Passover; what a “beautiful” tale.
The description of the story below fails to explain that the Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a lamb, thereby advising the spirit of the Lord to “pass over” these homes and in doing so protecting their first-born.
Imagine that, the spirit of an “all-knowing” God needed to check-out every home before knowing which of them belonged to Jews. Gee whiz, and to think that millions of Jews, including the grown men pictured below, believe this nonsense.
There is nothing like religion to atrophy the brain. TGO
Refer to story below. Source: TIME
J
ERUSALEM – Israelis cleaned their houses, cars and offices Monday and cooked furiously in last-minute preparations for the weeklong holiday of Passover, which marks the biblical story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
The story recounts that God killed the first-born boys of Egypt after the pharaoh refused to release the children of Israel from bondage, but “passed over” the houses of the Israelites.
After that divine blow, the pharaoh gave in and let the Israelites go. They were then given the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai and wandered in the desert for 40 years before arriving in the Land of Israel.
The holiday begins Monday night with a traditional seder meal. Extended families typically gather to retell the story of the exodus and eat unleavened bread called matzoh.
The tradition of eating matzoh comes from the Bible’s account that the Jews left Egypt in such a hurry that there was no time to allow the bread to rise. It is also considered the bread of the poor, meant to remind Jews of their ancestors’ hardships. Leavened bread is banned and burned ceremonially before the holiday starts.
Though only about a quarter of Israel’s Jews are Orthodox, most hold a seder and do not eat leavened bread during the weeklong holiday.
The prime minister’s office said President Barack Obama called on Monday to wish the prime minister and the Israelis a happy Passover.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the two men discussed diplomatic issues and decided to continue their discussion in the coming days.
Israeli President Shimon Peres marked the day by visiting the parents of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in their protest tent outside the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem.
“I am convinced we will see Gilad return home alive,” Peres told the family. “It pains me and it pains every person in Israel that Gilad is still not with us.”
Schalit was seized by Hamas-allied militants in a 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip. Repeated attempts at brokering a prisoner swap have failed.
Hamas has demanded Israel release hundreds of prisoners, including many who carried out deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, in exchange for Schalit. Israel has offered a mass prisoner release, but balked at some of the names on Hamas’ list.
Israeli media highlighted the family’s saga, noting this marked the fifth Passover eve Schalit has been in captivity.
On Sunday, Netanyahu met with Schalit’s parents. He informed them that he appointed a new coordinator for negotiations over his release. David Meidan, a high-ranking official from the Mossad spy agency, will take over the role previously filled by Hagai Hadas.
In a routine measure, Israel imposed a closure on the West Bank, barring almost all Palestinians from entering Israel throughout the holiday.
At the height of Israeli-Palestinian fighting last decade, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a hotel seder in 2002, killing some 30 people.
OK… so you like to make fun of Jewish beliefs. That’s allowed. But I expect you to be fair and provide equal opportunity for ALL other religions.
I am, mind you, an atheist, a Jewish atheist. What you are forgetting is that the Old Testament is a history book, telling the development of the Nation of Israel in the Land of Israel. Of course the stuff about God is unbelievable, just like Chinese history is full of flying Dragons, which are, let me assure you, unbelievable. But Chinese Kings and Emperors were real.
My point is that making fun of the Old Testament has an angle of belittling the history of the Jews. At the same time, I never see any articles anywhere making fun of Hindu beliefs and their holidays, or of many other religions and ancient writings. Sure, there are modern Jews who believe the literal truth of the OT, but certainly you can’t expect them to stop celebrating their Passover, which has been a form of National identity for the last 4,000 years.
In fact, Passover pre-dates God! Originally this was the new year festival, an agricultural celebration of Spring time and renewal. It must have been incorporated into (ancient) Israelite religion under the disguise of God-sanctioned events. But it’s still serving the original purpose of uniting the Jewish nation and reminding them of the importance of the Land of Israel as the land of their forefathers.
P.S. This is not singling you out, but intended as a reminder to all such sources that have fun with Jewish customs, and don’t seem to notice their own biased position.
Fair enough. I only have two points to make.
1) If you go through my Blog and click on key words such as Catholics, Catholic Church, Pope, Religion, Islam, Muslims, Mormons, Scientology, etc. you will notice that I make fun of ALL religions and religious customs; certainly Judaism is not being singled out.
2) I understand what the Old Testament is supposed to be. But don’t forget that the Old Testament also has quite a bit of superstitious nonsense in it. My point is that since this “history of the Nation of Israel” also contains talking animals, people living hundreds of years, Noah’s Ark, etc., how does one discern which parts of it are true and which aren’t?