The month of Tevet, month 10 on the Hillel Calendar, has one day most significant. It is Tevet 10, one of the 4 annual major fast days, the last of the 4,  for the House of Israel. Remember King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon? According to the Book of Revelation there will be a revived Babylon, associated with beast number 4 in the Book of Daniel, a revived Roman Empire. This year for the first year since 1939, the fast of Tevet 10 was also 1-1-2015, the New Year begun according to the Gregorian Calendar. Tevet 10 is one week after Hanukkah. The celebrated birthday of Saint Sylvester, a Pope of Rome, was on 12-31. He was instrumental in convincing the Roman Emperor Constantine I, the first Christian emperor of Rome, to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem, according to a recent opinion on 12-31 at Arutz Sheva, israelnationalnews.com.
 
   Go forward to the date of Tevet 22 in 2015. This will be the date of 1-13, the last day of the year 2014, according to the Gregorian Calendar, put into use by a Roman Pope.  According to www. torahtots.com/timecapsule/this month/tevet.htm#22, note the entries about Ancona, Italy and the Roman Ghetto. On 22 Tevet 5558 in 1798, "anti-Jewish riots erupted in Ancona, Italy, a day after a "local" Purim which had been celebrated there since 5451/1691. Roman mobs attempted to set fire to the Jewish ghetto and to sack it, but rains put out the fire. The day was then delegated as a holiday by Roman Jews."
 
   "The Roman Ghetto had been in existence since 1555, when the Pope segregated the Jews in a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night. The Jews were also subjected to various restrictions and degradations, including having to attend compulsory Catholic sermons on Shabbat. During Rome's annual carnival, scantily-clad Jews were forced to race along the main street, while the crowd mocked them, threw trash, and reigned heavy blows. (the event often proved fatal.) Hygienic conditions inside the ghetto were terrible, and there was constant flooding from the nearby Tiber River. Outside the ghetto, Jews were forced to wear identifying yellow clothing. When Napoleonic forces occupied Rome, the ghetto was legally abolished in 1808, and the city of Rome tore down the ghetto walls in 1888." Ghetto, terrible living conditions, restrictions, degradations, forced to wear yellow clothes. Do these details remind us of European conditions for Jews within the past century? Was 1939 a pivotal year for Jew haters?
 
   There are still some who want to conclude "The Final Solution" in our times. Will Tevet 22, the "last day" of a Roman Julian Calendar, prove significant, even momentous? We shall know soon.
 
 
With Love and Shalom,
Jean