[Avodah] ancient western galut

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, February 16, 2007 9:17 am, Eli Turkel wrote:
: OTOH I have always found it amazing that there is almost no mention in the
: gemara about Alexandrian Jewry (minor exceptions like waving the flag in
: the shul in Alexandria). It seems quite clear that the ties to Bavel were much
: stronger than to Egypt....

I wondered the reverse -- what proof could they bring from Alexandria? Despite
what I just posted summarily dismissing theories based on the late dating of
TSBP,
they clearly didn't have much knowledge of halakhah. I would instead attribute
it to the same loss of information as their loss of Hebrew.

Not far from Alexandria was the Temple at Leontopolis, complete with an
attempt to perform the avodah, established by Choniyah, the descendent of
kohanim gedolim. The idea was to replace the BHMQ, which at the time was
desecrated by the Yevanim. However, their Temple lasted beyond Chanukah
eliminating its justification.

Alexandrian Jewry seems to be little proof of halachic norm, some amalgam of
true Yahadus and the Leontopolis variant. In Challah 6:10 their challah is
rejected. And, given their having their own Temple, would they care about the
qiddush hachodesh in the BHMQ?

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
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