Nadene Goldfoot
A very stiff-necked people picked up and left the east side of the world where the sun rose every morning and decided to move on westward 4,000 years ago. They had left a beautiful area of Mesopotamia and the city of Ur, and all the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. These people were seekers for more. They were not ready to mix into the people they were passing through. They passed through many tribes and clans of people without bending to their ways. This is why they were considered "stiff-necked." Among these Israelites, as they called themselves, was the family of Terah and his son, Abram and wife, Sarai. They were traveling in a family grouping so they had relatives amongst them.
The whole world at this time were polytheistic and many practiced human sacrifices to appease and please their many gods. Abram had an epiphany of speaking with G-d who convinced Abram of there being only one, and he passed this belief onto his sons. They settled in Canaan with their tents.
Abram begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob. After that Isaac realized that there should be no more human sacrifices, and passed this onto his descendants. Now we have a family group who believed in one G-d and no human sacrifices, and that human life was special. The world around them continued on with their practices and beliefs.
Moses was born to an Israelite at a time when the Pharaoh of Egypt thought their number too many and that they might overtake Egypt's army, so had them forced into their slavery. They served Egypt for 400 years from the time they had entered the land until Moses had freed them and took them back to their original destination of Canaan. What the people experienced with Moses were traumatic experiences, never to be forgotten. They learned that not only did their one G-d want them to be gracious to others and give strangers food and drink if they passed their tent, but more.
These events must have reacted on their genes, imprinted to be a part of their descendants a force known today to be epigenetics. If a modification of genes can happen when a parent experiences starvation and her child suffers from obesity, and it happens even more so to the grandchild, this becomes traceable back to the grandparent and so on. With endogamous people, this can be repeated throughout the centuries even if not traceable today with all the mixing. Judaism is a religion, family- originated, also a people, as The Jews. That stiff-necked aspect can be inherited, even today from so long ago in our genes. Every pain, every shock that this people have endured is recorded in the epigenetics of their being. The memories are there, in the form of caution, wariness, a feeling of destiny with Israel.
The Israelites spoke Ivrit (Hebrew) and they mixed with people who they could converse with. Moses had freed 603,550 slaves from Egypt, known to us by his census information, and ended outside Canaan with 601,730 after their 40 year march by the Torah figures of years on the Jewish calendar when Moses was 120 years old in the year of 1271 BCE. We still use this same calendar, and this year by Rosh Hashana will be 5781. Others today figure the Exodus of Moses happened in 1500 BCE.
Moses let his people know that they were elected by G-d to carry the message of His Law to the world that he was giving to them. It is based on the covenant between G-d and their ancestor, Abraham and renewed at Sinai in the form of the 10 commandments that Moses brought down where the election was conditional on how well they all observed these laws plus more that he would be giving them. They, as the group called Israel, were declared to become "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." They were to remember that this was conditional on social righteousness.
Little did they know that they signed onto becoming the chosen, be that as it may, the chosen servant of mankind whose suffering would all be blamed on this small group who were destined to be the chosen scapegoats of the world.
Later on in the Mishnah and Talmud, the role of Israel as the teacher of other nations is stressed. Other people are expressed in the Midrash as having the potential equality with Israel which states that G-d offered the Torah to all of them, but only Israel accepted it. The preservation of the conception of G-d is inseparably bound up with the salvation of Israel.
The Jewish idea of the Chosen People implies not superiority over others, but superiority of responsibility and moral duty. When one of us breaks this; the word is out as if the whole universe has been struck with locusts. One bad Jewish person harms the security of all Jews when others do the same and no one blinks an eye.
Thus, we have had Jews to reject this idea of being the Chosen People though it is written in our Torah. This happened in the early Reform Judaism days in Germany from 1885-1920s when German Jews wanted to be like all Germans, a time their Russian brothers were being beaten up in the many pogroms. It had become the days of a Diaspora-centered trend; to be enlightened, not chosen. They saw in dispersion the instrument for transmitting the ethical teachings of Judaism. They felt guilty of bearing this burden given to them through our Old Testament.
At the same time, Germans were locking their doors against Jews and such people as Hitler were rising and blaming Jews more-so than usual. By 1939, Jews were being rounded up for camps, not allowed to work, to heal, to make a living in Germany. Another year and they were facing gas chambers and being exterminated.
The Holocaust happened from 1939 to 1945 and in 6 short years we see 6 million Jews murdered by a government; a people taught by others to despise because they were different, and according to Iran, still despised. Israel now exists, and is the only Jewish country in the world.
"Earlier this month, a tweet posted on Khamenei’s official Twitter account said Iran’s “stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. #Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen.” The account is run by Khamenei’s office and it’s not known if he dictates the tweets himself. The quote was from several years ago. "
Zionism stressed Jewish reconcentration in the land of Israel and the realization of a moral Jewish society on independent Jewish terms as indispensable to maintenance of Jewish values as they were quickly dissipating in Europe with the bar lowered.
Somehow, Jews did give the world a moral code, of which in a Democratic society is not to be been in public; such as the 10 Commandments .
Jews are allowed to be reminded of them, though.
Here they are on Neve Shalom Synagogue in Portland, Oregon.
This is why Israel is different from all the other nations of the world. The country is not any piece of land; it was rewarded to Jews after 440 years of slavery by G-d through Moses; along with the moral laws that became the Old Testament, losing it to the Assyrians in 721 BCE and later to the Babylonians in 597-586 BCE and then the Romans in 70 CE.
It came to them again after 2,000 years of waiting after losing it to the vicious attack by the Romans who burned down everything precious but carted away the spoils, and a final time on May 14, 1948 through the League of Nations and the United Nations. This same piece of land that was ours 4,000 years ago is still our holy land.
Nothing will ever take its place because of our history, our blood, our genes that lie in this land.
Resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8mkDLtD_0 The search for the real Mt. Sinai; Simcha Jacobovici, the Naked Archaeologist
Tanakh, the Stone Edition (Old Testament)
http://www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/venice/papers/lmisiura.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe
THE GENE by Siddhartha Mukherjee
https://apnews.com/d456af53f14a4c719652ce34a38b7600/Iran's-top-leader-seeks-to-clarify-position-on-Israel
 |
| Sarai being taken by pharaoh, not knowing she is married |
The whole world at this time were polytheistic and many practiced human sacrifices to appease and please their many gods. Abram had an epiphany of speaking with G-d who convinced Abram of there being only one, and he passed this belief onto his sons. They settled in Canaan with their tents.
 |
| Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac but stopped in time |
Moses was born to an Israelite at a time when the Pharaoh of Egypt thought their number too many and that they might overtake Egypt's army, so had them forced into their slavery. They served Egypt for 400 years from the time they had entered the land until Moses had freed them and took them back to their original destination of Canaan. What the people experienced with Moses were traumatic experiences, never to be forgotten. They learned that not only did their one G-d want them to be gracious to others and give strangers food and drink if they passed their tent, but more.
The Israelites spoke Ivrit (Hebrew) and they mixed with people who they could converse with. Moses had freed 603,550 slaves from Egypt, known to us by his census information, and ended outside Canaan with 601,730 after their 40 year march by the Torah figures of years on the Jewish calendar when Moses was 120 years old in the year of 1271 BCE. We still use this same calendar, and this year by Rosh Hashana will be 5781. Others today figure the Exodus of Moses happened in 1500 BCE.
Moses let his people know that they were elected by G-d to carry the message of His Law to the world that he was giving to them. It is based on the covenant between G-d and their ancestor, Abraham and renewed at Sinai in the form of the 10 commandments that Moses brought down where the election was conditional on how well they all observed these laws plus more that he would be giving them. They, as the group called Israel, were declared to become "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." They were to remember that this was conditional on social righteousness.
Little did they know that they signed onto becoming the chosen, be that as it may, the chosen servant of mankind whose suffering would all be blamed on this small group who were destined to be the chosen scapegoats of the world.
Later on in the Mishnah and Talmud, the role of Israel as the teacher of other nations is stressed. Other people are expressed in the Midrash as having the potential equality with Israel which states that G-d offered the Torah to all of them, but only Israel accepted it. The preservation of the conception of G-d is inseparably bound up with the salvation of Israel.
The Jewish idea of the Chosen People implies not superiority over others, but superiority of responsibility and moral duty. When one of us breaks this; the word is out as if the whole universe has been struck with locusts. One bad Jewish person harms the security of all Jews when others do the same and no one blinks an eye.
Thus, we have had Jews to reject this idea of being the Chosen People though it is written in our Torah. This happened in the early Reform Judaism days in Germany from 1885-1920s when German Jews wanted to be like all Germans, a time their Russian brothers were being beaten up in the many pogroms. It had become the days of a Diaspora-centered trend; to be enlightened, not chosen. They saw in dispersion the instrument for transmitting the ethical teachings of Judaism. They felt guilty of bearing this burden given to them through our Old Testament.
At the same time, Germans were locking their doors against Jews and such people as Hitler were rising and blaming Jews more-so than usual. By 1939, Jews were being rounded up for camps, not allowed to work, to heal, to make a living in Germany. Another year and they were facing gas chambers and being exterminated.
The Holocaust happened from 1939 to 1945 and in 6 short years we see 6 million Jews murdered by a government; a people taught by others to despise because they were different, and according to Iran, still despised. Israel now exists, and is the only Jewish country in the world.
"Earlier this month, a tweet posted on Khamenei’s official Twitter account said Iran’s “stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. #Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen.” The account is run by Khamenei’s office and it’s not known if he dictates the tweets himself. The quote was from several years ago. "
Zionism stressed Jewish reconcentration in the land of Israel and the realization of a moral Jewish society on independent Jewish terms as indispensable to maintenance of Jewish values as they were quickly dissipating in Europe with the bar lowered.
Somehow, Jews did give the world a moral code, of which in a Democratic society is not to be been in public; such as the 10 Commandments .
Jews are allowed to be reminded of them, though.
Here they are on Neve Shalom Synagogue in Portland, Oregon.
This is why Israel is different from all the other nations of the world. The country is not any piece of land; it was rewarded to Jews after 440 years of slavery by G-d through Moses; along with the moral laws that became the Old Testament, losing it to the Assyrians in 721 BCE and later to the Babylonians in 597-586 BCE and then the Romans in 70 CE.
 |
| 1956-Sinai will go back to Egypt for Peace pact. |
It came to them again after 2,000 years of waiting after losing it to the vicious attack by the Romans who burned down everything precious but carted away the spoils, and a final time on May 14, 1948 through the League of Nations and the United Nations. This same piece of land that was ours 4,000 years ago is still our holy land.
Nothing will ever take its place because of our history, our blood, our genes that lie in this land.
Resource:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8mkDLtD_0 The search for the real Mt. Sinai; Simcha Jacobovici, the Naked Archaeologist
Tanakh, the Stone Edition (Old Testament)
http://www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/venice/papers/lmisiura.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe
THE GENE by Siddhartha Mukherjee
https://apnews.com/d456af53f14a4c719652ce34a38b7600/Iran's-top-leader-seeks-to-clarify-position-on-Israel
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