St Paul of Tarsus, First Early Self-Hating Anti-Semite

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

               St Paul was the first self-hating Jew who even changed his own name from Saul of Tarsus  to Paul, who was born  about the same time as Jesus (c. 4 BCE) or a little later in a Hellenistic city of Asia Minor. He was converted to having faith in Jesus Christ about 33 CE and he died, probably in Rome in 65 CE.  He had been exposed to Greek philosophy and with the mystery cults popular at the beginning of the Christian era.

Rabbi Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel and president of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.  He was for the betterment of women's positions in society.  

Saul/Paul is said to have studied in Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel  the Elder, but his writings show little comprehension of Pharisaic Judaism. He would have failed the course.  Before his conversion, he was one who was persecuting members of the new Christian sect with zeal which is in contrast with Gamaliel's teachings who taught to have a tolerant attitude.  He was a bully.   

Then Saul had a vision, according to the New Testament, and converted and contributed much of his thoughts to their new Christian theology. He then was known as the "apostle to the Gentile." It was he who brought in thousands of converts who were alien to Jewish beliefs, in that they lacked Jewish loyalty and Jewish observance.  The other disciples had found a different group of people, but Saul found a different group who were exposed to other ideas.                                    

 Eve, persuading Adam to eat the apple they were told not to eat

             Adam and Eve cast out of Paradise (Garden of Eden)

His thinking centered around something new to him, The Doctrine of Original Sin.  "All men were contaminated by the guilt by Adam and can be freed from it only by faith in the atonement consummated by the death of Jesus.    With the atonement made by Jesus, he thought, the Law has been abrogated (to evade-to do away with). As one can see, he didn't think of the Torah as other Jews did.  He thought it was to be followed not as a means to achieve righteousness, but as  a terrible Divine measuring rod which reveals to man his hopeless situation  since no one can properly obey it.  Evidently he certainly couldn't. 

And now I see why he broke away.  He was not living up to the Torah's expectations and so threw it out.  He must have had a hard time following the rules.  

Paul taught that those who believed all the things they were saying about Jesus were the TRUE ISRAEL.  He further taught that Divine election of "Israel After The Flesh" was invalidated when the Jews rejected Jesus.  “Israel according to the flesh” is thus the literal, concrete, historical Israel, while Israel according to the spirit would be the allegorical, spiritual, ontological, and ideal Israel—ultimately the Church. 1 Corinthians 10.  

However, his family were Jews.  He felt an emotional attachment to the Jews.  That was his culture, at least, if not his beliefs.  He kept hoping that they would accept the teachings, the Gospel and be reinstated and become  God's Chosen.  

The Talmudic literature does not mention Saul/Paul, but many statements from rabbis do seem to answer his Pauline doctrine. 

Spanish Inquisition of 1492, having to leave Spain if you were Jewish.  They refused to convert to Catholicism. Those who couldn't leave had to become Hidden Jews.                                                        

Jews have been pressured time and time again to follow the beliefs of other denominations or sects, and they refuse.  We are said to be "stiff necked" and we are.  Our ancestors made a promise to  not discard our 613 laws (at least  the 10 basic ones) and especially that there is only one unseen G-d, and to follow Moses's teachings and not to follow any other person as they would be false.  Our long history  deals with this.  We're still waiting for the Messiah that for us, has never come.  Life only became worse with the death of Jesus for the Jewish people.          

In the recording, aired by the Kan public broadcaster on a Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, head of the IDF Central Command,  said that Israel “isn’t a normal country.”  He's right.  It's special to us.  We waited 2,000 years for it's 2nd chance to exist.  We have several generals.  Maybe the Messiah won't be a general.  We have to wait to see.  He will be a leader, though.  

Even the concept of Messiah has changed with the Gentile undertaking of the word.  They are not the same.  For Jews, the messiah is a human live person, like a general.  He is the annointed one, like King David had been annointed.  He was to be the ultimate deliverer.  The word is used in the Tanakh as an adjective referring to kings, etc, who have been annointed.  They must have divine sanction and a unique inviolability of status.  

 For the Christian, it will be Jesus who rose again.  Interesting, since some of us Jews  believe reincarnation can happen.  This reincarnated Jesus is going to have to do some mighty great things to convince Jews that he is The Awaited Messiah, for sure.  No one has passed the test yet. 

All 3 religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are awaiting the Messiah these days.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

 

My Jewish and My Gentile Robinsons and Distinguishing Them Through DNA Haplogroups and Other Scientific Help

  Nadene Goldfoot                                              

      My mother's line of Robinson, possibly from a man living in Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest?  Were they all the sons of Robin or was that just their address?  Sherwood Forest, woodland and former royal hunting ground, county of Nottinghamshire, England, that is well known for its association with Robin Hood, the outlaw hero of medieval legend. Sherwood Forest formerly occupied almost all of western Nottinghamshire and extended into Derbyshire.  I've found no connection to this part of England.  

DNA testing has brought to my attention the fact that my father's side of the family has Robinson Jewish relatives and my mother's Robinson side also gives me Robinson gentile relatives.

                                     Something like this

 Luckily, the DNA genetic scientists oftentimes can tell the difference, probably from their haplogroup, or other means, and lets me know with a blue or pink icon by the person's name, denoting which parent they come from.                                   

The Jewish Robinson surname probably came from the surname of Rubenstein  or Rabinowitz with the anglo name-change. Could we be related to Arthur Rubenstein b: 1882, the famous pianist whose family came from Poland?  Very possibly. I have found a Rubenstein 4th cousin living within driving distance from me, and we've met.  We share a lot of interests.  He's listed on the Rubenstein page, another surname for me to work on.   Then there's Alan Rabinowitz, Called the "Indiana Jones of Wildlife Protection.  He's a contemporary possible relative, same age as my son. Name changes do cover origins, and this has happened due to anti-Semitism.     

 However, many Robinsons matching me were possibly from either side so have no icon.  Then there's the men and women who match me bearing their surname of Robinson.  That for  women, it could be their husband's surname that they also take.  Women are much harder to follow unless they have had a haplogroup test.  The same goes for men without icons.  If they had the haplogroup test, I'd be able to tell as I'm very familiar with the usual Jewish haplogroups.

FTDNA allows you to check out 7 people at a time, so I took 7 men with my father's icon who would be Jewish and saw that they were 4th cousins to me, possibly stemming from the generation of my ggrandparents. 2 men shared the same segment with me on chromosome #22.  It's interesting that one's haplogroup was R-M269 and the other was J-M267.  That was the only triangulation in that group and yet they were from different haplogroups.

Then I took the 7 people with pink icons, the Gentile Robinsons, of which only my male 1st cousin bore the Robinson surname.  The other 6 were all females.  My cousin and 3 females of which 2 were twins, matched me on chromosome #1 with nice large segments, larger than my cousin's! My cousin and the twins matched me on Chromosome #7 and another female matched my cousin and me on #12.  The twins matched me on the X (23rd chromosome-called sex) but in 2 individual places, and another female also matched in another place on X.  

I then took 7 men without icons and found several were from my Jewish side and i had triangulations with several on chromosomes 1,9,10 and 20.  I'm getting the feeling that except for my 1st cousin on my mother's side, the men are from my father's side and women from my mother's side.  I'll keep going to see if this checks out.  

               My mother, Mildred Elizabeth Robinson, born 1913

Mom's dad was the Robinson "blue-blooded Yankee of a New England bloodline" along with some ancient Irish genes, and he married a lovely Swedish immigrant who taught herself English.

                            Grandpa Frank Hugh Robinson b: 1871

                                                      

  My grandpa Frank Hugh Robinson with son, Kenneth Edward Robinson. Grandpa was tall and thin, and Grandma was a professional Swedish cook. She fed him well, and he didn't gain a pound.  I didn't get those genes. Grandpa was a teamster.  He had 4 horses hooked up to his wagon together and he transported goods from the port into Portland.  That way he could transport a lot of heavy things.  Grandpa's father was Abiathar Smith Robinson who moved from Vermont to Canada and back to Illinois where he died.  Ggrandma was Julia Ann Tuller of the Tullers and Durkee line. There was the John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrims, who sent his flock to board the Mayflower, but but he stayed in Holland with the rest.  His son Isaac dared the trip 10 years later in a 1630 fleet of ships.  He could be our ancestor if only more Robinsons would test so I could see their haplogroup.  How many of today's Robinsons could connect to Isaac Robinson?  In the United States, the name Robinson is the 20^th most popular surname with an estimated 579,471 people with that name.  It used to be the 16th most common name.  Robinson is the 15th-most common surname in the United Kingdom. 

 My mother's maiden name was Robinson.  I've traced that line back to England, even though her father was under the impression that their line came from NOT THE MAYFLOWER of 1620, but the ship after that, and that he said they were from Wales, which is a part of England's land mass.  DNA showed and proved that we were long lost cousins to the Fitzpatrick line of Irishmen, and I've found that to be very true, scientifically with the extended DNA testing.  Well, Grandpa had left home as a teenager and when he told me was in his 80s, so he really couldn't remember clearly.  Since not all Robinsons alive today have DNA tested, I've been lucky to actually find Gentile Robinsons related to me, and there is that pink icon that has helped. I do wish more would test. There were a lot of Robinsons that came over, and they weren't all from the same line.  Sherwood forest had a lot of men living in it.  

                                            

I wonder how often this happens to other people when a surname matches up with both parents and is not truly connected to each other?  

As far as I can tell, the Jewish Robinsons already tested and match me are R-M269 which should be from my Gentile side, possibly a slip-up by the scientists, and J-M267, which is very common on the Jewish side.  

Luckily, my mother's brother's son tested, so we have the Gentile Robinson in our family and he was labeled a R-L21, but was expanded to R-FT111213 in the Big Y Test.  

This leaves me with 139  Robinson or Robinson connections on FTDNA that I don't know much about without Haplogroup testing and talking to the person to find out origins of parents and mainly, of grandparents.  One is a true detective when it comes to the hobby of genealogy of one's family.                                  

There are also Black Robinsons in the USA, who took the surname of their slave-owner who must have been a southern Robinson.  

Shirley Temple tap-danced with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. When Shirley Temple Black died in 2014, many of the tributes mentioned one of the most iconic scenes in American movie history: the staircase dance that Temple performed with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the 1935 movie The Little Colonel. They were the first interracial couple to dance onscreen. But their partnership was more than just a movie milestone.He was in his 50s. She was 6. He called her darlin'; she called him Uncle Billy. 

                                                  

       Michelle Obama nee Robinson and her brother, Craig Robinson

President Obama's wife is a Robinson. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Michelle's younger brother is Craig Malcolm Robinson (born April 21, 1962) is an American college basketball coach, basketball executive, and broadcaster. He is a former head men's basketball coach at Oregon State University and Brown University. He was a star forward as a player at Princeton University in the early 1980s and a bond trader during the 1990s. He currently is the Executive Director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Resource:

FTDNA

Family history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Robinson_(basketball)

Oprah's Production of Greenleaf Compared to Jewish Production of Shabbat

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

  The Conservative synagogue in Portland, Neveh Zedak with the 10 Commandments on the side

Here it is,, Friday morning, and I've been thinking about all the anti-Semitism hitting our country once again big-time.  How is it that so many Americans believe the worst that they hear and see on TV about us Jews? Why are they so quick to believe  the worst?  So this is my Shabbat homily:  

My past several weeks have been spent in my free-time indulgence of watching a Netflix production on TV.  Thank goodness for Netflix, I feel.  My son set it up for me on my new SMART TV.  Remaining home during COVID 19 has been entertaining with Netflix at my fingers.                                                    

I watched Oprah Winfrey's production of Greenleaf and enjoyed it very much.  Here I am, an older Jewish lady watching a program about a Black community's minister's family and all that goes on in their ministry, good and bad alike.  Besides the story-line that kept me coming back for more, it had fantastic singing.                                               

    The daughter is preaching. It's a mega-church with thousands of attendees.  

Needless to say, it presented a completely different experience to me including what they use their time in their churches for.  In other words, their plan from Sunday from 10am to 12am of what they cover is so different from a Jewish experience.  Oprah, I give you an A+ for your production.  It held my attention every minute. Both Black Protestants and Jews have year-long lesson plans on how to worship but come to it in a completely different way.  

Oprah's rendition may not be the average, no doubt, of all Black churches, and she is being sued by one such minister, but it gives me an idea.  I daresay that I was impressed with the characters' ability to quote so much of their bible in their daily lives in facing their own problems.  Sometime during the week, they were learning it.                                                   

Let me explain what goes on in a synagogue as a comparison.

We go to synagogue on Shabbat.  Shabbat is the time from Friday evening until all day Saturday with a designate time of beginning and ending.  Actually, it ends when 3 stars in the sky can be seen, something I learned in while living in Israel.  We have levels of experiencing our religion today;  Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed.  Within these 3 groupings, Jews themselves are divided into Cohens, Levites and Israelis.                           

In the synagogue, the time is addressed by reading from the Torah, and then another scroll called the Haftorah.  There is singing, like in Oprah's story, but is led by the Cantor.  In Orthodox synagogues, there are no musical instruments used. 

                                                   

Hebrew is used with translations in English, of course.   Not only does it differ from English in the letters, but it is read from right to left.  

Shabbat is a day of celebration as well as prayer.  Many Jews attend synagogue services on Shabbat even if they do not do so during the week. Services are held on Shabbat eve (Friday night), Shabbat morning (Saturday morning), and late Shabbat afternoon (Saturday afternoon).

                                                             

The torahs are scrolls that are read and are kept in a cupboard behind the rabbi, and than taken out one at a time.  Cohens are first to be called up to read  the Hebrew words to the congregation.  This amounts to the  1st Five Books of Moses,   and the belief is that Moses himself wrote these while on the Exodus over the 40 years. This consists of, in this order:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  

After this section is read, the Haftorah is then used, which is a designated reading from a certain part of the Tanakh (Old Testament) that relates to the Torah section.  For instance, I'll start at the beginning.  Genesis  1, In the beginning...

The Haftorah, which means conclusion,  is the lesson from the prophets after the reading of the Law.  To this section, ISAIAH XLII is read.  This is like a year's long lesson plan of what to be read and is copied in all synagogues throughout the world.  

    A bar mitzvah boy, at age 13.  He has been studying for it for the past several years. This is his big day, considered as a man in the synagogue.  it's his birthday, so he'll also receive presents.                      

At this reading,  first Cohens are called up to read, then Levites, and finally the others there may be called to read, for all the men have gone through their bar mitzvah, and know how to read in Hebrew.  Of course, our bible, called a Tanakh, has translations in your native language, such as mine in English.  Anyone can follow along in the English section.  Our Tankah (bible)  also includes explanations and explains what the great scholars such as Rashi had to say about it. 

                                                             

 An orthodox rabbi prepares for a holiday with the boy practicing blowing the shofar.   

When I inherited my parents' oldest 2 volumes set of the Pentateuch and Haftorahs, I sat down for weeks, I kid you not, and read and read, mainly the explanations.  The explanations were a lesson in themselves. By the way, this set was edited by Dr. J.H. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, 13 October, 1937.  

                                                             

   Synagogue service in West Hemstead, New York 

With the reading finished,  the rabbi may speak.  Prayers are sung, and familiar ones have great melodies.  In many small communities, an Oneg Shabbat takes place, a luncheon in a dining area, or it may just amount to a dessert, like on Friday night.  Someone in the congregation was the designated host.  It's nice, a time to get acquainted.                                   

   Saturday morning in Brooklyn, Orthodox Service-women and men are divided -may have women upstairs in a balcony so they can see proceedings and participate from there.  They may have their children with them.  It helps all to concentrate better.

I bring all this up because our history, our past, is all in this reading, and I just wonder how many gentiles have ever studied about our past to have come to such terrible conclusions about it.  I know that the Evangelicals, who know of our important characters of the past, know about them better than many Jews do, so they must be familiar with our history.  How much do others know?  Is it covered in advanced schooling of public high schools or colleges and how is it covered and by who?  In other words, what kind of spin is given about our history?  

Whatever it is, and whatever the media in our country is showing, must be helping anti-Semitism along as it has reached giant proportions lately.  Whatever is happening in Israel affects anti-Semitism, and to me this is very sad.  People are depending on TV from al Jazeera and such for their facts, which are so distorted that it makes me swoon.  Sometimes they get some of the facts correct, but then writers can manipulate with words so cleverly, that it all comes out in a jumble of mis-facts.  Words used can emit a tone, an atmosphere, and damn the people that should be praised.  If they're writing from the other side of the fence, you have to be very careful of how much you can swallow.  Reed College in Portland was famous for teaching their students to think, "What's the source?"  I know, it goes for Jewish writers as well.                                    

Our past history of writing about history, and I'm going back to Egyptian days, has been to have been very honest in comparison with Egypt's recorded history.  Egypt was already sharp enough to only let people know the best about them.  They would cover up walls of information from a pharaoh who was later in disgrace.  

Whereas our prophets, who wrote, spilled the beans on David's errors, as well as all the others.  We were not a perfect people that way, and our mistakes made it into our Tanakh.  We're sort of like the Down Syndrome children in that way, telling the truth;  well, at least in our biblical history, that is.  Today we live in a new atmosphere among other cultures, and we have people who have learned to lie like everyone else. When that happens, I think-that person knows nothing about his ancestors or our mores and morals.  They've inherited wonderful genes and they're using this gift the wrong way.   

I'm not the only person to think like this.  The Chinese are also very much aware of bringing disgrace upon a house.  They also cringe when one of their family does something wrong.  It's these cultural issues that often help to keep a culture in check.   I'm still left with wondering how much all cultures know about us Jews.  Not much, I'd say.                                       

Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, fired shot after shot from his room at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino down on the crowd of about 22,000, sending terrified concertgoers running for their lives.

A lone gunman unleashed a rapid-fire barrage of bullets from the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel late Sunday, killing at least 59 people and injuring more than 500 others attending a country music festival below, officials said.  It was the worst mass shooting in modern American history, and Stephen Craig Paddock was "solely responsible for this heinous act," Assistant Clark County Sheriff Todd Fasulo told reporters Monday night.  (October 1, 2017) 

 We've had a rash of such killings going on.  I'm beginning to wonder what is in our bottles of vitamins, etc, that shouldn't be there.  What's going on besides immediate media, better than past results.  

Pastor Martin Niemoller: “In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” Someone has to start speaking up besides the few of us.

Much of our culture says to attend a place of worship once a week, whether we be Jews or Gentiles.  This practice is dwindling in both groups. Have people been learning to treat everyone fairly?  To get along with others and treat them like people in their own family?  Or is that asking too much.  How do we all attain that?  Some have tried with socialism and communism. I don't see that workable.  I see so much of what we need to attain coming right from family values;  to first be born into a family;   to have that family be a loving family with high values.  We have to start at home and teach our children by how we treat our children.  That's the key.  It starts at the breast.    

Resource: edited 2:08 pm Pacific time

https://www.thewrap.com/oprah-winfrey-fires-back-at-frivolous-lawsuit-over-greenleaf-tv-series/

https://www.templesinairi.org/blessing-after-torah-reading.html

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-torah-service/

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/las-vegas-police-investigating-shooting-mandalay-bay-n806461