‘Next year in Jerusalem….’ Over the years and in fact for the last many centuries, these are the words with which the Jews (of the ‘Jewish diaspora’) in any corner of the world end the prayers that they say on the occasions of the ‘Passover’ and ‘Yom Kippur’. The Jews never tire of expressing these […]
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Among the various Jewish sects that got created among the Jews viz., the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes, the Zealots, etc., the Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots were almost eradicated in the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War and only the Pharisees who were the moderates among them survived. Later, ‘Rabbinic Judaism’ (that recognized […]
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In 37 BC, the Romans approved of Herod as the king of Judea. He reigned unchallenged and secure until his death in 4 BC i.e.all through the 33 years that followed. Also the Romans never interfered with the working of Herod, though the ownership of Judea continued to rest with them. Herod had performed the […]
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Jerusalem: A Red Heifer which means a flawless red calf, has been born in Israel after nearly 2,000 years. A Jewish group has claimed that this incident is in accordance with the prediction made in the Bible, which is a harbinger of the reincarnation of the Messiah. The Evangelical group in Christianity, who believe that […]
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The fight against the Seleucid Empire that Mattathias had begun to protest against the stifling of the religious freedom of the Jews was led to a victorious end by Judas, Mattathias’s son. Later, the brothers and a nephew of Judas continued the fight against the Seleucids and the Hellenistic Jews both aiming for the political […]
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Antiochus IV, who is believed to have been the cruelest and the most wicked of the foreign rulers to have ruled over the Jews, had crossed all the limits of repression and atrocities. He had barred the Jews from observing their religious customs and traditions including the Shabbath, even at the personal level while vigorously […]
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Those were the times when under the rule of the Ptolemies, the Greek culture was stealthily creeping into the culture as well as the mindset of the Israelites, who were sadly reduced to mere helpless spectators to the changing scene and could do nothing more than swallow the bitter pill. Moreover, these were also times […]
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Canberra: Former Australian footballer and commentator Sam Newman created a sensation in Australia saying, ‘There are 600,000 Muslim residents in Australia. They don’t generally nationalise, they colonise.” A few days ago, Australian Senator Fraser Anning had demanded a ban on the entry of Islamic immigrants, while addressing the Australian Parliament. The subsequent statements by Sam […]
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The untimely death of the Greek Emperor ‘Alexander the Great’ brought the issue of his successor to the fore as he had not selected any. The army generals, who had fought shoulder to shoulder with Alexander in all the battles, were now up against each other to gain control over the Greek Empire, especially over […]
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In the intervening period, the strong empire built by Cyrus II was further expanded by his son, Cambyses II. Egypt too was made part of the Persian Empire. Darius, the son of Cambyses II, expanded the boundaries of their empire even further. All the Persian emperors favoured the land of Judah. They had not only […]
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