J-M's History Corner

Today is Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) in Australia – for me. See “Feast Calendar” https://jmshistorycorner.blogspot.com/2018/10/feast-calendar.html J-M's History Corner Shabbat shalom, everyone!  At least, it’s the Shabbat (Sabbath) here in Australia.  Today, in addition to being the regular Shabbat, it is also (in Oz) the Feast of Trumpets, known in Hebrew as Yom Teruah.  This feast is described in the Book of Leviticus and, as I pointed out in Does the Torah Still Apply? is still meant to be kept.  Here are Leviticus ‘ instructions on this: And YEHOVAH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘In the 7th month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of shofars, a set-apart assembly.  You shall do no work of any kind, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to YEHOVAH.  ( Leviticus 23:23-25) [Note: most translations read “no servile work”, but if you look up the Hebre...

Blockbusters Reviewed Welcome to the 17th edition of My Fortnightly Movie/TV Thoughts !  Last fortnight I reviewed Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983).  This fortnight, I’m reviewing: Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), rated PG for mild violence Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), rated PG for mild themes and violence Those are the Australian ratings; in the United States, they’re rated: The Phantom Menace – PG for sci-fi action/violence Attack of the Clones – PG for sustained sequences of sci-fi action/violence As usual, I give the trailer and a clip at the end.  And as usual, I offer the following disclaimer just to be safe: WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD.  PROCEED AT OWN RISK. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) To quote the opening paragraph from Roger Ebert’s review : “If it were the first “ Star Wars View original post 1,680 more words

Next week is (for me) the Feast of Trumpets, known in Hebrew as Yom Teruah.  (See Feast Calendar .)  It’ll be held on a similar date by Rabbinic Judaism. Coming up is the anniversary of one of the greatest acts of heroism of the Second World War: the rescue of over 90% of Denmark’s Jewish population… by ordinary citizens.  From History.com : Denmark is the only nation in Western Europe that saved most of its Jewish population from the Nazis. In April 1940, German forces invaded Denmark. They didn’t meet with much resistance. Rather than suffer an inevitable defeat by fighting back, the Danish government negotiated to insulate Denmark from the occupation. In return, the Nazis agreed to be lenient with the country, respecting its rule and neutrality. However by 1943, tensions had reached a breaking point. Workers had begun to sabotage the war effort and the Danish resistance had ramped up efforts to fight the Nazis. In response, the Nazis told the Danish...

Today I present my Restored English Translation (RET) of Ester ( Esther ) chapter 9.  As usual, it contains the Hebrew names , with a glossary of them at the end.  This chapter partly corresponds with what commonly appears as “Chapter 5” in the abridged translations in most Bibles.  See Restored English Translation of Esther: Chapter 1 and The Canon of Scripture, Part 1: The Apocrypha . CHAPTER 9 1 And it was on the 3rd day, when she had ended her prayers, Ester laid away her mourning garments, and put on her royal clothing. 2 And being gloriously adorned, after she had called on ELOHIM, Who is the beholder and saviour of all things, she took two maids with her. 3 And she leaned on one gently for support; 4 and the other followed, holding up her train. 5 And she was radiant through the perfection of her beauty, and her countenance was cheerful and very amiable; but her heart was in anguish for fear. 6 Then having passed through all the doors, she stood ...

OK, this is probably not one of the most important discussions in life; it doesn't affect our salvation, our walk with God, or our day-to-day lives.  But, it is one of the biggest and most important events in our modern history; and as someone who has (at different times) been on BOTH sides and done heaps of research on it, I feel confident in defending the reality of this historical event. OK, I'll back up: mankind first stepped foot on the moon (in modern times, anyway!  I highly recommend the book Dead Men's Secrets by Jonathan Gray) on July 20th, 1969.  Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin.  5 subsequent manned moon missions followed, the last in 1972. There are fairly popular conspiracy theories that these moon landings were fake; I myself and my entire family (including my grandfather - not the biggest conspiracy theorist) once believed it (Grandad still does; not sure about Dad).  I most certainly will not g...