Nadene Goldfoot
One has to expect that G-d had his reasons for telling the Israelites that they were to live in Canaan and gave them the dimensions of their piece of property. He had to know that they would be confronting other people there where they would risk their lives to carry out these instructions. It was no bed of roses, and after walking and traveling for 40 years, they were quite a possible frightening group of 601,730 former slaves that had toughened up along the way when they arrived in Canaan. All the wars that they had to fight for the next 3,000 years must have been for a reason. They are an ancient people that have survived!
They survived as a people, becoming warriors and are able to come to the day in 1948 CE when they have Israel once again to live in after waiting 1,878 years.
Genesis 15:18–21 describes what are known as "Borders of the Land" (Gevulot Ha-aretz), which in Jewish tradition defines the extent of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham, through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. The passage describes the area as the land of the ten named ancient peoples then living there.
On that day Hashem made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt (Nile) to the great river, the Euphrates River.": This was the Promised Land.
Genesis was written by Moses (1391-1271 BCE) along with 4 other books; Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The 5 books are called THE TORAH. Moses was told what to write by G-d, so he was somewhat like a receiver. They are also found in the Jewish bible called a Tanakh which also contains writings from the prophets, etc. . The Christians have placed the Tanakh in a book they call THE OLD TESTAMENT, and their own writings the 2nd part of that book called THE NEW TESTAMENT.
"Except for a few passages in Aramaic, appearing mainly in the apocalyptic Book of Daniel, these scriptures were written originally in Hebrew during the period from 1200 to 100 BCE. The Hebrew Bible probably reached its current form about the 2nd century CE." The Old Testament is the original Hebrew Bible, the sacred scriptures of the
When the Israelites reached Canaan, they were embroiled in fighting off the attacking populus on several occasions, especially the Amaleks who attacked them viciously in the desert near Rephidim shortly after the Exodus, and annihilated the weak and weary. Joshua had to defeat them (Exod.7: 8-13). They and their descendants are our eternal foe. This was the land that Jacob and the 12 tribes were born and raised, leaving only when there was a dry spell so bad that they ran out of food and had to trek to Egypt to survive 440 years previously. Well, it had changed the past 400 years. Joshua appointed sections of the land to the 12 tribes, as Moses had died outside of Canaan at age 120. We understand that in 1200 BCE, there weren't many people in Canaan to start with, but even then, the population had increased in 400 years. Abram lived in the 2nd millennium, Joshua, then Saul, David and Solomon had been the Hebrew's leadership for more than 1,600 years during which time the Israelites, later to be known as Jews, "formed the main settled population of what the Romans would later call Palestine," according to historian Martin Gilbert."
Jews went through having to defend themselves during the conquests of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks who all occupied their lands. "An independent Jewish kingdom was revived in 168 BCE, but Rome took effective control in the next century, and Judea was renamed Palestine, in order to de-Judaize it."
During the 7th century CE, Jews of Jericho became "refugees from Muhammad's bloody massacre of 2 Arabian Jewish tribes of Khaibar, an oasis north of Medina" that had lived peacefully among their Arab neighbors until "Mohammad's visited upon his beaten enemy inhuman atrocities," massacring Jewish men, women, and children. Jewish men witnessed their women distributed among the Arab men and carried away by these conquerors. It was when slave labor was available from conquered communities, that the Jews of Khaibar were expelled by Omar in 1641. It's too bad, because after 628, Jews had been allowed to stay and retain their lands, but had to give half other produce to the Muslim conquerors, being 2nd class people. There were no other trained agriculturalists in the region! Imagine, Jews being the best agriculturalists, and were never allowed land in Europe.
"Never do 2 religions exist in Arabia," was the prophet's command from then on. Many of the Khaibar Jews joined Jewish refugees from post-Roman Christian oppression. I can imagine! Arabs were asking to be converted to Judaism.
It was the Crusaders who brought death and destruction to Jews, first in Europe as they rode through on their horses, then in Jerusalem as they couldn't tell the difference nor did they care, between the Arabs and the Jews. Everyone looked alike to them. These "Crusaders massacred thousands of Jews along with the Muslims in the 11th century. The 1st Crusade of 1096-1099 and more to 1320 with about 4 Crusade groups brought attacks on the Jews in N. France and especially in the Rhineland where massacres occurred in many cities, like Mainz, Worms, Speyer, Cologne, etc. Similar attacks took place in Prague and later, in Salonica where the reports of the Crusade gave rise to a messianic ferment. Jerusalem was then captured by them in 1099, and Jews and Karaites were massacred.
Jews came afterwards from France, England, then Spain, Lithuania, Portugal, Sicily, Sardinia, Rhodes, and Naples who established centers of Jewish learning and commerce. From then on, Palestine was never without a well-documented Jewish presence.
Leading up to the Ottoman Turks take-over of the Middle East, In 1492, 180,000 Jews were expelled from Spain. 50,000 converted to Christianity to remain in Spain. This was the Spanish Inquisition. 1495, Jews, my ancestors, were expelled from Lithuania, influenced by the Pope's decree. 1497, Jews from Portugal, Sicily and Sardinia were expelled. 1502, Jews of Rhodes were forcibly converted, expelled or taken into slavery. This continued, running into the Nazi death camps. Attitude and hatred of someone evidently doesn't stop like emptying a glass of water. It keeps on going like an Energizer battery.
Ottoman Turks came along, "occupying Palestine in 1516 when about 10,000 Jews lived in the Safad region alone." By the 16th century, "as many as 15,000 Jews" lived in Safad, which was "a center of rabbinical learning," and Kabbala.
This is where I lived from 1981 to the end of 1985. The air of Safed was glorious. The city was on top of a mountain, as high as Jerusalem, so the weather was far more tolerable than the lower sections of Israel, though winters were harsh and buildings had no heat. even in 1981. Of course, in 1516,, "many more Jews lived in Jerusalem, Hebron, Acre, and other locations. Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority since the 1st population figures were gathers in the 19th century, and Muslims of Jerusalem "scarcely exceeded 1/4 of the whole population. Jerusalem was a predominantly Jewish city well before the 1st Aliyah of Jews migrated to Eretz Yisrael of 1881.
From where I sit, I've seen religion causing hatred's anti-Semitism toward Jews from the beginning of time. We were different, we believed in one G-d, and he had stipulations and laws and expectations of us. We were responsible for ourselves; no Jewish police existed, no rose garden to be taken to when we died. We didn't accept others' faith but stayed the course with our own. It's been from Christianity and Islam, religions that promise peace and love. Wow! The Greek occupation was bad enough when we didn't allow Zeus statues in our Temple! They were just the warm-up for our future. It was the Christians of Rome that put an end to our accepting others into our faith. That was forbidden. After we've witnessed our people being forced into their religion, we decided not to proselytize. The practice of ours was to discourage someone by answering NO at least 3 times. Hmm, guess who stole that practice from us, used differently, of course !
Times are changing now. We have reached an epoch of being able to fly to other planets, and from what I've heard on Wion TV news, many countries are into this, even India that I hadn't realized. We've also got the UN that's been highjacked by a group of anti-Semites shortly after its inception! I guess we've had too many things popping in the USA to hear what India's been doing. Thank goodness for Youtube. Maybe Jews will get a break and people will find that their attitude towards Jews is passe.
Israel wasn't promised a rose garden when they accepted the responsibility to adhere to their Mosaic Laws, but their plan has always been to create Israel as a rose garden, a wonder of all wonders for Its citizens, in peace and in harmony with each other.
Resource:
Tanakh, Stone Edition
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
The Case For Israel by Alan Dershowitz
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