[Help] Apparently a lot of people don't see Wikipedia as a good source of information.

Reply from MandaDarlin'

MandaDarlin' — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:46:53 +0100

[quote jimmy123]I’m Jewish so the only thing I know about christmas is we eat chinese food. Orthodox Jews celebrate Hannuka. In short the Greeks came in and defiled the Temple and tried to spread Helinism. A group of rebels called the Macabeans fought back and retook the temple. Special pure olive oil is supposed to be used to light the Menora a huge solid gold candelabra but onyl a single jar remained pure containing only enough for one day and it would take a week to make more. A miracle occured and the oil lasted for a week. The Rabbi’s responded to this by instituting a holiday where we light a miniature version of the menorah every evening for a week hence the the name festival of lights.
Later on in history the romans past a law forbiding study of our holy books so Jews would gather with their children in hide out’s and study and when the soldiers came to investigate the children would pull out a small toy called a dreidel and say they were playing a game and the parents would give them a few small coins as a reward for studying. This developed into the tradition of giving gifts of money to kids called Hanuka Gelt Gelt being the Yiddish word for money. In rescent years because of the influence of christmas usually falling around the same time as Hanuka less religios families sometimes give presents rather than money.[/quote]

Thank you for that information.

Actually… Orthodox Jews do not celebrate Hanukkah because Hanukkah is not a commanded holiday. Reformed Jews celebrate it.

I’m Jewish, by the way. :-)

Reply from jimmy123

jimmy123 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:35:47 +0100

I’m Jewish so the only thing I know about christmas is we eat chinese food. Orthodox Jews celebrate Hannuka. In short the Greeks came in and defiled the Temple and tried to spread Helinism. A group of rebels called the Macabeans fought back and retook the temple. Special pure olive oil is supposed to be used to light the Menora a huge solid gold candelabra but onyl a single jar remained pure containing only enough for one day and it would take a week to make more. A miracle occured and the oil lasted for a week. The Rabbi’s responded to this by instituting a holiday where we light a miniature version of the menorah every evening for a week hence the the name festival of lights.
Later on in history the romans past a law forbiding study of our holy books so Jews would gather with their children in hide out’s and study and when the soldiers came to investigate the children would pull out a small toy called a dreidel and say they were playing a game and the parents would give them a few small coins as a reward for studying. This developed into the tradition of giving gifts of money to kids called Hanuka Gelt Gelt being the Yiddish word for money. In rescent years because of the influence of christmas usually falling around the same time as Hanuka less religios families sometimes give presents rather than money.

Reply from MandaDarlin'

MandaDarlin' — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:39:05 +0100

[quote cailean]Well, I find the History Channel to be fairly accurate with their reports.

See here: http://www.history.com/minisite.do?co…

Thanks! That was very helpful for the origin of Christmas.

Reply from closed

closed — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:04:23 +0100

Well, I find the History Channel to be fairly accurate with their reports.

See here: http://www.history.com/minisite.do?co…

Reply from MandaDarlin'

MandaDarlin' — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:34:45 +0100

[quote Mas 1st]Sorry but exactly where has anyone told you not to get this info from Wikipedia? something isn’t right about this question. - Mas1st[/quote]

No one did. That’s totally unrelated to the Wiki. People have thought Wikipedia wasn’t the best source of information, so therefore I’m asking what WOULD be the best source for these topics? This is the first time I am asking about these topics. I have never brought them up before.

Reply from Da⌐11

Da⌐11 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:15:12 +0100

Wikipedia is a good place to start looking for information, and if what your trying to find out isn’t critical than Wikipedia is sufficient.

The problem with Wikipedia is that anyone can edit it, so there is no guaranty that the information is actuate. But than again as far as websites go there is no guaranty the information is accurate anyway. For that matter books while its hard are just as prone to inaccuracy.

The point is you can’t relay on any one source for information you need to look a several and see what aspects are similar and what aspects are dissimilar; and then determine why the dissimilarities exist.

But again Wikipedia is a good place to start.