Ayatollah As NOT Part of Empire of Cyrus II of Persia

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                           Ayatollah Ali Khamenei;  Supreme leader of Iran                                         (born April 19, 1939 in Mashad, Iran-86 years old)

                           Cyrus II The Great  of Persia in 559 BCE

Somebody said that the problem is that Iran's Ayatollah wants the greatness that Cyrus II the Great had.  He thinks they are part of the ancient empire, even at this late date.  He doesn't know about Cyrus, evidently.  

Cyrus the Great II was the Persian king who died in 529 BCE.  He was a conqueror, as many were back then.  He overran the Babylonian Empire, and this included Eretz Yisrael.  The thing about Cyrus is that we Jews thought he was related to Queen Esther and King Ahasueros.  Why?

    Returnees rebuilding 2nd Temple being released by Cyrus

The story I am about to tell is said to have happened later in the Persian Period and before 330 BCE, however.  Why?  In 2nd Temple times, the scroll of Esther was already apparently included in the canon.  Its reading on Purim was made obligatory, and a special talmudic tractate was written on the relevant regulations.  it became one of the favorite objects of Jewish folk-art.  So it could have happened before 529 BCE.  

Babylonians had attacked Judah and took away people in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE.  Nebuchadnezzar II  had taken over the holdings of the Assyrians.  They went to the river in Babylon where they met up with Jews from a previous raid by the Assyrians.  This meant that that there were members of the 10 Tribes of Jacob along with the newer Jewish hostages and constituted a large Israelite (Jewish)  population.    

Cyrus followed  very enlightened policy towards his subject peoples, so in 538 BCE, about 60 years later, had granted permission to the exiles of Judah in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple.  This is recorded in (Ezra 1:1-44) and II Chron.36:22-23).  For this kind act, so out of place, the Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus as a Divine agent (someone selected by G-d to help them). This thought is found in (Is.44:28;45:I)

Many of the exiles remained in Babylon even after Cyrus permitted a return to their homeland, Judah. There were Persian towns made up entirely of Jewish populations such as Nehardea, Nisibis, and Mahoza.  The Jews of Babylon remained in constant touch with the Jews of Judah  and even supplied some of their leaders, such as Hillel.                                        

In fact, during the Roman occupation, the Babylonian Jews rose against the emperor Trajan (98-117), the revolt being bloodily suppressed by his commander, Lucius Quietus in 116.  Under both Persian and Parthian rule, the Jews of Babylon enjoyed an extensive measure of internal autonomy, being headed by an EXILARCH of Davidic descent who was the king's representative, while the community was governed by a council of elders.  

The great literary creation of the Jews of Babylon, the Babylonian TALMUD, reflects a society preponderantly based on agriculture and crafts.  They were learned in Jewish studies and had produced works of literary merit, such as Ezekiel, Daniel and Tobit.  

                             Queen Esther and her son, Darius

King Darius I reigned from 522-486 BCE and had inherited the throne from Cyrus !!!  At the beginning of his reign, he permitted Zerubbabel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume reconstruction of the Temple.  

Now, Esther (Hadassah) was the daughter of Abihail (father) and written about in Megillat Esther) of the Bible. According to the biblical book of Esther, Esther was the daughter of Abihail. She was raised by her cousin, Mordecai, who adopted her as his own daughter after her parents died. Persian Queen Esther (492 B.C.–c. 460 B.C.), born as a Jewish exile named Hadasseh, eventually became the queen of Persia, which during her lifetime was the greatest empire in the known world.

This book is about the deliverance of the Jews of Persia in the time of King Ahasuerus. It's why people in the synagogues read from the Scroll of Esther and when we have the festival of Purim and eat hamentaschen (3 cornered filled cookies).  We are happy, wear costumes, and get a little shicker (tipsy).

 Esther herself finds out that Haman, (possibly related later to Hitler....same goals in life) wants to kill all the Jews in the world and the king is emperor over a huge part of their continent.  She is in good with her husband, so she tells him of the plot and figures it's a good time to tell him that she is also Jewish.  He has Haman hung along with his sons so puts an end to the goal of that family.  

So we find that Cyrus was the grandson of Queen Esther.  This history will not be found in Islamic writings;  only Jewish ones.  Amazing, isn't it?  The empire he admired was led by a Jewish leader, and Cyrus had his father, Darius, to copy.  

Also amazing is that good relations continued between Israel and Iran with the Shah of Iran that the Ayatollah had overthrown.  

 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini "got rid of" or overthrew the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and this was known as the Iranian Revolution or the Islamic Revolution.  

It's important to note that while they acknowledge and respect Cyrus, the Islamic Republic of Iran's primary focus is on its Islamic heritage, and there is a distinction between respecting ancient Iranian history and promoting pre-Islamic nationalist movements. Some sources suggest that the Iranian government has taken steps to discourage excessive celebration of pre-Islamic figures like Cyrus, particularly when these celebrations are perceived as being linked to the former monarchy or as undermining the Islamic Republic. 

According to Iranian leaders, their desire is not to eliminate all Jews, but rather to see the demise of the State of Israel, which they refer to as the "Zionist regime". So they want to drop an Atom bomb on Israel and  destroy it.  

Here's why they hold this view:

• Ideological opposition to the state of Israel: Iranian leaders view Israel as an "illegitimate regime" and a "colonial outpost" established and supported by Western powers.
• Support for the Palestinian people: Iran's declared goal is to eliminate Israel's "imposed regime" and allow Palestinians to self-determine their fate and form a new government where Muslims, Christians, and Jews can coexist.  This is what Israel already has created until the Hamas under Iran came along.  
• Anti-Western sentiment: Israel is seen as a close ally of the United States, which the Iranian regime views as an obstacle to its goal of removing American influence from the Middle East.
• Strategic goals in the region: Iran seeks to assert its leadership within the Muslim world and expand its influence by positioning itself as a strong opponent of Israel. (war between Iran and Saudi Arabia--religion of shi'i,sunni)
• Internal political purposes: The Iranian government faces internal challenges such as economic difficulties and political unrest, and presenting Israel as an external enemy can serve to unite the population and distract from these internal issues.
• Historical context: Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran and Israel had friendly relations, but the revolution brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power, who viewed Israel as an enemy. 

It's important to note that many Iranians do not support their government's anti-Israel stance and desire a more peaceful approach. 

Iranians;  you have your chance now.  Step up.  Feel the fresh air.  The window is open for just a short time.  The mental disease characterized by a fear of going outside is called agoraphobia. It's an anxiety disorder where people fear situations where escape might be difficult or help might not be available, especially if they have a panic attack.  You may never get another chance.  

Resource:

https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/bible/old-testament/esther#:~:text=Persian%20Queen%20Esther%20(492%20B.C.,empire%20in%20the%20known%20world.

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Tanakh, Stone Edition; pages 1752 under writings

The Jewish Rebellion and How They Lost Jerusalem

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

      Arch of Titus in Rome: a way of bragging how the Roman Army looted the Temple,  forcing the Jews, now slaves, to carry the precious articles from the Temple

 The Roman emperor during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE was Titus, who ruled from 79–81 AD:  He was the son of Vespasian.  Titus took over command of the Roman army in Judea from his father in 70, when he destroyed Jerusalem after a 5 month siege that included starving the occupants.  According to Josephus, Titus endeavored-although unsuccessfully-- to preserve the Temple, but other sources relate that the destruction was deliberate with the object of eliminating the national religious center of the Jews.  Jewish tradition gave him the name, "Titus the Wicked." 

Despite the bitter battle in Judea, he did not interfere with Jewish rights elsewhere and refused to accede to the demand of the people of Antioch to abolish Jewish privileges there.  Antioch was a wealthy and thriving Jewish community in one of the largest cities of the first-century Roman world. The city's population was made up of Syrians, Greeks, Jews, and Romans. The Jewish community in Antioch were granted citizenship rights equal to those of the Greeks by Seleucus Nicator, the founder-king of Antioch. The Jews in Antioch were guaranteed the right to practice their religion and customs from the second century BC. The Jewish privileges were inscribed on brass tablets and carefully guarded. In 71 AD, when the citizens of Antioch requested that the Jews be expelled, Titus instead displayed a copy of the Jewish privileges in Alexandria in public. After Antiochus IV Epiphanes plundered the Temple in Jerusalem, his successors restored brass votive offerings to the Jews to keep in their synagogue.

                                      "Juive de Tanger" by Charles Landelle, Musée des beaux-arts de Reims

This may have been due to the influence of his mistress, Berenice, a Judean princess, daughter of Herod's sister, Salome.  In the year, 60, she rejoined Agrippa, supporting his efforts to prevent the outbreak of the great Revolt in 66, and later fled with him to the Romans. That's when she became Titus's mistress.  Then she was forced by Roman popular opinion to leave him.  When Vespusian died, she tried to reconcile with Titus, but failed.  Berenice was a member of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled the Roman province of Judaea between 39 BC and 92 AD. She was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I and Cypros and a sister of King Herod Agrippa II.

Trajan was the Roman emperor who reigned from the year 98 to 117 CE/AD.  His oriental policy led to a major clash with the Jews of Judaea.  In 105/6 he annexed the Nabatean kingdom including the Negev and Transjordan.  In 115-117, while he was involved in his Parthian war, Jewish risings were happening in Cyrenaica, Egypt and Cyprus, and in Alexandria the Greeks attacked the Jewish population.  As a result, in 116;; he ordered a preventive massacre of the Jews in Mesopotamia.   Judea itself was kept under firm control by his general, Lucius Quietus.  The suppression of the many risings ended the prosperity of the Jewish settlements in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus.                                        

Hadrian;  Aaelius Hadrianus, was a Roman emperor from 117 to 138 CE/AD.  Hadrian assumed control over the vast Roman Empire in AD 117 following the death of his adoptive father, Trajan. As emperor, he broke with the expansionist policies of his predecessors to focus on securing the Roman Empire within its existing borders.

His most impressive statement of this policy was Hadrian’s Wall – a monument that still influences the landscape of northern England today, some 1,900 years after it was built.

He removed and executed the savage governor of Judea, who was Lucius Quietus.                    

Lucius Quietus was a Roman Berber general and 11th legate of Judaea from 117. He was the principal commander against the Jewish rebellion known as the Kitos War (Kitos is a later corruption of Quietus). As both a general and a highly acclaimed commander, he was notably one of the most accomplished Berber statesmen in ancient Roman history. After the death of the emperor Trajan, Quietus was murdered or executed, possibly on the orders of Trajan's successor Hadrian.  What most of people ignore is the fact that behind the Greatness of Emperor Trajan lays the  African Berber, Lucius Quietus, who was Trajan’s military Deputy and Chief of staff of his armies… Many history manuals will not tell you who was really Lucius Quietus, how he became the Deputy of the Greatest Roman Emperor of all time and why many people really know nothing about him…

The Diaspora Revolt/or Jewish rebellion, a series of major uprisings by diasporic Jews, occurred in 115–117 in Cyrene (Cyrenaica), Cyprus, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. These uprisings involved the ransacking of towns and the slaughter of Roman citizens and others. When the inhabitants of Babylonia revolted, they were suppressed by Quietus, who was rewarded by being appointed governor of Judaea. There, he faced a period of unrest later known in rabbinic sources as the Kitos War, a name derived from Quietus. Quietus took the city of Lydda and methodically set about defeating the rebellions.

At first the Jews may have thought well of Hadrian because he supported the Egyptian Jewry in disputes with the Greeks and this created a favorable impression on the Jews.  

Then He came along with a prohibition against sexual mutilation which extended to circumcision.  This was an attack on a fundamental rite of Judaism, and they changed their minds.

As a result of his visit to Palestine in 130 and the implacable attitude of the Jews with whom he negotiated, he decided to commence the hellenization of the country by converting Jerusalem into a Roman colony and named it after himself, Aelia Capitolina. 

The Jews rebelled under Bar Kokhba and the ensuing war from 132 to 135 ended with Bar Kokhba's death.  It was the most difficult time of Hadrian's reign.   Bar Kokhba held Jerusalem for 3 years with his army of young men, an impossible feat in those days to dare to take on the Roman army.                                   

After Hadrians's victory, he received the title of Imperator.  Judea became a consular province called Syria-Palaestina.   The ruins of Jerusalem were reconstructed as a pagan city and an equestrian statue of Hadrian was erected on the site of the Holy of Holies.  

During the siege of Jerusalem during the Roman War, the Temple had served as a center of military activity, and was destroyed by the conquering Romans in 70 CE.  A Roman temple was later built on the site, and since the Moslem Period, a mosque has stood there called the Mosque of Omar.  The area around the western and southern walls of the (Herodian) Temple compound was extensively excavated in 1968.  

Research:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1586-antioch

BABYLONIA, Our Exodus From and Exile To: Iraq's Land

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

                                              Ur, a city in the Babylonia Empire

Long ago, the family of Abraham (b:1948 BCE) left their city of UR of the Chaldees, which was under Babylonia officially, actually being south of Babylonia on the Euphrates River.                                               

                          Ur, of the Chaldees.

 Babylonia was known by the name of the land of SHINAR or of the KASDIM (Chaldees).   It was an ancient state of Western Asia.  Babylonia was known as the CRADLE OF HUMANITY and as the scene of man's 1st revolt against G-d with the story of the Tower of Babel.  The FLOOD  was in Babylonian literature.                                                                          

 Abraham had left Ur with his father, Terah, and others for Canaan; where he later fought "Amraphel, king of Shinar. (Gen. 14).                                   

Some 136 years later, Babylon was to the prophets, a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.  It was Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) who inherited the Assyrian Empire and after his conquest of Judah in 597 and 586 BCE, exiled many Jews to Babylon, from whence their ancestors had come from so long ago.   Left in Judah were the Judeans and Benjaminites.  They would take on the name of Jews who were the largest population.

                                           

Brought to Babylon, the people wept.  a psalm was written about their feelings by David.  "By the rivers of Babylon" there we sat and also wept when we remembered Zion.  On the willows within it we hung our lyres.  For there outr captors requested words of song from us, with our lyres playing joyous music.  "Sing for us from Zion's song!" 

Considering the past history of the Assyrian who exiled 10 of the 12 tribes of Jacob in 721 BCE, they and Nebuchadnezzar's exiled Israelites they constituted a large Israelite population, many of whom remained in Babylon, even after King Cyrus of Persia permitted a return to Jerusalem later to return and rebuild the Temple, which many did.  

                                              

In the 6th-century BC, the armies of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah. They tore down the city walls, burned the temple, and ran down every person who tried to escape. The few survivors were dragged out of their homeland and forced to live in Babylon as vassals to the men who butchered their children.  And yet, when the Jews in exile won their freedom, most of them didn’t leave. They stayed in Babylon – and kept a thriving community that lasted for more than 2,000 years.

It’s one of the stranger moments in human history. These people were brutalized by an invading army. They were taught to hate so viciously that, for hundreds of years, the word “Babylon,” to the Jews, was synonymous with evil. But most chose to stay right there with their captors, living side-by-side with the men who had made their lives miserable.  Why didn’t they leave? It’s a question that’s plagued historians and theologians alike; but some recently uncovered documents shed a little light on how Babylon created a Jewish community that still lives on today.

Certain towns in Babylonia, such as Nehardea, Nisibis, and Maboza, had an entirely Israelite or Jewish population.  Their position remained favorable during successive regimes.  In the 1st century BCE, a Jewish state was set up around Nehardea by 2 brothers, Anilai (Anilaos) and Asinai (Asinaios) and this lasted for some years.                                            

A wall fresco at a Jewish synagogue in Syria's national museum shows the hand of G-d reaching out to the people. The synagogue was excavated at the site of Dura Europos, a town built on the banks of the Euphrates river around 300 B.C E.  Quite unusual for a synagogue.   

Nehardea was situated at the junction of the Euphrates and the Nahr Malka (royal Canal).  Josephus describes Nehardea as a heavily fortified city, one of the 2 centers in which the Temple offerings were assembled for forwarding to Jerusalem.  The city contained the Shaf Veyativ Synagogue which was said to have been built by the exiled king Jehoiachin of Judah and described by Abbaye of the 4th century CE as the seat of the Divine Presence in Babylonia.                                                  

Papa was a Babylonian amora (lecturer, a title given to Jewish scholars in Babylonia in the 3rd-6th centuries).  A pupil of Rava and Abbaye, he removed to Neresh, near Sura, after the death of the former and established an academy there.  

The town of Nehardea was destroyed by the Palmyrenes of Palmyra  in 259 CE. Palmyra was the Roman name but the Biblical was Tadmor, which was an ancient Syrian city that was founded by King Solomon.  Palmyrenes served in the  Roman armies.  Many Palmyrene Jews are buried in the catacombs of Bet Shearim.   The academy reopened in Pumbedita under Rabbi Judah ben Ezekiel, and a group of scholars called "Nehardeans" continued to exist until savoraic times (500-700)and, for a while, provided heads of the academy alternately with the Pumbeditans.  Nehardea was the capital of the small rebel state set up by the 2 Jewish brothers in 20 CE.                       

Benjamin of Tudela found 2,000 Jews in Tadmor in the 12th century. 

                                                     

The Jews of Babylon remained in constant touch with the Jews of Judah and even supplied some of the leaders, such as HILLEL(1st century BCE).  He was the founder of the House of Hillel, born in Babylonia but settled in Palestine, earning his living by his manual labor while studying with the famous teachers, Shemaiah and Avtalyon.  He became President of the Sanhedrin.  He and his friend and opponent, Shammai, were the last pairs of Zugot of scholars, like debtors.  

                                            

       Trajan and his Roman Empire:  The Roman army at the time was one of the finest fighting machines the world has ever seen. Thirty legions, comprising 4,000 to 4,800 men in each, were spread across the empire, including five legions in Pannonia and Moesia, four in Germania, and three in Britain and Syria. Each legion was divided into smaller units called cohorts, numbering about 600 men, but the basic battlefield unit was called the century and was composed of a hundred men—hence the eventual usage of the word to denote a hundred years.

                                                                 

   Emperor Trajan  reigned from 98-117 CE.  His oriental policy led to a major clash.  In 105-106, he annexed the Nabatean kingdom including the Negev and Transjordan.  In 115-117, while he was engaged in his Parthian war, Jewish risings occurred in Cyrenaica, Egypt, and Cyprus.  In Alexandria the Greeks attacked the Jewish population.  So in 116, he ordered a preventative massacre of the Jews in Mesopotamia.  Judea itself was kept under firm control by his General Lucius Quietus.  The suppression of the many risings ended the prosperity of the Jewish settlements in Egypt, Cyrenaica,, and Cyprus.   

During the Roman occupation, the Babylonian Jews rose against the emperor TRAJAN, the revolt being bloodily suppressed by his commander, Lucius Quietus (116 CE).                                                  

 One undisputed fact remains: the brief idyll between the benevolent imperial couple (e.g.                                                       

                                   Trajan and  Pompeia Plotina, his wife

Alamy

 Trajan and  Plotina) and the Jews was soon to be shattered by the revolt of 115. The reaction of the Roman government fulfilled the desire of Hermaiskos to see the emperor support his “own people” instead of defending the “impious Jews.” And the image of Trajan as friend and protector of the Jews was to give way to that of a Trajan bent on persecution and destruction.  In the first engagement they happened to overcome the Greeks, who fled to Alexandria and captured and killed the Jews in the city, but though thus losing the help of the townsmen, the Jews of Cyrene continued to plunder the country of Egypt and to ravage the districts in it under their leader Loukouas.  

On 9th August 117 AD (or it might have been the 7th or 8th), the Emperor Trajan died suddenly from a stroke at Selinus in Cilicia on his way from Syria to Rome. This event prompted the renaming of the city as Trajanopolis and the building of a cenotaph to Trajan.  Trajan lived 63 years and eleven months. He reigned for nineteen years and six months.                                           

                              Persian soldiers

    Parthian soldiers.  

They're all from different time periods, though three of them are closely related.

Ancient Persians came from the region of modern Fars, and made up the elite of the Achaemenid period. They spoke an early version of Persian, rather than any of the numerous other Iranian languages.

The Sassanids or Sassanians also came from Fars, and were ethnically Persian and viewed themselves as the heirs of the Achaemenid period. They helped spread the use of the Persian language throughout what is modern Iran and were a major empire and cultural focus before the rise of Islam.

The Parthians did not come from Fars, but rather from what is now northeast Iran and southern Turkmenistan. They spoke an Iranian language, but were a separate ethnic groups closer to the Saka/Scythians than the Achaemenid Persians.

Under both Persian( Iran)  and Parthian (Empire of Iranic people) ruled over Babylon and Media. The Jews of Babylon enjoyed an extensive measure of internal autonomy, being headed by an EXILARCH of Davidic descent who was the king's representative, while the community was governed by a council of elders.   The Parthians  restored Antigonus Mattathias to the throne of Judah in 40 BCE.  The Jews of the Roman Empire looked on Parthia as their future savior.  It was under the rule of Parthia that the famous rabbinic schools in Mesopotamia began to flourish.                              

The great literary creation of the Jews of Babylon, the Babylonian TALMUD, reflects a society preponderantly based on agriculture and crafts.  They were learned in Jewish studies and had produced works of literary merit, like Ezekiel, Daniel, and Tobit.  

At the beginning of the 3rd century CE, Babylonia became the main center of rabbinic studies, academies being founded by SAMUEL at Nehardea and by Rav at Sura, while in the later 3rd century, the academy of Pumbedita was founded to replace that at Nehardea which was destroyed in 261.  The importance of these schools was further enhanced with the abolition of the Palestinian patriarchate in 425.  

                                              

(Canaan, called Eretz Yisrael by the Jews, was named Palestine by the Romans who in anger, named it for the Jews' worst enemy, the Philistines when the Romans had to fight the Jewish General Bar Kokhba from 132-135. The Jewish general was killed, and the name of Palestine was born.

Babylon became the spiritual center for all Jewry after 425.

Persecutions in the 5th century led to the Jewish revolt under Mar Zutra II who held out of 7 years, but was finally captured and killed.                                                                 

The TALMUD was concluded about at this period.  The position of the Jews continued to be difficult until the Arab conquest in the 7th century with Mohammed.  

So history goes round and round.  Abraham left Ur in 722 BCE, and his descendants were brought back in 586 BCE to that same area 136 years later.  Many remained.  What would the DNA tests of the men show?  They might reflect in many a connection to the Jews of today. The town of Babylon was located along the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.

                                                 

 Whit Athey's tool analysis showed that the Iraqi Arab population had seven major haplogroups; J1, E1b1b, J2a1b, J2, R1a, R1b and J2b. The most common haplogroup was J1 which represented 36.6% (93/254) of the population.  J1 is also found in Jews, and is the Cohen line.  Many Jewish men are also E1b1b and J2 and R1a.  Oh my!  

Resource:

Tanakh, Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/06/understanding-world-and-time-of-ur-of.html

https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/02/could-iraqis-have-jewish-roots.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_137

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2015/10/06/emperor-trajan-the-roman-empire/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72283-1#:~:text=Whit%20Athey's%20tool%20analysis%20showed,%2F254)%20of%20the%20population.