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My wife and I just came back from a trip to Italy and the Mediteranean which stopped in Israel for a few days.

There was a reform rabbi on board who I guess was brought in to keep the semi-Jewish travelers from lighting real candles in their staterooms for Chanukah. So every evening there was an electric candle lighting in a meeting room where the blessings were sung in Hebrew... reform Jews apparently are unable to say anything in Hebrew without singing it.

Anyway the guy kept a low profile before Chanukah started which pissed me off because he was in an ideal position to arrange more appropriate Israel tours (like avoiding shitholes like Nazareth for example).

I only went to one ceremony and am not 100% sure, but I think the guy was Rabbi William Leffler II who collaborated on two masterpieces with gentiles:

Jews and Mormons: 2 Houses of Israel (or via: amazon.co.uk)

I have to side with the 1 star review here without reading the book - Judaism might be fucked up but we know for sure that Mormons are.

The Structure of Religion: Judaism and Christianity (or via: amazon.co.uk)

This probably answers the question of how to get an easy rabbinical job on a cruise ship; write a few books on Judeo/Christianity with your gentile buddies to prove that you won't freak out the Christian pilgrims too much.

Anyway, the guy was discussing evemts based on 2 Maccabees which is a little outrageous as it is not in the Jewish canon. He claimed this book is Pharisaic, which seems a little dubious to me but there is some support for this.

He also claimed that Rabbinic Judaism is directly descended from Pharisaic Judaism. This also seems questionable (or at least too simplistic) to me. There seem to be two schools of thought where one emphasizes the relationship between the Rabbis and Pharisees with the other noting considerable differences.

My latest idea about Chanukah is to change the celebration to commemorate the invention of money.

mountainman

That would put a new spin on the legend that the most majestic historical jesus ascended through the cloud BANKS over Jerusalem.

Sheshbazzar

Never too late for me.

Every year the celebrations observed on the 25th day of this month remind me of what it is about the ethics of religious beliefs, and of practices, that I detest.
And what religious ethics, beliefs, and practices I cherish, qodesh, and renew my Dedication to.
The Menoroth lights this Temple through the worst of life's experience's, and in the darkest of its hours.

ברכת־יהוה אלהי ישראל אליכם ברכנו אתכם בשם יהוה׃

Sheshbazzar the Hebrew

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It seems the Pharisees are known from a few lines in Josephus and the Synoptic Gospels. I was surprised that so many assertions can be made about them.

For example, Rabbi Leffler used the concept of the Resurrection of the Dead in 2 Maccabees as major support for Pharisaic authorship of the book. This argument seems circular - how do we know that this concept was Pharisaic?

The Wiki also goes along with this:

No references.

Below might be a misquote of Jacob Neusner -

I don't see the word Pharisee in the quote.

perhaps they derive this stuff by looking at the legendary Yohanan_ben_Zakkai and working backwards.

The wiki notes that he hated Saducees but not specifically that he was a Pharisee - maybe he was. There has to be some doubt that the guy even existed though.

I have Gabrielle Boccaccini's Roots of Rabbinic Judaism (or via: amazon.co.uk) and don't see him getting into any of this Maccabees Pharisees bullshit.

He specifically states that the concept of studying Torah (in excess - for lack of a better term) is Rabbinical and not Pharisaical, yet the wiki above implies Neusner believes the opposite (which I seriously doubt).

At the moment, I think Rabbi Leffler's concept of what was going on is dubious, however the apparent support for it is surprising.