John Tesh, Delilah & Judasim

Sitting at work today it occurred to me I know nothing about the Jewish religion. I decided to do a little research and share it with you. Seeing as how it is Christmas I think Hanukkah is a good place to start............

History of Chanukah:

Also spelled Hanukkah, means "dedication". This Jewish holiday traces its roots back more than 2,000 years. At that time the Jewish people were living under the oppressive government of the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanies IV, who was a descendant of Seleucus, the general of Alexander the Great. During his rule he forbid the reading of the scriptures, circumcision, sabbath observance, and a number of other religious practices. In order to further promote the"hellenization" of Palestine, he set up in the Temple of Jerusalem an altar dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter where swine were offered in sacrifice. This "Abomination of Desolation" caused the Jews to rebel in what became known as the Maccabean Revolt, and under the leadership of Judas Maccabee ("the hammer") the Syrians were overthrown, and the temple had all signs of paganism removed. The statue to Jupiter was ground to dust. A feast was instituted on 25 Kislew, 165 B.C. for the purification of the temple. The story goes that light of the temple was re-lit with only enough pure oil to last one day, but miraculously it lasted for eight days, until more could be found. The "Festival of Lights" is celebrated for eight days. Thus the birth of Hannukah.

One of the most important Hanukkah customs is to light colorful candles in a menorah or candle abrum with eight branches, one for each night of Hanukkah and one prominent one that holds the candle to be used to light the others. On the first night, one candle is lit and each succeeding night another is added so that all eight are alight on the last night.

Did you know: Saturday the 16th marked the beginning of Hanukkah – the Feast of Lights or Feast of Dedication. It is a Jewish festival lasting eight days commemorating the victory of Maccabees over Syrians, and re-dedication of Temple of Jerusalem. It begins on Hebrew calendar date Kislev 25, 5767.

I thought it would be nice to start with an interesting fact on Christmas's cousin Hanukkah. Hanukkah actually sounds like it would be a pretty cool thing to celebrate. A lot of famous people are in fact Jewish, such as Adam Sander, Harvey Keitel, and Mary Tyler Moore's Husband. Jim in fact convinced Bruce he was Jewish on two separate occasions. Anyways, Hanukkah is in fact the festival of lights.

The festival of lights of course reminds me of Light 107.3's very own festival of light. The festival of light consists of 24 -7 Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving right up to Christmas. Personally I feel as if the Christmas music played by the one and only John Tesh is the best. John Tesh is not any ordinary disc jockey, in addition to bringing us wonderful music, he gives us intelligence for our lives. If you are unfamiliar with John Tesh here is an example of some of the great intelligence he brings us every broadcast:

The following is taken from Johns website (http://www.tesh.com/) regarding Christmas and Mothers:

How Much Time Does the Average Mother Spend Getting Ready for Christmas? (I can actually imagine his voice in my head reading this)

Would you believe 13 whole days! According to a study written up in the London Daily Mail, mom’s preparations include 288 hours of making lists, figuring out where to find the desired items, and doing the actual shopping. Then, she spends an average of 4 hours wrapping gifts, 3 hours decorating the house, 9 hours planning, cooking and serving Christmas dinner, and 11 hours cleaning up after the celebration, which includes taking down the tree and the decorations. And what does a hard-working mother get for all that backbreaking work? A Christmas dinner that lasts an average of 2 hours and 13 minutes. No wonder 1 in 5 moms say they dread the holidays! Here are some other surprising statistics:

-2 out of 3 moms find the holidays stressful.
-29% of them start planning for Christmas in September, so they can get all the work done.
-And 46% of moms bought things during last January’s sales to get ready for this Christmas.
-The good news is: 70% of mothers say that all the trouble to prepare for Christmas is worth it.

-Why? Because their families are happy!

There you have it some intelligence for your life. It is obvious John is much more than a radio personality, he is a loving, caring human being who cares for your welfare. If you need to know more I invite you to read Johns very own blog:

http://www.tesh.com/ittrium/visit?path=A1x97x1y1xa5x1x76y1x4d8ax1x7f

The only other disc jockey who can give John a run for his money would have to be Magic 98's Delilah. While John Tesh may give us intelligence for our lives, what does Delilah offer? I feel she says it best herself in the following quote:

"I like to think that I am more to my audience than a nighttime disc jockey. I try to be a shoulder to cry on, a friend with advice, and a caring person who listens to people when they feel no one else cares. So, I invite you to turn off your TV, grab a cup of tea and sit back and relax."

Wow sometimes its tough for me to decide who is better, Delilah or John Tesh. So I have been saying it for awhile they need to join forces and have their own radio station or have a child together, a prodigy if you will that will one day become the greatest human on Earth. I recently said that Heide Klum and SEALs child would look like Jar Jar Binx. What would a Tesh and Delilah child look like, this is fairly simple................

Only could two wonderful and blessed souls such as Delilah and John Tesh make such a wonderful child. Jesus is our savior and we will soon be celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas day of course. So I guess this blog was not meant to be funny like the rest, yet more of an awaking for us all. I gave a little history about our Jewish friends, a little intelligence for your lives, as well as give recognition to our savior Jesus Christ.

In closing I would like to say thank you for reading my blog. I encourage all of you to say thank you to your mother. Thanks to Tesh's intelligence we now know how much trouble Mom went through to make you happy this holiday season. Also I want to wish everyone a happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas!