December 7th - Happy Hanukkah
The evening of December 7, 2004 marks the beginning of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 164 B.C. Also referred to as the Feast of Lights, Hanukkah recalls the Talmudic story of the Temple's one-day supply of oil miraculously burning for eight days. (More
here)
To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull facilities can comprehend only in the most primitive forms--this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of the devoutly religious men.
-- Albert Einstein
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War is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate. Therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in the world."
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson
Also on this day:
Air Raid on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. The attack sank three other ships and damaged many additional vessels. More than 180 aircraft were destroyed.
A hurried dispatch from the ranking United States naval officer in Pearl Harbor, Commander in Chief Pacific, to all major navy commands and fleet units provided the first official word of the attack at the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor base. It said simply: AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.
4dk - who thinks what an interesting day this is; remembrance of a day of horror 63 years ago and remembrance of a miracle nearly 2,200 years ago.
