re: #293 CuriousLurker

I disagree with your assessment. I guess you didn’t read the whole thread from that night. As a matter of fact, the ranting went on for a couple of days, so it wasn’t as if he just temporarily lost his cool.

CL and DF

I was annoyed at a whole lot of things, but CL, calling what I wrote to be rant without looking at the issues behind them is interesting. It shows a remarkable amount of the worst cultural insensitivity.

You have recently posted about the significance of Hanukkah.

Yet you seem to have missed the entire point of the holiday. Let me lay it out for you.

Israel had been conquered by the Babylonians. The Persians conquered them and allowed my ancestors to rebuild the Temple - which stood until Roman Times.

Alexander conquered Persia and divided his empire.

Antiochous, a descendant of one of Alexanders generals came to power and tried to wipe out Judaism. He profaned the Temple and turned it into an alien pagan temple. The Temple was the center of Jewish culture. It is on Mount Moriah. It is where tradition holds the Akedah happened. It is more central a symbol of Judaism than the liberty bell is of America or Parliament and Big Ben is of Britain. The only thing in the modern world with close to the Temple’s cultural significance to anyone else is actually Mecca.

My ancestors fought back and won. The miracle of the menorah happened when the temple was cleansed and rededicated.

So CL,

It isn’t yours. It still isn’t yours. It never will be, You and no Muslim and no gentile has any right to it. However, as the price of peace, it is worth allowing the mosques to remain.

None the less, Hanukkah, which you have written glowingly about, was all about taking the Temple back.