Respond again
1300 words by mgirgis
Fatina- Thank you so much for your feedback, it definitely helped me and it gave me more ideas on what I should do with my project.
Blemieux- I am very much informed and concerned about world poverty and hunger because it is a very important problem nowadays. I actually have one of my classmates who are doing the same project helping me and we are both volunteering at some food banks and trying to help this issue as much as we can. Thank you for your feedback.
Emilygray- teaming up is a definitely great idea, because the more people soling a small problem the faster it is and the better it could be. I am trying to do a Face book group also, especially since Face book has been very popular these days, and I think making a group there would actually make a big difference because that is how I can spread the word faster and better. Thanks a lot for your feedback.
Cnguye11- I really want to end poverty as soon as I can because it is definitely a big problem and it is doing badly every day. But thanks a lot for the positive feedback, it helped a lot. My solution is to help the world and decrease the number of the poor and the homeless. And I agree that we should both work on the problem together it would be great; the more the better.
Leedatboy- I agree that the country should do more to help the homeless. But deprive what self-esteem?
Jivory1- Starting off small like making a group on Facebook is a good way to start. It publicizes the issue and it makes it known without really having to put that much effort into trying to change it. The t-shirts would be nice, but it costs money; money that could be used to buy food!
Kfreeman- It is a good idea and it is very important. I’m aware of the situation in New Orleans. Actually even around Xavier campus, you’ll see people begging for money for food at the street lights every now and then. The problem of poverty is closer than you think.
Aminias- Thank you Andrew. I’ll be sure to ask for you when I need your assistance.
Jenniferpellittieri- Maybe we should increase the frequency so that people on different wavelengths will be closer to ours and understand our situation better.
Dwhite9- I plan to have fun while doing this project. Even if I don’t, I know that the good that will come out of this project will make up for my lack of fun.
Tchevis- I hope to but starting off slow like in my own home of New Orleans would be a great idea, I think. Thanks a lot for the positive feedback.
The Book of Tobit tells the tale of a wealthy and devoted Israelite named Tobit. Tobit lives with the captives who have been deported to Nineveh from the northern kingdom of Israel in the year of 721 B.C. While among the captives Tobit is terribly misfortuned by bad luck and ends up blind. Demoralized from his misfortunes he pleads with the Lord to end his life, though remembering a large amount of money that he had deposited in Media, he tells his son Tobiah to bring the money to him. At the same time in the city of Media a young woman by the name of Sarah also prays for death due to the fact that she has lost seven husbands one by one on the night of their wedding by the demon Asmodeus. God listening to their prayers, as he always does, sends the angel Raphael incognito to help the both of them.
Raphael completes the trip to Media with Tobiah. Later on as Tobiah takes a bath, he is attacked by a giant fish. Raphael keeps a cool head and tells Tobiah to first catch the fish, and then remove the fish’s gall, heart, and liver. The reason for those three organs of the fish is because they are used to make useful medicines, says Raphael. Later afterwards, at the request and urging of Raphael, Tobiah and Sarah gets married. Tobiah doesn’t get killed by the demon Asmodeus because Raphael advises him to use the fish’s heart and liver to get Asmodeus out of the bridal chamber. Happy, returning from Media to Nineveh with his new wife Sarah and his father’s money, Tobiah, as told by Raphael rubs the fish’s gall on his father’s eyes curing him of his blindness. Afterwards, with his work completed, Raphael reveals to them all that he is an angel of the Lord and then returns to heaven. Tobit then utters a beautiful hymn of praise in thanks of getting his eye sight back. Before dying, Tobit urges his son to leave Nineveh with his wife because God is planning to destroy the wicked, wicked city. So heeding his father’s warning, after burying his father and mother who also dies, Tobiah and his family leaves Nineveh heading for Media. When he arrives at Media he hears new that Nineveh has been destroyed.
Maccabees are the name of a family of Jewish heroes or patriots. The Maccabees established the Maccabaean, or Hasmonaean, dynasty that ruled over Judah, which is part of Palestine, during the second and first centuries B.C. Their very heroic struggle for religious freedom is told in Maccabees I and Maccabees II, books of the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Apocrypha, but are not in the Jewish Bible.
It all started in 167 B.C., King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Syrian-Greek ruler of the Jews, forcibly established an idol in the Temple at Jerusalem and ordered the start of the building of altars throughout Palestine for the mandatory worship of certain gods. Mattathias, a Jewish priest of Modin, in a little town near Jerusalem, killed the first Jew to approach the local altar. He and his five sons then fled to the mountains to take up arms to prepare themselves for an inevitable fight.
On his death in 166 B.C., Mattathias was succeeded by his son Judas. Being the outstanding leader that he is, Judas defeated several Syrian armies, entered Jerusalem in 165, and rededicated the Temple. This act is honored by the Jewish feast of Hanukkah. Judas received the surname Maccabaeus, or the hammerer.
After Judas’ death in battle in 160 B.C. the fight for independence from Syria was continued by his brother Jonathan. Another brother, Simon, succeeded Jonathan in 143 B.C. and won independence for Judah the next year. The rank of high priest, which is political and religious head of state, was given to Simon and his descendants. The dynasty ended in 37 B.C. during Roman rule.
So in short the main reason that the Maccabees are considered heroes is because they basically liberated Israel from the clutches of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes’ rule. This subsequently saved the Jewish people from a lifetime of servitude and oppression. Also, they established Israel’s independence of not worshipping anyone else’s God but their own. So this is why many people consider the Maccabees to be heroic.