Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

No secret at all. These facts are known to anyone who is willing to read a 
few "secular" books on Jewish history, including quite a few Orthodox 
rabbis. The reason we continue to use this count is precisely because it has 
no real theological importance, but it has become a part of Jewish tradition 
over the past 1300 years or so. There are a lot of things that are 
"hallowed" by tradition. And for most people, it really makes no difference. 
Something like the fact that Jesus was certainly NOT born in the year 1 
"A.D." (I'm purposely using the "Christian" term), since King Herod died in 
4 "B.C.", and tried to kill the baby Jesus. And shepherds sleeping out in a 
field in Bethlehem in December? You try it. The date of Christmas, as many 
people know, is taken from a pagan holiday. Most historically-educated 
Christians know this, few care, and no-one thinks that it's worth changing 
the calendar for.

However, "we Jews", as well as "you Christians", do have our fundamentalists 
who insist that every tradition, no matter how unbased, is Holy Writ. What 
can you do?

Yigal Levin



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Holmyard" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 1:53 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Daniel


> Dear Yigal,
>
> HH: Thanks for the helpful perspective. But, Yigal, if these facts are 
> known to the Jewish community, why does it continue to use the flawed 
> dates? Or is it known to only part of the community?
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard