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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Passover
#5502974 - 04/11/06 10:37 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Is in just a day or two. It's a celebration of the Jews' exodus from Egypt, and commemorates the final of the Ten Plagues, which was the death of the first born child in every family in Egypt, except of course for the Jewish people.
Does this holiday have any significance to you or how do you interpret the holiday? Does it have any special meaning (metaphorically, morally, etc?) or is it merely a day to eat?
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible



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Re: Passover [Re: dblaney]
#5503056 - 04/11/06 11:07 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Never knew what it was.
I'll probbaly eat whatever I feel.
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"What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
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Silversoul
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Re: Passover [Re: dblaney]
#5503179 - 04/11/06 11:46 AM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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I think we should remember in our prayers those poor Egyptians who had to die so that the Hebrews could escape to the holy land, only to be conquered by several other civilizations to come.
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MAIA
World-BridgerKartikeya (DftS)


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Re: Passover [Re: dblaney]
#5503241 - 04/11/06 12:00 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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I see as a metaphor about immigration and immigrants, probably the antithesis of what's happening today in the USA and Canada ...
Anyway, they are only expendable when they're not needed anymore. It seems they were still needed in ancient Egypt by the ruling power. Imagine what would happen if most immigrants left the US and Canada ...
MAIA
-------------------- Spiritual being, living a human experience ... The Shroomery Mandala
 Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. Voltaire
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: Passover [Re: dblaney]
#5503310 - 04/11/06 12:20 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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I believe the Exodus is a metaphorical story and a mythological story. It is full of theurgy, thaumaturgy, and theophanies: fancy names for Magic, Sorcery and psychophysical manifestations of God's Presence. I saw a new Exodus made-for-TV movie advertised. Moses looks like a dishevelled Jesus, and the tablets of the Law are ragged and not rounded like the Michaelangelo original (and all thereafter).
Exodus is about a spiritual exodus, wherein death passing-over and passing through a sea of rebirth before entering a 'promised land' are all metaphors for the journey of the soul from bondage to the world (symbolized by Egypt), through a 'dark night of the soul' which is indeed a 'desert experience' of dryness, asceticism (compared to worldly indulgence; the "fleshpots of Egypt"), the life-giving (and for the pursuing Egyptians, life-taking) waters which follow the arid earth. It has been said in many ways that if one flees the world, it will pursue one; and Moses, who disobeyed God, was not allowed to enter 'the promised land,' but another one shephards the Hebrews: Joshua (Hebrew - Y'shua; Greek - Iesus). Moses was a culturally appropriate symbol for the patriarchal Hebrews just like the later Jesus was an appropriate symbol for Hellenic and Hellenized people who were steeped in young demigods and Mystery Religions.
It is a myth that is remembered, no different from the mythic recitation of the Mahabharata in Hinduism. But Jews, like Muslims who will suspend normal common sense for a Literalist belief in Mohammed's flying horse, are those who just don't understand that faith is not the suspension of common sense. Faith is a transcendental attitude that is aimed at a Transcendental Mystery. That Mystery is alluded to by myth, which paints outrageous spiritual adventure stories. Faith is not a transcendental attitude aimed at historical phenomenon, and it is the epitomy of ignorance to understand it as such. Spiritual stories point at a Mystery, but Literalists are like the unenlightened peasants who, when the Zen master points at the moon, looks at the master's finger instead of the moon.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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blaze2
The Witness


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You just called me a peasent sir and you came off all judgemental. So you really are just all talk huh? If you want to be Christian you have to stop acting so superior to others just cause they have a different OPINION than you man. All these great "history" books you are always blabbing about are just somebodies else's OPINIONS.
Yes I believe all that stuff happened. Egypt had slaves there is evidence for the plagues happening(admittedly I'm sure it was exagerrated some what good story teller doesnt?) and the slaves leaving. I'm equally sure there was some guy named Moses that had a big stick and led them around the desert. Some huge volcano exploded in teh mediterrian around then theres your pillar of fire and smoke leading north where they cross teh reed sea not the red sea that part is mistranslated. Point is alot of crazyness happened around this time adn its not that hard to believe someone took advatage of it.
And I hardly think that michelangelo knew what the tablets looked like man he was just making it up liek the rest of us.
-------------------- "Religion without science is blind, Science without religion is lame." Albert Einstein "peace is not maintained through force it is acheived through intelligence." Albert Einstein "Those who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." Thomas Jefferson "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: Passover [Re: blaze2]
#5508138 - 04/12/06 01:19 PM (17 years, 9 months ago) |
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Dude, work on your reactivity. Obviously you do not believe in Old Testament theophanies but prefer to rationalize and rewrite the stories with a volcano in place of a 'pillar of flame.' There was a lot of "crazyness" back then you say? And the English Red Sea should have been Reed Sea you say? Do we need a miraculous parting of a Reed Sea and a drowning of the pursuing Egyptians in that case? That sort of ruins the story. Your own Biblical exegesis I trust? And, "some guy named Moses that had a big stick and led them around the desert" is your best description of these writings, but I am "acting so superior to others" in your opinion. Uh huh. OK, that is an opinion.
So, if I want to be a Christian, I have to stop attempting to understand the intentions of ancient writers, and believe the stories like I was a child listening to fairytales. Is that about right? You say you believe these stories, then contradict yourself by rewriting the stories. If you want to identify with being an "unenlightened peasant" that is your predicament. I mean, if you want to personalize my example 'as if' I was addressing you specifically, that's on you, not me. You judged yourself.
As to Michaelangelo's rendering of Moses, I was not complaining about accurate historicity lad, I was complaining, tongue-in-cheek, about the corniness of the new Moses movie. Nobody knows what the tablets of the Law looked like because if they were real, they have never survived the ages. I didn't mention that Michaelangelo's Moses has horns on his head because the Book of Exodus said that 'horns' (mistranslation of 'rays') of divine light radiated from Moses' head, and that he had to wear a veil to shield the glow (Exodus 34:29-35). This is the poor translation that has had many peasants and morons over the years believe that Jews actually have horns, and links Jews more closely with devils. Devils with horns, after all, were Christian renderings of Greece's 'Great God Pan' (Pan means 'All') which was depicted with the ancient symbols of divinity - horns.
Edited by MarkostheGnostic (04/12/06 01:25 PM)
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