TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts

August 22, 2016

Thought, History, Culture, Politics




לא אירא 
I Fear Not
AUDIO | #0.0





[all info is from wikipedia, unless otherwise marked]

chaos magic
belief is a tool


Chaos magic theory - belief is an active magical force
emphasis:

1. flexibility of belief
2. ability to consciously choose one's beliefs
3. application of belief as a tool

Austin Osman Spare:  will formulates desire which puts into action belief

Peter Carroll:  altered state of consciousness > requisite
- gnostic state - 'gnosis' / single focus
departure from tradition:   energies, spirits or symbolic acts as fount
Carroll concept:  related Buddhist 'Samadhi' (Aleister Crowley western occultism  + Austin Osman Spare)

according to chaos magic beliefs, rituals, meditations & other traditional elements of no intrinsic value:  only value as gnosis-inducing techniques

Gnosis
1.  Inhibitory gnosis - meditation > trance fasting, sleeplessness, sensory deprivation, hypnotic or trance-inducing substances

2.  Excitatory gnosis - arousal > mindlessness > sex, emotions, corporal punishment, dance, drumming, chanting, sensory overload, hyperventilation, disinhibitory or hallucinogenic drugs

3.  Indifferent vacuity - emptiness of mind - incidental / third method

Magical Paradigm Shifting

chaos magic feature:  concept of the magical paradigm shift

concept borrowed from: philosopher Thomas Samuel Kuhn
technique: arbitrarily changing beliefs and 'magical paradigm'

eg.  Lovecraftian rite using technique from Edred Thorsson book (on ritual)
- influenced by Tantric practices of breaking down social conditioning to realise nature of reality
- flexibility of belief is a means of personal power and freedom
- creating:  'syncretic reality tunnelling'

Syncretism
- combining of different beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought
eg.  blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system
eg.  when a culture is conquered, conquerors bring religious beliefs but do not succeed in entirely eradicating the old beliefs/customs

Ancient Greece
Classical Athens was exclusive in matters of religion

Decree of Diopeithes
made the introduction of and belief in foreign gods a criminal offence
only Greeks were allowed to worship in Athenian temples and festivals

foreigners were considered impure

But:   Athens imported many foreign cults

syncretism - a feature of Hellenistic Ancient Greek religion
*BUT only outside of Greece

Hellenistic culture
following Alexander the Great
= syncretist features:  Mesopotamian, Persian, Anatolian, Egyption, Etruscan-Roman elements
    blended with HELLENIC FORMULA
 Egyptian god Amun
 Hellenized Zeus Ammon
 Alexander the Great sought Mun's oracle at:  Siwa

identifications derive from:  'interpretatio graeca'
ie custom of:  identifying gods of disparate mythologies with own deities

2nd millennium BC - proto-Greeks arrive in Aegean & mainland Greece
found:  localised nymphs & divinities connected with every important landscape feature
MOUNTAIN, CAVE, GROVE, SPRING
all had own locally venerated deity

Ancient Romans
- heirs to similar civilisation
- identified Greek deities with similar figures in Etruscan-Roman tradition
- copied cult practices
- Rome adopted syncretic gods of Hellenistic period:  Serapis, Isis, Mithras, Cybele, Dionysus
- Gk. Dionysus merged w/ Latin mead god Liber
- Romans converted:   Anatolian Sabazios to Sabazius
- Anatolian goddess Cybele (cult-centre Pessinos, imported to Rome - Magna Mater)
- Romans mingled gods of Celts & Germanic peoples with their own deities:
    - Sulis Minerva, Apollo Sucellos (good-smiter), Mars Thingsus (war-assembly) + others
- Roman historian Tacitus refers to German worshippers of what is interpreted as:  Thor and Odin
- equivalent of Roman-Greco Hercules and Mercury

Romans  considered religious aspects that they adopted from other cultures no less meaningful or different to religious aspects of Roman in origin
/ early Roman acceptance of religions of other cultures enabled Romans to easily integrate new regions as they expanded

JUDAISM

EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM (BRIEF)

1.  Sigmund Freud proposed:
    Judaism arising from pre-existing monotheism that was imposed on Egypt
    briefly during the rule of Akhenaten
    Code of Hammurabi cited as starting point Ten Commandments

ZOROASTRIANISM

2.  Judaism refined its concept of monotheism, adopting features from contacts with Zoroastrianism:
    - eschatology - 'end time', 'end of the world', ultimate destiny
    - angelology
    - demonology


Jewish halakhic prohibitions on:  polytheism, idolatry etc, but Jewish sects arose:
    - Messianic Judiaism
    - Jewish Buddhism
    - Nazarenism
    - Judeo-Paganism

        several Jewish Messiah claimants

    - Sabbateansmix Kabbalistic Judaism with Christianity and Islam
    - believers in Sabbatai Zevi (1626–1676)
        1600s kabbalist
        Jewish rabbi - proclaimed to be Jewish Messiah in 1665 by Nathan of Gaza
        1666 - converted to Islam, Jewish apostate
        converted to escape punishment by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV
        Jews followed him into Islam - became:  the Dönmeh ('crypto-Jew' heretics, Turkey)
        *but continued to be accepted Jewish Messiah in diaspora
        followers before & during conversion to Islam = Sabbateans
        1.  Maaminim (believers)
        2.  Haberim (associates)
        3.  Ba'ale Milhamah (warriors
)
        Sabbateans lived into 20th century as:  Dönmeh - ie crypto-Jews Ottoman Empire
        publicly converted to Islam but retained Jewish beliefs, centred in Salonica
        Salonica = Thessaloniki
, capital of Greek Macedonia, 2nd largest city Greece

        Salonica nickname:  Symprotévousa = 'co-capital' of Constantinople
        ie. co-capital of Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire

Jacob Frank - b. Jakub Lejbowicz, 1791
1800s Polish-Jewish religious leader
claimed to be incarnation of self-proclaimed messiah:  Sabbatai Zevi
& incarnation of Jewish patriarch Jacob
Jewish authorities excommunicated Jacob Frank & followers
heretical doctrines, incl. deification of self as part of trinity
+ neo-Carpocratian 'purification through transgression'

Frankism
new, heretical form of Judaism, incorporating aspects of Christianity into Judaism
Frankism arose from:
1.  influence of messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi
2.  religious mysticism following violent persecution & socio-economic upheavals:
    - Poland
    - Ruthenia (Ukraine)
- before WWII one-third Ukraine urban population = Jewish

Halychyna (Galicia), the westernmost area of Ukraine
late 14th Century - Jews the subjects of the Polish kings, and magnates
Jewish population of Halychyna (Galicia) & Bukovyna, part Austria-Hungary considerably high:
- 5% of the then global Jewish population

10th century:  founding of Kingdom of Poland

11th century, Byzantine Jews of Constantinople
=  familial, cultural, and theological ties with the Jews of Kiev

1569:  creation of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Poland:  host to largest foreign minorities in Europe
during Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, significant Jewish settlement in Ukraine

Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1657)
Ukrainian Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky
led Cossack uprising
on basis that Poles had sold Cossacks as slaves to Jews

then Jewish population 51,000 + est.
force of (a) Cossacks and (b) Crimean Tatars
massacred & took into captivity large numbers:  Jews, Roman Catholics & Uniates 1648-49

(Uniates = Eastern rite Catholic churches)
recent estimates:  15,000 to 13,000 Jews killed or taken captive / 300 Jewish settlements destroyed
Cossack Uprising and the Deluge left a deep and lasting impression on the Jewish social and spiritual life
*'Deluge' is not explained by source (Wikipedia)


Ukraine regions with significant Jewish populations (Wikipedia):
  • Kiev
  • Dnipropetrovsk
  • Khariv
  • Odessa

Mid-1600s Cossack Uprising, time of Jewish:

1.  mysticism
2.  overly formal rabbinism
3.  teachings of Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, or BeShT, (1698–1760)

Baal Shem Tov techings
profound effect on the Jews of Eastern Europe
disciples of Baal Shem Tov promote:  

new fervent brand of Judaism (Hasidism)
Hasidism =  related to Kabbalah

Hasidism = rise of Haredi Judaism
+ continuous influence through successive Hasidic dynasties


Hassidism (Mystical Judaism) - Eastern Europe

Moshe Idel
expert:  mystical and philosophical literature
Max Cooper Professor of Jewish Thought
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
published author

new study of mystical Judaism (Hassidism) of Eastern Europe
18th & 19th centuries
study by panoramic approach / v. existentialist approach
understand Hassidism as an aggregation of multiple streams, incl.
- magic
- theosophic  kabbalah
- ecstatic kabbalah

earlier stages of Jewish mysticism
phenomenological models


Hassidism is dependent on non-Lurianic schools of kabbalah
Hassidism emerges as an important stage in Jewish mysticism
Idel argues this emergence is NOT merely:
reaction to historical and social forces (such as Sabbatianism)

Idel: close study of ecstasy and magic

http://www.sunypress.edu/p-1755-hasidism.aspx




Kabbalah
body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin
based on an esoteric interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures

Medieval Latin cabala from:
Hebrew qabbālâ, received doctrine, tradition, from qibbēl, to receive
kabbalah (many variants spellings)

[Medieval Latin cabala, from Hebrew qabbālâ, received doctrine, tradition, from qibbēl, to receive; see qbl in Semitic roots.]

several different systems of romanizing the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets in existence
as:  Hebrew and Arabic alphabets generally do not indicate short vowels or the doubling of consonants

technically spellings with double 'b' incorrect, as single 'b' produces Hebrew spelling
doubling of consonants = Anglicisation

other eg.
    scholarly transliteration =  Qur'a
    Anglicisation =  Koran

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kabbalah



Semitic root:  qbl  = to receive




Astral Projection - Kabbalah
(Into the static remix)
AUDIO | #1.0



Jacob Frank's mid 1800s teachings radical & unorthodox
Frank and followers were excommunicated by Jews
Frank and followers eventually converted to Catholicism

Russia measures to keep Russian Empire free of Jews
hindered by:  Russian partition of Poland,
when Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth annexation by Russia occurred:
  • 1772 - First Partition
  • 1793 - Second Partition
  • 1795 - Third Partition
Russian Empire acquires large population of Jews
Catherine the Great establishes:  Pale of Settlement, including Congress Poland & Crimea

1821 anti-Jewish riots in Odessa
after the death of the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople
cited by some as first riot / pogrom


Youssef Sarrouf
b. Damascus
church name:  Ignatius
1778 Ignatius (Youssef) Sarrouf
consecrated metropolitan bishop of Beirut by Patriarch Theodosius V Dahan
attempts to reform x2 Melkite monastic orders as metropolitan of Beirut
attempts to reform antagonised clergy
1812 Ignatius Sarrouf was elected Patriarch, and confirmed immediately by Rome
1812 murdered by a Melkite faithful - unknown reasons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_IV_Sarrouf

Melkite
= member of:   Christian churches in Egypt and Syria that accepted the Council of Chalcedon.
= member of:   Eastern Catholic church that uses the Byzantine rite and has patriarchates in Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem 
(Antioch, ancient Greco-Roman city in Anatolia)

'Melkite' word originates from Semitic origins - 'malka' (king) (Semitic); malkaye (pl.) (Aramaic; then Green then Latin

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/melkite

Other sources cite: 1859 riot in Odessa as first pogrom/riot

1881–1884
assassination of Alexander II
aftermath:  large-scale anti-Jewish violence swept southern Russian Empire, including Ukraine

1882, Alexander III of Russia - May Laws

  • effective over 30 years to 1917
  • strict quotas on Jews permitted to obtain education
  • results in mass emigration
1886 - edict of Expulsion applied to the Jews of Kiev

1893–94, some areas of Crimea cut out of the Pale

1894 -  Alexander III died in Crimea

Reign of Alexander III
- began with riots against Jews
- ended with Jewish expulsions of Jews
     - Jews exiled from Yalta to the Pale
- 1800s - Odessa large Jewish settlement
- 1897  - Odessa, Jews estimated - 37% of the population

Russian Revolution

  • Jews over-represented in the Russian revolutionaries leadership (90% of them according to Czar Nicholas II)
  • most were hostile to traditional Jewish culture & Jewish political parties
  • were loyal to Communist atheism & proletarian internationalism
  • reportedly committed to stamp out 'Jewish cultural particularism'
In this political turmoil:
- Russian/Slavic counter-revolutionary groups, incl. Black Hundreds, opposed the Revolution with violent attacks on socialists and attacks against Jews

2.  backlash from the conservative elements + spasmodic anti-Jewish attacks (reportedly 5,000 Jews killed in Odessa in single day)

1905: series of attacks against Jews erupted at the same time as Revolution against the government of Nicholas II

chief organizers of anti-Jewish violence:  members of the Union of the Russian People (commonly known as the "Black Hundreds")

1911 to 1913, anti-Jewish sentiment prevailed


1915, in the face of German military invasion,  thousands of Jews from the Russian border areas, which coincide with the Pale of Settlement

1917 Russian Revolution + Russian Civil War, an estimated 70,000 to 250,000 Jewish civilians were killed in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire

1918–1920 - est. 31,071 Jews killed in modern Ukraine territory



Russian Civil War
November 1917—October 1922
immediately following: Russian Revolutions of 1917
Casualties estimated: 1,500,000
many factions vying for political control of Russia
Red Army - fighting for Bolshevik socialism
(faction of: Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
White Army - disparate allied forces - incl. diverse interests - monarchism, capitalism and alternative forms of socialism
plus: rival militant socialists and non-ideological Green armies fought against Bolsheviks and White Army
Victory for the Red Army in:
  • Russia
  • Ukraine
  • Belarus
  • South Caucasus
  • Central Asia
  • Tuva
  • Mongolia
Victory for separatist movements:
  • Finland
  • Estonia
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Poland
Territorial changes - establishment of independent:
  • Finland
  • Estonia
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Poland
Other: Russia under Soviet socialist government

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War


Carpocrates of Alexandria
founder early Gnostic sect early 2nd Century
negative bias & opposition in writings of Church Fathers
esp. Irenaeus of Lyons & Clement of Alexandria
  • did not believe in divinity of 'Jesus' figure
  • believed they themselves could transcend material realm
  • believed they no longer bound by Mosaic law (based on the material powers)
  • believed they no longer bound by any morality, which they held is MERE HUMAN OPINION
[comment:  lol ... they're right / but we still condemn those that transgress what we believe is right / why?  ]
  • believed:  one's eternal soul imprisoned & mast pass all conditions of early life to leave
  • Carpocrates practised various magical arts as well as leading a licentious life

Early Christian authors opposed representational art, statues, portraits etc
  • considered:  heretical
  • heretical Carpocratians, are known to have owned portraits of 'Christ' figure

The Will
  • faculty of the mind which selects
  • capacity to act decisively on one's desires
  • will important /  one of the distinct parts of the mind
  • (with reason and understanding)
  • considered important in ethics
  • central role in enabling a person to act deliberately

How can will be free if actions have natural or divine causes ('divine' explanation of the superstitious) which determine actions?


Nature of freedom v. problem of evil
Aristotle:  ethical importance of will
  • - major influence ethical and legal thinking in western civilization

Aristotle - virtue and vice = individual choice

Aristotelian philosophy became part of a standard approach to all legal and ethical discussion in Europe by the time of Thomas Aquinas


ENLIGHTENMENT

Enlightenment
siècle des Lumières
(literally “century of the Enlightened”)
German: Aufklärung
European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries
  • Ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a world-view
  • wide acceptance in West
  • began revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics
  • key to Enlightenment thought: use and celebration of reason
  • goals of the rational: considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness
[britannica]

[comment:  pursuit of knowledge, freedom & happiness is only 'rational' if you are driven / programmed / socialised that way; some people are not.  Some people are motivated by power, money and other things - like aggression towards others; fear or other driving forces ...  Who defines, eg. 'happiness'?  ]

https://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history



Thomas Aquinas
philosophy can be seen as a synthesis of
Aristotle + early Christian doctrine (Boethius + St Augustine of Hippo)

Boethius
Boethius 
Roman Senator 6th Century
b. 4 years after Odoacer (Germanic)
deposed Roman emperor,
declaring self King of Italy
wrote:  'Consolation of Philosophy', in prison

Augustine
Augustine of Hippo,
aka St Augustine,
non-European - Berber,
bishop Algeria
Watched the fall / disintegration of Rome
/ formulated
1.  doctrine of 'original sin'
2. just war theory
3. concept of Church as a spiritual 'City of God'

[comment:  I can get right into the 'just war' theory, I think ... not so much the doctrine of 'sin'.  What is wrong with these religious nuts?  

Christianity is totally unappealing to me.  Christianity delivered to Europeans by a Berber colonial Roman Empire subject, however clever he may be in Latin etc., is a huge turn-off for me. 
This is not the religion of Europeans.  Where are the European gods?  ... I'm guessing customs, traditions and oral history of Eurpean gods was destroyed by forced conversion to Christianity.   ]

Profound influence on Medieval Europe; had long-term mistress, arranged marriage to minor arranged / chose celibacy & religion, as overly attached to former mistress; teacher of Greek brutal, did not take to Greek; became highly proficient Latin )
Value to the church:  "Augustine worked tirelessly in trying to convince the people of Hippo (in Algeria) to convert to Christianity"

Vandals, Germanic tribe, converted to Arianism (teachings of Arius, Alexandria, Egypt:  "asserts that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was created by God the Father at a point in time, is distinct from the Father and is therefore subordinate to the Father" [here])

430 AD -  Vandals invade Roman Africa
Vandals besiege Hippo (the city) in Spring of 430 AD
Augustine suffering from illness / spent final days in prayer
directed that library of church in Hippo & books should be preserved
died 430, Aug. 28 (7 days from now)
Vandals lifted siege of Hippo shortly thereafter
Vandals burned city, destroying all but Augustine's cathedral & library
Augustine's body transferred to Cagliari, Sardinia by bishops expelled from North Africa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

Thomas Aquinas also cited other sources:

Maimonides (Jewish-Spanish / Egyptian-Moroccan work) and Plato (Greek)
+ Muslim scholars: Islamic philosophers Avicenna and Averroes

Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon (Rambam)
Maimonides ('-ides' Greek suffix equivalent of 'ben' / son of)
> son of Maimon
ie Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon
referred to as 'Rambam'
Rabbeinu Moshe Ben Maimon
(ie Rabbi/Teacher, Moses Son of Maimon)
aka 'ha Nesher ha Gadol' (the great eagle)
due to: status as interpreter of the Oral Torah
Graecised (and subsequently Latinised)
medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer
prolific and influential Torah scholars
physician of Middle Ages
b. 1135 or 1138 Cordova, Almoravid Empire (Morocco Berber Muslim dynasty, invaders Spain- ie. in Cordoba, Andalusia, Spain under long-standing Muslim invader control)
d. 1204 Egypt
body taken to lower Galilee & buried in Tiberias
worked as rabbi, physician & philosopher in Morocco & Egypt
writings on Jewish law and ethics
influence as far as: Iraq and Yemen
revered head of Jews in Egypt
vociferous critics of some of his writings (esp. Spain)

Rambam works: cornerstone of Jewish scholarship
14-volume Mishneh Torah = codification of Talmudic law


Philosophy & Science - Rambam
prominent in history of Islamic and Arab sciences
influenced Arab and Muslim philosophers and scientists
Maimonides: prominent philosopher and polymath (expert various fields) in both the Jewish and Islamic worlds
Maimonides, in turn, was influenced by:
  • Al-Farabi (c. 872 AD –  950/951)
  • Avicenna (c. 980 AD  – 1037)
Medieval saying (& Maimonides epitaph), referring to his rabbinic writings:
" ... From Mosheh (of the Torah) to Mosheh (Maimonides) there was none like Mosheh"
one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy
adaptation of Aristotelian thought to Judaic faith
in century following Rambam / Maimonides death, acculturated Jews tried to apply:
Maimonides's Aristotelianism in ways that undercut traditionalist belief and observance
= intellectual controversy:
  • Spanish Jewish
  • French Jewish (southern France)
- debate spurred Catholic Church interventions against 'heresy' (think there was squealing to the Christian authorities, if I remember correctly)
- + general confiscation of rabbinic texts
- more radical interpretations of Maimonides were defeated
- Ashkenazi Jews tended to ignore his specifically philosophical writings
- Ashkenazi Jews stressed rabbinic & halakhic writings
- these writings included philosophical discussions re halakhic observance
- Rambam =
1. philosophical understanding of God both in the Aggadah (rabbinic texts, folklore, history & other) of Talmud
2. philosophical understanding of God in behaviour of the hasid [the pious Jew] ... ie member of Rabbi Baal Shem Tov Eastern European founded mystical movement  / rejected Talmudic learning / deity should be served in word and deed
(a) 1648-1657 Cossack Uprising & (b) Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Zevi - Turkey, Sabbateans (later Islam / forced convert)  Dönmeh (crypto-Jewish) sect / kin ties to Ukraine & influence etc. - brief mention above.
Traditionally observant Jews - still influenced by Rambam
Hasdai Crescas
aka Or Adonai
ie Hasdai ben Judah Crescas
b. c. 13440 Barcelona, Catalonia - d. 1410, Aragon (Spain)
Spanish-Jewish philosopher
famous halakhist (teacher of Jewish law)
primary work: Or Adonai (aka 'Or Hashem', Heb.)
means: Light of the Lord
1400s - Jewish reinterpretation of classical Jewish theology per then-current philosophy,
ie. neo-Aristotelian rationalism
Hasdai ben Judah Crescas
considered rationalist neo-Aristotelian interpretation threat blurring
distinctiveness of Jewish faith - felt it reduced Judaism to surrogate Aristotelian concepts
Crescas = critic of Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon's works
Rambam / Maimonides
= rejected as futile and unwarranted all inquiry into the ultimate purpose of the world  [LOL .. think he might be right ]

Crescas posed that purpose was: happiness of the soul / union with the divine / soul's never-stilled yearning

[No ... why would anyone want to be united with something that is strange/unknown/foreign/alien ... and be among an impersonal club open to everyone else?  Something missing (for me).   ]

former thinkers made immortality depend on knowledge
Crescas claims knowledge does not produce soul / highest perfection through 'love' > fountain-head of all good > highest good is love manifested in obedience to deity's laws

[comment:  Most unappealing.  Where's the religion that says there's nothing but chaos and absurdity, and then you die and there's nothing more ...?    LOL  ] 
 
Crescas - opponent of Maimonides on philosophical grounds / Jewish law code, the Mishneh Torah method issue
Crescas work - fundamental importance
/ shaping of Baruch Spinoza's system
/ distinction between attributes and properties
/ identical with Crescas distinction b/w: subjectively ascribed attributes & objective reality of attributes in deity (?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Or_Adonai
Baruch Spinoza
Benedito de Espinosa
Jewish Dutch philosopher of Sephardic/Portuguese origin
parents forcibly converted to Christianity
continued to practice Judaism in secret (Marranos)
arrested, tortured, condemned by Inquisition (Portugal)
escaped to Amsterdam
father, Michael Spinoza: important merchant / one of directors synagogue
mother, died before Spinoza 6th birthday
b. Amsterdam 1632
d. The Hague 1677
one of foremost advocates of 17th Century Rationalism
one of early, originating figures of Enlightenment
Amsterdam Jewish settlement
originally Jews raised in Spain, Portugal, France, or Italy as Christians
who fled to Amsterdam to escape persecution & to practice ancestral religion
Jews granted toleration by Dutch authorities
conditional:
1. no scandal
2. all responsibility for care of own community members

Amsterdam Jews established social & educational institutions:
eg. 1638, Talmud-Torah school - adult males (formerly Catholic education)
Baruch Spinoza =  student: Torah-Talmud school in Amsterdam
Spinoza likely learned: Hebrew, Jewish philosophy & work of Moses Maimonedes (Rambam)

Isaac La Peyrère
French courtier
book: Prae-Adamitae (Latin: 'Men Before Adam') (1655)
challenged the accuracy of the bible
insisted that the spread of human beings to all parts of the globe implies
there must have been humans before Adam and Eve
La Peyrère argued: bible is the history of the Jews, not the history of humanity
one of Spinoza’s teachers, Menasseh ben Israel, was acquainted with La Peyrère
Prae-Adamitae was soon condemned in the Netherlands and elsewhere
regarded as one of the most dangerous pieces of heresy in print
Spinoza owned a copy of the work
many of La Peyrère assertions re bible later appeared in Spinoza’s writings
Spinoza fell out with synagogue Amsterdam
mid-1656 Spinoza formally excommunicated by Synagogue:
  • - horrendous curses were cast upon him
  • - members of the synagogue forbidden contact with him
  • - members of the synagogue forbidden to ready anything he had written / or listen to him

CHEREM | HEREM

http://www.crivoice.org/terms/t-herem.html
Judaism - excommunication = 'herem'
aka - charam
aka - cherem
[comment:  sounds like the Arabic 'haram' (forbidden by Islamic law) ... well, it does to me / but I'm not an Arab or Jew
Jewish 'Herem'
= technical term in Hebrew / translation difficult
  • - put under the ban
  • - devote to destruction
  • - exterminate
  • - ostracise
  • - excommunicate
  • - devoted to deity (like a sacrifice / but not 'sacrifice')
Cherem / Herem
ancient Jewish practice of: holy war
= conquered enemy would be totally destroyed, incl. women & children & entire settlement
depending on circumstances, spoils could be taken

*hey, it's like Islamic Holy War

Judaism:  idea of holy war was a religious concept
attempt to eliminate religious ideas or practices that posed a threat to Jews (as conquerors)
note: not only outsiders, it could also be members of Jewish tribe posing threat
eg. Jews worshipping other gods
Hebrew bible - x50 occurrence (verb) - x30 (noun) occurrence 'Herem'
applied to actions that threaten the religious integrity of the community

eg.  "Judges 21:11 This is what you shall do; every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction."
What is destroyed is devoted to deity and is understood to belong to deity - therefore element of ritualised killing. 

But not sacrifice in normal sense.
  • What is devoted to deity cannot be sold, redeemed etc - animal or human
  • what is devoted to destruction shall be put to death
  • non-Yahweh worshippers were a contamination on the land and posed a threat to proper worship of Jewish deity

Num 21:2 Then Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will indeed give this people into our hands, then we will utterly destroy their towns." The LORD listened to the voice of Israel, and handed over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their towns; so the place was called Hormah.

Hormah = broken rock; banned; devoted to destruction
ie. Canaanite 'Zephath' (Heb. Tsfat)
several conflicts - migrant Israelites invading 'Promised Land'
& Amalekites and Canaanites, who occupied southern Canaan

ie.  this is the equivalent of 'Cherem' or 'Herem' - it appears
location between: Beer Sheba and Gaza

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormah

Deuteronomy
cities listed as devoted to destruction
  • contains warnings about the dangers of not eliminating the Canaanites
when the Israelites enter the land

[comment:  History is repeating itself in Palestine / Israel.  ]
Deut 7:1-4 1
[deity] clears away many nations before you--the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you

NO MERCY - HOLY WAR
  • [when you defeat them] ... you must utterly destroy them
  • make no covenant with them
  • show them no mercy
  • do not intermarry with them (as it would turn descendants to follow foreign gods)
Israel's entry into the land in Joshua
Israelites practised cherem on captured Canaanite cities
  • see: destruction of Jericho
  • see: destruction of Ai & other cities
Joshua 6:18 - things devoted to destruction / do not covet
all destroyed (men, women, young, old & animals) - city and all in it burnt down
exception was: gold, silver, bronze and iron objects
put into the treasury of the house of synagogue (?)



RAKKAT

Rakkat (Heb.) - city
aka Tiberias
located at shore of Sea of Galilee (Heb. Yam Ha-Kinerett)
est. 20 AD, named in honour of Roman Emperor Tiberius
Jewish oral tradition says city built on Jewish village of: Rakkat (Book of Jushua)
venerated in Judaism from mid-2nd Century AD
time of Herodian Tetrarchy
one of Judaism's 4 holy cities
  1. Jerusalem
  2. Hebron
  3. Safed
  4. Rakkat (Tiberias)
was political and religious Jewish hub
known for hot springs
historian Josephus calls hot springs village 'Emmaus', located near Tiberias
most religious (as opposed to Hellenized, including Cohanic) Jews refused to settle there
due to presence of cemetery, rendering site ritually unclean for priestly caste
during Bar Kokhba revolt 132-136 AD against Romans
Sanhedrin, Jewish court, fled Jerusalem, for Rakkat
614 AD - final revolt against Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine)
part of Jewish population supported Persian invaders
Jewish rebels financed by: Benjamin of Tiberias (immense wealth)
during Jewish revolt: Christians massacred, churches destroyed
628 AD - Byzantine Roman army return to Tiberias / surrender Jewish rebels & end of Persian occupation
thereafter Christian defeat: battle of Neneveh
629 AD - Emperor Heraclius - wide-scale slaughter of Jews
emptied Galilee of most its Jewish population
Jewish survivors flee to Egypt
634 CE - Rakkat (Tyberias) under Arab control / Christian capitulation
70 Jewish families from Tiberias permitted to renew Jewish presence in Jerusalem
- importance of Rakkat (Tiberias) declined after
Christians make a come-back with First Crusade / Rakkat (Tiberias) occupied by Franks,
soon after capture of Jerusalem
12th century = best Torah manuscripts found in Rakkat (Tiberias)
1187 - Saladin defeats Christians, Battle of Hattin
Third Crusade: Christains drive out Muslims
1265 - Malmluks (Egyptian) drive out Christians
1516 - Ottoman Muslims drive out Mamluk Muslims
British and diaspora Jews enter the picture early 1900s
miscellaneous dramas betwen Arabs & Jews/diaspora Jews
Jewish paramilitary terrorist org. (Haganah) - 1921-1948
active during:  British Mandate of Palestine
- gave rise to Irgun, Zionist paramilitary org.
founded to combat the revolts of Palestinian Arabs against the Jewish settlement of Palestine
post World War II, when the British refused to open Palestine to unlimited Jewish immigration
Haganah turned to terrorist activities
bombing bridges, rail lines, and ships used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants

Jewish paramilitary mortar attacks, followed by attack on Rakkat
Arab Liberation Army not permitted to take over defence
  • Arab population of Rakkat (Tiberias)
  • 6,000 residents or 47.5% of the population
  • widespread looting of the Arab areas by Jewish population 
  • evacuated under British military protection on 18 April 1948
  • had to be suppressed by force by the Haganah paramilitary and Jewish police
  • (killed or injured several looters)
I.D.F.
May 1948 - Haganah dissolved as private organisation
Haganah became the national army of Israel (IDF)
known as: Tzva Haganah le-Yisraʾel (“Israel Defense Forces”)



1948 - almost entirely Jewish city - Sephardic and Mizrahi


CHEREM
TRIBAL TOOL OF WARFARE

... concept of holy war and the corresponding cherem were ancient tribal concepts that related to protection of a clan, tribe, or people from outside influences, especially in religious practices


Jerimiah interprets exile as due to syncretism of worship of Yahweh with Ba'al worship

http://www.crivoice.org/terms/t-herem.html




1400s - then-current philosophy,
ie. neo-Aristotelian rationalism
- reinterpretation of classical Jewish theology
Major practitioners of rationalist approach to Jewish philosophy:

  • Moshe ben Maimon - Maimonides (Rambam)
  • Levi ben Gershon - Gersonides (Ralbag)
  • Saadia Gaon -
  • Joseph Albo - Spain - Sefer ha-Ikkarim ('Book of Principles')
limited the fundamental Jewish principles of faith to three:

  1. belief in the existence of God
  2. belief in revelation
  3. belief in divine justice, re idea of immortality
shorashim ('roots', Heb.), or secondary radicals:
  1. God's unity
  2. God's incorporeality
  3. God's independence of time
  4. God's perfection: in God there can be neither weakness nor other defect
  • belief in revelation, or the communication of divine instruction by God to man
  • The Hebrew prophets are the media of God's revelation
  • The belief in the unique greatness of Moses as a prophet
  • The binding force of the Mosaic law
belief in the Messiah is only a "twig" / unnecessary to soundness of trunk
therefore belief in Messiah: not an integral part of Judaism

  • it is not true that every law must be observed
  • it is not true that neglect of part of law equals Jew violates divine covenant (damned)
[comment: so this is like the out-clause / loophole of Jewish law & philosophy? ]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Albo

Aquinas of Italian origins.  Family held land in county Aquino to 1137.  

Deemed a 'saint' & considered ideal teacher for priesthood - " one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers".  More here  [I'm just rush skimming basics].
Thomas Aquinas's 'Summa Theologica'
makes a structured treatment of the concept of will
using:  Scholasticism (method of critical thought dominating teachings of academics of medieval universities in Europe abt. 1100 to 1700)
- employing method in articulating and defending dogma in an increasingly pluralistic context
- outgrowth of and departure from Christian monastic schools at earliest Euro. unis.
- first institutions considered universities in West, established:
    Italy, France, Spain, England - late 11th & 12th centuries
    study:  arts, law, medicine, theology
scholasticism = method of learning (not philosophy)
strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference & to resolve contractions
known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions
often takes the form of explicit disputation
formula:
1.  topic broached in the form of a question
2.  opponents' responses are given
3.  counterproposal is argued
4.  opponents' arguments rebutted
due to emphasis on rigorous dialectical method
scholasticism eventually applied to many fields of study

HARMONISE | RECONCILE
Scholasticism began as attempt
by medieval Christian thinkers
to harmonize the various authorities of their own tradition
(thus to reconcile Christian theology)
with classical and late antiquity philosophy
esp. Aristotle (+ also of Neoplatonism)
main figures of scholasticism include:
  • Anselm of Canterbury
  • Peter Abelard
  • Alexander of Hales
  • Albertus Magnus
  • Duns Scotus
  • William of Ockham
  • Bonaventure
  • Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
masterwork:  'Summa Theologica'
=  pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy
began while Aquinas was regent master, Rome
at Santa Sabina (forerunner of Pontifical Uni, of St Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum)
Important scholastic tradition works past Aquinas time = Lutheran & Reform thinkers
Middle Ages
first significant renewal of learning in West arose from Carolingian Renaissance

Charlemagne
(advised by Peter of Pisa and Alcuin of York)
attracted the scholars of England and Ireland
787 AD decree:  Charlemagne established schools in every abbey of empire
became centres of Medieval learning
'scholasticism' derived from these schools
Knowledge of Ancient Greek had vanished in the west
*except in Ireland
in Ireland. Ancient Greek teaching = use  widely dispersed in monastic schools

Irish scholars famed for their learning
- eg:   Johannes Scotus Eriugena, 815–877 AD - one of the founders of scholasticism
    - outstanding philosopher (originality)
    - translated many Greek works into Latin
- Irish scholars = considerable presence in Frankish court
Scholastic period
=  beginning of  rediscovery of many Greek works which had been lost to the Latin West
10th century, Spain began translating texts & in latter half 10th century transmitted same to rest of Europe
12th century -  Reconquista - ie. defeat of Islamic invader rule (Hispania)
period begins on:  initial Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 710s
    711, Muslim Moors, mainly North African Berber soldiers with some Arabs
    crossed Strait of Gibraltar:  consquest of Visigothic Kingdomn of Hispania
    established an Islamic rule - lasts 300 years
period ends:  fall of Emirate of Granada, last Islamic state on Iberian Peninsula
Coat of arms of Alcanadre. La Rioja, northern Spain, depicts severed heads of slain Moors

Reconquista = continuous phenomenon
Christian Iberian kingdoms opposed and conquered the Muslim kingdoms
/ Muslims understood as a common enemy who had militarily seized Christian territory
9th century - concept of Christian reconquest of peninsula first emerged
> Christian document:   Chronica Prophetica (883–884)
> stressing the Christian and Muslim cultural and religious divide
> necessity to drive Muslims out
Opposition to Muslim rule was undermined by:
- alliances with Muslims
- mercenaries from both sides who faught for whoever paid most
12th century -  Reconquista - ie. defeat of Islamic invader rule  (Hispania)
fall of Emirate of Granada, last Islamic state on Iberian Peninsula =
- immediately before European rediscovery of Americas ('New World')
- ushering in era:  Portuguese & Spanish Colonial empires
Traditional mark of begining of Reconquista: 
Battle of Covadonga, 718-722
small Christian army led by Pelagius (nobleman)
defeated army of Umayyad Caliphate - mountains
established Christian Kingdom of Asturias
11th century - Crusades
Christian religious ideology of reconquest
vs. staunch Muslim Jihad ideology in Al-Andalus (Andalusia, Muslim Spain)
  1. by Almoravids (Berbers, of nomadic descent, Muslim)
  2. by Almohads (even greater degree) (southern Morocco, Berber Muslim, 'the unifiers'
[note:   capitalist-sponsored historians are now attempting to rewrite history ]

Following:  12th century Reconquista of Spain
Spain opened further for Christian scholars
Christians encountered knowledge in fields of mathematics, astronomy & philosophy
[comment:  knowledge  described as 'Arabic' ... but Arabs are desert-dweller conquerors of other developed nations (eg Persians) / so provenance of the 'Arabic' knowledge attribution is not clear to me ]

13th and early 14th centuries = High Scolasticism
- culmination of the recovery of Greek philosophy
- schools of translation Italy & Sicily & rest of Europe, increased
- scholars travelled widely & translated works
- eg. Adelard of Bath, scholar, travelled to Sicily and Arab world
- Adelard translated works on astronomy and mathematics
- and Euclid's:  'Elements'
- powerful NORMAN KINGS - courts gathered academics from Italy & other (prestige)
- William of Moerbeke
- translations & editions:  Greek philosophical texts mid 13th C. (more info re Aristotle than Arabic systems)
- major commentaries followed
- large universities developed Europe cities
- rival Church clerical orders - battle for:  political and intellectual control
- 1.  Franciscans - Fracis of Assisi 1209
    - leader:  Bonaventure (pro Augustine + Plato, little Aristotle _ neoplatonist eliments)
    - per Anselm, considered that:
    - reason can only discover truth when philosophy is illuminated by RELIGIOUS faith
    others:  Duns Scotus, Peter Auriol and William of Ockham
- 2.  Dominicans - teaching order founded by St Dominic - 1215
    - more emphasis on the use of reason
    - extensive use of the new Aristotelian sources
    - (from east & Moorish Spain)
    - Dominican thinking:
        - Albertus Magnus
        - (especially) Thomas Aquinas
        - Aquinas synthesis Greek rationalism + Christian doctrine = defined Catholic philosophy
        - Aquinas first to use new translation of Aristotle's metaphysical + epistemological writing
        = a significant departure from the Neoplatonic and Augustinian thinking
            that had dominated early scholasticism

Late Scholasticism - aka Second scholasticism
    - 16th & 17th Century
    - revival of scholastic system of philosophy and theology
    - 2 schools survived from earlier phases of scholasticism, Scotism and Thomism
    - Scotists, mostly belonging to the various branches of the Franciscan order
    - ie. Italian, French, Irish & German
    - Thomists (usually but not exclusively)
    - Iberians in the Dominican and the Carmelite orders
    - second scholasticism influence augmented by: 
    -  Society of Jesus (1540), by Ignatius Loyola, per approval of Pope Paul III (Jesuits)
    - Jesuit style of academic approach:  a third "school" of second scholasticism
DECLINE OF SCHOLASTICISM:  ENLIGHTENMENT ERA ONSET, SCIENCE REVOLUTION + VERNACULAR
    - second scholasticism - decline under attacks of philosophers writing in vernacular languages
    - ie.   Descartes, Pascal and Locke
    - decline also  b/c -  competition from more experimental and mathematical science methods
    - leading to:  Scientific Revolution
    - Enlightenment commences:  end 1600s (17th Century) = decline scholasticism
    - but scholasticism remained influential long period Iberian universities

Reformed Scholasticism - Calvinist
Neo-Scholasticism - late 1800s revival (aka neo-Thomism
Thomistic Scholasticism - aka Strict Observance Thomism
    - always alive in Dominican Order,
    - ravaged after Reformation, French Revolution & Napoleonic occupation
    - went into decline in the 1970s in English speaking world
    - discussion moved from academic environment to internet groups re this form of thinking
Analytical Scholasticism
    - analytic philosophy = renewed interest in scholastic approach to philosophy
    - attempts:  combine elements of scholastic and analytic methodology
    - for > contemporary philosophical synthesis
    - Analytical Thomism a pioneer of this philosophical movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconquista
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbateans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki

[all info is from wikipedia, unless otherwise marked]
LISTENING to ... 

אהבה באויר
Love is in the Air
AUDIO  |  #2.0


חג שמח
Chag Sameach
(KHAHG sah-MEHY-ahkh) 

AUDIO | #3.0

I think I can hear 'Beit Israel' (house of Israel)
and I think I hear 'hava', which is gold (I think)


Language

Hebrew word for 'gold'  / 'hava' = eve (?)
zahav
comprised of three letters:  zayin, hei & vav 

Hebrew names for 'golden'

Carmela
Carmelina
Carmeline
Carmella
Paz
Paza
Pazia
Pazice
Pazit
Zahavah
Zehave
Zehavi
Zehavit
Zehuva     + 'Golda'  (not Hebrew word, probably Ashkenazi (Yiddish))



Persian comparison:



Hebrew Holiday Greetings
חג שמח
Chag Sameach 
(KHAHG sah-MEHY-ahkh)
  "Hebrew. Literally, joyous festival. This is an appropriate greeting for just about any holiday, but it's especially appropriate for Sukkot, Shavu'ot and Pesach (Passover), which are technically the only festivals (the other holidays are holidays, not festivals). "
source


לא אירא

I Fear Not  -  AUDIO | #0.0
 
I like this a lot ... but I can't find lyrics.  

Google Translate does not provide audio for Hebrew; making it impossible to match what I hear with Hebrew on their translate tool.

im ... 

lo irani bi - (or lo ilani bi?) - this is probably "I fear not" ?
lo irani bi - ani = 'I'
lo, lo, lo, lo   - 'lo' is probably 'don't'


khola shalom  (all + peace? - eg.  Avi-khol (father of ALL)
khola chamas (all + glitters - eg.   “Zohorei Chama” (Sun's Glitters))


Shem Mashach  (messiah ?)

*  Hebr. 'mashach' which means 'to spread with oil'  / annoint

Oi mil hava   (hava - must be 'eve' / not 'gold')
la mil hava
Oi mil hava


she liv shelach - (shelach associated with spies in Promised Land)
                         - Sh'lach = send to you (Heb.)
                    - Torah reading = annual cycle passages
                    - Shelach story = week 37

[Think I'd better stop & to something practical here, or I'll be the cause of domestic arguments.  LOL ]


* I like the guttural sounds of Hebrew (which is probably like guttural sounds of Arabic).