The Myth of Xmas -- המיתוס של חג המולד

This article is taken from TorahAnytime.com's Weekly Parasha Hashavua Newsletter.

Santa Claus Was Created By Coca Cola!

  

So, X-mas has just passed and I'm willing to put money down that you fit into one of three categories with regards to this holiday: You either 1- love Chanukah but think that X-mas is pretty cool, 2- heard that X-mas has something to do with the birth of Yeshu (Jesus), but are curious how everything else (the tree, Santa, gingerbread men, etc...) fits in, or 3- couldn't care less.

Regardless of which group you're part of, it's absolutely necessary to know and understand what X-mas is reallyall about. After all, our families are raised in an extremely Christian oriented society, and if we aren't armed with the knowledge needed to combat this, we stand very little hope of preventing its influence on our families and selves.

Lets begin.

First off, we must state outright that it is a completemyth that Yeshu was born on 12/25. Not only does the New Testament fail to give any date for his birth, but the earliest Gospel written-St. Mark-records stories only of anadult Yeshu; there is no story recorded of his birth at all!

We could easily go into greater detail, but suffice it to say, there are 3 respected opinions in the Christian world as to when Yeshu was born, and-get this-none of them place it at December 25^th. DePascha Computus, the earliest Catholic document discovered, says he was born on March 28^th. Clement, a church Bishop from the same time period thought he was born on November 18th. More recently, Joseph Fitzmyer, a Cardinal with extremely close ties to the Pope disagreed with both of them, and claims he was born on September 11^th 3 BCE!

Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it?

If this is the case, you might be wondering how in heaven's name X-mas ended up being celebrated on the 25^th of December? Well, in order to answer this question, we need to take a trip back in time to ancient Roman days and learn about the pagan festival of Saturnalia,which took place from Dec. 17^th-25^th.

The custom of this festival was as follows: There were no rules-plain and simple. You could dowhatever you wanted however you wanted withwhomever you wanted. In addition to human sacrifice, other customs of this day included widespread intoxication, complete rampant immorality, going from house to house singing disrobed, and eating human shaped biscuits. The last two traditions are indeed the forerunners of modern day X-mas caroling and gingerbread men cookies.

Keep reading. It gets better.

In the 4^th century, the Church decided that it wanted to convert people en masse, and so they adopted the holiday of Saturnalia into Christianity in an effort to attract pagan followers! The only problem was that there wasn't anything inherently Christian about Saturnalia, so Christian leaders...can you guess it...named the last day of the holiday-Dec. 25^th as Yeshu' birthday.

Of course, the Church couldn't have its followers spend a week out of the year getting drunk, having illicit relations, and murdering whomever they wanted, so some leaders tried to stop it; they had very little success though. After all, who would want to give up such a great holiday? The kicker is this: From 1659-1681, the Puritans in Massachusetts [the famous Pilgrims] actuallybanned X-mas because of its terrible pagan origins!

The Origin of Christian Customs:

The Tree:Just like the Church incorporated Saturnalia in an effort to attract pagans, they attracted the worshippers of the Asheira Cult by incorporating the trees they worshipped into Christian Doctrine. Sounds familiar? Asheira Trees? The Torah mentions them outright as a form of idolatry!

Mistletoe: Norse/Druid mythology tells the story of their god Balder being shot and killed by an arrow laced with poisonous mistletoe. Druid rituals, therefore, used mistletoe poison to kill their sacrificial human victim. Just as with the Asheira cult, Christians adopted their customs in an effort to missionize them, and "kissing one's beloved under the mistletoe" (a combination of the immorality of Saturnalia and Druid sacrifices) was born.

Presents:  Roman Emperors forced their most despised citizens to give them gifts during Saturnalia. This soon became a tradition amongst all Romans during Saturnalia, and when Saturnalia became a "Christian" Holiday, the Church gave it a "Christian flavor" by claiming that St. Nicholas would give presents.

But how is Santa connected to St. Nicholas?

We're running out of room so I'll keep it short and sweet:

St. Nicholas, a Middle-Eastern Christian man, died and was buried in Turkey in 345 CE. About 800 years later, his bones were uprooted by sailors who idolized him, and they reburied him in Italy. Ultimately, because of his popularity in the region, he replaced the god of the area, Pasqua Ephiphania, who used to fill children's stockings with gifts. And so, Nicholas had now become a gift-giving god. His popularity spread north into the Germanic regions where he ultimately replaced their god, Woden, as well. Woden had a long white beard and rode a horse through the heavens in late autumn. Now it was Nicholas who grew a beard, had heavy winter clothing, and flew a flying horse. In deference to Saturnalia however, his flight was rescheduled to December.

Not quite the modern Santa, but we're getting closer...

In the 1800's, a new and improved history of St. Nicholas began surface. Firstly, the Dutch equivalent of St. Nicholas,called Santa Claus, became extremely popular through the efforts of popular author Washington Irving (who also wrote Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle), and people stopped calling him St. Nicholas and only called him Santa Claus. Additionally, through the publications of well-known professor Dr. Clement Moore and illustrator Thomas Nast, Santa Claus was popularly portrayed in books and newspaper cartoons as flying with reindeer, descending through chimneys, having a home in the North Pole, owning a workshop filled with elves, and keeping a list of good and bad children.

That's right. You read correctly. The majority of Santa Claus stories...are just made up stories.

All we're missing is the red suit.

Enter Coca Cola...

In 1931, Coke's sales had plunged because they'd removed their key ingredient due to legal issues-cocaine. In an effort to boost sales, they contracted Swedish artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled Santa, who up until then was a skinny man, after his friend Lou Prentice, a cheerful and chubby person. Coca Cola insisted that Santa's suit be colored Coca Cola Red, and at long last, our classic modern-day Santa complete with his red suit, big belly, and reindeer was born...

NOW I want you to think about the difference between Chanukah and X-mas. What does each holiday represent? Which has any intrinsic value and why?                                                                    Shabbat Shalom | Chanan Tzionov

The truth about the origins of Xianity, האמת על הנצרות

Moshiach is not yet here, but we have Rabbi Mashiach Kelaty, whose shiur about the origins of Xianity, called "The Yeshka Conspiracy", is excellent and appropriate to be revealed at this time in history where truth must be revealed to all.

Thank Torah Anytime (the reason for the Internet) and Rabbi Mashiach for this.  What the Rabbi said at the end of the shiur is similar to what I have learned from my own Rabbi, but it was learned so many years ago, and I don't have the written sources.  This shiur speaks it all.  You must hear and understand why there are so many Messianics in the world pretending to be Jews and worshipping an idol, much like the historical facts hidden in our Talmud. Just like the original Xians were Jews who were misled by Yeshki, who was an idolator, according to the sources in our uncensored Gemara, there are Jews and non-Jews today who belong to the Messianic sect who copy many Jewish customs, including their women covering their hair with Jewish style hair coverings and their men wearing kippot.  But their style of worship is very different and they don't speak the Jewish speak and you can easily identify them.

Facts learned: Rome did not have a language until a Jewish Rabbi taught them Latin.  Latin was a Jewish man-made language to separate the Xians from the Jews so that they have Latin, an unholy tongue,  and we have Hebrew, the holy tongue.


Listen to the shiur here.

Rabbi Mizrachi and Lipa Schmeltzer, הרב מזרחי ליפא שמעלצר

No, this is not a music video.  This is an excellent shiur from Rabbi Mizrachi, held at Lipa Schmeltzer's shul.  First, he criticizes the newer movements of Judaism (I believe he meant Orthodox Judaism) and gave hints that these movements worship their leader(s) and one has a custom of screaming in the forests as a type of worship which is not condoned in the Torah. Although he doesn't explicitly say the names of these movements, I think he's referring to two Chassidic movements, perhaps Chabad and Breslov.  The hints gave them away.

The Rabbi also invites Devorah Feldman to speak to him about her accusations against Judaism and her community in her books.  The Rabbi states that the Torah can be scientifically-proven and Judaism is not solely a faith-based religion, unlike other religions.  The most interesting part of the shiur is the Q&A from the audience, which I believe are Chassidim.  Listening to their way of thinking and their types of questions is very eye-opening.  The Rabbi claims that the Zohar as we know it is not 100% written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, but includes additions written later by other authors.  The Rabbi provides scientific analysis in answering the questions.

And last of all, the Rabbi talks about Moshiach and our time.  He reiterates that only 20% of the Jews will be saved, just like in Metzias Mitzrayim.  It is clear today to everyone that out of the 13.4 million Jews in the world, only a tiny fraction is religious, and of these, even a tinier portion is truly G-d fearing.

An excellent shiur nonetheless.  I look forward to future shiurim from the Rabbi held at Mr. Schmeltzer's shul.

2012 Mayan End of the World Myth, 2012 סוף העולם המיאן

Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi debunks the myth of the Mayan 2012 nonsense...