tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64387669037817115962024-03-27T12:57:48.474-04:00All About Anything in the WorldMendel Beilis Blood Libel Trial -- English Translation of Transcript on Mendel Beilis Trial page below!Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.comBlogger1457125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-48989585874631078062024-03-15T06:36:00.000-04:002024-03-15T06:36:39.368-04:00Fact-Checking -- clearing up a lot of ignorance part 5<p>So the latest ignorance on Twitter is about past issues in Holy Land history, and it comes in two parts.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqF9etcFEoYWqnFNMx8Qj6Wf_8H56SoIYT3ClbuN91vengWZnQuZv5A3melApLXUwwSFUYX8LTqH5RKvgLa852VavJEThMDboCJdUplzYNrLBBSiy00GxzUQQGMfU30rFZyXKK8xWeYEFrBDywKtAUxYtnwhMJpdzmSHW9JGGnZTUkOrK2z3AiwRag4KfK" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="680" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqF9etcFEoYWqnFNMx8Qj6Wf_8H56SoIYT3ClbuN91vengWZnQuZv5A3melApLXUwwSFUYX8LTqH5RKvgLa852VavJEThMDboCJdUplzYNrLBBSiy00GxzUQQGMfU30rFZyXKK8xWeYEFrBDywKtAUxYtnwhMJpdzmSHW9JGGnZTUkOrK2z3AiwRag4KfK" width="240" /></a></div>First, a photo has been circulating of an official document with the word Palestine on it. People use it to claim that a Palestine existed before there was an Israel. But as you know, I wouldn't be posting about it unless it was an urban legend. Here's the photo.<p></p><p>This document was issued by the British mandatory authority which, under the Sykes-Picot agreement, took control of parts of the Ottoman Empire after WWI (the one that ended in 1918). The year on the document is 1935 or something like that.</p><p>The British named the mandate Palestine for whatever reason. The region was not under control of its long-time residents, not even the Jews of the Old or New Yishuv, let alone <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2023/11/sooo-history-clearing-up-lot-of.html">the Jews that remained in Jerusalem or the Kabbalistic settlement in Tsfat</a>.</p><p>The other is claims about the term Zionist, similar to false claims about the term anti-Semitic.</p><p>The term anti-Semitic was invented by Edouard Drumont and his right-Orleanist political associates in France, to describe themselves. Ignorant, bigoted and weak-minded people have tried over the decades to pretend that the term relates to non-Jewish Semites like Arabs, but that is a fallacy called redefinition.</p><p>The term Zionist was coined by Herzl and his followers in the 1800s CE, while the Ottoman Empire still governed the Holy Land. The Empire divided its territories into units called, in the 20th century, <i>vilayets</i>. I googled <a href="https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/155/ottoman-territorial-reorganization-1840-1917#:~:text=For%20administrative%20purposes%2C%20the%20Ottoman,a%20qa'im%20maqam">an article</a> which shows that the Ottomans never had a sub-unit called Palestine; Nablus (now on the West Bank) and Jerusalem were part of the same sub-unit.</p><p>A lot of things are swirling around in world affairs right now. They come down to two things. Evidence is piling up that the demonstrations and protests are promoted by Russian interests, including the photo of a "Polish protestor" with pro-Russian signs on his tractor. From promoting political candidates like Trump and Geert Wilders; to fostering secession movements including Catalonia and Brexit (ask me for receipts); to allying with existing far-right movements, to sponsoring the French Yellow Vests and, as we now know, Antifa; to the US "trucker's" convoys and Polish "farmers" protests; to embedding ISIS (which is wholly owned by Putin) with Hamas and Russian troops that attacked Ukraine in 2022; to promoting civil war starting with Syria in 2011 and including the civil war bloviating by MAGA; most of the unrest in the world is a result of Russian activities, not spontaneous or ideated movements. Russian criminal maneuvers were unmasked in 2015 with the Deutsche Bank Golbal Laundromat scandal over money laundering going back to at least 2010. Russian promotion of Palestine to the detriment of Israel goes the whole way back to 1948.</p><p>And two, a bunch of ignorant adrenaline addicts are committing reckless endangerment by closing down commerce and transport, providing screens to the violence prone and, in airports, to potential terrorists. </p><p>If all of this is news to you, don't get mad at me. Get mad at yourself for being 15 years behind the news cycle, and thousands of years behind <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2023/11/sooo-history-clearing-up-lot-of.html">crucial facts about the Holy Land</a>.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-59893606636952051262024-02-23T14:33:00.004-05:002024-02-23T14:33:52.651-05:00Knitting -- a Summer Victory<p>Just in time for your summer knitting in cotton blends or linen.</p><p>I've been trying to find a pattern for knitting a sleeveless top, top-down, without raglan sleeves, knitting in the round, so as to use up some leftover cotton yarn. Google search doesn't turn up anything like it, not even on Pinterest or Ravelry; the patterns want you to knit a front, knit a back, and sew them together. Well, part of my mantra is "when you're done knitting, you're done" to the maximum extent possible. </p><p>So I finally buckled down and invented it myself. </p><p>Sleeveless, boatneck, with selvages at the armholes and optional mid-back elevation.</p><p>This top does not have the gap problems at the neck that you get when you knit bottom-up and knit the shoulders together. You don't knit the shoulders together, you make shoulders with stitch increases under the neck rib.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_RIXILPP56R_PGymYAMgAkopGmSOu1wXYm5Hys2wZDr7-QgrTjQCchZOxUFbiLg-eaJzWQ8edM2EWUYD4Q8HTpEwOv7W4wDFKeOT2pTIUGlqeHMqHWorAw2pvNGOvHu3lhDOhzNojU-kuHiSDZNrxyxnUmT9e75PNhw210HVqH7oP4JL5ebr1eq1nKuK/s326/basque.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="268" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk_RIXILPP56R_PGymYAMgAkopGmSOu1wXYm5Hys2wZDr7-QgrTjQCchZOxUFbiLg-eaJzWQ8edM2EWUYD4Q8HTpEwOv7W4wDFKeOT2pTIUGlqeHMqHWorAw2pvNGOvHu3lhDOhzNojU-kuHiSDZNrxyxnUmT9e75PNhw210HVqH7oP4JL5ebr1eq1nKuK/w164-h200/basque.jpg" width="164" /></a></div>I used the classic Basque stripe pattern that kids used to wear for play shirts when I was actually a kid. The two versions are here.<p></p><p>http://freevintageknitting.com/spool194/5201-basque-shirt-and-socks-pattern</p><p>http://freevintageknitting.com/childrens-clothes-patterns/spool175/basque-shirt-and-socks-pattern</p><p>I like the Joan and Tommy pattern with 8 rows of neutral base color and the light and dark of any colorway -- 4 of light color, 2 of dark, and 4 of light again. You can reverse the light and dark colors if that uses your leftovers up better. The more contrast between those and your base, the more this pattern will pop. Or you can use any two colors that contrast with each other and with the base. </p><p>I have calculated (sport/DK) and [fingering] stitch counts below but not tested them.</p><p>These materials and stitch counts are for a top that fits a 40-inch chest. Don't change the count for casting-on; you will need that to fit over your head. Don't change the number of rows in the armholes (before you join the round to finish the body). You need them so the top doesn't bind you under the arms.</p><p>The target stitch-count at the hem is 200 for worsted, 240 for sport/DK, and 280 for fingering. If you need a smaller size, stop doing increase rounds when you get to the stitch count that is good for you. You may want to do two knit rounds between increase rounds, to get the shoulders broad enough (like for a husky guy).</p><p>I think it took me 30 hours to make the first sample after I worked out the stitch counts for the increases.</p><p class="MsoNormal">7 50-gram skeins or balls of yarn. I used Comfy Worsted which has a nice drape and hand.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> 4 in your
neutral base color, especially important if your selvages will be in base color<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> 2 in the
4-row color<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> 1 in the
2-row color<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">1 size 5 (4) [3] 24-inch circular needle<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">1 size 5 (4) [3] 16-inch circular needle<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">Use long-tail cast-on to a
16 inch needle for 140 (147) [154] stitches. Make sure your stitches are not twisted,
then join using a SLST/PSSO and put the slipped stitch back on the left needle
for a smooth join. </span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Work K1/P1 rib for 6 (6) [8] rounds, setting a marker at the start and weaving in the loose tail of your cast-on. For more flexibility in the neck, you can use KTBL instead of just a K.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Knit one round to stabilize
the neck, setting evenly spaced markers for the side “seam” and middle front. In worsted, these go every 37 stitches; in sport/DK or fingering they will more like 38 stitches apart.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Work an optional mid-back
elevation: K14 past midback, wrap, turn; P28, wrap, turn; K47, wrap, turn; P66,
wrap, turn; K85, wrap, turn; P94, wrap, turn, knit to the mid back.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Change to a 24 inch
circular needle. <o:p></o:p></p>For worsted weight yarn: <div>Increase into every 20<sup>th</sup> stitch. Knit a round, 147</div><div>Increase into every 21<sup>st</sup> stitch.
Knit a round, 154.</div><div>Increase into every 22<sup>st</sup> stitch.
Knit a round, 161.</div><div>Increase into every 23<sup>rd</sup> stitch.
Knit a round, 168.</div><div>Increase into every 24<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round, 175.</div><div>Increase into every 25<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round, 182.</div><div>Increase into every 26<sup>th</sup>.
Knit a round. 189.</div><div>Increase into every 27<sup>th</sup>. Knit
a round. 196.<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast">For sport/DK do the following:</p><div>Increase into every 21<sup>st</sup> stitch. Knit a round, 154.</div><div>Increase into every 22<sup>st</sup> stitch. Knit a round, 161.</div><div>Increase into every 23<sup>rd</sup> stitch. Knit a round, 168.</div><div>Increase into every 24<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round, 175.</div><div>Increase into every 25<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round, 182.</div><div>Increase into every 26<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round. 189.</div><div>Increase into every 27<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round. 196.</div><div>Increase into every 14<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 210.</div><div>Increase into every 15<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 224.</div><div>Increase into every 16<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 238.</div><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">For fingering weight:</p><div>Increase into every 22<sup>st</sup> stitch. Knit a round, 161.</div><div>Increase into every 23<sup>rd</sup> stitch. Knit a round, 168.</div><div>Increase into every 24<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round, 175.</div><div>Increase into every 25<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round, 182.</div><div>Increase into every 26<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round. 189.</div><div>Increase into every 27<sup>th</sup>. Knit a round. 196.</div><div>Increase into every 14<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 210.</div><div>Increase into every 15<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 224.</div><div>Increase into every 16<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 238.</div><div>Increase into every 17<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 252.</div><div>Increase into every 18<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 266.</div><div>Increase into every 19<sup>th</sup>. Knit a
round. 280.</div><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">Knit from the mid-back to the first side
marker and cast on 5 stitches. Turn and work P2/K1/P2 into those stitches and purl
across to the other side marker. Cast-on again and turn. After this turn is where you will start your Basque stripe if you're using it.</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Work the rest of the knit
rows as K3/P2, knit across and work the last 5 stitches as P2/K3. Work the rest
of the purl rows as P2/K1/P2 in the first and last five stitches.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Working Basque stripe. When
you cast-on for the second selvage, start your Basque stripe; you have already worked
8 rows under the neck rib in your base color so start with 4 rows of your light
shade, 2 of your dark, and another 4 of your light, followed by 8 in your base
color.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">You can work the selvages the same color as
the body.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">If you are going to work the selvage in
your neutral base color, first, have a separate ball of that color for each
selvage or use up leftovers from the ball you used to make the neck and
shoulders. The alternative is to carry it across the row and that’s a waste of
yarn. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">When you go back to your base neutral
color, work a purl and knit row with one of your selvage balls and then use the
other to work the next purl and knit rows (or knit and purl, whichever). This,
too, avoids carrying yarn wastefully across.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">Be careful to lock stitches of the base and
other colors at the body side of a selvage that is in your base color. Use your Fair Isle locking techniques. I can't find a good video so if you've never done color work before, put a comment here and I'll help you out.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Work 50 (55) [60] rows of the back in
the flat, ending in row 4 of the 8 rows of your base color. Leave a couple inches of tail
and cut the yarn. Weave this in when you start knitting the body.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Now make a slip knot in
your yarn and with the right side of the front facing you, put it on the right
tip of the circular needle. Pass the end (knitted) stitch over it. Turn and cast on 5
stitches. Turn back and work K3/P2 to the body and knit across. Now cast on 5
again, turn, and work P2/K1/P2. Here is where you will start the Basque stripe for the front. Purl across and P2/K1/P2 at the other selvage.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">Now work 50 (55) [60] rows of the front in your
Basque stripe ending again at row 4 of the 8 rows of the base color.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"></p>Join back and front by knitting. At the armpits, working from the right side, knit from the front underarm across the selvage of the back underarm, and when you get to the other side, knit across the selvage of the front underarm to finish joining into a round. Count stitches and add at the underarm "seam" until you have 200 (240) [280].<p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.5in;"> </span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR" style="text-indent: -0.5in;"></span><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">Work Basque stripe in the
round for 95 (110) [130] rounds ending in 8 rounds of the base color. If you run out of the contrast colors, use base color to finish so you don't have to buy more yarn and end up with more leftovers. This is what the photo shows. If I hadn't run out, or you buy your yarn fresh, there would be another band of color above the hem.</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;"> , and Do K1/P1
rib for 6 (6) [8] rounds. Bind off in rib with one difference. Pick a knit stitch at each of side seam, mid-front and mid-back. K into the front but do not remove; K into the back and pass the front stitch over, then P the next stitch and pass the rest of the knit stitch over. This will make 4 stitches to loosen the hem, otherwise it could be hard to get the top off.</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><!--[if !supportLists]-->13.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Now go back and sew together the selvage at the shoulders.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In the photo you can see the armhole with the selvage on the left. </p><p class="MsoNormal">I often use Lindy Chain for summer tops; it is thinner than Comfy Fingering and linen is perfect for the DMV's hot muggy summers. I have some leftovers to work with and will post again when I have the counts right, but you should probably cast on 220 stitches, work 10 rounds of rib for neck and hem, do increases (start at every 22nd stitch and do two rounds without increasing between every increase round so that the shoulders are wide enough) until you have close to 300 stitches (or your target for the hem), 90 rows above the armpits and 140 below them with 10 rounds of hem rib. (I also have a <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2019/06/knitting-sleeveless-summer-blouse.html">vee neck tank</a> to work in Comfy Fingering or Lindy Chain.)</p><p class="MsoNormal">You can work a <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2021/10/knitting-frenchbreton-sailors-jersey.html">Breton stripe</a> instead of a Basque one, with 4 rows of white and 4 rows of French or cadet blue.</p><p class="MsoNormal">You can use 7 skeins of a single color and work <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2017/09/knitting-lace-top-purl-technique.html">lace in front</a> as I did for a bottom-up top
a long time ago, or beads and sequins. You can add university emblems with duplicate stitch.</p><p class="MsoNormal">If you use wool, you can work Fair Isle, <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/04/knitting-v-neck-in-houndstooth-in-round.html">houndstooth</a>, cable (including Aran or Celtic Knot), and British (gansey) or Bavarian twisted stitch patterns, making vests to go over button-down shirts. (I also have a <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/04/knitting-v-neck-in-houndstooth-in-round.html">vee neck vest</a> pattern.) Make sure to increase the target hem stitch count for Fair Isle and houndstooth; the fabric has less give and you need a wider garment to get it on and off easily.</p><p class="MsoNormal">So now, I hope, I've made you crazy to start knitting for summer and get rid of stuff in your stash or leftovers bin. At 30 hours per top, only your real life stands between you and working one top per week between now and the warm weather.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><span></span><p></p></div>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-46483067770161219092024-02-23T08:08:00.000-05:002024-02-23T08:08:32.149-05:00Fact-Checking the Torah -- DH and the "old words"<p>A long time ago I pointed out that one problem with DH was its claim that <b><u><a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/02/fact-checking-torah-dh-and-swlt.html">P used words</a></u></b> no older document used.</p><p>I came across my own counterargument to this while re-reading my study <i>Narrating the Torah</i>. On Exodus 6:2, I said that DH assigning this verse to P has no basis in the text.</p><p>Every single word in this verse appears in another Torah verse that DH has assigned to an older document like J or E. In fact it uses both <i>elohim</i> and the Tetragrammaton, so it can't be assigned to J or E unless it's a conflation of two verses, one from J and one from E. </p><p>What's more, <i>elohim</i> appears in Amos, a Judean work from the 700s BCE which should, according to DH, use the Tetragrammaton everywhere. And the latter appears in Hoshea, a northern work from slightly before Amos' time which should use <i>elohim</i> everywhere.</p><p>With both names, this verse says that Mosheh was a bad writer in the estimation of <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2017/10/fact-checking-torah-astruc-and-logic.html">Jean Astruc</a> -- but since Mosheh took down Gd's exact words, that makes Gd a bad writer. Say what?</p><p>It also makes a liar out of Astruc for saying he only worked with Genesis. This verse is not at the start of Exodus and therefore plausibly misplaced from Genesis (which obviously closes with Joseph's death). It is six chapters into Exodus and the actual Egress will happen eight chapters later.</p><p>It's been six years since I finished posting about DH but obviously I didn't include every last detail that blows it up. For those of you who missed it, here's the start of <a href="http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2017/07/fact-checking-torah-structure-of-torah.html"><b>my destruction of DH</b></a>. It starts out with math and logic, and then it goes into details like this one from Exodus 6. It's about 50 posts long and each post is about a page worth in Word. Whether you never heard of it, or never liked it, or just didn't know what a pile of crap it was, you have a chance at learning the truth.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-37169067000804039662024-02-06T07:56:00.000-05:002024-02-06T07:56:07.065-05:00Fact-Checking the Torah -- Behold! A Second Witness<p>One of my projects for some years now has been trawling the Internet for articles about the <b><u><a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/02/fact-checking-torah-treasure-cities.html">Akrotiri explosion</a></u></b> that have bearing on the Exodus.</p><p>The relevant Bible verses are Exodus 10:21-23, the palpable darkness that fell on Avaris but not in Goshen across the border. This palpable darkness is characteristic of the Plinian phase of a volcanic eruption like Vesuvius in 79 CE or Mount St. Helens. The Akrotiri eruption was 20x that of Vesuvius in 79 CE which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. </p><p>The dust streamed SSE on a <i>ruach yam</i>, a sea wind which, for Egypt, meant it came from the NNW. But did it happen in the spring?</p><p>Well, it happened before autumn and studies from multiple perspectives have pegged it more and more closely. Examinations of charred insects in jars of fava beans show that the beans came from the prior year's harvest; it contained all stages of the insect's metamorphosis except eggs, which are laid in spring. This pest never develops in stored beans. It can only develop out in the fields. So the beans were picked after they were infested, stored up and left behind when the dust clouds sent people scurrying from Akrotiri, accounting for the lack of human remains. They probably assumed things would blow over and they would come back for the stored food. Instead, KERBLOOEY.</p><p>Another important indicator was olive remains found in the ash deposit. This included branches, leaves with parasites on them, and olive stones. The question I always had was, did they find any way to tell if the olive flesh had started to develop yet. Finding bare stones with no trace of even charred flesh would put the disaster in early spring; finding any remains of even charred flesh sets the date closer to summer. The leaves are not enough; olives are evergreens. I haven't found the answer to my question yet.</p><p>Now comes an article on the <b><u><a href=" https://static.cambridge.org/content/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:article:S0003598X18001655/resource/name/S0003598X18001655sup001.pdf">Babylonian Venus Tablets</a></u></b> of the reign of Ammisaduqa, containing records of observations of Venus as well as the meaning of the various phases and things. In addition to phases, the tablets record an issue called conjunction. Twice a year Venus disappears into the glare of the sun; there is an inferior and a superior conjunction and you can google about the definition of those terms.</p><p>What the tablets record is that in 1627 BCE, the dates of the superior conjunction could not be determined from observation. About 25 April, Venus should have been visible as "the morning star", then reached conjunction and come out by 5 October as "the evening star". But they never saw "the morning star". There's no explanation of unusual storms, the rain clouds of which would have hidden Venus. But given the year, the explanation probably turns out to be dust from Thera. </p><p>It would have taken months for this dust to get thick enough to occlude Venus. <b><u><a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/view/journals/bams/58/10/1520-0477_1977_058_1050_twitwo_2_0_co_2.pdf">American Meteorological Society data</a></u></b> shows that historically, the most common wind in Mesopotamia came from the NNW. Ancient maps of cities put this direction at the top and free-standing buildings were oriented to keep out the wind and its dust. The main component coming from the north would have limited the amount of dust coming from Thera, which was located to the WNW. </p><p>Avaris, on the other hand, is about half the distance from Thera as Babylon, and the prevailing wind out of the NNW at that time of the year promoted the volume of dust that produced the plague.</p><p>The article on the tablets has another suggestion to make, an eruption of Aniakchak in Alaska. However, this has the same problem as the <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2023/03/sooo-history-gildas-and-arthur-3.html">eruption of Krakatau</a> that I discussed for Gildas. It's thousands of km farther from Babylon than Thera. It's to the ENE. It's just another example of how academics don't take all the evidence into account (like distance and prevailing wind), or don't look outside their pipeline (such as to see the resemblance to the Krakatau claim). </p><p>And now another example of how you can't rely on what people say. I found three tourism websites, all parroting the same text about finding flowers in the remains of the Thera explosion. I contacted one and they told me they had no data to back up that claim. So if anybody tells you that olive flowers were found at Thera, ask them for the archaeological report. I doubt they'll be able to give it to you; Google didn't find it for me, though it did turn up the paper on the Venus tablets.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-27742375603304489042024-01-30T08:23:00.000-05:002024-01-30T08:23:47.680-05:00Fact-Checking the Torah: clearing up a lot of ignorance Part 4<p>If the only thing you know about Jews is Fiddler on the Roof or some other form of entertainment, boy have you got a lot to learn.</p><p>The feature item for this post is the "go back to Poland" thing. </p><p>As I posted <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2023/11/sooo-history-clearing-up-lot-of.html" style="font-weight: bold;">some time ago</a>, Jews have lived in the Holy Land for nearly 36 centuries.</p><p>Sephardic Jews from around the Mediterranean (especially Italy and the marranos of Spain and Portugal) live in a number of places, including Israel. The national radio station hosts programs in the Ladino language of Spain.</p><p>The <b><u><a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jews-of-kaifeng-chinas-only-native-jewish-community/">Jews of Kaifeng China</a></u></b> are natives and have been there for a thousand years. </p><p>After 1492, Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled the Inquisition wound up in the Spanish Netherlands or Brazil, and the Brazilians moved to New Amsterdam, which is now New York City. The earliest synagogues in the US, such as the Touro synagogue, were Sephardic. </p><p>Marranos came to the Americas with Cortes and other conquerors. Their blood flows in their descendants. </p><p>All of the Arabic nations expelled their Jews after 1948. Where did they go? Three guesses and the first two don't count.</p><p>Soon after 1948 Operation Solomon airlifted Ethiopian Jews to Israel.</p><p>After 1948, the Bene Israel of India came to Israel.</p><p>In 1966 a <u><b><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110526163153/http://www.kulanu.org/peru/peru.php">tribe of Inca converted to Judaism</a></b></u>. Some of the Bnei Moshe moved to Israel. <b><u><a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-783295">One was serving in the IDF</a></u></b> on October 7 2023 and was killed defending his nation. </p><p>While the LDS Book of Mormon claims the Native Americans were descended from the Ten Tribes (which is false), <b><u><a href="https://humanityinaction.org/person/emily-mcdonnell/">some Native Americans</a></u></b> have converted to Judaism. </p><p>African-Americans with a Jewish mother are counted as Jews. There are also <b><u><a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90509270">African-American converts</a></u></b> to Judaism. I remember seeing a photo of a black couple at their wedding, the man wearing a Chassidic shtreiml, but I can't find it on Google. I think it was in a Jewish calendar.</p><p>And then, Ashkenazic Jews may inherit the <b><u><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4323646/">m33c mtDNA gene</a></u></b> from China, which moved west along the Silk Road. I have ancestors who came from Hungary and, depending on how many generations the Kleins lived there, I might have it.</p><p>Genetic Jewishness comes through the mother, except for kohanim who inherit a specific Y chromosome unit. But with both men and women converting to Judaism for 35 centuries, there is no telling which of your acquaintances is Jewish. King Ferdinand of Aragon, who promoted the Inquisition's autos da fe, had a Jewish grandmother. So once again, curb your ignorance. And if you really want to help, use this post to bust the chops of the Jew-haters who say "go back".</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-68059432294162991612024-01-28T09:05:00.003-05:002024-01-28T09:05:51.882-05:00Knitting -- pullover version 3<p>So over the last 2 years I've learned some new techniques and YOU get the benefit of them without having to evaluate a hundred different Youtube videos.</p><p>This is for a long-sleeved worsted (DK/sport) [fingering] jumper, knitted bottom up, in a <b><u>woolen </u></b>yarn. </p><p>You need size 7 (5) [3] circular needles in two tether sizes, 24 for the body and 16 for the neck and upper sleeves. </p><p>You also want DP needles in size 7 (5) [3] for the cuffs and lower part of the sleeves. Some patterns call for 6 (4) but let's not fuss with that.</p><p>It takes me 1430 yards of yarn for a long-sleeved pullover that fits my 40 inch chest and 21 inch arms. This amount allows for steeking and for a mid-back elevation. You may need less but, remember, if you overbuy you can make <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2022/01/knitting-scraps.html"><b>matching socks</b></a>.</p><p>Do some math to see what stitch counts are right for you. The paper sleeve of the yarn hank or ball should give a number of stitches on a specific needle size and tell you how many inches that is. Even if you need fewer stitches when you cast on for your hem rib, you might need more rounds in the body under the arms (my back is about an inch shorted than usual for my height). You can always knit a 30 x 30 swatch to make sure your particular yarn will work out the way you want.</p><p>You may need three weeks to a month to finish this, depending on how experienced you are as a knitter and how much else is going on in your life. But the sky is the limit for how many colors there are to choose from; there are also hand-painted yarns which are multi-colored, and tweeded and beaded yarns.</p><p>If you buy hanks of yarn, wind at least two of them into one ball apiece. You will have to stop from time to time and wind more hanks into balls; it takes far less time than trying to untangle the hank as you work. Don't avoid hank yarn; there are too many nice ones out there.</p><p>Tie the ends of the two balls together with a square knot, leave a couple of inches of raw ends; you will tuck this loose yarn in during the first round of the bottom rib.</p><p>Make a slip knot near this square knot and put it on the end of your 24 inch circular needle. Now use the <b><u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzgqnhMlloE">long-tail (slingshot) cast-on</a></u></b> for 200 (260) [280] stitches. If you want to get straight to the goodies, go to 2:20.</p><p>I know that this cast-on seems complicated but a) it gives you a nice edge b) I find it easier to keep track of how many stitches I cast on and c) if you have a pattern that calls for a provisional cast-on, this is how you do it. </p><p>Now make sure the stitches aren't twisted. Make sure the last five or six stitches are tight on the needle (you'll loosen them later) with the loops around the TOP and the connectors between the loops on the BOTTOM. Holding the last stitches firmly, work around to the other end of the needle making sure all the loops are on the TOP. </p><p>Now you can start knitting the rib. Cut one of the balls of yarn off two or three inches from the end of the needle with the last stitches. Slip the last stitch on the other needle to the needle with the yarn ends, pass last stitch on that needle over, move the stitch back to the left needle, and knit it. This makes a smooth line at the join and prevents gaps. You'll use this technique again later. Drape a yarn marker before this first knitted stitch. I often put a slip knot in this marker so I know when I'm starting a new round.</p><p>In worsted, unless you are working an Iceland pattern, you will K the next stitch, then P2/K2 around, putting markers at 50, 100, and 150 stitches. For the first 6 to 8 knit stitches in the rib, thread the loose yarn ends into it. </p><p>For all others, P the next stitch then K1/P1 around putting markers at the front center, left side and back center.</p><p>Work ribbing for 6 (8) [10] rounds and switch to knitting, flipping the marker yarns over the top when you get to them. This shows where you started knitting. Knit around for 100 (110) [120] rounds. Every 10 rounds of knitting, flip the marker yarn to the inside or outside. It will save time in checking whether you are at the marker, and it will help you count rounds.</p><p>I highly recommend <b><u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNlt_-F-3ZA">Irish cottage or pit knitting</a></u></b> for the body. a) You are better off not looking at your fingers while you work it, so you can watch TV or a movie. b) It works fast. c) It is less likely to cause tendonitis than the English hold, but the Continental or Norwegian hold also helps with this.</p><p>When you come to the end of a ball of yarn, stop 2-3 inches before the end. Start the next knit stitch and when you have wrapped the yarn around the needle, wrap the end of a new ball of yarn on top of it and pull through for a doubled stitch. Keep this up until all the yarn of the old ball has been used, and continue on. This is a join. Once you finish and wash and block your jumper, you'll never notice it.</p><p>On the last round stop 5 (6) [7] stitches before the underarm marker. Put the next 10 (12) [14] stitches on a holder. Use a thumb cast on to add 10 (12) [14] stitches for the bottom of your <u>steeking</u>. Do the same thing at the other under-arm halfway around. Run a marker yarn up the center of the steeking. You will later cut along this marker.</p><p>Steeking ONLY works in woolen yarn because it hackles as you wash and wear, and this keeps the cut yarn in the middle of the steeking from unraveling. If you are using a blend or cotton or linen, you want to work<b><u><a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2021/10/knitting-frenchbreton-sailors-jersey.html">faux set in sleeves</a></u></b>.</p><p>Continue knitting around for 43 (53) [57] rounds.</p><p>Work your <u>midback elevation</u> which will let the hem sit parallel to the floor as follows:</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">K around to the center back marker and 14 stitches beyond it. Bring the yarn to the front, slip the next stitch, put the yarn to the back, return that stitch to its needle (a wrap), turn.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">P 28 stitches, bring the yarn to the back, slip the next stitch, bring the yarn to the front, return that stitch to its needle (a wrap), turn.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">K 47, wrap, turn.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">P 66, wrap, turn.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">K 85, wrap, turn.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">P 94, wrap, turn.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">K one round.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>Knit to the middle of the steeking. Knit together at the shoulders as follows; turn the top inside out. Using one of your DPs, pick up one stitch in front and one in back, and knit together. Do this again and pass the last stitch over leaving one on the needle. <div><br /></div><div>When you have done the pass-stitch-over 23 (27) [30] times, turn the top right-side out and put the last stitch on the right-hand needle. Pass the next stitch on that needle over it and put it back on the left needle. Knit that stitch. <p></p><p>Switching to the <u>16 inch circular needle</u>, knit around to the middle of the other steeking, turn it inside out and knit together 23 (27) [30] stitches. Do the same PSSO maneuver.</p><p>Knit around to the other shoulder. There will be a long stitch on top; put your needle under that stitch NOT through it, and knit. This will close up part of the gap. If you still don't like it, you can come back later and fill in with duplicate stitch.</p><p>Work ribbing to the other shoulder, the same as the hem (either K2/P2 or K1/P1), slip your needle under the long top stitch and knit, and continue in rib. </p><p>Work neck ribbing for the same number of rows as the hem. Now start a new round of rib, but pull the previous stitch over each new stitch to bind off in rib. </p><p>When you finish, pull a loop of yarn through the last stitch, tighten it, and cut leaving at least three inches of raw end. Using a darning needle, work this end into the top of the first stitch of ribbing to make a smooth join. Poke it through the next stitch down, weave into the inside of the ribbing, knot and cut, leaving about one inch.</p><p>Now pick up stitches for the sleeves as follows: </p><p>Using your 16 inch circular needle, knit the 10 (12) [14] underarm stitches from the holder and let this working yarn fall to the inside. Run a marker yarn on each side of the steeking middle marker, 5 (6) [7] stitches to the front and back sides.</p><p>Cut the steeking up the middle, taking the marker out as you go. Now using your crochet hook, insert it from outside to inside in the first stitch after the underarm. Pull the working yarn through to the front and put it on your circular needle. Pick up every stitch along the marker, front and back, including one <u>through </u>the shoulder seam.</p><p>When you get back to the underarm, slip the first stitch to the right-hand needle, pass the last body stitch over, put it back, and knit it. Knit across the underarm, slip the first body stitch to the needle, pass the last underarm stitch over, put it back, and knit it. This will close up part of the gap that usually develops here. Later you can use duplicate stitch to close up any loose stitches.</p><p>Run a marker stitch from the middle of the underarm; usually I pull the "seam" marker below the underarm for this. Count how many stitches you have around. It should be 97 (121) [129] or something like that.</p><p>Subtract from that the number of stitches you need at the cuff, 68 (72) [76]. The answer is how many stitches you have to decrease from shoulder to cuff. </p><p>Divide by 2; this is how many rows will have to have decreases. </p><p>Divide that number <u>into</u> 132 (145) [163] which is the number of rounds I need in the sleeves. The answer is how many rounds to knit before you do another decrease. </p><p>Knit that many rounds. When you start the next row, K1 at the underarm marker, K2TOG and at the other end of the round, Slip/K1/PSSO/K1 before the underarm marker. Then knit the rounds to the next decrease.</p><p>When you have knitted 100 rounds, count the number of stitches left and do your math again. You may need to leave more rounds between decreases. If you have at most 100 stitches left in a round, divide between your DPs as follows: 35 on N1, 30 on N2, and 35 on N3. Or whatever number adds up to how many stitches you have left.</p><p>Finish knitting the sleeve and stop decreasing when you get to 68 (72) [76] stitches. When you have done 132 (143) [163] rounds in the sleeve, work ribbing the same as in the neck, and bind off in rib as you did for the neck.</p><p>Check the underarms and the neck rib at the shoulders. Use duplicate stitch to close up any stretched-out stitches. Wash in cold water and allow to drip dry. </p><p>You can work triple the rounds at the neck for a turtleneck.</p><p>You can work short instead of long sleeves, which will save you one or two balls or a hank of yarn. In fingering weight, this will be comfortable for mid-spring and autumn. </p><p>You can put any interest design onto this basic jumper. If you want to work Fair Isle, houndstooth or Icelandic patterns, add stitches when you get to the body, to allow whole-number repeats of the horizontal pattern. Also add 8 (10) [12] stitches in the body because these colorwork designs create a fabric with less give than monocolor knitting and you will need the extra stitches to make the upper body comfortable. </p><p>Use the <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2021/04/knitting-photo-album.html">photo album</a> for links to all kinds of beautiful ways to make your jumper. The main thing about them is, you can't work them on autopilot like you can with mono-color untextured jumpers, so they will take longer. But you owe it to yourself to make something that you will never find in a store or that will cost you more than you can afford.</p></div>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-3064056369597561902024-01-23T08:47:00.001-05:002024-01-23T08:47:17.459-05:00Fact-Checking -- Josephus and Aristeus<p>So a long time ago I pointed out that the <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2021/12/fact-checking-torah-another-one-bites.html">Aristeus letter</a> about the origin of the Septuagint is known to be a forgery and can't be anything but an urban legend in the first place.</p><p>I refer to Josephus there and since I'm at loose ends just now, I thought I owed you chapter and verse.</p><p>It's Book XII of Josephus' Antiquities, Chapter 4. You can read the <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0146%3Abook%3D12">English here</a>.</p><p>But as you know, translations are useless. Translations of Classical Greek are just as bad as translations of Biblical Hebrew, as I told you on my <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/21st-century-classical-greek.html">Greek thread</a>.</p><p>And the problem is that while <i>Aristeios</i> is a name that appears in Josephus' Antiquities, Book XII, the chapter 4 designation is an invention of the translator, William Whiston. Book XII of Josephus refers to Aristeios in section 17, 19, and 53, none of which have to do with the Septuagint. Whiston's reference is in a footnote in the English; it's not in <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0145%3Abook%3D12">the Greek</a>.</p><p>The footnote is even worse because it refers to Philo. As we all know, Philo is almost entirely <a href="http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/11/fact-checking-torah-our-first-commentary.html">urban legend</a>.</p><p>I have said this over and over. If you want to know what ancient sources say, you must learn the language. Even then, you have to suspect that they have been doped to say what later fans wanted them to say. So you have to know the history of the culture, and you have to know the provenance of whatever you are reading. This includes whether it is a record of an <a href="http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/03/fact-checking-torah-beyond-dh.html">oral tradition</a>, for which there will be indications in the text, or invented in writing. Unless you're willing to do all that work, you don't really know anything about what you are reading.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-43288554543889063432024-01-16T08:06:00.002-05:002024-01-16T08:06:46.411-05:00Fact-Checking: Olrik and Film part 2: Bookending<p>One of the things oral traditions never do is say "this is important". Instead, they tell multiple tales about an issue important to the culture.</p><p>Torah does this at least twice. One set has to do with <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/07/fact-checking-torah-doublets-anybody.html">stealing wives</a>. There are three (!) narratives, each with a different emphasis and outcome. The textual location and sequence of the narratives have to do with genetic relationships between the characters.</p><p>The other set has to do with <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/10/fact-checking-torah-both-and-not-either.html">slander</a>. The three (!) narratives happened at different times, and two of them happened at Sinai while the other happened on the borders of the Holy Land. These narratives show the <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/10/fact-checking-torah-both-and-not-either.html">associative principle</a> at work; slander is such a killer transgression that the tradition put all three stories in the same place to really pound the lesson into people's heads. It also teaches that nobody is above the law, and it illustrates Olrik's Law of Ascents as each opponent to Mosheh is more important or numerous.</p><p>While studying Burt Lancaster's movies, I felt that his life of reading taught him how narratives work, and that he copied oral narratives features in his work, consciously or not. A number of his film pair up as studies of the same issue from different angles; I call these films bookends. There was also room for two movies he never made, that would have been bookends to films he did release.</p><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>Eternity</i> and <i>Run
Silent</i> both deal with genuine issues in the military, but <i>Eternity</i>
is more about the destruction of people while <i>Run Silent</i> has more to do
with the tension between human concerns and the norms of behavior in the
service.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>Scalphunters</i> and <i>Nuremberg</i>
which show that just because you don’t hate doesn’t mean you won’t engage in
hateful behavior.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>Lawman </i>and <i>OK
Corral</i> show how a sheriff may want young criminals to turn from their way
and live.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>Mister 880</i> and <i>Young
Savages </i>about compassion for criminals.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>The Train</i> and <i>Cassandra
Gorge</i> about how resistance is not futile.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>Rainmaker</i> and <i>Elmer
Gantry</i>, about miracles.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><i>Cattle Annie</i> and <i>Tough
Guys</i> about a younger generation venerating criminals of the past.</li></ul><!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>I think that <i>All My Sons</i> should have been followed in the 1970s with a film about the Apollo 1 disaster of 1967, with John Glenn's quote about "two million parts" shown above the credits. Lancaster had an excellent opportunity to hire Noriyuki "Pat" Morita as technical advisor, since Morita was an aerospace manager in the 1960s. Didn't happen. If a studio ever considered it, probably NASA refused to cooperate and the studio wasn't willing to film it with a disclaimer.<p></p><p>I also think that if Lancaster had played General Gordon in <i>Khartoum</i>, it would have been on condition of making it anti-imperialist in sentiment. The studio wouldn't do that, the schedule slipped, and Lancaster headed to Italy to film <i>The Leopard</i>. It would have been a bookend with <i>Zulu Dawn</i>, which hit on a number of themes that probably made Lancaster hot to do it as soon as he read the script:</p><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Racism sits at the top of
the bill, and Lancaster gets a great line about whether relegation to a place
at the rear has something to do with the Basuto troops that his character, Dumford, raised,
trained, and commanded.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>You see classic British prejudice
against the Irish, which Lancaster’s character is, and he even managed an Irish
brogue.<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> (He was tone-deaf about accents: this is the only time in 45 years when he tried one but it was a natural due to his being of Belfast stock.)</span> This
anti-Irish sentiment becomes explicit when Chelmsford sneers at Colonel Brown
for being Irish, as much as for his concern over his troops’ lack of provision.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Assimilation. Simon Ward’s
character enthusiastically shakes the hand of a black man who attends a garden
party, but Ward’s character only has one function: killing blacks. The black
guest has assimilated to the imperialists, but those who will not assimilate
must be destroyed. Bishop Colenso’s “there should be room for all of us” is
disingenuous; the empire may have geographic room for all, but not cultural
room for all.<a href="file:///C:/STORIES/lancaster/movies.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>At minute 29 we get a
chilling “let us hope that this will be the final solution to the Zulu
problem.” I would not doubt that Lancaster took this role in part to get that
statement in front of audiences who had learned in school about the Holocaust, especially
after his role in <i>Nuremberg</i>.</li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Chelmsford comes across as
a British Custer: “my only fear is that the Zulu will avoid engagement.” When
the empire lost the battle, he blamed Dumford, who was dead, and whose advice
the film pointedly shows the general dismissing. This was Lancaster’s chance to
do a version of 1970’s Little Big Man.</li></ul><!--[if !supportLists]--><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;"><p class="MsoFootnoteText">Colenso was an avid missionary and that means he was an assimilationist, though
he tried to get blacks treated equally under the law. He also rejected a common
origin for all human races. He knew there was not cultural room for all when
the Anglican church attacked his Hexateuchal commentary and filed suit to deprive him of
his salary. If Lancaster came across this information while studying the script, it would have made him even hotter to do the film because it illustrates how religious institutions hang on to power by suppressing inconvenient unconventionalities. And in a sense that makes <i>Zulu Dawn </i>a bookend to <i>Elmer Gantry</i> for the hat trick.</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText">If you have seen Lancaster's films, look again with this in mind and let me know if you find other sets. Also let me know if your favorite thespian does things like this. Lancaster was one of the few in Hollywood who gained control of his career early on, so he may be one of the few if not the only one to do this kind of thing. </p><p class="MsoFootnoteText">But it's not the same as doing one sequel after another, or doing films that follow on from a TV series, or making films about comic book characters. Those are just the studios trying to ensure an audience instead of daring to reach beyond the tried and true, the familiar and possibly tired. Reaching beyond is what Lancaster always tried to do, one reason his reputation has grown over the years.</p></div></div><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-9084566868843046602024-01-10T15:08:00.001-05:002024-01-10T15:08:23.974-05:00Fact-Checking -- clearing up a lot of ignorance part 3<p>So apparently everything old is new again, and the blood libel is being trotted out for a new phase of the current anti-Semitism now that the pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been exposed as a/ anti-Semitic and b/ paid for by various US companies, which may in fact be cutouts for the real instigators if they are not being used to launder money for those instigators. (b happened yesterday.)</p><p>And somebody tweeted that the blood libel was a thing of the 1200s CE.</p><p>Well, it wasn't. It was started by Christians in the 400s CE.</p><p>And the last manifestation that I know of was the 1913 trial in Kyiv, which at the time was part of the Russian empire, of Mendel Beilis. I have an <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/mendel-beilis.html">entire blog thread about the trial</a>. It has ten sections on the trial that will tell you what happened if you don't have time for the larger part of the work.</p><p>That larger part consists of 34 PDFs with the first and only English translation of the entire trial transcript, with footnotes, attached to a description of each days' material with other metadata. The transcript was 1430 double-column pages long in the pre-Soviet orthography. With the notes, the PDFs add up to over 3000 pages.</p><p>Since I finished posting the translation (2014), various new information or epiphanies have come up, and I added links for them to the original page.</p><p>The transcript and other information <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/mendel-beilis-links.html">are here</a>. I just checked and the website is still there. I downloaded things to my laptop since you never can tell when a link will rot. Let me know if anything has disappeared that I link to.</p><p>The trial was a fraud from beginning to end. The government knew that Vera Cheberyak and her gang of violent robbers committed the murder. When she was arrested in July 1911 by honest cops, a tsarist lackey had her released and began forging evidence against Beilis. He had depositions forged over the signatures of people who lived near the site of the murder; he had Vera's husband perjure himself -- Vera and their sole surviving child also committed perjury -- testifying to a story the government invented. He had items planted that supposedly related to the murder but had nothing to do with it. He had an incriminating letter forged over Beilis' signature. </p><p>The government's medical examiners signed an autopsy report that the government wrote in St. Petersburg. The information in it did not prove the blood libel because there was no way to do that. The three government witnesses who spoke or signed depositions about the blood libel, each had a different description of how you knew if a murder was the ritual murder involved in the blood libel.</p><p>The government's witnesses were mostly illiterate and none of them knew anything incriminating. The defense consisted of five lawyers who worked themselves into exhaustion in sessions that lasted up to 14 hours a day, 34 days straight including closing arguments, without a day off.</p><p>In the end, despite what anti-Semites will tell you, the jury voted on two charges. One charge was about the fact that a murder had been committed, without assigning guilt to any party. The jury voted yes on this. </p><p>The other charge was about whether Mendel Beilis was guilty of the murder out of "motives of religious fanaticism", the blood libel. Six of the twelve men on the jury voted no, which was enough to acquit.</p><p>The single most important thing about this trial was that it violated a century-old principle in law. There should be no crime charged if there is no existing law about it in the penal code. Russia repealed a law about murder due to "motives of religious fanaticism" in 1906, during the reforms forced on Nikolay II by the 1905 revolution. It was illegal to try Beilis or anybody else on this charge.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-55489986806098700262024-01-02T07:52:00.000-05:002024-01-02T07:52:30.468-05:00Fact-Checking -- Olrik and film<p>I have an experiment I'd like you to try. Feedback is at your discretion. I want you to take<a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/07/fact-checking-torah-olriks-epic-laws.html"> the Epic Laws</a> and put them in front of you while you watch some of your most and least favorite films. See how many hits you get.</p><p>Film is substantially oral literature. Any written literature that transitions to film has to be rewritten, except for records of oral traditions like fairy tales. Find a filmed version of War and Peace online somewhere, watch it, and then read the book. You will see how Tolstoy's text had to be simplified so as not to overwhelm moviegoers. Even Sergei Bondarchuk's classic four-film version is much simpler than Tolstoy's book. Simplifications often reduce the work to the dimensions of oral literature.</p><p>I was watching Judgment at Nuremberg, which Youtube maintains free with ads to encourage viewership. It is based on an actual trial involving 16 defendants; this is cut down to four, which most of us in the west can handle because we are used to four suits in cards, etc. But while there are four principal characters, there are three contrasting viewpoints: Janning's, Rolfe's, and Haywood's. This is the epic Law of Three, the one that turns up the most in both oral literature and film.</p><p>Burt Lancaster's work as Janning blew me away and I went on a search for his other roles. He played 87 characters in his 87 films in 45 years. He started in noir films and made 14 westerns, but he also buckled his swash several times and made three films where he was dubbed in Italian. He never made a sequel, but his movies started trends like violent westerns, disaster movies, and apocalyptic body count films. </p><p>And the epic laws turn up in almost every one of his films. </p><p>In particular, Devil's Disciple with Kirk Douglas illustrates the laws. First, the George Bernard Shaw play was rewritten, adding about ten minutes of action to give Burt a bigger role. This happens in oral literature, and sometimes the addition spins off a new cycle of literature dedicated to the character in that role.</p><p>Second, in those ten minutes, Rev. Anthony Anderson reinvents his own personality. From a holy fool, he becomes a militant rebel. This is an internal cascading contrast, and it always contrasts with Kirk Douglas' character, a black sheep who backs into rebellion.</p><p>Third, there are Law of Three events. It takes three incidents to make Anderson rebel: the death of an innocent man; the arrest of Richard Dudgeon in a case of mistaken identity; and the fact that the British wanted to arrest Anderson for giving the innocent man a Christian burial.</p><p>As a rebel, Anderson makes three attempts to blow up British munitions. One British officer has to be put out of the way in the first attempt; two soldiers in the second attempt; and a squad in the third. This is also Olrik's Law of Ascents. </p><p>In Run Silent Run Deep, Lieutenant Bledsoe the XO shuts down P.O. Kohler three times for questioning Captain Richardson's orders. Actually, the second time Kohler doesn't get a chance to say anything, he just shows himself in the doorway and Bledsoe says "shut up".</p><p>Oral literature also illustrates behavioral norms. In Run Silent, the norms of military behavior shape the action, especially Bledsoe refusing to criticize the captain to the men or explain orders -- or tolerate their objections to Richardson's orders.</p><p>In Scalphunters, which I <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2023/11/ben-hur-novel-part-22.html">discussed before</a>, Lancaster acts out an anti-racism message instead of stating it in the script. This whole film is an example that oral literature uses action, not description or discussion, to get to its denouement. </p><p>Actually, many of Lancaster's films have a message; it is stated in the script only once, in Control: "T<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">here is no shelter from The Bomb, even in a
shelter;" His war films are all anti-war films, except possibly Run Silent, and even then Lancaster gets to point out that "captain's discretion" gets people killed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was a thrill watching those films and I watched a lot of them twice. The first run was to get through the plot and find the pivotal points; the second was to watch the man work. He was GOOD. He was good from the very first film he put in the can, Desert Fury, which you can see on <a href="https://archive.org/details/1947-desert-fury-lewis-allen-vose">Internet Archive</a>. It was the second role he ever played in his life and he held his own in scenes with Mary Astor, of Maltese Falcon fame. I wrote 20 pages (single-spaced) on how good an actor Burt Lancaster was. Let me know if you're interested.</span></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-70592923593615461072023-12-25T11:09:00.003-05:002023-12-26T18:33:38.273-05:00Sooo history -- clearing up a lot of ignorance part 2<p>So the Canaanites have reared their heads in current urban legends about the population of the Holy Land over time, and I posted <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2023/11/sooo-history-clearing-up-lot-of.html">some history</a>.</p><p>You can see from that history that the Israelites did not wipe out the Canaanites. On the Fact-Checking thread, I specifically wrote about the <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2015/03/fact-checking-torah-touch-of-mishnah.html">old genocide urban legends</a>. I've tweeted about it too.</p><p>What's more, we know there were <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2016/02/fact-checking-torah-what-did-he-know-and.html">Canaanites in the 1220s BCE</a>, three centuries after the Israelites came to the Holy Land.</p><p>Now there are new urban legends that pull in the Canaanites. The fact is, they are still with us. The people of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5544389/">Lebanon have a Canaanite inheritance</a>.</p><p>And lol and behold, it is the same J2 Y chromosome haplogroup found in many Jews. It originated in NE Anatolia during the Neolithic and domestication of wheat, wine grapes, and animals, close to the Caucasus. You know. Near Ararat. Genesis 10 in the Bible gets another confirmation. </p><p>So a) the Israelites did NOT kill off all the Canaanites b) the Canaanites were known to the Egyptian New Kingdom as living in the Holy Land and c) the Canaanites had descendants who are still with us.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-29357222393102793432023-12-07T08:28:00.002-05:002023-12-07T08:28:33.200-05:00I'm just saying -- hand-wringing not accepted<p>I finally saw that stupid tweet that said "what are we supposed to do as American Jews in this situation".</p><p>I don't think that person understands Jewishness because the answer is obvious.</p><p>IT'S CHANUKKAH. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT CHANUKKAH IS IMPORTANT FOR. RISING UP AND SHOWING PEOPLE WE ARE HERE.</p><p>You don't need a fancy setup. Go to your grocery and buy enough packs of birthday candles to get you through, and some matches.</p><p>Wrap a box in aluminum foil.</p><p>Find a window that looks out onto the street, and into which people on the street can look.</p><p>Melt the bottom of a candle enough for it to stand upright on the foil.</p><p>LIGHT ONE CANDLE AND USE IT TO LIGHT THAT DAMNED STANDING CANDLE AND PUT IT IN THE WINDOW WHERE PEOPLE CAN SEE IT AS IT BURNS</p><p>The proper place for Chanukkah candle lighting is in the home. We all of us need to stand up and be counted. That is what Chanukkah is about. Not hand-wringing. Not hiding. </p><p>And then play this, standing up while you listen to the anthem.</p><p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-y12LJlFkU</p><p>Here you'll find instructions on what to do after tonight.</p><p>https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/What-Is-Hanukkah.htm</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-55781701851297877722023-11-19T10:41:00.000-05:002023-11-19T10:41:12.700-05:00Sooo history -- clearing up a lot of ignorance<p>In light of the false information going around on the web, mostly with anti-Semitic screeds, I thought it was time to give some information I didn't give on my <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/fact-checking.html">Fact-Checking blog</a>. The supporting data is in the <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/fact-checking-bibliography.html">bibliography</a>. </p><p>There are two reasons for most of the ignorance. One is simply that schools don't teach Jewish history, even in AP courses, and that history is never a required subject. The other is that courses dealing with Jewish history do not use post-1995 data like I did, ignore DNA evidence, and know nothing about the intersection between the Bible and <a href="http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/03/fact-checking-torah-beyond-dh.html">Olrik's work</a>. That's aside from the fact that academic writers are so ignorant about Biblical Hebrew and Jewish classics.</p><p>So here's the real deal.</p><p>By 4000 BCE the Semitic language parent had developed in eastern Anatolia south of the Caucasus mountains, distinct from the nearby ergative isolate Hurrian or its ancestor, and also the Indic languages. A Jewish ancestor is set in this location at this time, when wine grapes were being domesticated and meteoric iron was being used. The J1 and J2 Neolithic Y-chromosome subclades begin to develop at this time in NE Anatolia, and they are the main subclades in men descended from Jewish males.</p><p>The Jewish culture begins about 2500 BCE with a small nucleus of people who move west, after environmental changes dessicate the edin which used to be watered by four rivers, of which only two survive today. At the time smelted iron was coming into use. </p><p>About 2350 BCE, the Hebrews of Ur have migrated west to the crossroads trading city of Haran, then southwest along the trade routes to the region of Numeira which is now in Jordan. Akkadian was used in diplomacy and trade all over southwest Asia. </p><p>By 2000 BCE, after the destruction of Ebla and the Gutian takeover of Mesopotamia, ties between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean coast weakened. Communities in southeast Anatolia dissolved along with the trade routes that had supported them. Ugaritic, Canaanitic, and Hebrew began to develop and, coincidentally, the Indic Sea Peoples began to differentiate from each other, carrying the R1a Y-chromosome subclade of the Indo-Europeans (which also originated in NE Anatolia). Carbon steel and war chariots hitched to horses appeared by this time.</p><p>The patriarchs acquire land at Chevron and Shkhem, but have to migrate away from the latter after destroying the city’s men. The narrative behind the migration has similar elements to Greek saga, and the Achaean Greeks were partners with if not identical to the Pelishtim who settled in the Holy Land.</p><p>In the reign of Amenemhet III, the patriarchs migrate to Egypt, but are (illegally) forced into servitude when Canaanitic immigrants take over north Egypt, forming the 17th dynasty,which the Egyptians called Hyksos. </p><p>In 1628 BCE (a radiocarbon date) Thera erupts, part of a swarm of troubles during which the Israelites escape while their Hyksos oppressors try to pick up the pieces. </p><p>The Israelites roam the Sinai Peninsula for 38 years; they consolidate a legal system that subsequently survives 35 centuries of oppression and murder and proves the advantages of common law, which reconciles local tradition with culture-wide law, over civil codes like the Roman one. Not until the reign of Henry II, in England in the 1100s CE, will another common law code arise. Radiocarbon dating places the start of the reign of Ahmose I over a reunited Egypt at about the time of the Ingress. </p><p>Between 1500 and 1200 BCE, the Israelites begin to adapt one version of Ugaritic cuneiform to Hebrew, an easy job because Ugaritic is also a Semitic language and has already adapted cuneiform into a representation of its sound system, dropping logograms and determinants. </p><p>Between 1400 and 1100 BCE, the Aramaeans settle in the territory that takes their name, the Ionians (Achaeans) settle in a part of the Peloponnese known as Achaia, and they also colonize the western coast of the Holy Land where they are known under their Egyptian name of Pelishtim, leaving writings in Linear B. </p><p>About 1300 BCE is the middle date for the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor of the Jewish kohanim according to 21st century genetics. This is the period of the central shrine at Shiloh, with a tabernacle and an ark of the covenant. Before this, people sacrificed in their settlements which were under frequent attack; that was the time of the bamot, which were prohibited in the Shiloh period.</p><p>About 1230 BCE (radiocarbon date) in a period of dessication, Merneptah of the Egyptian 19th dynasty sends soldiers to raid the Holy Land for grain, impacting both the Canaanites and Israelites. He puts up a stele about 1227 BCE which identifies them as distinct peoples living side by side.</p><p>Between 1200 and 1100 BCE, the Sea Peoples destroy Ugarit, Wilusa, Hattusas, and other cities. In the previous centuries, the Indo-European Greek/Pelishtim contingent have replaced the Linear B writing system adopted from the Palace Culture, with an adapted version of Ugaritic cuneiform they picked up during their residence in the Holy Land. </p><p>By 1100 BCE the Pelishtim bring the Shiloh central shrine cult to an end and Israelite settlements spring up on bare ground on the hilltops. They refuse to trade with the lowlands, making their own pottery and excluding wild pig, which was part of diets of the Holy Land from Neanderthal times to 900 BCE. Wild pigs survive in the highlands of Israel into the 21st century CE. Bamot are again established. Pottery styles in the north and south differ, hard evidence of cultural differences that will lead to the split monarchy.</p><p>By 900 BCE, the Israelite hilltop settlements dissolve. After the First Temple is built, the bamot are again prohibited forever. A previously united kingdom splits into Judea and all the rest of them. </p><p>By 800 BCE, the Jews have developed a distinctive system of writing seen on the Gezer calendar. Aramaic has replaced Akkadian as the language of trade and diplomacy. The Ionians colonize the western coast of Anatolia, unknowingly returning to their homeland, and begin shaping the Sea Peoples epic of the war they took part in that destroyed Wilusa. </p><p>By 690 BCE, the Assyrians take over the northern (Israelite) kingdom. They deport about 22,000 of the northern nobility, then import Assyrian-speaking people to whom the Israelite priests have to adapt their oral tradition. </p><p>By 600 BCE, the Aramaeans conquer Babylon and develop Neo-Babylonian, a hybrid of Aramaic and Akkadian. They conquer Assyria and Judea and deport about 22,000 of the Judean nobility. </p><p>By 500 BCE, the Jews return to the Holy Land and, with authorization from Persian rulers Daryavesh and Koresh, rebuild the temple. They now have a written version of the oral tradition in the wording that developed over the preceding 35 centuries. Its language is Biblical Hebrew, their pre-Captivity vernacular. Their current vernacular is Neo-Babylonian and they will adopt its non-cuneiform script for scrolls that can legally be read from in synagogue. They use Mishnaic Hebrew when running their courts and recording its enactments. </p><p>Jews continued to live in the Holy Land for the next 25 centuries, although they spread out worldwide. Two particular infusions were the medieval creation of the kabbalistic community in Tsfat, and the purchases of land from the Ottoman Empire after 1850. The latter is known as The Old Yishuv.</p><p>The New Yishuv happened, of course, in 1948. Immediately thereafter, the Jews of Yemen were brought to Israel, and later the Jews of Ethiopia. The Jews of India also immigrated to Israel.</p><p>The sad part is that all this information is out there on the web and nobody accesses it. A lot of it is on <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/">Jewish Virtual Library</a>. The people who want to smear Jews refuse to learn the truth. But as I said the other week, people who don't hate Jews are equally ignorant because they, too, refuse to use the resources on the Web. We all of us need a better education and as the old saying goes, it's better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. Keep your tongue between your teeth if you refuse to study up.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-53094053951173078872023-11-01T10:08:00.001-04:002023-11-01T10:08:24.646-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 22<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So what do we say about Wallace and Ben Hur.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wallace did not respect his readers. He did not teach
them anything by doing good research. Instead, he pandered to all the worst
tendencies of Victorian melodrama.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He stole material from every cheap novel and play of
the previous couple of centuries, except that he got the name Iras for Balthazar’s
daughter from Shakespeare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He pandered to every bigoted Victorian concept.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Only about 10% of what’s in this novel got into either
of the two films made from it. The big thing in both of them was to get to the
chariot race somehow because both filmmakers realized that it had everything –
sports, excitement, death, and revenge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s pretty sad to say that a novel this long is only
10% worth passing along to posterity, but that’s the case, unless you want to
pass along myths and bigotry. They have their place in novels, but it’s not a
good place unless you’re writing for an audience of liars or bigots. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Put it another way. I’ve been bingeing Burt Lancaster
movies and came across one where he plays a trapper who is forced at arrow
point to accept a black man as trade goods in exchange for an entire winter’s
furs. While the movie has lots of humor in it, you can’t admire Lancaster’s
character because without hating the black man, he is still cruel to him and
minimizes the past sufferings of blacks. You probably wouldn’t watch that movie
just from my description, even though I can throw in that they become allies in
the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But it shows how non-haters have nothing to congratulate
themselves on if they buy into the lies. Which is partly what my <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/fact-checking.html">Fact-Checkingblog</a> is about, and why this string of posts belongs there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-45608948052041253452023-10-25T09:34:00.003-04:002023-10-25T09:34:43.097-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 21 <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are up to Book VIII and the date is 8 or 9 Nisan.
Wallace makes one of many mistakes about Passover. Simonides, who <u>is</u>
Jewish, says tomorrow is Passover. It starts at night, which is the 14<sup>th</sup>
Nisan on the Jewish calendar.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The only time that the 10<sup>th</sup> Nisan was
important for Passover was the very first one. That time, the Israelites were
told to pick out a yearling sheep (or goat) and keep it for use four days later.
Mishnah Pesachim 9:5 gives a list of differences between the first Passover and
all others. There is no attribution of this Mishnah so it was one generally
established by 50 CE and that means it could have been in place for as much as
15 centuries. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Skipping chapter 2, you may wonder why Amrah didn’t
bring matso to Judah’s family. Passover has to be celebrated in a state of
taharut and leprosy is a condition of tumah. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Skipping chapter 3-7 and now we get to Wallace’s terrible
horrible no-good very bad depiction of Passover. In the very first paragraph,
people at various fires invite Judah to join them. That ain’t how it works.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Passover yearling sheep or goat has to be eaten
between sundown and midnight. Even if everything from the 7<sup>th</sup> lumbar
vertebrum is cut off because of <i>gid ha-nasheh</i>, that’s still something
like 35 pounds of meat and, in fact, except for not breaking the bones (so they
don’t eat the marrow), everything edible has to be consumed – lungs, brains,
things we don’t eat nowadays. To make sure of eating about 35 pounds of stuff,
you figure how much a healthy adult would eat and invite enough people to
finish it by midnight. Every person in your group has to eat at least an
olive’s bulk, so you could host 100 people using that one sheep. You don’t
invite more at the last minute or you risk not meeting the olive’s bulk
requirement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Second, it’s not just eating. By this time, a recital
had developed that made sure to reference all the parts of the Passover story.
Judah should not have been roaming the city; he should have been with his
legion going through the recital. He was not observing Passover correctly,
would not be able to say <i>nirtsah</i> at midnight, and would owe a sacrifice
two days later (individuals do not bring their olah on days like Shabbat or
Passover after transgressing a positive commandment). And the same is true for
every Jew in the procession Judah “saw”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Finally, Passover has to be observed inside a house.
Things have to be carried around during the ceremony and meal and Passover
requires observance of the rules of Shabbat, which includes carrying only
inside a house or other specified limits. The house also separates the people
invited for one sheep from another group and helps insure that the above two
rules are observed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember, Jewish observance was not given up by
Christians until the time of Paul. Jesus himself observed this Passover
according to all its laws. There was no excuse for Judah to do otherwise.</span></p><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-59260196971090862382023-10-22T08:45:00.000-04:002023-10-22T08:45:38.367-04:00Knitting -- leftovers, a new stitch, and housewares<p>This isn't so much a new stitch as making a project with the <a href="https://archive.org/details/artofknitting00butt/page/n11/mode/2up">double knit stitch</a> I found in that 1892 Butterick book.</p><p>I had leftovers of Palette yarn from old projects. Palette is a nice fingering yarn and I thought I could get at least a couvre pied out of what I had. </p><p>So I cast on 400 stitches to a size 3 needle with a 40 inch cable. The double knit is K1/Yarn to front/Slip 1 purlwise/Yarn to back and on the next row, knit all the slips (which look like knits on the wrongside) and slip all the knits (which look like purls on the wrongside).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmUTqTz4cU1ZM-ftLox0tWGadHis5Fs2i0GS6GblNutK18hNhDUuxNuZfJOeG1Q1SnMLz6wRkxfOQFiOhZ7oonr1SdSwi_mZS1LyPHLxwJK3qlIWms1m0dnDEvStdKzIUJ-SlP4WmQXlJsMSXd5J3_m_IQnkz2kFXwjGzHUNdinbjbJy7fEf7Q0f6Ca7H/s362/leftovers.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="303" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmUTqTz4cU1ZM-ftLox0tWGadHis5Fs2i0GS6GblNutK18hNhDUuxNuZfJOeG1Q1SnMLz6wRkxfOQFiOhZ7oonr1SdSwi_mZS1LyPHLxwJK3qlIWms1m0dnDEvStdKzIUJ-SlP4WmQXlJsMSXd5J3_m_IQnkz2kFXwjGzHUNdinbjbJy7fEf7Q0f6Ca7H/s320/leftovers.png" width="268" /></a></div><p>You do not need to do seed stitch or ribbing to keep the edges from curling.</p><p>A full skein of Palette does 27 of these double rows of 400 stitches each. 27 rows gives you just about 3 inches, so if you <u>want</u> a six foot long blanket, you need 24 balls of Palette or 5,544 yards of leftovers. With my leftovers, the blanket turned out to be 30 inches wide (400 stitches) and 36 inches long. All the white stripes are 9 rows. Everything else is what I could get out of what I had.</p><p>Double knit takes a long time to work. You actually have to work both sides of a row to get the pattern to come out right. But it's harder to make a mistake on than Eye of Partridge. The mistake I made most often was to pick up both the "purl" and "knit" stitch to wrap and sometimes it took me 20 stitches to realize what I did, depending on what I was watching on Youtube at the time.</p><p>Let me know if you can come up with any patterns other than stripes. I tried to do color work with a really simple two-stitch pattern and it was a disaster.</p><p>With its double layer, this stitch gives a VERY warm result, even warmer than the two-color work of Fair Isle because every stitch is doubled, unlike the base color parts of Fair Isle which don't have a second layer of yarn behind them. But if you need warmth, it's fabulous.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-79053273929307313112023-10-18T08:46:00.000-04:002023-10-18T08:46:08.103-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 20<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So, Book VII.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chapter 1 has a falsehood about the tribes of
Israelites. Whatever tribes composed the Samaritans, it was not known at that
time who they were, except for the kohanim. In the 21<sup>st</sup> century, DNA
testing has confirmed that Samaritan kohanim are descended in the male line
from the same male forebear as Jewish kohanim. There are three other genetic
entities among the Samaritans, two of which are more closely related to each
other than to the third. We have no surviving members of any of the ten
northern tribes to compare their DNA to, so as to see which ones the three are
– except that while they are Israelites, they are not Judeans. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In fact, in Deuteronomy 34:1-3, where Mosheh looks out
from Mt. Pisgah over the land and sees the territories of the tribes, each
tribe is named. In Jewish Torah at any rate. In Samaritan Pentateuch, no tribes
are named. All of that was swept away in the Assyrian conquest. The missing
tribal names are an indicator that Samaritan Pentateuch transmitted orally for
a long time, during which tribal distinctions were forgotten and evaporated out
of the recital. This evaporation over time of geographical data is part of
Olrik’s principles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But of course if Wallace wasn’t bothering to read his
own Bible, he wouldn’t have studied Samaritan Pentateuch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now, it’s Nisan and Wallace has forgotten part of his
Christian scripture. He has said nothing about the moneychangers in the Temple.
In fact, all the people with Judah would have known about this. Purim is the
time of year when Jews pay their poll tax, which goes to fix roads so that
pilgrims can get to Jerusalem for Passover. Villages can collect the tax and
send it to Jerusalem with a delegate so as not to interrupt everybody’s springtime
work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The tax has to be paid as a half shekel. You cannot
pay in Greek or Roman coin. Therefore everybody has to change what coins they
have for shekels. That’s why there were tables set up in the Temple where the
coins were being changed. Whipping these people out of the Temple disrupted
people obeying a mitsvah, which contributed to upkeep of the temple and
observance of another mitsvah, Passover. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Whichever Christian scripture discusses that tale was
not written by anybody who knows about Judaism, let alone cares about Jewish
observance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Skipping chapters 2-4, I will note that we are up to
about 8 Nisan, and Passover starts the 14<sup>th</sup>.</span></p><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-71298713739851178832023-10-15T09:57:00.000-04:002023-10-15T09:57:06.692-04:00DIY -- hankies redux<p>Some years ago I wrote about what happened when I bought <a href="https://pajheil.blogspot.com/2015/02/diy-hankies.html">cotton hankies instead of paper</a>. </p><p>Well, it's 8 years later and that first batch of hankies is wearing out. In the meantime, I have bought three, count 'em, three boxes of paper hankies because they are good for some things you don't want to do with your cloth ones. You can get 10 boxes at Costco for $25, x 9 years, is over $200. Because all the tissue makers hiked their prices toward the end of the pandemic.</p><p>I am replacing the original hankies at a price of $100. They will last me 9 more years. I am making out like the proverbial bandit.</p><p>Plus I'm not killing trees, I'm not adding to the landfills, and we all do laundry anyway.</p><p>But the real bonus was this. About one year ago, I had some terrible bronchitis or the mother of all asthma breakouts, I don't know which. I would have used ten times as much paper tissues as I used to do before I bought the cloth ones. I would have filled my trash about half with paper hankies and half with everything else I trash in the course of a week. I would have had so much lint in the air, it would have meant even more paper hankies to wipe my nose. I would have been one sad sad puppy.</p><p>Instead, I had to wash all my hankies about once a week, and the heavy use probably wore them out sooner, but I still made out like a bandit by not having to spend those $200 in one year instead of nine.</p><p>And whatever it was is tailing off like any other cold.</p><p>So if $100 sounds like too much of an investment for you, do the math again. We can all use an extra $100 in our pockets.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-70556586611129074132023-10-11T08:19:00.000-04:002023-10-11T08:19:51.775-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 19<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re up to Book VII and things are going quickly
because I’m skimming to find something that I need to comment on in this novel.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is Tishri the year that Pilate robbed the temple
treasury to pay for civic improvements. Judah has led a group of Galileans in
attacking Romans. If you were going to write a more <i>vraisemblable</i> work
about these times, this is what you should prepare Judah for from the start of
the book: joining or starting the Sicarii, a group of Jewish rebels against
Rome. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In fact, if Judah had been a real person, here’s how
the story would go. At some point, he would become known as Judah the Sicarius.
He probably knew a number of people named Joshua and he would have tried to
recruit one or more for this band. Word would get out, the Romans might use one
of them as a lure to capture Judah. It would fail and the Romans would crucify
Joshua as an example to the Sicarii. Judah’s son Menachem would go on to be a
leader of the Masada uprising.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Everybody who knew Judah’s Joshua would deny that he
was a rebel. Then you would get the “he was a good boy” narrative we hear from
mothers of so many suspects. There were a lot of people running around at this
time preaching or prophesying the overthrow of Rome. Some of them had the
reputation of miracle-workers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Oral traditions studies show that characters in two
narratives may be confused with each other over time, leading to fusion of
stories about them. The preachers or miracle workers didn’t have to all be
named Joshua, for their activities to be loaded onto the story of the good
Joshua who was crucified for no reason, except that he knew Judah the Sicarius.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It doesn’t take long for these shifts to happen. It
took two or three months for a GOP narrative about a (non-existent)
whistleblower “proving” that Trump did nothing worth FBI investigation, to
become a MAGA narrative about a hero hiding evidence that the FBI would try to
exploit against Trump. Both narratives tar the FBI, which was tracking down the
January 6 insurrectionists. In 1911, a rumor that a murder victim’s corpse was
rolled up in a carpet in a Kyiv city apartment, took two years to morph into
the corpse being stored in the apartment for three days (the number three shows
up in dozens of oral narratives the world over). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">So a hundred years after Judah the Sicarius, not only can
Joshua the non-rebel turn into a miracle-worker persecuted by the Romans, but
people with a good Greek education are promoting him to other people like
themselves. Writing the first Christian scriptures in Greek would be a
no-brainer. Latin works appeared as it became less dangerous to communicate
with Romans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not saying this is how it happened. I’m not saying
that Christian writings have everything wrong. I’m saying that they admit to
the beginning of their faith in a low-income and probably low-literacy
environment, and when you share information by word of mouth, it follows <a href="http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/03/fact-checking-torah-beyond-dh.html">AxelOlrik’s principles</a> of development. And what I have outlined above is exactly
what Olrik says happens in word-of-mouth communications. <o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-74680285634894138422023-10-04T08:53:00.000-04:002023-10-04T08:53:14.737-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 18<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We’re up to Book V chapter 9 of Ben Hur. Chapter 13 is
the actual race.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Book VI chapter 3 has another mistake. Nobody can
declare themselves to be lepers. Leviticus 13 and 14 are clear on this: a
priest has to examine the person or the building and make the declaration. In
the case of a building, Leviticus specifically says that the owner says
literally “I think there might be something like leprosy in my house” and then
clears his possessions and family out of the house before the priest comes to
inspect. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For the owner to say “my house is leprous” is a case
of paskening for yourself, which is prohibited in Jewish law. Judah’s mother
should have gone to a priest to see if she and her daughter were leprous. Leviticus
13 lists some conditions that might seem like leprosy but are not. But Wallace
did not read his Bible so he didn’t know his mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Chapter 5 has Amrah going to market after nightfall. I
already explained that there would be nothing in the market after nightfall,
and no lighting to help her get there unless the moon was full. She would have
needed a torch to light her way. And she still would have been at risk of
robbers or rapists. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What’s more, meat was expensive in those days.
Shochets did not slaughter until they had cash on the barrel head for every
portion of an animal, including selling the unkosher parts to Gentiles. They
could be forced to slaughter for Shabbat, but otherwise not. There were no
coolers to put meat in and keep it from spoiling after slaughter; Amrah could
only get meat before noon. But Wallace the Victorian male has to throw meat in
there and pretend the butcher would still be open at night and have product to
sell.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Chapter 6 opens with Judah transgressing. He should be
in New Year’s services right now. On the 10<sup>th</sup> he should be fasting
at Yom Kippur services. He should even be fasting during the daylight hours on
the 3rd, Tsom Gedaliah. But he’s not.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Wallace has no clue to Roman army operations. They
didn’t just have leaders, they had training. Our word exercise comes from the
Latin word for army, exercitus, because aside from making and maintaining
camps, Roman armies practiced use of arms and maneuvers constantly. Each man
knew his position and his role in every battle and performed almost without
thinking about it.</span></span></p><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-63892765556548011572023-09-27T08:08:00.003-04:002023-09-27T08:08:22.116-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 17<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So Book V of Ben Hur. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Chapter 7 has a list of 3 people as Judah’s servants.
Wallace means slaves but he’s wrong. Esther could only have been bound to him
if Ithamar had written up for her to be Judah’s wife, and that bond ended when
she reached the age of 12 years and 1 day. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In chapter 8, the texts that Simonides reads to Judah
are all the favorite choices of Christians – and his list could only have been
made after Christianity adopted the Jewish Bible ostensibly as its own. It’s
not clear why the Bible was adopted except for one thing. In the Roman Empire
the recognized faiths were the Roman cult, the Greek cult, the Jewish and the
Egyptian. The druids of Gallia were persecuted; those outside this magic circle
were ignored. (Mithraism, a Mesopotamian faith, became popular with merchants
and soldiers later.) To become respectable, Christianity had to associate to
itself one of the recognized faiths.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And all of them were pagan except Judaism. Two of the
oldest church fathers, Clement of Alexandria and Justin Martyr, show that Greek
had been rejected. Justin (d. 165 CE) connected Christianity to Neo-Platonism
as the pure root which the Greek philosophers corrupted. Clement (d. 215 CE)
tried to attract Greek pagans to Christianity as a better moral guide, purified
from the examples in Greek mythology. They did not cite to the Septuagint, nor
would they have reason to because they were not talking to people familiar with
the Septuagint. The Septuagint wouldn’t convince Greek pagans of anything. Neither
one of them spoke of Judaism because neither one knew anything about it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But in the 200s CE, Origen the Greek geek compiled all
the Greek translations of the Jewish Bible that he could get, into the Hexapla,
including the Septuagint and Aquila’s translation from about 100 CE. Supposedly
Origen’s father taught him the Bible, as well as Greek literature, but this is
not certain and the father has been labeled a pagan by some writers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">At any rate, Christians developed the habit or policy
of separating themselves from pagans and also from criticism, by claiming
Judaism as a basis. After that, church fathers went to work proving the
relationship by interpreting Jewish scripture as references to Christianity,
much as Clement related pagan myth to Christianity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is a strawman argument, a fallacy claiming that
the words don’t mean what they say. It’s also cherry-picking, using bits that
are convenient and ignoring the inconvenient truths. It could happen once
Christianity decided it wasn’t going to follow Jewish law, even if its earliest
members were Jews. This happened by the time of Mark’s book of Christian
scripture. He was a second generation Christian and he already knows nothing
about Judaism. Satan has become a crucial element in the Jesus story; so has
the working of miracles as events contrary to nature.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In Judaism satan is a servant of Gd, not an equal and
opposing power. The things in the Tannakh that seem to be miracles, are not
important for being exceptions to the laws of nature; they were part of
creation, according to Pirkey Avot. They were important for their influence on
Jewish culture, not on individuals. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is a sad truth that ancient literature may not be
as ancient as people want to believe. I can well believe that The Embassy to
Gaius was a true production of Philo of Alexandria. I can’t say the same for
the twelve books ostensibly about Judaism, but containing outright errors that
make them useful only as an exercise in reading Greek. The Fulvia and Paulina
stories in Josephus’ Antiquities are known to be forgeries because of their
language; so is a supposed reference to Jesus, which was copied from Jewish
Wars where it is known to be a forgery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The “eschatological” material in Mark’s work may seem
to some like a reflection of a battle in his own lifetime that lead to
destruction of the Second Temple, but it could also reflect the Hadrianic
persecution, which included Christians as well as Jews. That provides about a
century for the contents of Mark to develop from the original events before his
birth. The Antonine persecution came later but included only Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There was a Mark in Rome whose name was attached to
the Christian book, but that’s no proof that he wrote it, only that Christians
of a given time knew about him and thought the world of work attributed to him.</span></span></p><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-22769595209459275942023-09-20T07:21:00.000-04:002023-09-20T07:21:52.463-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 16<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We’re in Book IV of Ben Hur. I have said that there’s
no benefit to either Arrius or Judah for the one to adopt the other; it was a
plot device to make Judah rich because it takes a rich man to work the
un-Jewish vengeance that Wallace wants Judah to wreak on Messala.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Skipping chapter 2 and going to chapter 3. When a Jew
holding the exclusive services contract on another Jew dies, the contract expires. Even if
Simonides signed on for the extra term, he is not Judah’s slave. If he had been
a non-Jew when he signed the contract, he would have received cash for agreeing
to circumcision, making him nominally Jewish. If Judah is asking whether
Simonides is still his slave, then Ithamar did not leave a will that bequeathed
Simonides to Judah, who would have known it from the will. So Judah can’t
demand all that Simonides owns. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In chapter 4 Simonides misrepresents his own status.
No Jew can be bound to serve forever. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The important thing in this chapter is that we learn
Ithamar died 10 years before Judah’s arrest. A guardian for the estate would
have been named in the will, to cover the 2 years until Judah became bar
mitsvah. This guardian would have seen to Judah’s education in both business
and culture – and Simonides not being bequeathed to Judah (etc.), he became
free at that moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Chapter 5 is a throw-away. In chapter 6 we get another
misrepresentation. Being born in Jerusalem did not mean you were a Jew. You
could be a Roman, a Greek, a Syrian, an Egyptian, an Arab, or any other
nationality by parentage and they would raise you in their culture.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Chapters 7 through 17 bring together the characters
Wallace needs for the rest of the book and now we are up to Book V.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-88751952267066942652023-09-19T07:30:00.000-04:002023-09-19T07:30:06.142-04:00head's up -- Twitter<p>An announcement has been made that Twitter will start charging everybody including content creators for Twitter.</p><p>If you are government or business you may be able to pay for your Twitter account but the people who need to use it won't be there because of how many of them will refuse to pay for it.</p><p>I will not use it either and so there will be no more notices on Twitter of new content on this blog.</p><p>Bookmark this site now for future use.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-89994263546707479002023-09-13T07:41:00.000-04:002023-09-13T07:41:19.492-04:00Ben Hur, the novel, part 15<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I’m ignoring chapter 7 of Book II and that means we’re
up to Book III. Chapters 1 and 2 have an error. Quintus Arrius is called a
tribune while he is in command of a military ship. The rank of tribune went out
before the Republic ended. The commander of a ship was a centurion because
ships had a hundred rowers, and he had a co-officer of unknown function called
a trierarchus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Skipping chapters 3-5, wherein Wallace invents the
rescue of Arrius by Judah, we get to Book IV. Chapter 1 has Judah being raised
for 5 years by Arrius and driving his horses in the circus. Arrius supposedly
adopts Judah and bequeaths all his property to him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While adoptions in the Roman Empire were as close as
possible to an actual parental relationship, I believe this is another fiction.
It benefits Judah by giving him riches and contacts in government, but it
doesn’t do much for Arrius. The emperor could set aside a will if it did not
follow the rules of piety: the heir had to owe a duty to the testator to offer
to his manes upon his death. Jews don’t do that. Tiberius, who was always hard
up for money (or greedy) would have set Arrius’ will aside in a heartbeat and
surely some wise friend of Arrius would have told him so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All the more so as Tiberius cleared Rome in 19 CE of
Jews. Finding a Jew named as Arrius’ sole heir would have invited scrutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Is it because there were no Jews in Rome that Judah
let Arrius adopt him? Hardly. The book claims that the battle was in 24 CE.
Tiberius’ expulsion included officials of Isis worship. Here’s what was going
on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Some Roman priesthoods required that the priests be
born from the strictest form of Roman marriage, the <i>confarreatio</i>. Women
had to enter this form of marriage if the paterfamilias ordered it. But there
were two problems: Augustus noted and passed laws about a habit of marrying
girls who were not old enough to give birth. Then the man left her to the care
of the paterfamilias and went on his merry way. At any point, he could get the
paterfamilias to agree to a divorce and then be free to marry the woman he really
wanted. If the family had already eaten up the first wife’s dowry, and the new
woman was rich, it was a no-brainer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jewish and Egyptian women were not eligible for
confarreatio. They were not subject to a paterfamilias; they had more civil and
physical freedom than Roman women, including the right to earn and keep money
in their own name. Isis was a powerful, popular goddess with handsome rites,
and anybody could understand why Roman women would join her cult.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But misconceptions about Judaism make it hard for
Gentiles to understand why Roman women would convert to Judaism. Jews had
businesses and farmed; they had legions in the Roman army. They could not serve
in the government, which required oaths to pagan gods, but they did just about
every other job you can think of, some of which were low-paying and others
nasty, like leather-working which was smelly. Roman women would not be
attracted by rich Jews, who would have been married by age 18; nor could they
gain social glamor by marrying a Jew.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So why convert? Maybe stability. A Jewish marriage
requires the man to settle a ketubbah on his wife for her benefit after his
death, and he can also, as I said, make her a deed of gift. A Jewish divorce
requires a finding of ervah or, in the man, impotence. A Jewish marriage
requires that the man support his wife. A Jewish wife can say “not tonight,
dear” and not have to complain of headache. A Jewish family does not have a
paterfamilias who can push through a divorce or who has the right of life and
death over those in his <i>manus</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There might have been Roman men who converted. This
would get them out from under the cult. Roman men who did not serve in the
military could not achieve high government rank. But they were expected to
serve in government and that was an expensive proposition; officials paid for
religious ceremonies and public works and celebrations like games. If you had a
business or property with good income, you could avoid all that if you were a
Jew, and maybe even if you were part of the Isis cult.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nobody is sure why Tiberius pushed Jews and Isis
worshippers out of Rome, but it only means they left the city proper. The
larger part of the Jews were settled in Trastevere (Cross-Tiber) where a Jewish
graveyard has been found. It remained a Jewish quarter into medieval times. So
there were Jews in Italy, close to Rome, for Judah to live with, find work,
maybe find a wife. He might eventually move back to the Holy Land but, with his
family and property there destroyed, it would take either economic disaster in
Italy or a strong religious bent to draw him back. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And that would put his conversion back to the arrival
of Paul in Rome, about 50 CE. That’s not the story Wallace wants to tell.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6438766903781711596.post-46254273680878423852023-09-13T07:07:00.004-04:002023-09-13T07:07:50.955-04:00Hang loose <p>My computer tried to do an update last night and now it won't start so no post this week. Have a happy New Year and I'll get back to the Ben Hur posts when I can.</p>Old Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129094831150149471noreply@blogger.com0