-clear how this was achieved over the 8,000 mile odyssey.

1937 CE: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opened

Thunderation! Penicillin (major initial development pri-marily 1938 CE - 1944 CE in the United Kingdom and the USA)





CHELMNO288,000 Jews murdered here32,000 non-Jews murderedTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Poland

JASENOVAC20,000 Jews murdered here600,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Croatia

MAJDANEK330,00 Jews murdered here30,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Poland

MALY-TRUSTENETS59,000 Jews murdered here6,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Belarus, USSR

SOBIBOR225,000 Jews murdered here25,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Poland

TREBLINKA783,000 Jews murdered here87,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Death Camp”Location: Poland

DACHAU12,000 Jews murdered here24,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: “Concentration Camp”Location: Germany

BERGEN BELSEN25,000 Jews murdered here25,000 non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: ‘Concentration Camp’Location: Germany

TERESENSTADT30,000-40,000 Jews murdered hereUnknown number of non-Jews murdered hereTechnical category: ‘Concentration Camp’Location: Czechoslovakia

MAUTHAUSSEN~125,000 Jews murdered here~125,000 non-Jews murdered hereCategory: mass-murder via hard-laborLocation: Austria

Einsatzgruppen: early 1940s, in particular……Marauding Nazi S.S. Death squads in Ukraine (and Belarus) (generally following behind regular German Army Wehrmacht troops) murder approximately one million (1.3 million - historian Hilberg) Jews at close-range …’1-bullet-only-allowed’… many of the innocents take days to die… open-air shoot-ings…often into mass-pits [too gruesome to relate here]

****

1941: Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik ( a/k/a ‘The Rav’) succeeds his father





….as head of ( ‘Rosh Yeshiva’ of ) RIETS ( Rabbi Isaac El-chanan Theological Seminary ) at Yeshiva University in NY

…ordains over 2,000 rabbis…is a seminal figure in Mod-ern Orthodox Judaism…( b. 1933 in then-Russia; d.1993 in NY)…standard-bearer, as well for the 250 year Soloveitchik/Lichtenstein/Twersky rabbinic/scholarship dynasty

….Works include: The Lonely Man of Faith’; ‘Halakhic Man’; ‘Halakhic Mind’; Kol Dodi Dofek ( My Love [God] Beckons)

Pearl Harbor! December 7, 1941….

“a day which will live in infamy”- FDR in subsequent address to the nation

—

‘Wanesse Conference’: Jan ‘42 Meeting of Nazi “high com-mand” (translation: beer gathering of the psycho-freak-thugs who controlled Germany) January 20, 1942….”Final Solu-tion” fine-tuned to focus on mass-killing Death Camps fed by rail-links and employing gas chambers - to facilitate ‘indus-trial-scale’ murder.

Thunderation! early 1940s….Jewish prisoners layning tefillin…

(putting on tefillin) in the corpse-laden death pits of Poland’s death camps (1942 CE - 1945 CE, in particular)

[tefillin, phylacteries, are ritually strapped around the head and the (weaker) arm by male Jewish adults for the (non-Sab-bath or Holiday) Morning Prayer sequence (Shachrit)]

Thunderation! “Battle of Midway”, Pacific Ocean, off Mid-way Island atoll (June 4-7 1942)

[Four now-legendary protagonists: (Over-all) American Fleet Admiral Nimitz’s carrier strike force (with Rear Admi-ral Fletcher in-operational-command of the American strike force itself from aboard the American Flagship Yorktown) “breaks-the-back” of (over-all) Japanese Fleet Admiral Yamamoto’s carrier strike force (Vice Admiral Nagumo in-operational-command of the Japanese strike force itself from the Japanese Flagship); With both major battle fleets start-ing with roughly equal firepower due to Nimitz’s adroit mar-shaling of U.S. naval resources, basically, Fletcher then out-foxes Nagumo and checkmates him. Coming just 6 months after Pearl Harbor, the battle broke the temporary, but quite threatening, naval superiority which the Japanese navy had achieved with the Pearl Harbor attack. The Japanese lost 4 of the 6 carriers in their strike force as against 1 lost by the Americans……The battle exposed the relative hollowness of the importance of the Japanese destruction of battleships at Pearl Harbor… as Aircraft Carriers now projected power and defined dominance, not battleships… With rough naval par-ity now achieved - and the American economic giant awak-ened - and with its related industrial-military-complex now ramping-up with a vengeance - the die-was cast. It would be three years and three months until V-J Day September 2, 1945, but the Rising Sun was now irrevocably doomed… to set.In-the-interim, Japan would cut-a-swath of mass atrocity spanning thousands of miles across Manchuria and Asia].

Thunderation! Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Jewish), Spring 1943 CE Warsaw, Poland Ghetto

Final insurgency: First Day of Passover, Spring 1943,Duration: ~27 days: April 19-May 16, 1943

[In the cataclysmic rebellion, uprising leader Mordecai An-ielewicz, age 23, and 750 other organized Jewish fighters - as well as thirteen thousand Jews of Warsaw - are either killed in the Nazi fire bombings or murdered execution-style by





the SS……Warsaw was one of ~100 recorded Jewish revolts against the Nazis. The phoenix of Anielewicz’s fighters in-cinerated in the ashes of Warsaw’s firestorm, will arise - 5 years almost to-the-day - incarnate in the Haganah (whose re-cruits are acutely versed in his insurgency)…. May 14, 1948 (see below)]

Thunderation! Oct 7, 1944 Auschwitz Death Camp rebellion by Jewish prisoners…

451 of the rebels were torture-murdered…This was the third major Concentration Camp rebellion…after Treblinka ( Au-gust 2, 1943) and Sobibor (Oct 14, 1943)… the Nazi ‘deter-rant’ to rebellions was brutal torture-murder of any partici-pants captured

Thunderation! Hannah Senesh, executed by axis allies in Hungary, November, 1944

b. Hungary, 1921, she makes aliyah (lives in Israel) 1939-1943; Palmach/Haganah member Senesh parachutes into Nazi-occupied Europe as part of British SOE - Special Op-erations Units - rescue commando units; Senesh also a poet; two of her poems later turned into enduring-to-this-day He-brew songs - “Eyly, shelo yigamer me’olam” and “Ashrei Hagafrur”].

Thunderation! Normandy Invasion! June 6, 1944

[Operation OVERLORD, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Su-preme Allied Commander, lands troops on “Omaha Beach”, Normandy, France June 6, 1944)… commences long-awaited historic Allied sea and land (and air) assault on Nazi occu-pied Europe… largest sea invasion in history employing over 155,000 Allied troops crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to Normandy, France… and commences multi-front military drive north-eastwards onwards through

France and Belgium into Germany and then onward heading towards Berlin; Five plus months after Normandy, on De-cember 26, 1944, ‘force-of-nature’ Gen George S. Patton’s Third Army closes-in on the counter-sieging German lines at Bastogne (Belgium), forcing-their-hand and essentially sealing-the-fate of the Third Reich, which will go through its death-throes over the subsequent 4 months… caught in a mortal vise between the onslaughts of the American, British and Red invasion forces]

Thunderation! 1945 CE, Red Army (332nd Infantry unit) rolls into and liberates Auschwitz (Death Camp) Oswiecim, (southern) Poland, (Jan 27, 1945)

[Between 1.1 - 1.6 million individuals (~90% Jewish) mur-dered here by the SS between May 1940 through the above-noted liberation in January 1945. A total of approximately 6 million Jews are persecuted, then murdered by the Nazi state terror-machine overall…

Auschwitz, as the other camps, was a house-of-horrors…sa-dism, torture, and murder on a daily basis…

the human mind was simply not created to grasp the enor-mity of the horror-crimes, let alone to endure them…

—Pope Paul VI charged by many with being (relatively) “si-lent” on the ongoing genocide for the ~6 year duration of mass murders… contentious issue… author: Tekel.

[Primo Levi, 26 years old, formerly a young Italian Jewish chemist pre-War, barely survives a year in Auschwitz. Will write: Survival in Auschwitz (‘Se questo e’ un Uomo’ - origi-nal Italian title); The Reawakening (‘La Tregua’ - original Italian title); The Periodic Table; Moments of Reprieve; The Drowned and the Saved; The Monkey’s Wrench; If Not





Now, When (‘Se non Ora, Quando’ - original Italian title); The Truce…]

Thunderation! Red Army thunders westward, early 1945 CE

[Marshal Zhukov’s Soviet Army artillery divisions inexorably blast their way through Nazi lines westward across Russia, then through Poland and into Germany… ROLLING THUN-DER… they blast their way westward across Germany, then into Berlin itself - and plant the Red flag on the roof of the infamous Reichstag, May 2, 1945… trumpeted “Thousand Year Reich” fails to meet ‘forecasts’… falls short by 988 years… Russia loses about twenty million dead during WWII to the Nazis (aside from about another 20 million Russian dead directly or indirectly at the hands of their own ‘leader’ Stalin 1925-1945)… Within the onslaught of Zhukov’s cam-paign towards Berlin, all German town mayors and SS troops rounded-up, are summarily executed…]

Thunderation! Patton’s THIRD ARMY liberates Buch-enwald concentration camp, Weimer, Germany, (April 11, 1945)

[April 12th, United States Military Chaplain, ‘20-something’ Rabbi Herschel Schechter rolls into Buchenwald with tanks of Ace Corps headquarters, 3rd Army… He announces with bullhorn to the survivors “YOU ARE FREE”… Emaciated and starving survivors try to kiss his boots… Generals Eisen-hower, Bradley, Patton arrive to view the debacle inside Buch-enwald… April 12-14; Photographer Margaret Burke-White, accompanying the Third Army, photographs the unfolding death-camp liberation saga for the world finally to see; Patton orders the ~1750 denizens of surrounding town of Weimer marched-through to witness the ‘handiwork’ of their compa-triots… Eisenhower orders the entire contiguous liberator US 4th Armored Division to march through Buchenwald: “Now you will all know clearly what this war has been about”…

17 year-old emaciated and starving imprisoned Elie Wiesel emerges from the NIGHT of Buchenwald only barely cling-ing to life… DOWN. But not quite OUT.]

1943: Rav Moshe Feinstein participates in Rabbis’ March on Washington - asking Roosevelt to do more to save the Jews

Lithuanian-born (1895) Orthodox rabbi…known endearingly as Rav Moshe…chaired Agudah rabbinincal comittee…and regarded by many as the supreme arbiter of Jewish Law for decades until his death in 1986

Thunderation! “TRINITY” test July 16, 1945; Alamogordo, New Mexico

[…culmination of the ‘Manhattan Project’… 20 kiloton test… begins the “Atomic Age” …Truman gives orders to proceed with the double-bombing of Hiroshima; Nagasaki…]

Thunderation! ~3pm Dec 6, 1945, US Third Army rolls into Mauthausen Death Camp

Mauthausen, Austrian Alps

Sgt. “Dick” Pomante of Detroit, Michigan and Sgt. Bob Persinger of Rockford, Illinois, respectively captaining the two lead tanks of U.S. THIRD Army, 3rd Cavalry Group, XX Corps roll through the main gates of Ebensee sub-camp , Mauthausen Death Camp, Austrian Alps… and declare “We are Americans !”… half-dead inmates fling themselves onto the tanks, trying to stay “glued” to them… Sgt. Pomante (by at least two totally independent accounts to me directly) is packing two long pistols and giving out small chocolate bars and encouragement to the shriveled and near-death teenage (male) inmates.

As the US tanks enter the main entrance, prisoners, several of





whom have been collecting guns, and who have been await-ing the ‘cover of liberation’, execute the “rear guard” of their previous tormentors throughout the outreaches of the camp… until the Americans have a chance, 4 hours later, to ‘secure’ the vast Death Camp.

…The next morning at ~9:00 a.m., US light tanks and mili-tary vehicles - with mounted machine guns at-ready - take up protective positions (guns facing outwards) around the main ‘formation grounds’, as the ~400 assembled Jewish survivors are then given the all-clear sign by the Jewish U.S. officer placed in-charge of the particular unique outdoor assembly, to sing ensemble… “Hatikvah”… ”Our hope has not fal-tered….” the Jewish (and embryonic State of Israel) anthem.

After the Jews, the same morning in December 1945, the French inmates are assembled in the same square, the La Ma-seillaise is sung…

***

Jefferson’s descendants have trumped Hitler’s War Ma-chine…- and liberated America’s ancestral home, Europe- and liberated Europe’s Jews

—–

1946: Heschel joins faculty of JTS (Jewish Theological Sem-inary) in NY

Abraham Joshua Heschual, Jewish thinker-extraordinaire and Civil Rights advocate;His works include: The Prophets; The Sabbath; Man is not Alone; God in Search of Man; Torah min Hashamayim (Heavenly Torah);

1946-7 : First “Dead Sea Scrolls” discovery

a/k/a ‘The Qumran Scrolls’….. in ‘Qumran Cave’ (just off the western shore of the Dead Sea in Israel) …roughly 850-900 ‘documents’ discovered ( 1n 15,000 pieces unfortunate-ly) between 1946-1956…including texts from Tanach ( the Hebrew Bible)…

80% on parchment; 20% on papyrus

in 11 proximate caves… the Qumran site covers 78,000 square feet…

Over a twenty year period ( since 1947), the ’scrolls’ finally wind-their-way into The Shrine of the Book, a suis generis architectural gem custom-designed to house them- at the Is-rael Museum on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

The assembly of the 15,000 pieces spans 40 years…you do remember the “40 year” figure, do you not ?

It might have taken 400 years, but digital technology turbo-charged the process

note: the Qumran Caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, are not-all-that-far from Masada (Fortress Masada of 73 CE Zealot lore)… perhaps a 20-minute ride eastward of Masada …..( by car, that is )

author’s note: I will personally give a reward to the person who finds the missing vowel in the name Qumran……….I personally like ‘Quumran’ better…maybe I’ll just change it myself… ( next book )

1947 CE: “The American Jewish University” founded in Los Angeles





…current locale is Bel-Air, Los Angeles…incorporates the ‘University of Judaism’ and the ‘Brandeis-Bardin Institute’

spiritual founder: Dr. Mordecai Kaplan, (1881 - 1983) dy-namic founder and prime mover of the Reconstructionist Movement…”Judaism (primarly) as Civilization”….

Kaplan had significant, if not pivotal, tenures with the Ortho-dox Young Israel synagogue movement, then with the Con-servative JTS ( Jewish Theological Seminary) and, as well, with the Conservative-Reconstructionist Society for the Ad-vancement of Judaism

mega-Thunderation! Establishment of The Third Jewish Commonwealth, STATE of ISRAEL, Tel Aviv, (May 14, 1948)

Ben Gurion presiding…

as head of liberator Jewish Establishment… Chaim Weiz-man, Founding Father… Menachem Begin, head of Irgun… Hatikvah… Star-of-David raised;

British exit; UN votes to partition Palestine; six Arab armies immediately attack; Haganah and former Irgun forces are ready - and counter-attack…the rest is history

finally, after much blood, much sweat, much sacrifice, much yearning, much prayer, much bravery, much boldness, much martyrdom, and many, many tears,a Jewish Homeland after 2,000 year Diasporah 1948 CE: Brandeis University founded outside of Boston…the largest non-sectarian university under Jewish auspices in the Unit-ed States…illustrious legacy…unique-in-the-world named after the first Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Louis D. Brandeis (of Louisville, Kentucky and Boston, Mass.)

Thunderation! June 1949, start of Operation Magic Carpet(Yemen) - to bring 49,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel over 15-month-period…on 380 Israeli, British and American flights from British Colony of Aden ( a port in Yemen) in a secret operation …a/k/a Operation On Wings of Eagles ( al Kanfei Nesharim )[ not to be confused with the immediately post-WWII ‘45-’46 major US Navy transport operation of the same name ( Magic Carpet) bringing the US troops back to the USA from Europe and the Pacific ]

Thunderation! late 1950s CE, de Chardin works published Works of the French Jesuit priest and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin published posthumously over 1955-2002 CE span; [b. 1881; d. 1955][His works banned by the Vatican ‘Holy Office’ during his lifetime (with the Holy See ban re-affirmed in 1981)… his works deal with, among other themes, ‘consciousness’ as well as ‘directed evolution’…Note that his posthumous classics include:The Phenomenon of Man (in French: 1955, in English: 1959)The Future of Man (in French: 1959, in English: 1964) andThe Human Phenomenon (1999)Note that the works of the extraordinary de Chardin are complex by any standard.1953: Hesder Yeshivot movement established with Yeshiva Kerem B’Yavneh( Yavneh, [central] Israel )combines Yeshiva study with military service in the IDF ( Israel Defence Forces)In 1991 the movement was awarded the iconic Israel Prize.1955 CE: Bar Ilan University founded…currently over 25,000 students…ideologically parallel somewhat to Yeshiva University in NY 1956 CE: Tel Aviv University founded…over 30,000 students…”TAU”…important player on cultural scene1956: ( July 26) Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal1956: ( Oct 30 )Britain, Fance and Israel invade Sinai and seize the Suez Canal- “The 1956 Sinai Campaign” ( Israeli operation name: Kadesh )





1956: ( Dec 1956) Eisenhower forces them to back-off and exit Sinai;Israelis exit by Mar, 1957…messy for all-concerned

Thunderation! Sputnik I (Oct 4, 1957)

Thunderation! Frank Lloyd Wright… I.M. Pei (USA 1900s)

Thunderation! Argentinean writer Jorges Borges (spanning the 1900s CE)… ‘Labyrinth’ et al. (1899 CE - 1986 CE)

Thunderation! Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, 20th centuryRus-sian 20th literary icons Boris Pasternak (1890 CE - 1960 CE), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918…currently living in Vermont)Immortal classics Doctor Zhivago, Gulag Archipel-ago, respectively.Abduction ! 1960: Adolph Eichmann (Nazi war criminal) abductedextra-legally by MOSSAD, ( Israel foreign intelligence service) , at a Buenos Aires bus stop, 8:05 pm May 11, 1960…After ten days in Israeli-captivity at a ‘Mossad-safe house’ near his abduction, heavily-sedated Eichman [ a/k/a ‘Ricardo Klement’ of Buenos Aires] was spirited out of Buenos Aires, Argentina on an El Al Bristol Britannia comercial flight on May 21

Hanged 11:00 am, May 31, 1962, Ramleh prison, Israel…

after 14-week Trial and conviction…..Eichman maintained in-a-glass-booth during the trial….televised live world-wide….90 concentration-camp-surivor witnesses testi-fy……..Eichman prosecuted and convicted of, among other crimes, mass-murder and ’crimes against humanity’.

Thunderation! Thomas Merton (1915 CE - 1968 CE), Trap-pist Monk, writer, philosophical writer[author of over 50 books, classics include The New Man (1961)

[author’s note: Merton would have made a great Jewish phi-losopher…]Merton was a true philosophical artist…

Confrontation! 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis… Oct 22, 1962 JFK goes on national TV and announces quarantine of ship-ping to Cuba …as nuclear missiles supplied by the Soviets have been discovered on the island after US analysis of pho-tographs by U-2 spyplane overflights of Cuba… With the US blockade in-place and authorized to use small explosives’ to impose its blockade, at 10:25 am Oct 24, the approach-ing Soviet ships go ‘dead in the water’ - as the Soviets have ‘blinked’

Thunderation! August 28, 1963, “I Have a Dream”, Martin Luther King, March-on-Washington

… followed ~3 months later by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1963 CE: University of Haifa opened…over 17,000 students… Haifa, Israel…affiliated with Hebrew U in Jerusalem

Thunderation! Computer Science emerges into main-stream… Silicon Valley, CA (1960s CE… 1970s CE)

Thunderation! 1965: “Nostre Aetate” October 8, 1965 Vati-can Council II under Pope Paul VI

“The Church decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone…”

The fatal-flaw - and problem, however, is that all-of-the-above - hatred, displays of anti-Semitism, incitement to per-secutions, demonizations - REMAIN fully incubated in - and disseminated through - the most sacred documents of Chris-tendom…





To my knowledge, there was no cosmic moral Exemption given to religious texts, allowing them hate-mongering and demonization privileges.

Note, as well, that there are front-and-center components in Nostre Aetate itself essentially re-iterating the vilification/li-bel that the Sanhedrin pressed for the death of Jesus. Thus while the right hand of Nostre Aetate decries hatred and big-otry, the left hand incubates the same. All in the very same late-20th century document.

To wit, leading-off the paragraph preceding the ecumenical statement above,

“True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead, pressed for the death of Christ…”

Thus, the same 19 centuries-old inciting-to-riot polemic is re-affirmed.

“… some modern scholars suggest that the Gospel accounts may have downplayed the Role of the Romans in Jesus’ death during a time when Christianity was struggling to gain accep-tance in the Roman world” - Wikipedia 1.13.07

The artistry of understatement, for sure.

[check Search Engines keyword:

Nostre Aetate

for full text

see paragraphs 12 - 15 in particular.

(see above First Century in this TimeLine)]

Respectfully, Nostre Aetate’s renouncing of anti-Semitism, while simultaneously re-iterating the core incendiary libel, will have both Pluses and Minuses for the Jews.On the one hand, certainly more Pluses than Minuses. On the other hand,the core problem is not lanced. The American Jewish power elite are reading the finer print in the NY Times. But, across the land-mass of Europe and the steppes of the Soviet Union, they are not necessarily reading the finer print in the NY Times page 14; They are, however, still absorbing the de-monization vignettes in Church Sunday morning. And it is these demonization vignettes which set-the-stage for perse-cution and murder. The blue-chip (and valiant and tenacious) American Jewish Committee may have been somewhat de-flected, but the veteran players of the College of Cardinals certainly are not.

Schematically -

‘Demonize; then Posture’

(i.e. Demonize the Jews in the core Gospels… and then Pos-ture, case-by-case,as anti-Semitic abominations unfold over-the-centuries)

has been replaced by -

‘Demonize; then Decry’

(i.e. Demonize the Jews in the core Gospels, but Decry the manifestation of anti-Semitism)

or,

Demonize; then Dialogue”

or, in a variant





‘Demonize; then Decry & Dialogue’

1966: S Y Agnon ( israel ) and Nelly Sachs ( Sweden ) jointly win Nobel Prize in Literature

…representing, respectively, as Sachs observed, and as the Nobel Committee undoubtedly knew,“Israel” and the “the tragedy of the Jewish people”

—

prelude to Six Day War: May, 1967

Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul Nasser-

# expels the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) - which had served as a buffer for twenty years between Israel and Egypt - from the Sinai Peninsula

# masses a 100,000-man Egyptian army with 1,000 tanks on the border with Israel

# calls for unified Arab action against Israel

# blockades the choke-point to the Red Sea, the Straits-of-Ti-ran, to all Israeli or Israeli-bound shipping…Note that block-ades are conventionally categorized as ‘Acts of War”

…….the Jewish world collectively ‘holds-its-breath’….

Thunderation! daybreak, 1st day of the “Six Day War” June 5, 1967, Middle East,Operation Moked (i.e. Operation Focus), Israeli air force at-tacks Egyptian airfields at dawn

Israeli turns-the-tables on its blockading enemies - and catch-es them off-guard; Israeli warplanes (188 aircraft) destroy the

air force (300 planes) of Egypt on-the-ground, and by the end-of-the-day, virtually wipe out the air forces of Syria and Jordan…. netting the Israelis total air dominance….the Is-raeli lightning land offensive follows on-the-heels of its air dominance…. Israel gains effective control of a respectable portion of the Middle East within 6 days… and major, cru-cial bargaining-chips in future negotiations…

Thunderation! 3rd day of the “Six Day War”, June 7, 1967

… Return to Jerusalem: the Old City of Jerusalem, re-taken by Jewish forces

[Israeli paratroopers, 35th Paratrooper Brigade, penetrate the historic Old City of Jerusalem through Lion’s Gate…and capture the hstoric center-of-gravity of Judaism

The City of David is now back in Jewish hands - 1996 years, 10 months and 11 days after the Roman Legion of Emperor Titus, after a multi-year siege, finally overwhelmed the starv-ing Zealot-aligned Jewish fighters defending the very same gates in 70 CE…

Defense Minister Dayan maintains Dome of the Rock - Al Asqua Mosque - in the Old City under Moslem stewardship, by investing the Muslim Waqf (religious Trust) authority to manage the Temple Mount… de facto barring Israeli visi-tors, notwithstanding the mosque’s physical location literally above the buried ruins of the Jewish Temple]

Thunderation! 6th day of the Six Day War, June 10, 1967: Golan Heights captured…

Israeli forces under General Peled complete capture of Golan Heights from Syria, Israel’s arch-enemy…

facilitated by crucial intelligence supplied by legendary spy





Eli Cohen, who had penetrated the inner-circle of the Syrian political-military-social hierarchy by 1965, before being ex-posed and torture-executed in Damascus…

post-1967 CE: flowering of (cutting-edge) Midrasha network of Advanced Torah Learning schools for young women in Is-rael…most in Jerusalem…mostly one-year programs abroad for Anglo-American students…many with classes for women in Talmud

1969 CE: Ben Gurion University ( of the Negev) founded in Beersheba, Israel

Thunderation! Man lands on the moon (July, 1969)

Thunderation! American novelist Leon Uris - major works 1950s CE - 1990s CE

[Known for his very extensive research, often on Jewish-related themes, Uris impacted world perceptions: important works: Exodus (1958); Mila 18 (1961); QB VII (1970); Je-rusalem (1981); The Haj (1984); Mitla Pass (1988), among other gems].

Eco-Thunderation! 1950s - 1990s Umberto Eco ascendant

Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist polishes his unique craft in the latter half of the 20th century (and into the 21st)

[Best known for his novel and classic - “The Name of the Rose” (1980 in Italian, 1983 in English)… interestingly, Eco awarded over thirty doctorates from universities worldwide, including Hebrew University (2002)]

Thunderation! Picasso (1881 CE - 1973) Spanish painter and sculptor, Grandmaster

Thunderation! 20th Century, Pearl S. Buck

born in West Virginia, 1892 - 1973 Raised and lives primari-ly in China through 1934, key works are in the 1930s - 1960s [Author of over 100 pieces of literature, including classic-for-all-times, The Good Earth, (1931) as well as Nobel Prize in literature for The Exile (1936), The Fighting Angel (1936)

Thunderation! Chilean Pablo Neruda awarded Nobel Prize for literature 1971 CE

[Poetry collections include: “Odes to the Common Things”… “Residence on Earth” … note: While Neruda’s poetry is sub-lime, the political views of Neruda are his alone - and “do not necessarily reflect the views of this broadcasting network”]

Thunderation! Munich-response, 1973 CE

Israeli-backed operatives assassinate Black September-backed operatives across Europe(and in Beirut) - 1973 - in wake of 9/5/72 Munich Olympics Massacre

Thunderation! 1973 Kissinger adds U.S. Secretary of State to his National Security Advisor title

Realpolitik…Detente….”China Shock” - when Kissinger advises Japan that Nixon will visit China

Washington, DC…National Security Advisor (1969 - 1975), then Scretary of State Sept 22, 1973…just days before the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East..until Jan 20, 1977 ….

A Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, moving to Washing-ton Heights, NY in 1938 , he wins Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for role in arranging fragile ( later-to-be-broken) cease fire with North Vietnam…





Thunderation! Yom Kippur War, commenced Yom Kippur, Fall 1973 CE

a/k/a 1973 Arab-Israeli War a/k/a the Fourth Arab-Israeli War Oct 6 - Oct 26, 1973

After crucial intelligence procured from Nasser’s own Lon-don-based son-in-law (regarding an imminent Egyptian at-tack across the Suez Canal) is dismissed and quashed by an ego-maniacal Israeli intelligence chief, Israel is caught off-guard by an intensive and well-planned Egyptian and Syrian multi-front invasion

Egyptian forces forge eastward first across the Suez Canal, then puncture right through the (thinly-manned Israeli) ’Bar-Lev defensive line’, then roll onward and north- eastward through the Sinai Desert…

Syrian tanks are rolling south from the north

Central Israel is at-risk caught between the two armored forces…

Israel, at-this-point, allegedly unsheaths its alleged dooms-day-”Jericho missiles”…

Now ‘up-against-the-wall’, poised-to-counter-attack Gen. Ariel ‘Arik’ Sharon dusts-offContingency Plan: Suez-Westward-Wartime-Crossing plans (which he authored several years prior)…

Sharon rushes specialized heavy-duty military rafts westward across the Sinai to pre-hardened and camouflaged concrete raft-launching-sites at the Canal’s edge; then launches his armor-bearing rafts carrying his armored divisions westward across the Suez Canal ( justb south of the tail-end of the eastward-rolling Egyptian operation); his cross-canal maneuver encir-cles and entraps the Egyptian Third Army in the desert…

The Egyptians are now in “counter-check”…

With the Egyptian Third Army, which also putatively pro-tects any potential Israeli advance on Cairo, now encircled by Sharon and out-of-water in the desert, the Egyptians ‘need-to-deal’…

…The stage is now set for a Kissinger-brokered armistice…

and, several years later, an eventual Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty (Begin-Sadat)

….and a subsequent ’cold peace’ with Egypt…..through publication of this work in 2008

Terroration! Ma’alot (northern Israel) school massacre by Palestinian terrorists, May 15, 1974

Twenty-one Israeli 14-16 year-old students killed (most mur-dered by their Palestinian captors) during the Israeli assault to free the 90-total Israeli student hostages - 3 hours 15 min-utes before the terrorist deadline expiration.

1974 CE: “Open University of Israel” founded…a ‘dis-tance-education’ university…now with mega-student-count: 40,000+ students…based in Ra’anana, Israel

Auto-Genocide: Khmer Rouge terror regime in Cambodia 1975 CE - 1979 CE:

- Murders 1.7 million people (many torture-murdered). So, 22% of the country’s entire population of 7.5 million was murdered. The prime targets were anyone conceivably a threat to the regime. This included the country’s professional and/or educated elite, broadly-defined. For example, if one wore glasses, one was considered and intellectual and was doomed. The Cambodian cities were emptied and everyone





forced onto ‘collective farms’ or into forced-labor projects.

The regime was eventually thrown-out by invading (Commu-nist) Vietnamese forces, who entered in November 1978 to rescue ethnic Vietnamese from the Khmer Rouge’s pickaxes.

Broadly-speaking, the United Nations commenced re-orga-nizing the country in 1991.

Thunderation! Entebbe! (Uganda airport 1976)

[3,000 mile successful Israeli airborne commando raid… Mercedes-Benz gets free publicity…]

Thunderation! first APPLE PC (April 1977)

Thunderation! Anwar Sadat addresses the Knesset [Israeli Parliament] (November 20, 1977)

… later assassinated by Islamic radicals in 1981: Via first war and then, peace, Sadat set-in-motion a historic chain-of-events… No Arab leaders attended his funeral aside from Nimeiry of Sudan… Three former American presidents do attend…

Thunderation! Deng Xiaoping unleashes (1970s CE - 1990s CE) China’s human and economic potential

Thunderation! Osiraq IRAQI nuclear reactor destroyed by Israeli air strike (June 7, 1981)

Thunderation! Steven Spielberg, USA, Director, E.T. (1982) et al.

… director of many exceptional and extraordinary works… In the Jewish realm, through 2006, works include - Schindler’s List (1993), Munich (2005)…

Founder, SHOAH Foundation, filmed testimony of Holo-caust survivors - video archives

Thunderation! Microsoft Windows {version 1.0 in 1985; version 9.0 in 2005…}

Thunderation! Elie Wiesel, now 58, wins Nobel Peace Prize…. Oct 14, 1986

[41 years after emerging from Buchenwald… NIGHT turns into DAWN/DAY… the Hasidic Masters would say that his “Soul is on Fire”… Wiesel: Messengers of God: “Take sides - Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”… Memoir: “All Rivers Run to the Sea”… (also “The Judges”; “Somewhere a Master”; “The Time of the Uprooted” et al.)]

[Wiesel is among ~158 Jewish winners of the Nobel Prize (out of ~750 total) from its inception in 1901 through 2006]

Thunderation! Paul Coelho (Brazilian, first book: The Pil-grimage 1987 CE)

Thunderation! Berlin Wall falls (November 9, 1989)

Assassination! of Rabin (November 4, 1995)

Yitzchak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister… Former Chief-of-Staff… Six-Day War Hero… by right-wing Jewish Israeli hothead

Thunderation! March 26, 2000, Pope John Paul II visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem

… and places a letter inside it apologizing for the Church’s actions against the Jews in the past

The letter, on Papal stationery is laid-out as follows:





*papal seal*

God of our fathersyou chose Abraham and his descendants

to bring your Name to the Nations:we are deeply saddenedby the behavior of those

who in the course of historyhave caused these children of yours to suffer,

and asking forgivenesswe wish to commit ourselves

to genuine brotherhoodwith the people of the Covenant.

Jerusalem, 26 March 2000

signed Joannes Paulus II

Thunderation! nascent Stem Cell revolution (~The Millen-nium 2000 CE)

Terroration! August 9, 2001 SBARROS, Jerusalem

Sbarros Pizza shop in the heart of Jerusalem, terror-bombed by Palestinian terrorist suicide-bomber; fifteen killed; 100+ wounded

Terroration! Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, Twin Towers of World Trade Center destroyed…

… by Radical Islamic terrorist suicide-hijackers turning U.S. passenger planes into guided-missiles… Pentagon perimeter hit (3 of 5 Pentagon building rings penetrated …E, D, C rings take-the-hit …. Passengers on 4th plane (”Let’s Roll!”) bring their captors crashing down with them in a Pennsylvania field - and probably save the Capitol Building in D.C. …. iconic passenger revolt… over-all, ~ 3,000 persons are dead at the

three sites (Manhattan Twin Towers, Pentagon, Pennsylva-nia) due to the 19 terrorists…

America coils, and then invades Afghanistan to rout the Tal-iban…..

followed by US invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq….heav-ily hinged on basis of US-asserted Iraqi nuclear weapons production… later found to be erroneous…..fighting still on-going Winter ‘07….. ~3,870 US military deaths fighting-in-Iraq to date (11/20/07)

Thunderation! 2001 CE, Lawrence Summers

former US Secretary of the Treasury, becomes first Jewish president of Harvard… tenure until 2006…

ultimately undone in 2006 by left-wingers in the Humani-ties Department who never-quite-forgave-him for tangling frontally with anti-Semitic academics in 2002 or with Cornel West in 2001

Here-we-go-again-ation! February 2003, Mel Gibson film The Passion of Christ…

aggressively fosters demonization-of-the-Jews themes from Gospels… Film neither reproved nor condemned by the Vati-can, notwithstanding urgings from the Jewish community…

Aug 19, 2003: Another suicide bus-bombing in Jerusalem

…this one in Mea Shearim, the ultra-Orthodox neighbor-hood…. 18 dead, 130 injured….many, many tears, as per usual

Educated now from childhood to demonize the Jews, their Hamas leadership having taken-a-page from another group,





many Palestinian 20-somethings will maim-and-murder without flinching

Feb 2006, Paris, France, torture-murder

23-year-old Jewish man, cell phone salesman Ilan Halimi, kidnapped, tortured and murdered in anti-Semitic attempted extortion case in Paris… the president and the premier of France attend the funeral.

Thunderation! c. 2005 CE Chabad-Lubavitch-movement ‘outposts’ break through the 4,000 mark

i.e. the number of Chabad outposts (and/or pulpits) world-wide in 70 countries….

[One of the largest branches of Hasidic Judaism;Author’s observation: synthesizes mainstream Orthodox Ju-daism; classic Hasidism, Lurianic Kabbalah; Litvak scholar-ship…with an extra-heavy-dose of Messianism].

Thunderation! Emirate of Dubai, Persian Gulf early 2000s CE

January 4, 2006, Dubai, multi-faceted 21st century Techno-Pharaoh-extraordinaire Sheikh Mohammed son of Rashid Al Maktoum, ascends to the Ruler-ship of Dubai in the Persian Gulf….He re-defines the contours of modern Arab culture and the limits of ‘Imagineering” in the early 21st century….

….personally sets up $10 billion dollar Arab-world educa-tion-fund…Dubai emerges as one of the most harmonious and creative locales on-the-planet….a credit to the Arab world…and to humanity…

Jews welcome - and protected… ( the Grand Hyatt is not bad ( wink) )

——

…..however, from Dubai’s neighbor to the north, Iran, just across the Persian Gulf, comes an eerie echo from Nazi Ger-many……

Death Threat: 10/27/05 from Iranian President Ahmadinejad: “Israel should be wiped from the map”

…follows month-long “World without Zionism” state-spon-sored nationwide Iranian official protest month (possibly now annualized) leading into Iranian ‘Jerusalem Day’ (i.e. Jerusalem without Israelis Day) ……

same Iranian leader repeatedly denies Holocaust existed and sponsors international ‘conference’ on same….

Iranian posture on these inter-related matters possibly a fac-tor in German government action six months later (April, ‘06) re: Holocaust archives…..

Thunderation! April 19, 2006, German Chancellor Angela Merkel(call her: Angel Merkel - author) opens up German Holocaust archives… 50 million documents… 16 miles of shelves… 17 million victims

[de facto lancing the “Holocaust Denial” gambit by assorted misfits worldwide… as the former Nazi bureaucracy will have enshrined its atrocities for-the-ages in these archives…]

Retrenchment by Vatican: July 8, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI removes restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a “Tridentine” rite that was all but swept-away by the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vati-can Council in the 1960s…





As regards the Jews, the Latin Mass calls for their conver-sion, as opposed to the 1970 Missal of St. Paul, which recog-nizes the Jew’s “eternal covenant with God”…

It is not clear how polar-opposite defamatory language to-wards the Jews in the original Latin Mass - removed by Pope John Paul in 1959 - will be treated in the new incarnation, now basically being allowed as an option…

Note that the “Latin original” is not likely to be disregarded by the Church’s seminaries and heavily-committed right-wing… Indeed, as the entire matter is now ‘evolving to the Right’, as grass is now growing thick over the killing grounds of Auschwitz and memories of mass-atrocity fade, it is hard to predict where the Right-ward swing will, indeed, end…

Alas, Pope John Paul, of exalted memory, is no longer presiding.

Hopefully Thunderation! “Annapolis Summit” (November 26, 2007)

Israeli-Palestinian (Fatah) summit meeting hosted by George W. Bush… Annapolis, Maryland (USA)… negotiations and mini-accords continue apace…target set for major accord by end of December 2008

Thunderation! Thunderation! 2008

——————————

Nous sommes revenus

——————————

————————————————————————

Thunderation! The Angels approach…

…They inexorably approach…

==========================================

Note: In early 2006 the total number of Jews in the world is ~14.5 million, representing ~1/5 of 1% of the world’s popu-lation (of 6.5 billion)

*** ONWARD ! ***





Yishayahu

…Amar Ha-Shem…( says God to the Jews…..)

Ki he-harim ya-mu-shu

v’hag’vaot tih-muu-te-nah,

v’chas-di mai-ee-taych

lo ya-mush

*

Even if the mountains themselves may shift ground,

And even if the hilltops themselves may implode,

My eternal countenance over thee

shall never waver

*

- Yishayahu ( Isaiah ) 54:10

About the AuthorDavid Birnbaum is known in academic circles as the author of the Summa Metaphysica series: an over-arching meta-physics. He is a graduate of Yeshiva Dov Revel, Yeshiva University High School, CCNY and Harvard.

God and Evil ( 1988 ), the first book in the landmark 2-book Summa Metaphysica series, has been assigned as a Required Text at universities around the world, and was a Book of the Month feature selection of the Jewish Book Club. The work has gone through Five Printings and eighteen thousand cop-ies to date.

The author is known as a leading conceptual theorist.

The 2-volume Summa Metaphysica series was crafted over a twenty-five year period, 1981-1988 and then 2001-2007. Thunderation! was crafted in the 2005-2007 period.

David Birnbaum’s works have been used as course texts at Brandeis, Hebrew University, Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College, Tel Aviv University, Emory, JTS, Bar Ilan, and Union Theological Seminary, among others. His works have been reviewed by dozens of leading academic journals worldwide.

A long time ago, he taught “The Science of Strategy” at the New School in NY.

He lives and works in Manhattan.

see also www.SummaMetaphysica.org or www.SummaM.org

and www.Thunderation.org for online reference





Information

Books by David Birnbaum

Summa Metaphysica God and Evil ( 1988 ) God and Good ( 2008 )

Thunderation! ( 2008 )

To contact the author:email: [email protected]: 212-398-9438

Book WebSites:www.SummaM.orgwww.Thunderation.org

To contact the publisher:J Levine / MILLENNIUMDanny Levine, President & Publisher5 West 30th StreetNew York, NY 10001phone: 212-695-6888fax: 212-643-1044

To order online:LevineJudaica.com ( Classics link )Amazon.com

Technical Information

Quotes from the Canon Gospels are from : “The Holy Bible”, ‘Old and New Testaments’, King James version translation ( into English), National Publishing Company, Philadelphia (c) 1978

The originals of the Canon Gospels are in Greek, as we dis-cussed.

=========================

note that we have paraphrased ( i.e. stolen ) liberally from public domain Wikipedia ( especially their charts and maps; However, we did not use components which were under con-tention.

Another important source used was

The First Centuryby William KlingamanHarperPerennial

thunderation12-24-07

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