The Fallen Tyrants of Babylon

Evil tyrants are nothing new to the region of Babylon, present-day Iraq. One of the most vicious in history was Nebuchadnezzar (sixth century BCE), the Babylonian king who built the most powerful nation in the world by ruthlessly attacking and annexing neighboring countries. In Jewish tradition, the Tenth of Tevet (January 4, 2004) commemorates the day when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. The Babylonians eventually destroyed the First Temple, slaughtered 100,000 Jews, rounded up the rest and sent …

…portend well for Abraham's descendents. One of the kingdoms mentioned in this Torah section is Shinar, identified as modern-day Baghdad. Incredibly, a skip-sequence code in this same section details Saddam's 1991 scud missile attack against Israel. On the Tenth of Tevet, the Jewish people -- alive and well in their biblical homeland -- mark the deeds of Nebuchadnezzar and other tyrants, with determination and resolve to fight the evil oppressors... in whatever millennium they may appear.