J.Mac., cont'd.

[Fred Blumenthal <xd2fabl...>]

I can see two sides to the argument - that the Christian Handel 
(Protestant, not Catholic, I would think) saw Jewish stories as metaphors 
for Christian theology, or that for some reason he was trying to be nice 
to Jews.  Or at least court our patronage.  This may confuse the issue, 
but one CD's pamphlet suggests that "Judas Maccabeus" was political -  a 
metaphor for the suppression of the revolution of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" 
Stuart.  And one further step toward confusing the issue: If the Selucid 
Greeks had finally and decisively defeated the Hasmoneans the Jewish 
religion might have disappeared, and the Christian religion might never 
have been invented.  (Please don't tell our Christian friends I used the 
word "invented."  And I don't know if "developed" would have been much 
better.)  We have other observances of almost-extinctions - Purim, Teisha 
b'Av, etc. - maybe Chanukah should be more important to Christians than to 
Jews!  Then (to return the topic to music) we could have better background 
music in December in the elevators, drug stores, etc.

Fred Blumenthal
xd2fabl (at) us(dot)ibm(dot)com