As always, I appreciate your scholarship and fascinating insights, particularly in this case, on the subtext of these videos, which I also find entertaining. I'm a little confused as to where you wind up at the very end, perhaps because I am trying to find implications that you may not be making about the ongoing war. It seems that the majority of Iranians are - or were, before Trump et al started bombing the shit out of them - also opposed to the regime. Is the argument: "Don't lionize the Mullahs and give in to anti-Semitism just because Trump and Netanyahu are awful?" If so, would it make sense not to use the term "the Iranians" to describe those in charge, since the rulers no more represent the people of Iran than Trump does the majority of Americans?
Thanks, Frank. You're right, of course, and I did pause a few times at that point and hope the context made it clear that I mean the government and not the people. I will add a footnote.
TGIF🎉🎉🎉One week closer! If anyone’s in the Boston area on Patriots Day, Monday, and you’re NOT running the Marathon, come over to the ICE protest at Wall Street in Burlington. Gonna be YUGE!
Brilliant and insightful and thought provoking as always, Greg. You make us think, which is a very good thing. I especially enjoyed the final Baal note about Beelzebub. Trump, indeed.
Collective illusions are built on such fabrications (collective illusions are ideas that everyone adheres to but no one believes: see Todd Rose’s book on it). The need to scapegoat is also ancient in times of threat or scarcity (see the fascinating book “Deceit, Desire and the Novel” by Rene Girard, which describes this need:
Brilliant, as usual. I felt like I was back in my Ancient History college classes. I also was reminded that the last time any public reference to the term “blood libel” had come from our former idiot Vice-President Sarah Palin.
Thanks, CLD! Curiously, we heard also from Ms. Palin this week. She shared a meme of Jesus with his arm out, with the caption, "That's enough, give me the phone."
I’m still befuddled about why someone thought it was a good idea to put an image of Baal at the top of the trump as Jesus imagery. Is it just a stupid cut and paste from the Iranian one? I see your Baal and call? My Baal is better than your Baal? Is it a confession? What?
I was wondering the same thing. I thought Greg was leading up to an explication of Trump's image with him as Jesus in healing mode (to Jon Stewart?) but strangely the horned, possibly winged creature above and behind him.
I have no explanation for Trump as Jesus-y healer of the sick, alas. Other than it plays upon his deep and insatiable need to be thought of as great. Which he never will be....not by anyone whose opinion he genuinely cares about.
From Jedi to wizard of Middle-earth, some would call that a promotion (though I still prefer the OT of the space fantasy franchise over the OT of the "Medieval" fantasy franchise, but not by much after going to see LOTR extended versions in the theater back to back to back: one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life; still, seeing the original SW in the theater in 1977 on a huge wrap-around screen that made today's IMAX screens seem like watching on a laptop was one of the great experiences in my life).
Apparently a WH staffer doctored the original meme to ADD Baal to it. Weird.
It seems like the same sort of thing they were doing 10 years ago, putting swastikas everywhere. I guess the only way you can out-Hitler Hitler is with Satan? Or they just don't want to have a Baal gap.
I can’t remember now where I saw it, but I read a Substack article that said Epstein Island had a temple to Baal & believed there were ritual sacrifices happening there. Maybe the Iranians read the same thing? I’ll try to find it…
Your conclusion reminds me of the old saw " yeah mom I got a D but Johnny got an F".
Yes Bibi, the imbecile trump and the Ayatollahs are all evil. The orange imbecile stands out to me as he not only inflicts needless pain planet wide but in the process makes other bad guys seem less bad, at least until their next atrocity.
BTW, read an interesting article by Edward Luce in the FT. Point, what stimulated the huge turnout and election victory in Hungary, the collective hatred of corruption while the ordinary folks struggle to make ends meet. As the Dems are all over the place with criticisms, perhaps focusing on how trump, family and friends are illegally profiting may be the best rallying cry to get out the vote and penetrate MAGA. Just a thought.
…and I had read many months ago that the protests and determination to get him out really picked up with the politician sexual abuse issues around young people. That really motivated the youth. Just in time too; the opposition from last century has been holding down the fort in that area for a long time.
All we have wanted, for almost ten years now, is that sort of figure -- a Dem, or even a "good" Republican if one exists, who promises and then comes through on the promise to end the corruption, the graft, the moral rot, the incestuousness of Washington. Mamdani is the closest we've come, and of course, in our wisdom, we've made it so he cannot be president. Meanwhile Schumer and Jeffries happily underwrite Bibi and talk about affordability -- as if the reason we need to talk about affordability isn't the oligarchs sucking everything out of the system.
Seems the likes of AOC and Jasmine C. are better placed to lead the charge against the imbecile & co than any senior Dems. However, for the life of me cannot understand why AOC has a net negative favorability rating of some 20%. Magyar is 45 years young, old folks like me need to get out of the way, Dems need asap to find a young-ish, very likable front person to carry a unified, agreed message, my vote play the corruption card.
I think Baal made an appearance in Ghostbusters II, where Sigourney Weaver's character was possessed by him. He may also have made a cameo appearance in The Exorcist but I can't swear to that because it's STILL a film I can't watch again -- it completely colored my teenage years. How DARE the Iranians think we aren't in touch with our demons!
I didn't let my kids watch Exorcist for years because to me, it was the scariest of the horror movies. Then they watched it, and they were like, "That's it?" But it's such a great film, and it sets this wonderfully spooky tone of pure dread. At Georgetown, where it was filmed, and set, and where the author went to school, we watched it every Halloween, in the big theater on campus. It takes away some of the terror when you can see your house, and you see her get into a cab and emerge literally 100 feet down the same street. But it's not as scary as what you remember, I'm sure...
Maybe I had too much Catholic left over. God, have I even tried to watch it since 1973? I know I have it -- I keep it around like I keep "Requiem for a Dream" around, which is one of the best movies I've ever seen that I can't bring myself to watch again. I was 15 when I saw Exorcist. I was a big kid (still am!), so had no problem getting into an R rated film, but I DO remember going to the lobby in the middle of the exorcism scene -- too may priests, too much Catholic stuff, WAY too much, "The Power of Christ compels You!" I should give it another go; like dropping into the deep end of a pool when you're afraid of water. Yup, I have that too! LOL
ETA: Not Baal, Zuul! But Zuul is obviously modeled on the name Baal. Maybe they didn't want to piss off the real demon!
Thank you for this break down, Greg. A subject I enjoy: ancient cultures. Extreme patriarchal religious practitioners can be counted on to conflate pagan practices and give the worst attributes to females, as they deem females to be carriers of unholy (read “pagan”) knowledge (…convinced it really has to do with jealously of multiple orgasms and the ability to conceive). Barbara G. Walker wrote “The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets” in 1983 and it has been an enjoyable resource (with quite the bibliography!) for me for many decades. Walker’s entry on “Baal” describes the term as “The Lord” among ancient Semites. Every god was a Baal and the term traveled to far lands and can be seen in the mythology of Ireland and Scandinavia. Walker goes on to write: “Baal was often used as the title of a mortal king, especially one whose reign might be terminated by a ritual sacrifice.” I think the videos strongly suggest the days of these “lords” are numbered.
Thanks, Thaïs. My interpretation of Numbers is that the grumpy old Moses and company saw all these empowered women living their best lives, and they were like, "We can't have THAT!" Samuel Johnson once wrote, jokingly, "Nature has given women so much power that the law cannot afford to give them more." Which speaks to the jealousy and insecurity and, almost certainly, deep-seeded self-loathing of all these early religious patriarchs.
I love thinking of Baal as mortal, but how much more must be sacrificed to end the reign of Baal-a-Lago?
I don't know that book and will look for it. Thanks!
Having been raised in a home where the Bible was read every day and considered the literally true word of God, I’m one who is familiar with Baal. But I think I realized at a deeper level than ever before how willfully uninformed and intellectually dishonest that belief system is. The kind of research you did for this piece never takes place; they’d rather pore over every word in the King James Version—ignoring the countless translations and editing over the centuries—trying to discern from those exact words what God must have meant. Consequently, I assumed Baal was a specific idol without ever understanding the various possible meanings of that word. As always, thanks for the research, documentation and dot-connecting you do!
After reading your response, it shocks me how far we have come from real interest in anything serious… thus so grateful for Greg and also your response. And the fact I can be shocked after 2 admins…….well, it shows an education is a vaccination against dumb brain harmful stuff.
I can’t even ask AI if that happened….cause….they already think I’m a professionals violist AND that I am an expert and breeder regarding cockatiels because I just got one. They keep saying, “considering your age.” I finally told them to shut the FVK up about that. 😂 Their response was SO HAL: “You are right to respond like that.” I’m trying to clean up my language, I notice people don’t say OMG, or FVK a whole lot on substack. But nothing happening now is making that easier.
Thanks, Earl. I read through a bunch of Biblical interpretation online people had written about Numbers, and especially Numbers 31. It's a description of a straight-up genocide, and yet the commentators were bending over backwards to justify it, and find spiritual meaning in it. And there isn't any. It's tribal and ultimately a lesson in evil.
It must have been confounding for you to grow up like that, because the Bible is so full of contradictions, and how can the word of God be exactly opposite of the word of God in another passage? How to square the circle? I think it's a useful document in contemplating our own system of morality. Like, Moses was a jerk and a cult leader, there was no justification for that slaughter, killing the young couple was obviously wrong in every way. But as an instruction manual? That would break my brain.
Greg, I read with interest checking dates the hagaddah used for passover in written before Christ was born, so the blood libel story doesn't fit. I did not know that the creature of the top of trumps card was meant to be Baal though I wondered why does he have an evil creature up there and now I understand the Lego videos, which I've seen clips of but never watched in full. Thank you on many counts! And then of course THE BEST you made me laugh out loud, djt King of Shit!!
Thanks, Sara. I meant, to be clear, that the makers of the video, in dressing Baal up in Jewish attire, are invoking blood libel, not that the ancients were. The Lego clips are amazing. Today there was one about Erika Kirk, a country song called "Goodbye, Charlie." Brutal!
Is there a consensus date for when Moses/Canaan was thought to have happened? I saw 1406 BCE a lot.
Greg, I just re googled and found this on the Jewish Book Council site:
“~170 CE: The earliest possible date for a complete Haggadah to have been created, because Rabbi Yehudah bar Elai exists here, and is the last Tanna quoted in the Haggadah text. Therefore, it must be presumed that the text must have been completed after this time, and not earlier.
~135 – 360 CE. Arguments ensue among various commentators as to the origin of the text based on a short discussion in the talmud in Pesachim 116a. 135 is the birth-year of the compiler of the mishna, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, to whom some attribute the Haggadah’s creation. 360 is the time of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, who is cited as one of two possible Nachmans who may have compiled the Haggadah text. The other is Nachman bar Yaakov, whose heydey was ~280 CE.
Over the next several hundred years, various parts are added and modified, until finally they are solidified around 700 – 800 CE.
It’s only recently that I’ve heard that blood was used in Matzah a food whose recipe was literally created On The Go! I see from your note the clarification you are making. This goes back centuries though used in pogroms. and expulsions. The resurfacing is just an attack to make everyone one of "the others' without humanity. Of course shown over the 'healer' lots of parenthesis here the "king of shit" does always make clear who he is and what his attitude is.
Have to admit, I haven’t watched the LEGO videos yet from start to finish, only clips. Will have to take a look. The propaganda faction which you and Stephanie were discussing was very good. Even the idea that Iran would take the time to figure out how to get into our collective heads.
Adding a note, as I thought about this. I think you are extremely clear. I understood your points of reference. Thank you Greg!! I am going to see what these Lego videos are about, now….Just type Irans Lego videos and a treasure trove appears. I shared the Five 8’s video from last night with many friends and family,
We REALLY have to get rid of this trickle down neo liberalism politics that deregulates everything and keeps telling us the rich are looking out for us. Seriously, even the Dems. This is getting exhausting.
The entire political apparatus need to be torn down, like the East Wing, and built again from scratch, around core issues like anti-corruption, rule of law, and helping each other.
Too bad I didn’t think of it when Hall Hall was talking; the gov’t (like England and France) needs to pay people unemployment if they are fired form their job while protesting. And keep their health benefits. I wish she had brought up the point because just getting angrier is not the answer; BUT that being said as they say, maybe it is. But then, if that is the only weapon left available to the people (even by Pelosi greedy neo liberal in HER spike heels) then ……I need a long nap.
Another thing; It is shocking to me that even media people KEEP talking about this public piece of plastic presidency as if it was NOT inert and no longer even capable of being programmed like Alexa! Media people, including news, keeps saying stuff like, “He wants the war to end but blah blah blah……..”. He can NO LONGER want anything…….is anyone getting that? Well, maybe bergers…and diet soda since it prevents CANCER. We are as nuts as he is……why are people following his lead as if our country had become Our Gang?
Hi, Greg,
As always, I appreciate your scholarship and fascinating insights, particularly in this case, on the subtext of these videos, which I also find entertaining. I'm a little confused as to where you wind up at the very end, perhaps because I am trying to find implications that you may not be making about the ongoing war. It seems that the majority of Iranians are - or were, before Trump et al started bombing the shit out of them - also opposed to the regime. Is the argument: "Don't lionize the Mullahs and give in to anti-Semitism just because Trump and Netanyahu are awful?" If so, would it make sense not to use the term "the Iranians" to describe those in charge, since the rulers no more represent the people of Iran than Trump does the majority of Americans?
Thanks, Frank. You're right, of course, and I did pause a few times at that point and hope the context made it clear that I mean the government and not the people. I will add a footnote.
I had always thought of Baal as Cerberus master, thanks for another exceptionally crafted piece Greg!
Thank you!
TGIF🎉🎉🎉One week closer! If anyone’s in the Boston area on Patriots Day, Monday, and you’re NOT running the Marathon, come over to the ICE protest at Wall Street in Burlington. Gonna be YUGE!
Gonna be wicked yuge!
🤣 Yeah, wicked pissah yuge!
Brilliant and insightful and thought provoking as always, Greg. You make us think, which is a very good thing. I especially enjoyed the final Baal note about Beelzebub. Trump, indeed.
Thanks, Rick. Lord of Shit, he is!
For the diaper wearing would be king, King of Shit is most apt 👏🏻👏👏🏻👏 🎯
Bingo.
In a related story, Steve Bannon peed himself on stage this week and didn't even realize it...
Wow, that is fabulous research.
Collective illusions are built on such fabrications (collective illusions are ideas that everyone adheres to but no one believes: see Todd Rose’s book on it). The need to scapegoat is also ancient in times of threat or scarcity (see the fascinating book “Deceit, Desire and the Novel” by Rene Girard, which describes this need:
https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/1414/deceit-desire-and-novel?srsltid=AfmBOopBeh_qmrzRYMoNHvIPbtbx7ZEnJVhJEvVhinek7g3uFfbD7pft&srsltid=AfmBOopyOqwShzXe--sT6MULdQL6jDWnVCxdYW4bLlqelSzDCtHcBjBK ).
So here we sit in our idiotic humanity, just as stupid as ever, but this time around with nukes.
Fascinating, Greg.
Thanks, Bronwyn!
Isn't "scapegoat," as a term, as old as the Book of Numbers? Collective illusions...our entire country is built upon them, it seems...
Thanks for the recs!
Brilliant, as usual. I felt like I was back in my Ancient History college classes. I also was reminded that the last time any public reference to the term “blood libel” had come from our former idiot Vice-President Sarah Palin.
Thanks, CLD! Curiously, we heard also from Ms. Palin this week. She shared a meme of Jesus with his arm out, with the caption, "That's enough, give me the phone."
😆🙄😆 She’s clearly the same grifting idiot she’s always been.
I’m still befuddled about why someone thought it was a good idea to put an image of Baal at the top of the trump as Jesus imagery. Is it just a stupid cut and paste from the Iranian one? I see your Baal and call? My Baal is better than your Baal? Is it a confession? What?
I was wondering the same thing. I thought Greg was leading up to an explication of Trump's image with him as Jesus in healing mode (to Jon Stewart?) but strangely the horned, possibly winged creature above and behind him.
I have no explanation for Trump as Jesus-y healer of the sick, alas. Other than it plays upon his deep and insatiable need to be thought of as great. Which he never will be....not by anyone whose opinion he genuinely cares about.
Still getting used to your new avatar...
From Jedi to wizard of Middle-earth, some would call that a promotion (though I still prefer the OT of the space fantasy franchise over the OT of the "Medieval" fantasy franchise, but not by much after going to see LOTR extended versions in the theater back to back to back: one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life; still, seeing the original SW in the theater in 1977 on a huge wrap-around screen that made today's IMAX screens seem like watching on a laptop was one of the great experiences in my life).
Apparently a WH staffer doctored the original meme to ADD Baal to it. Weird.
It seems like the same sort of thing they were doing 10 years ago, putting swastikas everywhere. I guess the only way you can out-Hitler Hitler is with Satan? Or they just don't want to have a Baal gap.
Ha! Or maybe he (or she) is a mole.
I can’t remember now where I saw it, but I read a Substack article that said Epstein Island had a temple to Baal & believed there were ritual sacrifices happening there. Maybe the Iranians read the same thing? I’ll try to find it…
Shovels
That could be. But the video felt very specific.
Greg
Your conclusion reminds me of the old saw " yeah mom I got a D but Johnny got an F".
Yes Bibi, the imbecile trump and the Ayatollahs are all evil. The orange imbecile stands out to me as he not only inflicts needless pain planet wide but in the process makes other bad guys seem less bad, at least until their next atrocity.
BTW, read an interesting article by Edward Luce in the FT. Point, what stimulated the huge turnout and election victory in Hungary, the collective hatred of corruption while the ordinary folks struggle to make ends meet. As the Dems are all over the place with criticisms, perhaps focusing on how trump, family and friends are illegally profiting may be the best rallying cry to get out the vote and penetrate MAGA. Just a thought.
…and I had read many months ago that the protests and determination to get him out really picked up with the politician sexual abuse issues around young people. That really motivated the youth. Just in time too; the opposition from last century has been holding down the fort in that area for a long time.
These videos, I think, are very popular with young people, who are the target audience ultimately.
All we have wanted, for almost ten years now, is that sort of figure -- a Dem, or even a "good" Republican if one exists, who promises and then comes through on the promise to end the corruption, the graft, the moral rot, the incestuousness of Washington. Mamdani is the closest we've come, and of course, in our wisdom, we've made it so he cannot be president. Meanwhile Schumer and Jeffries happily underwrite Bibi and talk about affordability -- as if the reason we need to talk about affordability isn't the oligarchs sucking everything out of the system.
Seems the likes of AOC and Jasmine C. are better placed to lead the charge against the imbecile & co than any senior Dems. However, for the life of me cannot understand why AOC has a net negative favorability rating of some 20%. Magyar is 45 years young, old folks like me need to get out of the way, Dems need asap to find a young-ish, very likable front person to carry a unified, agreed message, my vote play the corruption card.
I think Baal made an appearance in Ghostbusters II, where Sigourney Weaver's character was possessed by him. He may also have made a cameo appearance in The Exorcist but I can't swear to that because it's STILL a film I can't watch again -- it completely colored my teenage years. How DARE the Iranians think we aren't in touch with our demons!
THERE IS NO DONALD ONLY ZUUL!
I didn't let my kids watch Exorcist for years because to me, it was the scariest of the horror movies. Then they watched it, and they were like, "That's it?" But it's such a great film, and it sets this wonderfully spooky tone of pure dread. At Georgetown, where it was filmed, and set, and where the author went to school, we watched it every Halloween, in the big theater on campus. It takes away some of the terror when you can see your house, and you see her get into a cab and emerge literally 100 feet down the same street. But it's not as scary as what you remember, I'm sure...
Maybe I had too much Catholic left over. God, have I even tried to watch it since 1973? I know I have it -- I keep it around like I keep "Requiem for a Dream" around, which is one of the best movies I've ever seen that I can't bring myself to watch again. I was 15 when I saw Exorcist. I was a big kid (still am!), so had no problem getting into an R rated film, but I DO remember going to the lobby in the middle of the exorcism scene -- too may priests, too much Catholic stuff, WAY too much, "The Power of Christ compels You!" I should give it another go; like dropping into the deep end of a pool when you're afraid of water. Yup, I have that too! LOL
ETA: Not Baal, Zuul! But Zuul is obviously modeled on the name Baal. Maybe they didn't want to piss off the real demon!
Thank you for this break down, Greg. A subject I enjoy: ancient cultures. Extreme patriarchal religious practitioners can be counted on to conflate pagan practices and give the worst attributes to females, as they deem females to be carriers of unholy (read “pagan”) knowledge (…convinced it really has to do with jealously of multiple orgasms and the ability to conceive). Barbara G. Walker wrote “The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets” in 1983 and it has been an enjoyable resource (with quite the bibliography!) for me for many decades. Walker’s entry on “Baal” describes the term as “The Lord” among ancient Semites. Every god was a Baal and the term traveled to far lands and can be seen in the mythology of Ireland and Scandinavia. Walker goes on to write: “Baal was often used as the title of a mortal king, especially one whose reign might be terminated by a ritual sacrifice.” I think the videos strongly suggest the days of these “lords” are numbered.
Ooo, that was interesting!
Thanks, Thaïs. My interpretation of Numbers is that the grumpy old Moses and company saw all these empowered women living their best lives, and they were like, "We can't have THAT!" Samuel Johnson once wrote, jokingly, "Nature has given women so much power that the law cannot afford to give them more." Which speaks to the jealousy and insecurity and, almost certainly, deep-seeded self-loathing of all these early religious patriarchs.
I love thinking of Baal as mortal, but how much more must be sacrificed to end the reign of Baal-a-Lago?
I don't know that book and will look for it. Thanks!
The title. 😂. Now for the real second reading. And it IS Friday. The most excellent day of the week for TheFive8
Thanks! There were a few other options for titles. I should have gone with BAAL-A-LAGO, but I didn't think of it into just now...
Having been raised in a home where the Bible was read every day and considered the literally true word of God, I’m one who is familiar with Baal. But I think I realized at a deeper level than ever before how willfully uninformed and intellectually dishonest that belief system is. The kind of research you did for this piece never takes place; they’d rather pore over every word in the King James Version—ignoring the countless translations and editing over the centuries—trying to discern from those exact words what God must have meant. Consequently, I assumed Baal was a specific idol without ever understanding the various possible meanings of that word. As always, thanks for the research, documentation and dot-connecting you do!
After reading your response, it shocks me how far we have come from real interest in anything serious… thus so grateful for Greg and also your response. And the fact I can be shocked after 2 admins…….well, it shows an education is a vaccination against dumb brain harmful stuff.
[gestures towards clip of sitting Congresswoman asking the sitting health services chief about the time he chopped off the raccoon penis]
I can’t even ask AI if that happened….cause….they already think I’m a professionals violist AND that I am an expert and breeder regarding cockatiels because I just got one. They keep saying, “considering your age.” I finally told them to shut the FVK up about that. 😂 Their response was SO HAL: “You are right to respond like that.” I’m trying to clean up my language, I notice people don’t say OMG, or FVK a whole lot on substack. But nothing happening now is making that easier.
Thanks, Earl. I read through a bunch of Biblical interpretation online people had written about Numbers, and especially Numbers 31. It's a description of a straight-up genocide, and yet the commentators were bending over backwards to justify it, and find spiritual meaning in it. And there isn't any. It's tribal and ultimately a lesson in evil.
It must have been confounding for you to grow up like that, because the Bible is so full of contradictions, and how can the word of God be exactly opposite of the word of God in another passage? How to square the circle? I think it's a useful document in contemplating our own system of morality. Like, Moses was a jerk and a cult leader, there was no justification for that slaughter, killing the young couple was obviously wrong in every way. But as an instruction manual? That would break my brain.
Greg, I read with interest checking dates the hagaddah used for passover in written before Christ was born, so the blood libel story doesn't fit. I did not know that the creature of the top of trumps card was meant to be Baal though I wondered why does he have an evil creature up there and now I understand the Lego videos, which I've seen clips of but never watched in full. Thank you on many counts! And then of course THE BEST you made me laugh out loud, djt King of Shit!!
King of. shit - the best moniker yet
Well, he wants to be king...
Thanks, Sara. I meant, to be clear, that the makers of the video, in dressing Baal up in Jewish attire, are invoking blood libel, not that the ancients were. The Lego clips are amazing. Today there was one about Erika Kirk, a country song called "Goodbye, Charlie." Brutal!
Is there a consensus date for when Moses/Canaan was thought to have happened? I saw 1406 BCE a lot.
Greg, I just re googled and found this on the Jewish Book Council site:
“~170 CE: The earliest possible date for a complete Haggadah to have been created, because Rabbi Yehudah bar Elai exists here, and is the last Tanna quoted in the Haggadah text. Therefore, it must be presumed that the text must have been completed after this time, and not earlier.
~135 – 360 CE. Arguments ensue among various commentators as to the origin of the text based on a short discussion in the talmud in Pesachim 116a. 135 is the birth-year of the compiler of the mishna, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, to whom some attribute the Haggadah’s creation. 360 is the time of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, who is cited as one of two possible Nachmans who may have compiled the Haggadah text. The other is Nachman bar Yaakov, whose heydey was ~280 CE.
Over the next several hundred years, various parts are added and modified, until finally they are solidified around 700 – 800 CE.
It’s only recently that I’ve heard that blood was used in Matzah a food whose recipe was literally created On The Go! I see from your note the clarification you are making. This goes back centuries though used in pogroms. and expulsions. The resurfacing is just an attack to make everyone one of "the others' without humanity. Of course shown over the 'healer' lots of parenthesis here the "king of shit" does always make clear who he is and what his attitude is.
Have to admit, I haven’t watched the LEGO videos yet from start to finish, only clips. Will have to take a look. The propaganda faction which you and Stephanie were discussing was very good. Even the idea that Iran would take the time to figure out how to get into our collective heads.
Best regards Sara
Adding a note, as I thought about this. I think you are extremely clear. I understood your points of reference. Thank you Greg!! I am going to see what these Lego videos are about, now….Just type Irans Lego videos and a treasure trove appears. I shared the Five 8’s video from last night with many friends and family,
We REALLY have to get rid of this trickle down neo liberalism politics that deregulates everything and keeps telling us the rich are looking out for us. Seriously, even the Dems. This is getting exhausting.
The entire political apparatus need to be torn down, like the East Wing, and built again from scratch, around core issues like anti-corruption, rule of law, and helping each other.
Too bad I didn’t think of it when Hall Hall was talking; the gov’t (like England and France) needs to pay people unemployment if they are fired form their job while protesting. And keep their health benefits. I wish she had brought up the point because just getting angrier is not the answer; BUT that being said as they say, maybe it is. But then, if that is the only weapon left available to the people (even by Pelosi greedy neo liberal in HER spike heels) then ……I need a long nap.
Another thing; It is shocking to me that even media people KEEP talking about this public piece of plastic presidency as if it was NOT inert and no longer even capable of being programmed like Alexa! Media people, including news, keeps saying stuff like, “He wants the war to end but blah blah blah……..”. He can NO LONGER want anything…….is anyone getting that? Well, maybe bergers…and diet soda since it prevents CANCER. We are as nuts as he is……why are people following his lead as if our country had become Our Gang?
That is a mystery for the ages...but maybe it's because they too make bank whenever he announces some dumb thing and the oil futures move?
And now people are gambling on the WAR events…. Totally believable in a biblical way