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Amazing (to me) quote from the Talmud
The Talmud | September 12, 2911 | Vanity

Posted on 09/12/2011 6:35:02 PM PDT by DManA

There are stars whose light only reaches the earth long after they have fallen apart. There are people whose remembrance gives light in this world, long after they have passed away. This light shines in our darkest nights on the road we must follow.


TOPICS: Ecumenism; Religion & Culture; Religion & Science
KEYWORDS: talmud
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Someone quoted this to me today. I did some Binging and it seems to really be from the Talmud.

It blows me away that someone could have written this 1500-1800 years ago. Think what you need to know to make that sentence make sense: You have to know that stars are unimaginably far away. You have to know that stars are not eternal. You have to know that light has a finite speed. None of this was know by western science until less than a hundred years ago. It litterally makes my head spin that a Talmud writer could have had this idea 1500 years ago.

1 posted on 09/12/2011 6:35:08 PM PDT by DManA
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To: DManA

I agree that is very amazing.


2 posted on 09/12/2011 6:36:57 PM PDT by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many conservative Christians my age out there? __ Click my name)
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To: DManA

HANG ON! Found an article that this is NOT from the Talmud.

It’s a quote from Hannah Szenes (or Chana or Hannah Senesh) (July 17, 1921—November 7, 1944)

Sorry.


3 posted on 09/12/2011 6:39:10 PM PDT by DManA
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To: DManA

And someone might argue that “fallen apart”, if it’s an accurate translation, implies that the process has something to do with gravity, which of course it does.

Obviously, as a Christian I don’t consider the Talmud to be divinely inspired, but I can accept that some of the writers may have had a good relationship with God, and that He may have revealed such things.


4 posted on 09/12/2011 6:40:35 PM PDT by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many conservative Christians my age out there? __ Click my name)
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To: DManA; Admin Moderator

“HANG ON! Found an article that this is NOT from the Talmud.

It’s a quote from Hannah Szenes (or Chana or Hannah Senesh) (July 17, 1921—November 7, 1944)

Sorry.”

I see. Maybe best if this thread was deleted due to being posted in error.


5 posted on 09/12/2011 6:42:02 PM PDT by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many conservative Christians my age out there? __ Click my name)
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To: Christian Engineer Mass

After I did a little more research it seems it is a more contemporary quote. Nice quote but not ancient.


6 posted on 09/12/2011 6:42:09 PM PDT by DManA
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To: Christian Engineer Mass

Sure.

Except, it really is a nice quote (even if not ancient).

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110214222221AAlDu48


7 posted on 09/12/2011 6:44:04 PM PDT by DManA
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To: Christian Engineer Mass

It’s even wilder than that: Prevailing understanding of optics was that light emanated from one’s eye to the object being seen.

You wanna blow your mind? Try reading of Nicolas Cardinal di Cusa, whose notions he tried to assert as doctrinal. Galileo made a straw man out of Aristotelian physics and the Pope took the bait; the reality was Galileo set astronomy back about 4 centuries; he was more correct than the straw man he created, but he falsely presumed the universe was small, spherical and helio-centric. Di Cusa had it correct that it was staggeringly immense, diffuse, and centered on wherever the observer is.

Galileo’s problem was that he was convinced by Copernicus that the planets revolved around the sun, but trapped by over-simplification, he simply ignored the absence of parallax view.


8 posted on 09/12/2011 6:46:52 PM PDT by dangus
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To: DManA

This is not from any tranchte of the Talmud. It is a quote from Hannah Szenes. Her two novels and diary are well regarded and studied (as a Jew, I have studied them).

Hannah Szenes (1921-1944) was born in Budapest, Hungary, to an assimilated Jewish family, the daughter of an accomplished playwright and journalist. Executed in her native land at the age of 23, she became a symbol of idealism and self-sacrifice. Her poetry, made famous in part because of her unfortunate death, reveals a woman imbued with hope, even in the face of adverse circumstances. She was a symbol of courage in one of the darkest times of modern history.


9 posted on 09/12/2011 6:48:22 PM PDT by RobertClark (People sleep peaceably in their beds at night b'cse good men are rdy to do violence on their behalf)
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To: DManA

Sure, probably better to post it again seperately


10 posted on 09/12/2011 6:50:02 PM PDT by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many conservative Christians my age out there? __ Click my name)
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To: RobertClark

Yup found that out. Beautiful quote. Glad I discovered her.


11 posted on 09/12/2011 6:50:27 PM PDT by DManA
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To: RobertClark

Yup found that out. Beautiful quote. Glad I discovered her.


12 posted on 09/12/2011 6:50:43 PM PDT by DManA
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To: DManA

“What’s the speed of dark?”
—Steven Wright


13 posted on 09/12/2011 6:50:54 PM PDT by TruthHound ("He who does not punish evil commands it to be done." --Leonardo da Vinci)
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To: dangus

My instincts told me this wasn’t ancient. Should have listened to my instincts.

How do these myths get started? Who could have though someone could have written that 1800 years ago?


14 posted on 09/12/2011 6:52:55 PM PDT by DManA
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To: DManA
There are people whose remembrance gives light in this world, long after they have passed away.

On the other side of the equation:

There are people whose influence and life's work, creates permanent or long-lasting damage, long after they have passed away.

Mohammed comes to mind. Karl Marx comes to mind. Lenin & Stalin and Hitler come to mind. FDR comes to mind. LBJ comes to mind. Jimmy Carter comes to mind. Obama, though he's still with us, comes to mind and will come to mind for many years to come.
15 posted on 09/12/2011 6:59:01 PM PDT by adorno (<)
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To: DManA

Whoa...great quotation! Very true, both for the lights of humanity and for the darkness.


16 posted on 09/12/2011 7:01:08 PM PDT by GBA
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To: RobertClark
Never heard of her. Pure accident I came across her. What an amazing woman:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/szenes.html

(as a Jew, I have studied them).

Is she well know in Jewish circles?

17 posted on 09/12/2011 7:01:38 PM PDT by DManA
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To: DManA

Beautiful. Truth.


18 posted on 09/12/2011 7:06:24 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist (It is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; ~Vattel's Law of Nations)
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To: DManA

She is very well known in Jewish circles. Her writings convey an intellect and introspective ability that is most admirable. I was first introduced to her writings at age 13 with a poem called ‘Blessed is the Match’.

She is well respected in Israel through her service in the British army during WWII. Her remains were brought back to Israel and interred on Mount Herzl. Her ability to offer hope in dark times through her writings are something that most Jews, particularly in Israel, can relate to and seek out for guidance and comfort.


19 posted on 09/12/2011 7:08:36 PM PDT by RobertClark (People sleep peaceably in their beds at night b'cse good men are rdy to do violence on their behalf)
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To: DManA

Well, I’ve read the original source material for Nicolas diCusa, whom Johannes Kepler called, “divinely inspired,” without even having a clue how dead-on diCusa was.


20 posted on 09/12/2011 7:18:47 PM PDT by dangus
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