[Avodah] half shekel

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:34:13PM -0400, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
: I'm still stumped how Hazal permitted Tammuz [the name of a Babylonian
: deity] as the name of a Jweish month.  After all "Sheim elohim Achaeirim lo
: sazkiru".  How  did Tammuz get in the mix?   couldn't they at least change
: it a bit [e.g. Gammuz  etc.]

In Jan, R' Aryeh Segal quoted R' Arthur Scroll (mishnayos AZ) that the
issur only applies to gods that were still worshipped. He asked for a
primary source. Never got one. Instead, we went on a tangent asking what
"still worshipped" meant. Tammuz mythos lives on within the Xian Easter
myth. And then there are neoPagans who might worship him as Adonis
(Tamuz = Dimuzid = Adonis). But that's a hint of a heter...

By the time we left Bavel, Tamuz worship was overtaken by Zoroastrianism.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
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