Leaders and Their Research of Our Religion

 Nadene Goldfoot                   

            Abraham (1945 BCE) and wife Sarah started the ball rolling with their different outlook on religion.  They begat Isaac together, but Abe also begat Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid in order to produce more than one child.  Isaac then begat through 4 women, 12 sons and a daughter, eventually producing the religion coming from them, Judaism.  Ishmael produced  the religion-Islam through Mohammad (born in 570-died in 632).  

The Catholics have had a Pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.  Born Jewish. First pope. Apostle of Jesus. . The Catholic Church recognizes him as the first Bishop of Rome appointed by Christ. Also revered as saint in Eastern Christianity, with a feast day of 29 June. St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is named after him.  Catholics went on a rampage against Jews in 1492 (Spanish Inquisition) that chased Jews into the 1800s into Mexico. It was a matter of competition between the religions for the Catholics.   

Today's Pope is is Jorge Mario Bergoglio . 

 Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina),  is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013. Theirs first began with Peter of Jewish birth according to their religion.  He in turn supposedly was schooled by a Bethlehemite, Jesus, also a Jew that is believed to have been the son of G-d; half man half god like the Greeks and Romans of their day.  (I note that many Jews of the Holocaust escaped to Argentina, where many Nazis also had escaped to here). Catholics came out of Roman meetings held by Constantine starting in the 4th century.     

What do we Jews have?  

In Israel, there is a Chief  Rabbi; usually two of them, one of Ashkenazi customs and one of Sephardic customs.  Mizrachi Jews fall under the category of the Sephardim  and comes from the Hebrew for Egypt, meaning all Jews born in Middle East.                                      

Yitzhak Yosef (Hebrew: יצחק יוסף, born January 16, 1952) is the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel (known as the Rishon LeZion), the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hazon Ovadia, and the author of a set of books on halakha (Jewish law) called Yalkut Yosef. Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef Yitzhak Yosef Yosef is the son of Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, and bases his halakhic rulings on his father's methodology. His books are considered foundational among large sectors of Sephardic Jews in Israel and the world. For these books, he has won the Rabbi Toledano Prize from the Tel Aviv Religious Council, as well as the Rav Kook Prize.

David Baruch Lau (Hebrew: דוד לאו; born 13 January 1966) is the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. He was appointed after achieving a majority of the vote on 24 July 2013. He previously served as the Chief Rabbi of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Israel, and as the Chief Rabbi of Shoham. Lau is the son of former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.

Abraham Isaac Kook (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק הַכֹּהֵן קוּק; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH (הראי״ה‎), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one of the fathers of religious Zionism, and is known for founding the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva. Upon returning from Europe in 1919, he was appointed the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and soon after, as first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine in 1921.

Rabbi Borstein came after Kook.  Tragically, Rabbi Borstein died suddenly at age 58, nine months after taking up his duties. Kook died in 1935, and his student, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, succeeded him as rosh yeshiva.

Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (Hebrew: יצחק אייזיק הלוי הרצוג; 3 December 1888 – 25 July 1959) in Lomza in Russian Poland;  also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasting from 1921 to 1936. From 1936 until his death in 1959, he was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and of Israel after its independence in 1948. He was the father of Chaim Herzog and grandfather of Isaac Herzog, both presidents of Israel

    Moses, as played by Charlston Heston, a handsome, intelligent man born in 1391 BCE in Egypt...dodged the bullet of sleeping with the needy wife of his boss as he grew up in the Pharaoh's school as the son of his daughter....and knew the pitfalls....Our religion of Judaism came from the teachings of Moses while on the 40 year Exodus.  He wrote the Torah---1st 5 Books of Moses  -Genesis (Bereishis) Exodus (Shemos) Leviticus (Vayikra) Numbers (Bamidbar) and Deuteronomy (Devarim), also called the Pentateuch.  

We also have his Oral Law, from oral information handed down from generation to generation  by the tradition that it was given to Moses on Sinai together with the Written Law.  During the 2nd Temple Period, it was upheld by the Pharisees and supported by the majority of the people.  Sadducees and Essenes did not validate it because they had their own traditions regarding the interpretation of the Written Law.  So what you read in the Torah is not the complete references Jews use.  The book, The Mishnah, holds the Oral Law and is the legal codification compiled by Rabbi Judah has-Nasi and arranged logically.  Copied and recorded later, it was referred to as the Talmud (Gemara).   We have 2 Talmuds;  The Babylonian one and the Palestinian one.  They are the collected records of academic discussion and judicial administration of JEWISH LAW by generations of scholars and jurists in many academies and in more than one country during several centuries after 200 CE when the Mishnah was completed.                                

The Karaites of the 8th century CE of Persia rejected the Oral Law and denied the validity of the Talmud, so they broke off from the main body of Jews.  They simply did not go along with these Babylonian gaonates (intellectual leaders).  

Hillel, "The Elder" born in 1st century BCE (100 BCE) scholar of Judaism, founder of school "House of Hillel (Bet Hillel) and ancesator of a dynasty of patriarchs which held office until the 5th century.  He was born in Babylonia and settled in Palestine as a manual laborer.  He studied with the greats, Shemaiah and Avtalyon.  Later he became President of the Sanhedrin.  His friend Shammai  was his debate partner (Zugot). Hillel was noted for his humility and tendency to leniency. We need to remind our religious parties of Hillel. 

Our Jewish belief was stated by Rabbi Hillel as the Golden Rule, and all else was just commentary.  It goes like this:  "Do not do unto others that which you would not have them do unto you."  Our religion is all about the here and now and how we behave, not about what happens when we die.  That's where trusting in G-d comes in.  We try to do the right things (Mitzvot)  and figure it couldn't hurt.  

Outside of Israel, we have only our preferred rabbi to speak to about our Jewish Law.  We have many avenues of Judaism from Reformed, Conservative to several forms of Orthodoxy.  It's like finding the right shoe that fits your foot;  what fits your outlook about Judaism.  We have no people policing us.  We practice according to our Synagogue or Temple expectations or just ourselves as we do what we want or can. 

         Some people found to be Jewish from varied cultures;  an ingathering is happening right now in Israel...

Most of us are very individualistic, anyway, people that were born to be leaders, not followers.  We're debaters, thinking and speaking about all sides of an issue. Many of our 14 million world-wide have become lawyers for this reason.  We're a small group of people, 0.02% of the world population, but seem to float to the top of the milk as cream, garnering a lot of attention. Maybe defying the world's population's beliefs and remaining with Moses' teachings do define us as such, people who took an oath and will not defy it.       

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis#:~:text=Pope%20Francis%20(Latin%3A%20Franciscus%3B,Vatican%20City%20State%20since%202013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chief_rabbis_of_Israel_and_Mandatory_Palestine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_HaLevi_Herzog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercaz_HaRav#:~:text=Tragically%2C%20Rabbi%20Borstein%20died%20suddenly,succeeded%20him%20as%20rosh%20yeshiva.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lau#:~:text=David%20Baruch%20Lau%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%93%D7%95%D7%93,Ashkenazi%20Chief%20Rabbi%20of%20Israel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Isaac_Kook

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Yosef#:~:text=Yitzhak%20Yosef%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%97%D7%A7%20%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%A3,Jewish%20law)%20called%20Yalkut%20Yosef.

Hungarian Jews and Their Lives Outside the Pale

  Nadene Goldfoot
Hungary was a country outside the Pale of Settlement where Jews had found refuge to live.  The first-known Jewish grave dates back from the 2nd century CE.  Jewish communities lived in Hungary in the 9th century.  By the 13th century, the decrees of the Lateran Council segregating the Jews from their neighbors were put into effect.  This was the 4th Council when these things were decided:
   Regulations relating to Jews and Muslims

• Canon 67: Jews may not charge extortionate interest.
• Canons 68: Jews and Muslims shall wear a special dress to enable them to be distinguished from Christians so that no Christian shall come to marry them ignorant of who they are.
• Canon 69: Declares Jews disqualified from holding public offices, incorporating into ecclesiastical law a decree of the Holy Christian Empire.
• Canon 70: Takes measures to prevent converted Jews from returning to their former belief.

In addition, it threatened excommunication to those who supplied ships, arms, and other war materials to the Saracens.

Effective application of the decrees varied according to local conditions and customs.

Jews had to wear a distinctive badge of identification, usually the star of David.  During the reign of Bela IV from 1235 to 1270, many Jews settled in Hungary as his property. 

Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270), also known as Béla the Great, was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. Being the oldest son of King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father's lifetime in 1214. His father, who strongly opposed Béla's coronation, refused to give him a province to rule until 1220.

 They enjoyed good relations with their neighbors.   Jews often were the minters of coins.  Some of them even had Hebrew inscriptions on them.  

The Pope put pressure on the people and the Jews, but Jews remained in a good position until 1349 when they all were expelled for the first time in Hungary.  A 2nd time took place in 1360.  Then many Jews immigrated from neighboring countries when the edict was revoked in 1364.  A year later, the office of "Judge of the Jews" was established to collect taxes from the Jewish population  and protect their interests.  The last judge was appointed in 1440.  

The 15th and 16th centuries were marked by recurrent charges of Ritual Murder.  They blamed Jews for killing a child they may have found murdered somewhere and said the Jews did it so they could use the child's blood in making matzos for Passover.  Of course it's the worst of lies said for an excuse to kill Jews.  The reason was that then they could cancel debts of money owed to the Jews.  

For nearly a 150 years until 1686, the Jews of Budapest and southern Hungary enjoyed a large measure of civic equality and religious liberty under the occupying Ottoman regime, although they were subject to their heavy taxes being they were dhimmis, or 2nd class citizens.  .

The restoration of Hungarian sovereignty brought in its wake expulsions and the exclusion of Jews from agriculture and the professions.  At the same time, some nobles protected the Jews whose numbers were augmented by refugees from Vienna in 1670.  The Jewish population increased because they were joined by Jew arriving from Moravia and Poland in the first half of the 18th century.  
                                                     

The Polish immigrants brought the study of the Talmud to Hungary.  They established important centers of learning.    

Rabbi Samson "Wertheimer (1658-1724) born in Worms, Germany, leased royal revenues and was one of the chief purveyors of the imperial forces.  Together with his son, Wolf, they lent large sums to the emperor, the Holy Roman Emperor, King Leopold (1640-1705)  of Germany,  Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. 
                                       
                                       Rabbi Samson Wertheimer

     Wertheimer is the man  I match in DNA along with others in a DNA group on FTDNA which traces back to him.  This was found by triangulation of DNA.  The
genealogy I've done only goes back to Telsiai, Lithuania and our Goldfus family.  Descendants of Iones Jonah Goldfus

1   Iones Jonah Goldfus b: Abt. 1730 in Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania d: 1813 in prob. Telsiai, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania

 In 1719 /Charles VI (1685-1740) another Holy Roman Emperor,  appointed him as chief rabbi of Hungary with judicial authority.  He used his connections to assist Jewish communities and obtained an order from  Emperor Leopold prohibiting the publication of Eisenmenger's antii-Jewish work, "Entdecktes Judentum." 

During Maria Theresa's reign, many new methods were created for exacting money from the Jews, who had been the big money-lenders.  The rule of Joseph II (1780 to 1790) brought the  right to establish schools, lease lands, engage in all trades and professions and ive in the royal cities.  The Jewish badge was abolished, and the Jews had to adopt German surnames.  All this was then nullified at Joseph's death.  It was followed with a struggle to regain these legal rights plus an increeased Magyarization of the Jewish community.                   

 There was a a revolution between Austria and Hungary.   Wholehearted support for the 1848 revolution brought severe reprisals by the Austrians.  It took until 1867 till the Jews were finally granted full civic and political rights.  Then Hungarian Jewry became divided in its religious life into two opposing camps of orthodox and liberal Jews.  
                                                      

The rapid integration of the Jews into the country's life received a brief setback with the rise of 19th century anti-Semitism, culminating in the TISZAESZLAR Ritual Murder libel.  "An accusation of Jewish ritual murder in the Hungarian village of Tiszaeszlár (before 1918, in Szabolcs county) led to the arrest, imprisonment, interrogation, and eventual trial of 13 Jewish defendants, April 1882–August 1883. The Tiszaeszlár affair began with the disappearance of a 14-year-old Christian girl named Eszter Solymosi on 1 April 1882. "

Jews played a prominent part in the cultural life of Hungary before World War I.  Jews played a disproportionate participation in the Communist Revolution of 1919 so suffered heavily after the collapse of the Bela KUN regime, and discrimination of many kinds was instituted against them.  After the advent of Nazism in Germany, the scope of anti-Jewish measures enacted by the government had increased.  These also applied to  300,000 Jews in territories which the Hungarians annexed from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania during World War II.  
                                                          

In 1944, the Nazis overran Hungary, imposing ghettos, concentration camps and deportations to extermination centers.  Of Hungary's 725,000 Jews, about 400,000 were murdered in the Holocaust.  After the liberation, all pre-war organizations were re-established.  The accession to power of the communists in 1948 led to the nationalization of Jewish institutions, and religious organizations were centralized under one authority.  

Some 20,000 Jews fled Hungary after the 1956 revolution.  Jewish communal and religious life (including the Budapest rabbinical seminary) continued under the communist regime but flourished more freely with the introduction of liberalization.  80,000 Jews were registered with the community by 1990, but there were many more who were not affiliated.  

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-VI-Holy-Roman-emperor
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tiszaeszlar_Blood_Libel
update:  This article is also found on my Goldfoot blog. goldfoot_genealogy.blogspot.com

What is Jerusalem's Temple Mount? Why All the Violence?

Nadene Goldfoot                                          

The Temple Mount is the site on Mount Moriah where King Solomon(961-920 BCE)  built the first Temple which was used as a shrine for the ARK, the sacred vessels and offerings.  It was built with a court for worshippers.

In 586 BCE, about 375 years later, the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed this most special temple and took away captives where they mourned for their land in Babylon.  They were able to return after many years and rebuild it on the very same spot along with those that were able to remain.  This is referred to as the Second Temple.
                                                                       
The Temple was in use until 70 CE when the Romans burned it down along with the rest of the city.  That means it stood for almost 900 years on the same original spot which was so special to them all.  The Romans later built a Roman temple to their many gods on the site.  Then, since the Muslim period, a mosque has stood there.  Titus had led the Roman army in the temple's destruction, leaving only the Wall which has become the only holy site left for Jews to remember their history and to pray near.  It used to be called the "Wailing Wall."
                                                                             

This Mosque of Omar stands right in the center of the Temple area
and is called (al-Harim ash-Sherif.  It was built by Clih Abd al-Malik in
738 to replace the temporary one built by Caliph Omar a century earlier.  

We see the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock)  there today. Omar was the 2nd caliph and ruled from 634 to 644.  During his era, he conquered several ancient Jewish communities. such as Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia.  Most Jews were expelled from northern Arabia through his orders.  He originated the Poll tax assuring Jews and Christians protection in return of the money.  Along with protection, he gave them restrictions such as not serving in public office, wearing of distinctive different clothing so as to know who they were, not allowing any house of worship to be built, etc, etc.
                                                                         

This 2nd mosque built in the Temple area of Jerusalem was by caliph abd el-Malik in the
8th century and called El Aksa, or the farthest from Mecca.  It was to mark the site of the legendary flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Jerusalem.  

King Herod I (73 -4 BCE) was king of Judea by connection with the Romans.  He was the son of an Idumean, Antipater and his Nabatean wife, Cypros.   Idumea was also called Edom and Mount Seir, laying south of the Dead Sea and bordering on the Red Sea at Elath and Ezion Geber.  They were originally descendants of Esau and of Semitic origin and lived by hunting.   He had rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale and had erected the 2 new cities of Sebaste and Caesarea.  He was also a cruel king and a heavy taxer.  He executed dissidents.  The Sanhedrin called him on that and had sentenced him to death for it, but he was saved by Hyrcanus and Sextus Caesar, the governor of Syria.

The Temple Mount is a 37 acre tract of land on Mt. Moriah where Abraham (1948 BCE of 2nd millennium BCE) was told by G-d to sacrifice Isaac.  Of course, the Muslim story is that he was to sacrifice Ishmael.  The fact is that Muhammad (570-632 CE) lived about 2,000 years after Moses had written this fact in his Five Books of Moses, that make up the Tanakh which are the first books found in the "Old Testament."  There were many Jewish tribes living in Medina at that time and used to tell their stories out loud and outside where others could listen.  This has been a favorite story for Jews.

King David (1010-970 BCE)  was Solomon's father.  The Jebusites were a Canaanite people living in the hill region around Jerusalem which they called Jebus.  Joshua, when entering Canaan, had defeated a Jebusite-led coalition, but Jerusalem was occupied during the reign of David, which was then the only time.  David bought the threshing floor belonging to the Jebusite king, Araunah, and this story is found in (II Sam.24:15).  The Jebusites were able to stay in Jerusalem under David and became tributary under his son, King Solomon.  They became assimilated into the Jewish population.  Of course this threshing floor was the spot of Isaac's near-sacrifice, right on Mt. Moriah.
                                                                     

Another stabbing attack victim on ground

The Bible indicates that a third temple will be built on or near the site of Solomon’s temple (Daniel 9:27). This would seem to present a problem given the political obstacles that stand in the way: the religious activities on the Temple Mount are currently controlled by the Supreme Muslim Council of Jordan (the Waqf).   With the latest development of violence, the IDF are now taking over the security of the visitors.
                                                                          

On the attack 

Of course the Pope is blaming Israel instead of the stabbers who are the Muslims.  "The violence the Pope is referring to began ten days ago when three Palestinian terrorists murdered two Druze Israeli policemen while they guarded the entrance to the Temple Mount. The Israeli police entered the site and, after a gun battle, killed the three terrorists."
                                                                     

Jews praying at the Wall in Jerusalem

I must say that Israel has absolutely nothing to gain by the violence that has been going on on the Temple Mount.  It was Moshe Dayan at the end of the 1967 War-started by all the surrounding Muslim countries  attacking and Israel winning-quite the miracle considering the odds who decided on giving Jordan's religious leaders the reign of rule on the Temple Mount because of the mosque there.  Dayan had fought through the 6 days as a leader and was tired.  He didn't want to stir up their neighbors anymore than what they had just gone through.  He didn't realize their their religious leaders could be so nasty as to not even allow Jews to pray there.  They haven't been able to move their lips in prayer.  
                                                               

This American Jew intended to pray near the Temple.  He's a gingy (red-head) , like
King David was said to have been. 

       Even my relative, Stanley Goldfoot of Jerusalem and his group which was all about the Temple Mount, had not been happy about it.  But they didn't react.  The Muslims have been slashing Jews far too long on this holy site for just being available to stab and it has been going on far too long.  This incident must have been the final straw.  Stanley died in 2006.  

Yaacov Hayman, a white-bearded Orthodox native of Southern California, has worked for decades alongside other American-Israeli leaders of the Temple Mount movement. He recently took the helm of a new government body called The Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, which is charged with preserving the holy site and educating about its Jewish history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaxGnuUIeDQ guide explaining  Temple Mount

Read more: http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/376534/american-jews-beyond-western-wall-prayer-temple-mount/.  
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.gotquestions.org/mount-Moriah.html
https://israelnewsonline.org/catholic-churches-in-jerusalem-blame-israel-for-muslim-violence-deny-biblical-roots-of-temple-mount/#.WXartIjyuUl
http://www.walkingwithawareness.com/picturesIs4.htm