what do you give? | Imamother

Fabulous

Wed, Dec 03 2008, 3:44 pm

avigailmiriam wrote:

cy wrote:

I've heard that its not from the non jews, and its more like that the non jews got the concept from the Jews. I forgot where I read it and the exact reason.

Gentiles give gifts and x-mas to commemorate the gifts given to Jebus as a baby by the magi. Also, I believe that the growth of the custom (along with the selection of December 25 as the date for x-mas) may have to do with earlier pagan traditions the Catholic Church was trying to reign in.

That's what we learned in seminary. My teacher ( a chashuva Rov) told us that the Jews are the most accurate keepers of history and dates and we do not know when he was born, then it is not possible for them to know. The reason that the date was picked was because this pagan holiday was so enmeshed in non jewish society that the Catholic church knew they were not strong enough to get rid of it. Instead of trying, they harnessed the power this holiday had over them and changed it to suit their purposes.

As learned in Mabit Hachayim (subject in sem).

avigailmiriam

Wed, Dec 03 2008, 3:54 pm

Fabulous wrote:

avigailmiriam wrote:

cy wrote:

I've heard that its not from the non jews, and its more like that the non jews got the concept from the Jews. I forgot where I read it and the exact reason.

I came close to having a second major in religion (like, I was 2 courses away) and decided to just go with my original BA subject. One of my fields was historiography of Jebus--that is, the history of people writing and talking about him. It is very hard to pin down; academics estimate that a historical figure who served as an itinerant rabbi and was possibly crucified by the Romans (not unusual at all at that time in Judea) was born between 4 and 6 AD. The history if people trying to calculate the birth of Jebus is in itself really, really cool--there were whole departments in medieval universities devoted to this stuff.

Fabulous

Wed, Dec 03 2008, 3:57 pm

avigailmiriam wrote:

Fabulous wrote:

avigailmiriam wrote:

cy wrote:

I've heard that its not from the non jews, and its more like that the non jews got the concept from the Jews. I forgot where I read it and the exact reason.

I have always found this subject fascinating. Hence, the fact that I remember most of his lectures in clear detail even though it was 4 years ago. I really enjoyed learning it from a(n) halachic figure.

We did learn a lot of the math, but that I don't remember.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Dec 04 2008, 12:09 am

my grandparents always gave us pocket gelt on chanukah (also not lubavitch and always have done this).

my parents do not give us anything either. BUT, my mother used to buy, every year until she did not find them anymore, these chocolate maccabi soldiers that were all lined up in a container so each night after we lit the chanukiya, we got to have one chocolate:)