The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought in the Holy Land during the Second Temple period, beginning under theHasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE) in the wake of the Maccabean Revolt. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Pharisaic beliefs became the liturgical and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism (commonly known as simply Judaism).

Conflicts between Pharisees and Sadducees took place in the context of much broader and longstanding social and religious conflicts among Jews, dating back to theBabylonian captivity and exacerbated by the Roman conquest. One conflict was class, between the wealthy and the poor, as Sadducees included mainly the priestly and aristocratic families.^[1] Another conflict was cultural, between those who favored Hellenization and those who resisted it. A third was juridico-religious, between those who emphasized the importance of the Second Temple with its cultic rites and services, and those who emphasized the importance of other Mosaic Laws. A fourth point of conflict, specifically religious, involved different interpretations of the Torah and how to apply it to current Jewish life, with Sadducees recognizing only the Written Torah and rejecting doctrines such as the Oral Torah and the Resurrection of the Dead.

Josephus (37 – c. 100 CE), himself a Pharisee, estimated the total Pharisee population prior to the fall of the Second Temple to be around 6,000 ("exakischilioi").^[2] Josephus claimed that Pharisees received the backing and goodwill of the common people, apparently in contrast to the more elite Sadducees. Pharisees claimed Mosaic authority for their interpretation^[3] of Jewish Laws, while Sadducees represented the authority of the priestly privileges and prerogatives established since the days of Solomon, whenZadok, their ancestor, officiated as High Priest. Josephus' statement 'common people' strongly indicates that most Jews were 'just Jewish people' by separating them, and making them independent of the main liturgical groups. The New Testament also makes common reference to the common people indicating that the Jewish identity was independent and stronger than these groups. In his Epistle to the Philippians, Paul of Tarsus claims that changing liturgical sects in the Diaspora had occurred while still identifying oneself as 'Jewish' or 'Hebrew', 'circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Law, I am a Pharisee', but the position of Paul of Tarsus and Judaism is still disputed.

Outside of Jewish history and writings, Pharisees have been made notable by references in the New Testament to conflicts between themselves and John the Baptist^[4] and with Jesus. There are also several references in the New Testament to Paul of Tarsus being a Pharisee.^[5] However, the relationship between Early Christianity and Pharisees was not always hostile, e.g. Gamaliel is often cited as a Pharisaic leader who was sympathetic to Christians.^[6] Christian traditions have been a cause of widespread awareness of the Pharisees.

The deportation and exile of an unknown number of Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar II, starting with the first deportation in 597 BC^[11] and continuing after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in 587 BC,^[12] resulted in dramatic changes to Jewish culture and religion. During the 70-year exile in Babylon, Jewish houses of assembly (known in Hebrew as a beit knesset or in Greek as asynagogue) and houses of prayer (Hebrew Beit Tefilah; Greek προσευχαί, proseuchai) were the primary meeting places for prayer, and the house of study (beit midrash) was the counterpart for the synagogue.

In 539 BC the Persians conquered Babylon, and in 537 BC Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple. He did not, however, allow the restoration of the Judean monarchy, which left theJudean priests as the dominant authority. Without the constraining power of the monarchy, the authority of the Temple in civic life was amplified. It was around this time that the Sadducee party emerged as the party of priests and allied elites. However, the Second Temple, which was completed in 515 BCE, had been constructed under the auspices of a foreign power, and there were lingering questions about its legitimacy. This provided the condition for the development of various sects or "schools of thought," each of which claimed exclusive authority to represent "Judaism," and which typically shunned social intercourse, especially marriage, with members of other sects. In the same period, the council of sages known as the Sanhedrin may have codified and canonized the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), from which, following the return from Babylon, the Torah was read publicly on market-days.

The Temple was no longer the only institution for Jewish religious life. After the building of the Second Temple in the time of Ezra the Scribe, the houses of study and worship remained important secondary institutions in Jewish life. Outside of Judea, the synagogue was often called a house of prayer. While most Jews could not regularly attend the Temple service, they could meet at the synagogue for morning, afternoon and evening prayers. On Mondays, Thursdays and Sabbaths, a weekly Torah portion was read publicly in the synagogues, following the tradition of public Torah readings instituted by Ezra^[13]

Although priests controlled the rituals of the Temple, the scribes and sages, later called rabbis (Heb.: "my master"), dominated the study of the Torah. These sages maintained an oral tradition that they believed had originated at Mount Sinai alongside the Torah of Moses. The Pharisees had its origins in this new group of authorities.

The Hellenistic period of Jewish history began when Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 332 BCE. The rift between the priests and the sages developed during this time, when Jews faced new political and cultural struggles. After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, Judea was ruled by the Egyptian-Hellenic Ptolemies until 198 BCE, when the Syrian-Hellenic Seleucid Empire, under Antiochus III, seized control. Then, in 167 BCE, the Seleucid king Antiochus IV invaded Judea, entered the Temple, and stripped it of money and ceremonial objects. He imposed a program of forced Hellenization, requiring Jews to abandon their own laws and customs, thus precipitating the Maccabean Revolt. Jerusalem was liberated in 165 BCE and the Temple was restored. In 141 BCE an assembly of priests and others affirmed Simon Maccabeus as high priest and leader, in effect establishing the Hasmonean dynasty.

Many faiths have definitive teachings about the afterlife. But in answer to the question "What happens after we die?" the Torah, our most important religious text, is surprisingly silent. Nowhere does it discuss the afterlife in detail.

Over the centuries a few possible descriptions of the afterlife have been incorporated into Jewish thought. However there is no definitively Jewish explanation for what happens after we die.

Why Doesn’t the Torah Discuss the Afterlife?

No one knows exactly why the Torah doesn't discuss the afterlife. Instead, the Torah focuses on "Olam Ha Ze," which means "this world." Rabbi Joseph Telushkin believes that this focus on the here and now is not only intentional but directly related to the Israelite exodus from Egypt.

According to Jewish tradition God gave the Torah to the Israelites after their journey through the desert, not long after they fled a life of slavery in Egypt. Rabbi Teluskhin points out that Egyptian society was obsessed with life after death. Their holiest text was called "The Book of the Dead," and both mummification and tombs like the pyramids were meant to prepare a person for existence in the afterlife. Perhaps, suggests Rabbi Telushkin, the Torah does not talk about life after death in order to distinguish itself from Egyptian thought. In contrast to "The Book of the Dead," the Torah focuses on the importance of living a good life here and now.

Jewish Views of the Afterlife

What happens after we die? Everyone asks that question at one point or another. Though Judaism does not have a definitive answer, below are some of the possible responses that have emerged over the centuries.

• Olam Ha Ba – "Olam Ha Ba" literally means "the world to come" in Hebrew. Early rabbinic texts describe Olam Ha Ba has an idyllic version of this world. It is a physical realm that will exist at the end-of-days, after the Messiah has come and God has judged both the living and the dead. The righteous dead will be resurrected in order to enjoy a second life in Olam Ha Ba. You can learn more about Olam Ha Ba in: "What Is Olam Ha Ba?"

• Gehenna - When the ancient rabbis talk about Gehenna, the question they are trying to answer is "How will bad people be dealt with in the afterlife?" Accordingly, they saw Gehenna as a place of punishment for those who lead an immoral life. However, the time a person's soul could spend in Gehenna was limited to twelve months and the rabbis maintained that even at the very Gates of Gehenna a person could repent and avoid punishment (Erubin 19a). After being punished in Gehenna a soul was considered pure enough to enter Gan Eden (see below). You can learn more about Gehenna in: "What Is Gehenna?

• Gan Eden – In contrast to Gehenna, Gan Eden was conceived as a paradise for those who lived a righteous life. Whether Gan Eden - which means "The Garden of Eden in Hebrew" - was intended as a place for souls after death or for resurrected people when Olam Ha Ba comes is unclear. Exodus Rabbah 15:7 states, for instance: "In the Messianic Age God will establish peace for the nations and they will sit at ease and eat in Gan Eden." Numbers Rabbah 13:2 makes a similar reference and in both cases, neither souls nor the dead are mentioned. Nevertheless, author Simcha Raphael suggests that given the ancient rabbis' belief in resurrection, Gan Eden was likely a place where they thought the righteous would go after they were resurrected for Olam Ha Ba. You can learn more about Gan Eden in: "What Is Gan Eden?"

In addition to overarching concepts about life after death, such as Olam Ha Ba, there are many stories that talk about what might happen to souls once they arrive in the afterlife. For instance, there is a famous midrash (story) about how in both heaven and hell people sit at banquet tables piled high with delicious foods, but no one can bend their elbows. In Hell everyone starves because they think only of themselves. In Heaven, everyone feasts because they feed each other.

--------------------------------------------
Do Jews believe in heaven and hell? No. however, we do believe in an afterlife, just nothing like that believed by Christians

What we believe in is euphemistically called "The World to Come". Not much is taught on it (at least not in open sources.) It is not a world as we know it, nor are there beautiful gardens and winged angels playing harps with golden halos around their heads. At the same time- their is no fire and brimstone or eternal damnation and burning in the fires of hell...

The world to come is a spiritual realm- souls try to cluster around the pure essence of God, to close to the holy for the sake of being near it- because souls yearn to be as close to God as possible. but it is not as simple as that either. The world to come is not a simplistic realm of one level- in the Talmud, Masechta Chagigah, it is said that the outer courtyards to God's abode has seven levels - each of ascending holiness, each soul wanting to be as high as possible. It briefly states that beyond these levels you have the inner courtyard and abode itself- but stops there with the statement "Beyond here we do not enquire". Maybe it elaborates further in the Kaballah- I have no idea on that.

Hell is completely absent from Judaism. There is no devil in Judaism as it is not possible for an angel to rebel (only humans have free will- angels can only perform specific tasks). What is generally misinterpreted as hell is the concept of Sheol or Gehinnom. This refers to the burning the soul feels at the heavenly trial after death.

Essentially, we are brought to the heavenly court (God) and judged. Satan (literally the accusser) is the prosecutor and wants to introduce all our sins into the equation. God is merciful, and drops some of the sins before the trial begins (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah). After that, the soul basically watches two movies- one is- what your life was- the other, what your life could have been. The soul feels shame at the lost opportunities, at what it could have been vs what it is. It is this shame that feels like an eternity of burning. The burning is not a literal one- it is the burning of shame that it feels at realising how it has transgressed, when it could have been so much more! Think of how, for us with physical bodies, the shame of being shouted at by a parent/teacher/ boss can feel like burning- how much worse for a soul which is a pure being and has no physical imperfections or mental imperfections to give it excuses! But though it states that this "burning" feels like an eternity- it truth, it never lasts for more than 12 months. God is much too loving to give out eternal punishments, just as a loving parent would never punish a child for forever.

Let’s start with the most controversial belief – reincarnation. It may sound surprising, but Jewish beliefs do include reincarnation but not in every case. In the Jewish religion there is a belief that we all have a purpose on earth and we will live until we fulfill our purpose. This does not mean we are immortal until we have done what we are set on earth to do. What this means is we will reincarnate as many times as necessary until our purpose has been served. If you can complete what God has planned for you within one lifetime there is no reason to reincarnate.

Our view on hell is different than the general concept in most other religions. For one, we do not call it hell. We believe in Gehinnom. Gehinnom is a place where humans usually linger for up to 12 months after death. It is where they are punished for the sins they have committed, but after 12 months time they move on to better things. Jewish beliefs vary on exactly what happens during this time; it is dependant upon your degree of religious observance or the Jewish denomination to which you belong. For example, most orthodox Jews believe that you get an angel of destruction for each sin you committed during your time on earth. Most believe just about everybody will move on after 12 months (or less if they don’t need as much time to be punished for their sins.) The only time when someone will not move on after 12 months is if they were so evil and had no remorse that they were not forgiven by God for their sins. As the beliefs on what happens in Gehinnom vary, the beliefs on what happen to those who are not forgiven vary as well. Generally, two concepts exist: People either stay and are punished for the rest of eternity or they just vanish from any kind of existence.

So what about heaven? Jews believe there is a place where people are reunited with others that have passed. This place is called Gan Eden, which means Garden of Eden. This is where people who are not evil go after they have spent their time in Gehinnom. From a spiritual perspective, this is the place everyone longs to go.

Reaching Gan Eden is not the end of our afterlife. The ending is yet to come. It is called Olam Ha-Ba. It is considered the messianic age, and means the world to come or when the Messiah comes. Everyone who has proven righteousness will get to experience this. This experience is supposed to be perfect.

Is there anything in the world that is really perfect? It seems that everything we have has some sort of flaw—at least in this lifetime. So, we have something to look forward to in the next life. While we are alive, however, Judaism teaches us to always do right, not just to make it to the Jewish afterlife and to Gan Eden or Olam Ha-Ba but because it is good for us, and ultimately part of God’s plan.

Michael H. Hart of USA who wrote "The 100 most influential persons in history" and placed Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) as number one, on the top of the list 

"My choice of Muhammad to lead the best of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.

Posted on January 31, 2014

6

This is the first part of an account I’m putting together of tools I’d recommend for small-scale making. Once completed each part will be previewed as a post and then put in theMethods section under Recommended tools for small-scale making where I can add to them as I learn new things. The tools will be grouped according to general tasks .. measuring and marking-out; cutting; assembly; shaping and modelling; creating surfaces; painting.

I’ve collated these accounts together from what I’ve already written on this site or elsewhere, but I’ve also added quite a bit to them. The list includes some simple, custom-made tools which can’t be bought, and I’ve added more information on where others can be found. Obviously this list reflects the way I prefer to work, which may differ from other people .. I prefer to use hand-methods rather than machine tools on the whole, but I’ve also kept to the use of hand-tools in my teaching because most of the people I teach don’t have power tools or workshops.

A tool is any device, however simple or however complex, which enables or contributes to the performance of a task .. in this case the task of making. Even temporary constructions to assist assembly, or one-off templates to achieve a specific shape, are tools, and that’s why I’ve included them.

This first part deals with tools for measuring and marking-out and deals with pencils, rulers (including scale rulers), squares, small drawing-boards, spacing or shape templates and other geometry tools. It also covers tools for weighing or dosing materials.

Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, or religious prostitution is a sexual ritual consisting of sexual intercourse or other sexual activity performed in the context of religious worship, perhaps as a form of fertility rite and divine marriage (hieros gamos). Scholars have long considered such practices to be customary in the ancient world; however, more recent scholarship has cast doubts on this picture, based on doubts about the reliability of ancient sources.^[1]

Some scholars^[who?] prefer the term "sacred sex" to sacred prostitution, in cases where a payment for services was not involved. The Greek term hierodoulos or "hierodule" has sometimes been taken to mean "sacred prostitute", but it is more likely to refer to a former slave freed from slavery in order to be "dedicated" to a god.^[1] The Hebrew term qedesha, found in the Old Testament, is often translated as "temple prostitute".^{[citation needed]}

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Ancient Near East[edit]

Inanna/Ishtardepicted wearing the ceremonialheaddress of thehigh priestess

The Prieuré de Sion, translated from French as Priory of Sion, is a name given to multiple groups, both real and fictitious. The most controversial is a fringe fraternal organisation, founded and dissolved in France in 1956 (abiding by the 1901 French Law of Associations) by Pierre Plantard. In the 1960s, Plantard created a fictitious history for that organization, describing it as a secret society founded by Godfrey of Bouillon on Mount Zion in theKingdom of Jerusalem in 1099, conflating it with a genuine historical monastic order, the Abbey of Our Lady of Mount Zion. In Plantard's version, the priory was devoted to installing a secret bloodline of the Merovingian dynastyon the thrones of France and the rest of Europe.^[2] This myth was expanded upon and popularised by the 1982 pseudohistorical book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail^[1] and later claimed as factual in the preface of the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code.^[3]

After becoming a cause célèbre from the late 1960s to the 1980s, the mythical Priory of Sion was exposed as a ludibrium created by Plantard as a framework for his claim of being the Great Monarch prophesied byNostradamus.^[4] Evidence presented in support of its historical existence and activities before 1956 was discovered to have been forged and then planted in various locations around France by Plantard and his accomplices. Nevertheless, many conspiracy theorists still persist in believing that the Priory of Sion is an age-old cabal that conceals a subversive secret.^[5]

The Priory of Sion myth has been exhaustively debunked by journalists and scholars as one of the great hoaxes of the 20th century.^[6] Some skeptics have expressed concern that the proliferation and popularity of books, websites and films inspired by this hoax have contributed to the problem of conspiracy theories, pseudohistory and other confusions becoming more mainstream.^[7] Others are troubled by the romantic reactionary ideology unwittingly promoted in these works.^[8]

The above link shows that when an apple is cut horizontally the core takes the shape of a Pentagram or five pointed star

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6. 

Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its elongation reaches a maximum of 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it is often called the Morning Star or the Evening Star.

Classified as a terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition. Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. 

Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, as it has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features,nor organic life to absorb it in biomass. A younger Venus is believed to have possessed Earth-like oceans, but these totally evaporated as the temperature rose, leaving a dusty dry desertscape with many slab-like rocks.

(So venus is sort of the opposite of earth)

Physical characteristics

Venus is one of the four solar terrestrial planets, meaning that, like the Earth, it is a rocky body. In size and mass, it is very similar to the Earth. 

The diameter of Venus is only 650 km less than the Earth's, and its mass is 81.5% of the Earth's. However, conditions on the Venusian surface differ radically from those on Earth, due to its dense carbon dioxide atmosphere. The mass of the atmosphere of Venus is 96.5% carbon dioxide, with most of the remaining 3.5% composed of nitrogen.[15]

The northern continent is called Ishtar Terra, after Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, and is about the size of Australia. 

Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. 
In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the planet Venus".

Ishtar was above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the "town of the sacred courtesans"; and she herself was the "courtesan of the gods".


The southern continent is called Aphrodite Terra, after the Greek goddess of love, and is the larger of the two highland regions at roughly the size of South America. A network of fractures and faults covers much of this area.

Ubuntu and most Linux distributions have a software program quite similar with the Command line in Windows, which is called "Terminal." Like the Command line, Terminal has a wide variety of uses for computer users of all skill levels, from the casual user to the experienced programmer. Learning how to use Terminal can greatly enhance your ability to use your Linux computer to its full potential.

Steps

1. 1
   First off, a little bit of information on what different commands associated with files and directory mean.
   • sudo ("superuser do"): A very common expression which indicates that the taken action must be verified with the admin password.
   • cd ("change directory"): With this command you can navigate your way throughout the system. Simply typing "cd" or "cd ~" will take you to the homefolder, which is the folder you are located in by default when starting up a Terminal session.
     • cd / - Takes you to the root directory.
     • cd .. - Takes you up one directory level.
     • cd - - Takes you to the previous directory.
   • pwd ("print working directory"): It displays your location in the system.
   • ls ("list"): Lists all files in current directory. Typing "ls ~" will show you the files in your home folder and adding on a folder name shows a list over the files in that specific folder. For example will "ls ~/Desktop" show you the files in yourDesktop folder.
   • cp ("copy"): Allows you to copy a file. To do so, add the name of the file you desire to copy along with the command as long as the file is located in the directory you have browsed to. Otherwise, type "cp ~/<file path>" in order to specify where the file you want copy is located.
   • mv ("move"): With this command, you can rename or move a file. If you want to rename the file "big" to "bang", you may want to type "mv big bang". This requires that you have browsed to the correct directory or that you specifies the file path. When typing "mv bang ~/Desktop", the file "bang" will be moved fromhome to Desktop, but if you want to rename the file as well, add the new file name next to the current name in the command.
   • rm ("remove"): Simply removes a file. Just specify the file path/file name.
     • rmdir ("remove directory"): Removes an 'empty' directory.
     • rm-r ("remove recursively"): Removes a directory along with its content. The fact that you should specify the directory path is self-explaining.
   • mkdir ("make directory"): Allows you to create a directory. Example: "mkdir private files" will create a directory named "private files" (Located in homedirectory unless you have browsed somewhere else with the terminal or specified a path for the new directory)

In constructing The Darkening Dream I wanted the meta-story to play off conventional tropes. Broadly, a cabal of ancient supernatural beings has sent one of their number to recover an artifact needed to destroy the world. And surprise, it turns out a group of teens are all that stands between them and Armageddon.

How much more Buffy can you get?

But that’s just the high level. I also wanted to ground this preposterous scenario in real history and legend. So as a methodology, in designing my array of supernatural beings and occult practitioners I turned to historic sources. Before our modern science and technology rendered magic quaint, it was the domain of religion and superstition. Of belief.