Chili

The Passover celebration is actually very effective in keeping the angel of light away from individual Jews and beyond that from Judaism at large. It contains the unspoken promise that a traditional Jew will never enter the promised land on his own.

Easter has nothing to do with Passover except that here the Lamb of God becomes fully God. Passover is a Christmas-time event when the Lamb of God is born and it is this lamb that gains assent to heaven at Easter but not until after the crucifixion of Jesus the Jew. It seems a bit crude but I like the metaphor . . . or would you rather see 'Judaism on fire for the Lord?'

Chili

Easter is when the sun stopped for the second time. The first time was at Chistmas which therefore is celebrated for two nights without the appearance of the light of common day on Christmas day. Christmas can happen on any day to show that the light of common day is an illusion which is not true for Easter.

Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday to show that we enter upon the seventh day of creation which was the day on which evening did not follow the day and hence, two days of Easter with no night separating these two days to show that we are illuminated by the perpetual light . . . which here would be called Christ.

Of course the stopping of the sun is a metaphor but the effect is real and the exact equivalent of a stopped sun.

gstafleu

Hm, given Jewish history, both as portrayed in the OT and later, I'm not so sure this promise is actually unspoken, either for the individual or for the collective.

Gerard Stafleu

gstafleu

You've got your astronomy jumbled [Chili]. The sun does stop on Christmas, but on easter it is barreling ahead at top speed like Sisyphus pushing up his stone in a mad rush.

And here I always thought that Sunday was just the sound of one god snoring.

Gerard Stafleu

Chili

Good for them! The point here is that it is wrong to be led into the promised land except by God and he would have you walk on top of the water so you won't be lost when you get there.

Chili

I actually never read about the sun stopping but I like it as metaphor.

Ah, I thought that at Easter we're going down-hill on the other side and that is probable how we keep up with the sun.

I want to point out to you that the NAB says it best: "Evening came and morning followed--the first day," and so on for six days except on the seventh day, from which may be infered that evening did not follow on the seventh day. Beautiful writing and so very telling.

RED DAVE

From ChiliConsidering that one of the proclamations during a Seder is a wish to celebrate the Seder next year in Jerusalem, I wonder what you are talking about.

RED DAVE

gstafleu

And if you do an end-run past a particularly ornery god, he'll nail you to the mountains and have an eagle tear out your liver each day. At that point the only thing to do is wait for a culture hero--on his way to retrieve some of the apples that Eve missed--to come by and release you.

Maybe that's why God sent a dove to Mark's Jesus.

Gerard Stafleu

gstafleu

OK, some literalism. At Christmas the sun, as seen from earth, stops going down and starts going up: the winter solstice. So mathematically speaking it actually stops (in its yearly up-and-down cycle) for an infinitesimal moment.

Ate easter, the vernal equinox, the sun has attained its maximal upwards speed (in the yearly cycle).
God was an optimist.

Gerard Stafleu

Chili

Jerusalem is the only place where bread from heaven is real or it would not be called Jerusalem. Until then we/they use unleavened bread to symbolize divine inspiration.

My words "it contains the unspoken promise that a traditional Jew will never enter the promised land on his own" does not mean that a tradition al Jew can not enter the promised land. It just means that he'll never be lost there as a result of a forcefully entry into this land and there be lost for life.