The Jews: Our Epic Story Starting in 1948 BCE and Again in 1948 CE

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

We are a different people.  We started in an epic way .  One must go to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and down south to our origins to the great city of Ur of the Chaldees,  south of Babylon, capital of urban living to find our origins.  It was a huge city back in the 2nd millennium BCE. Abraham, or Abram which was his original name, was born in 1948 BCE (before the common era) and was our patriarch. He was the father of the Jews and the Arabs.  Jews and Arabs came from different mothers;  Jews through Sarai and Arabs through Hagar, the Egyptian.                                               

   Terah was Abram's  father.  Terah,  Abram, Sarai his niece and later,, his wife, Lot, Abram's cousin were  traveling to Canaan, would visit Egypt and return to live in Hebron.  He'll deliver Lot from king of Elam, Chedorlaomer, king of Shinar, Amraphel, and their allies.  They're doing a lot of walking, not even counting steps.   

In Genesis, chapter 17:5, God gives Abram, who is now 99 years old,  the covenant of circumcision, to be an outward sign of this promise. But God does a strange thing here: he renames Abram to Abraham.  This name change is due to his new status as father of a multitude--whereas the name Avram represented his former status as only Av Aram---father of Aram, his native country.                                                   

     Abram and Sarah were with their first son, Isaac.  Sarah may have been 45 years of age, but was said to be 90 in the bible, very old for those days, but didn't look this bad, but this does make the point that she had waited a long time get pregnant and it took the angel's visit in disguise as 3 strangers, to make it happen. They had married before they left Haran.  When they were traveling to Egypt from Haran, her beauty attracted the local ruler. She was restored to her husband when it became known she was a married lady. Sarah died at age 127.  Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah for her burial.    

 Our great Patriarch, Abraham, father of the Israelites and the Arabs was born in Ur of the Chaldees at the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers area in about 1948 BCE. He died at age 175.    During his youth, the people of Ur were getting disgusting, sacrificing their sons to change the world in order to satisfy a family's needs; believing in many gods that they manifested into idols  which they worshipped and did bloody things for in order to gain their needs.                               

       Terah died in Haran which was on the way to Canaan. He was a devout idolator challenged in his beliefs by son Abram. I can't understand how this artist would believe in what he himself was creating.   

Abram, for that was his original name, had a father, Terah, who was an actual idol-maker.  Abram knew that they were just figures made out of clay and had no super-powers.  So Terah had been leaching his customers and abetting their beliefs in them as we see it.  Abram had enough of this masquerade and decided they had to get out of such an environment as Ur because one day the actual G-d force had called on Abram and conveyed to him how and what he must do in order to stop this continuation of idol-evil worship. He had that ah-hah moment.  Abram was told to go to Canaan and was told by G-d that he would have many descendants that would change the world.  Abram married Sarai, his niece, and they and Terah and Terah's nephew, Lot,  and others traveled on from Haran to Canaan.

                                                               

                         Sarai finally gave Abram her maid-servant, Hagar because she had not given him a child as yet, and maybe Hagar could.  

Here was Abram, anxious to start having children in his and Sarai's image, and Sarai still wasn't pregnant after years of waiting, so Abram took her servant, Hagar,  to impregnate.  The child would still be as if it was from Sarai as the mother belonged to her.  Hagar  became pregnant right away with Ishmael.  The interaction between the two women had now changed and Hagar acted as if she had become the queen of the tribe.  Sarai would have none of that and finally, after Ishmael had taunted her son, Isaac, who had finally come to her in her old age, probably around age 45, she gave evidence to Abram of the disruption of the family and insisted that Hagar and Ishmael and to leave their tents. I have a feeling that so much pressure was put on Sarai to get pregnant that she couldn't; and finally when Abram did have a son, Ishmael, the pressure was off of Sarai and that's when she finally conceived.

He sadly agreed.                                                                                           

                                                            Canaanites
 What they had found in Canaan were people unlike those they left in Ur and Babylon, but people living in little city-states, a family tribe grown into a band, who had also taken on the practices they had left behind.  They sacrificed their sons and daughters for whatever needs came up.  They had no reverence for life.  To Abraham, they were wild-a wild form of human life.  He wanted nothing to do with them. Such behaviors were why they had left Ur.                                                                         

 Isaac had married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel who delivered twins;  Esau and Jacob.  Esau was the oldest son by minutes.  It was as if she alone had made up for time by having twins.  These were not identical twins, however.  They were completely dissimilar, as different as could be, seen by their different likes and dislikes as they grew up.  They competed for their father's favor.  Jacob, with Rebecca's help, cheated Esau out of his birthright, a right given by their father, which also included a special blessing.  This led Jacob to leave their compound and separate.  This cheating caused Esau to become Jacob's enemy.  Jacob had fled to Haran and then returned 20 years later.  Esau greeted his returning  brother affectionately.  This story of the twins symbolizes the relationship between the 2 nations that they had become; that of the Jews and the Arabs, developing to the point of hostility.   So Isaac had married his 2nd or 3rd cousin, Rebekah.  

Our ancestors were forced by culture, religion and environment to be an endogamous people, probably something other peoples were also practicing.  The Egyptians had taken their spouses to be siblings; something the Israelites did not do.   Our endogamous existence would continue on unknown to us to the present for various reasons of being kept together as a people.  We have distant cousins marrying distant cousins if both are Jewish.  The mixing of Ashkenazi and Sephardim Jews in Israel is a good thing that has happened, genetically.  

Bethuel, in the Hebrew Bible, was an Aramean man (Syrian) , the youngest son of Nahor and Milcah, the nephew of Abraham, and the father of Laban and Rebecca. Bethuel was also a town in the territory of the tribe of Simeon, west of the Dead Sea.

All this is written in the Bible, by Moses, set down in his  5 Books of Moses...Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.                                                                        

      Tigris and Euphrates Rivers on the right, Nile running through Egypt to Mediterranian Sea .  King David, youngest son of Jesse was of the tribe of Judah who was the youngest son of Boaz, a man of property in Bethlehem and Ruth.  

Arameans were a group of Semitic tribes who invaded the Fertile Crescent in the 2nd half of the 2nd millennium BCE and roamed between the Persian Gulf and the Amamus Mountains.  Aram and Israel had a common ancestry and the Israelite patriarchs were of Aramaic origin and maintained ties of marriage with the Tribes of Aram.  The principal Aramean deity in Syria was Hadad, god of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.                                                         

Here we see Jacob with Rachel and Joseph-11th son,  in the middle with her older sister, Leah in blue with Reuben-1st son, Simeon-2nd son, Levi-3rd son, Judah-4th son, Issachar,-5th son,  and Zebulun-6th son,  and daughter Dinah. Rachel's servant was Bilhah, with Dan-9thth son and Naphtali-10th son.  Leah's handmaid was Zilpah, mother of Gad-7th son and Asher, 8th son, whose territory was from Western Galilee to the south of Carmel. Benjamin was not yet born to Rachel, would be Jacob's 12th son. Rachel died at childbirth. 

Joseph would not receive land as he was living in Egypt, after being sold in slavery to the Ishmaelites by his brothers; but his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim by Asenath, inherited land with Joseph's brothers.  Jacob conferred on them an equal portion with his own sons in the division of Canaan.     

                                                                   

 Jacob had bought his brother Esau's birthright for a mess of pottage (stew)  and had wrangled the blessing out of Isaac who was blind.  At Haran, he married his uncle Laban's 2 daughters, Rachel and Leah.  By them and their handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah,   He had 12 sons who would be the fathers of the 12 tribes, and a  daughter, Dinah.  

Laban was the brother of Rebekah, and father of Leah and Rachel who lived in Haran in Aram Naharaim.                                   

Our kings were Saul, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin;  David of the tribe of Judah and his son, Solomon.  David had to fight enemies of his people, but Solomon did not being his father had made peace in the wild land.  Solomon built a temple at a costly price, so high that his people rebelled, and this caused the division of the Northern tribes and the Southern.  It caused the Davidic line to be continued only with the Southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin.   

Weakened, the Assyrians took advantage and attacked the North in 721 BCE, carting off the best of the population.  Some 200 years later, their adversaries, the Babylonians, did the same thing in  597 and again in 586 BCE by taking the lot to Babylon.  Finally, their king Cyrus II in 538 BCE  sent Jews, for most were of the tribe of Judah, back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple that they had destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar had been in charge.  Cyrus II died in 529 BCE, was king of Persia.  It was he who overran the Babylonian Empire, including Palestine.  He was a man who pursued an enlightened policy towards his subject peoples.  The Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus as a Divine agent.  We think of him as the son of Queen Esther and King Ahasueros of Persia.  So the Jews returned, but not all of them as they had settled into Persian life with just enough freedom from Cyrus.                                    

 Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon (605-562 BCE) Conquered all the lands from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah.  In 597 BCE after Judah revolted, he sent contingents which captured Jerusalem, replaced the young king Jehoiachin with his own nominee, Zedekiah, and exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon.  8 years later Zedekiah rebelled.  The forces again invaded Judah, captured Jerusalem in 586 BCE and destroyed the Temple, laying waste the cities and exiling masses of the population.  The king was taken to Riblah, where he was slain.   

What strikes me is that our Jewish ancestors were taken back to Babylon, which was just north of Ur, where they had started from.  It was something like Eugene, Oregon was Ur and Portland, Oregon was Babylon.      

                                          King  Zedekiah 

Kings of Judah, following the Davidic line, ended with King Zedekiah (597-586) BCE.  He was the son of King Josiah, adopting this name from Mattaniah when appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar to succeed the exiled Jehoiachin.  He was king at age 21 and swore allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar; refusing to join an anti-Babylonian coalition of neighboring kingdoms and in 594 BCE, visited Babylon.  After 9 years, he conspired with Egypt:  in  consequence the Babylonians invaded his kingdom and captured Jerusalem.  He was overtaken while fleeing and brought for trial before Nebuchadnezzar.  His sons were killed before him;  his eyes were put out, and he was imprisoned in Babylon until his death.  

Jews returned and rebuilt the Temple only to see it destroyed and ravaged by the Romans in 70 CE.  They revived in 132 with General bar Kokhba in the 2nd Jewish Revolt of the Jews who held Jerusalem for 3 years before he was killed in battle.  Jews supposedly were not allowed entrance again. The Romans, the strongest army in the world, had been held off for an embarrassing 3 years.  

"Almost 1,000 villages were destroyed and more than half a million people killed. In Judaea proper the Jews seem to have been virtually exterminated, but they survived in Galilee, which, like Samaria, appears to have held aloof from the revolt. Tiberias in Galilee became the seat of the Jewish patriarchs. The province of Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina (later simply called Palaestina), and, according to Eusebius of Caeseria (Ecclesiastical History, Book IV, chapter 6), no Jew was thenceforth allowed to set foot in Jerusalem or the surrounding district. This prohibition apparently was relaxed sometime later to permit Jews to enter Jerusalem one day a year, on a day of mourning called Tisha be-Ava. Although this ban was officially still in force as late as the 4th century CE, there is some evidence that from the Severan period onward (after 193) Jews visited the city more frequently, especially at certain festival times, and even that there may have been some Jews in residence."                           

Emperor"Hadrian proceeded to convert Jerusalem into a Greco-Roman city, with a circus, an amphitheatre, baths, and a theatre and with streets conforming to the Roman grid pattern. He also erected temples dedicated to Jupiter and himself (Aelia was his clan name) on the very site of the destroyed Temple of Jerusalem. To repopulate the city, Hadrian apparently brought in Greco-Syrians from the surrounding areas and even perhaps some legionary veterans. The urbanization and Hellenization of Palestine was continued during the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus (193–211 CE), except in Galilee, where the Jewish presence remained strong. New pagan cities were founded in Judaea at Eleutheropolis and Diospolis (formerly Lydda) and at Nicopolis (formerly Emmaus) under one of Severus’s successors, Elagabalus (218–222). In addition, Severus issued a specific ban against Jewish proselytism".

The emperor Diocletian (r.284-305 CE) divided the Roman Empire in two, the Western Empire which controlled Europe and the Eastern Empire (later known as the Byzantine Empire) which administrated affairs in the Near East and, of course, held Syria-Palaestina.                                                      

"When the emperor Constantine the Great (r.306-337 CE) legitimized Christianity and made it the state religion, Syria-Palaestina became a Christian province and an important center for the new faith.  Jews still lived through this era in Judah.  "                                                                                  

                       Islamic army out of Arabia taking over lands

"7th century CE and the rise of Islam in the region. In 634 CE, the Muslim armies from Arabia took Syria-Palaestina and renamed it Jund Filastin (“Military District of Palestine”). The Muslims felt they had as much of a religious stake in the region as the Christians or as the Jews before them and churches were turned into mosques in the same way that earlier temples had given way to churches."  Still and all, Jews were living in the land; not governing it but living there as Jews.  The land was going to seed;  weed seed.  

                                                    

The Byzantine Empire fell in 1453 CE, greatly reducing Christian influence in the region, and Palestine was held by the Ottoman Turks for 400 years. The region continued to be contested throughout the next few centuries until the British involved themselves in 1915 CE during World War I at which time the western powers first devised plans to partition the Middle East for their own purposes and benefit.            

           Palestine from 1947-May 14, 1948 with the announcement of Israel  

Palestine continued to be a war-torn and much-contested region up through World War II when, afterwards, the United Nations declared the area the State of Israel and established it as a homeland for the Jewish people. This mandate by the United Nations, and the resulting country of Israel, remains controversial  to the Arabs and and the region continues to be as troubled in the present day as it was in ancient times.  Jews had gone through a great deal of talking and conferencing with the British and allies during WWI in order to gain the land.  They had been a people without a country since 70 CE.  Finally, after waiting 1,878 years, they regained their land back again, ISRAEL.  

Israel is a culmination of 3,896 + 73 more years since 1948  making 3,969 years of Jewish history that is an epic story.  

Resource: 

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/Roman-Palestine

https://www.worldhistory.org/palestine/

  

International Women's Day and Our Four Matriarchs of the Jewish People

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

              My favorite picture of a Jewish woman in Israel today, a descendant of Rachel, a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), guarding the land from terrorists.  

Women have been recognized in our history ever since the beginning.  Our men's wives were outstanding, not to be forgotten women.

Sarai/Sarah was the niece of Abram/Abraham (who was born in about 1948 BCE) and the mother of Isaac.  Abram's father was Terah and one of Terah's sons was Haran.   She was one of the 4 matriarchs of the Jewish people.  They married before they left Haran, which could also have been her father's name.    

While traveling to Egypt with Abraham, and later in Philistia, her beauty attracted the local ruler, who added her to his harem, but she was restored to her husband when it became known that she was a married woman.  After marriage, she failed to get pregnant and many years went by and she remained barren.  In desperation, as producing children in her generation meant security for life, she gave Abraham her young Egyptian servant, Hagar, who bore him Ishmael, and since she was Hagar's owner,  so was her son.  By the age of 90, Sarah became pregnant and had Isaac.  She died at age 127.  Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah in Bethlehem for her burial.  (If you cut the ages in half, she was pregnant at 45 and died at 63, numbers more familiar to us).  Sarah and Hagar did not get along.  Ishmael was teasing Isaac and life was unbearable for her as the "old" wife as Hagar didn't let her forget her age.                                              

Rebekah was Isaac's wife.  She was the daughter of Bethuel and sister of Laban, and mother of Esau and Jacob, twins.  Laban and Rebekah's  grandfather was Nahor II.   She was known for her kindness and is regarded as one of the 4 matriarchs.  The legend is that she is the ideal type of Jewish womanhood. Abraham's envoy, who had been dispatched to Aram Naharaim to find a wife for his master's son, Isaac, was attracted to her for her kindness at the city's well. He chose her to be the wife for Isaac.  Rebekah had a wet nurse, Deborah, who died after Dinah's experience related below, and was buried in Bethel.  

                                                               

Leah was the 1st wife of Jacob and daughter of Laban, son of Bethuel, son of Nahor II.  The local custom of marriage insisted on the oldest daughter in a family to be married off first.  Her father, Laban, tricked Jacob and substituted her when wedding vows were being read.  Unbeknown, he had married Leah instead of Rachel, the girl he was in love with.  Leah bore Jacob 6 sons:  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and a daughter named Dinah.                                                                 

Rachel was one of the 4 matriarchs and the 2nd wife of Jacob.  She was the daughter of Laban, son of Bethuel, son of Nahor II.,  and lived in Haran in Aram-Naharaim.  Rachel was born on the day that Jacob received blessings and was told by G-d that his name would become Israel, and named where he stood, Bethel.  She died when she was 36.  (If you cut 36 in half,, she would have been only 18 years old.)  Jacob wanted to marry her but was tricked into marriage with her older sister, Leah, which was the custom for marriage.  Jacob had to work for 7 more years to earn  Rachel for a wife.  She was the mother of Joseph, and much later, Benjamin but died in childbirth.  We remember her as the weeping compassionate mother for her descendants who were driven into captivity.  

All were intermarried, related to each other.  That's what happened in those days.  You married within your tribe.  By the time Jacob had had 12 sons by Leah, Rachel, and their 2 handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah, probably both being Egyptians, we see the beginning of the 12 Tribes of Jacob.  Leah had 6 sons, Rachel had 2, and the handmaids each had 2. 

                                                               

 Dinah, the one and only daughter mentioned, had an experience similar to those daughters of today.  She went outside in her new town to see if she could find some other girls her own age. Her father, Jacob, believed that at last he would find tranquility in Canaan, calling it "Eretz Yisrael" She was raped by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivvite, prince of the region,  while her brothers were busy with their cattle in the fields, and was avenged by her brothers, Simeon and Levi.  What others in the neighborhood would have accepted as a commonplace occurrence, the sons of Jacob took as a moral outrage upon their sister.  These brothers annihilated the inhabitants of the town of Shechem (Gen 34).  Shechem was in Canaan.  

As it turned out, Shechem said afterwards to his father, Hamor, that he had fallen in love with Dinah and wanted to marry her.  Hamor went to Jacob and spoke to him about the marriage.  Hamor, of course, was an uncircumcised man, the mark they used to identify others of their own clan.  So they talked the men of the town to become circumcised.

On the 3rd day, when they were all in pain, Simeon and Levi acted and killed all the men of that clan.  Jacob, who knew nothing of their plan, was in shock, and his sons answered him saying that they thought Shechem had treated Dinah like a harlot.  The family then had to move and went to Bethel where Jacob had been.  

Dinah was a very special girl to these 12 brothers, their one and only sister.  They must have treated her with great respect.  No one was going to hurt their sister.  The incident was an over-reaction of a horrific deed that caused the family to leave and seek another safer spot in Canaan in which to put up their tent.  It seemed to set up all the problems they would find in Canaan thereafter.  

The Hivites were one of the 7 nations inhabiting Canaan when the Israelites took possession of the country.  

Resource:

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

 

The Women Jews Exemplify

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                     

                   Sarah, wife of Abraham, also his niece. b:  c.1945 BCE in the 2nd millennium
                    Daughter of Haran who died in Ur of the Chaldees.  whose brother was Lot.

Named Sarai which was changed later to Sarah.  Mother of Isaac, one of the 4 matriarchs of 
the Jewish people. The Hebrew name Sarah can be translated as "noblewoman". She married Abraham before they had left Haran.  She was said to be very beautiful and had attracted people as she and Abraham journeyed to Egypt and later in Philistia; so much so that she attracted the local ruler who had her taken to his harem.  She allowed this to happen as she went along with the cover-up that she was Abraham's sister.  Otherwise, they would have killed Abraham in order to possess her.  She went unafraid.  When the ruler found out about the ruse, he let her go back to Abraham.  She had not conceived a child so gave Abraham her Egyptian servant, Hagar, in order to produce an heir and she produced Ishmael.  Finally, at the age of 90, she gave birth to Isaac.  She died at age 127, and was buried in the Cave of Machpelah by Abraham.  
                                                     

Rebekah, wife of Isaac b: c1905 BCE, Daughter of Bethuel, mother of twins, Esau and Jacob.  She was known for her kindness which attracted the attention of Abraham's helper who had been sent to Aram Naharaim to find a wife for Isaac.  She later supported Jacob in his argument with Esau, showing favoritism for her child most suited for the job argued about over Esau's inherited rights being 1st born.  Rebekah is the 2nd of the 4 matriarchs of the Jewish people and in legend is the ideal type of Jewish womanhood.  
                                                          

Rachel, wife of Jacob, She was the 2nd wife of Jacob, who was forced to marry her older sister, Leah,  first, though he loved Rachel the most.  She was the daughter of Lathan and lived at Haran in Aram-Naharaim.  Jacob then had to labor for 7 more years to earn the right to marry Rachel.  She became the mother of Joseph and later on, Benjamin and died in childbirth near Bethlehem.  She was one of the 4 matriarchs of the Jewish people.  She's thought of as the compassionate mother weeping for her children that have been driven into captivity in 721 BCE and again in 586 BCE and has become a favorite heroine in Jewish stories.  Many go to pray at Rachel's Tomb.  
                                                      

Leah, Rachel's older sister, 1st daughter of Laban, burdened with custom of marrying off the oldest female first, went along as the substitute for Rachel in the deception out of respect for her father and family.  She bore Jacob 6 sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun and a daughter, Dinah.  She and Rachel continued to be loving sisters and may have helped in bringing up Benjamin.  She was said to have weak eyes.  She would be the 4th matriarch of the Jewish people.  I would consider her the peacemaker of the family.  It must have been hard for her knowing that Jacob loved her sister and wanted to be with her instead.  She was a true balabustah, a good wife and mother.  

"This Talmudic expression found its way into the blessing for daughters on the eve of the Sabbath: “May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” Along with this tradition, there is also an apparently later midrashic tradition that the nation of Israel had six matriarchs: “Six corresponding to the six matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah” (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 1:7, “And the tribal heads approached”; also Song of Songs Rabbah 6: “You are beautiful”; Esther Rabbah 1:12, “On the throne”). The liturgical wording “Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah” was based on Rashi’s commentary on a baraita in BT Berakhot 16b: “There are only three Patriarchs of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob … and only four Matriarchs, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” The addition of the Matriarchs to birkat avot in the Amidah may be seen as a continuation of a later midrash that Israel was saved from Egypt by the merit of the Matriarchs (and not that of the Patriarchs){.  

Women have always stood out as important figures in our history.  Before Israel had kings, they had leaders and some were women who not only led them in times of stress, but were accepted as Judges of the people.
                                                                           

Deborah:  Deborah was close to Rebekah, actually was her nurse.  She was the wife of Lapidoth.  She roused the Israelite tribes to revolt under Barak, son of Abinoam, against the Canaanite King Jabin of Hazor and Sisera, his ally and commander.  The famous SONG OF VICTORY is attributed to her.  It is regarded as one of the oldest compositions preserved in Hebrew.  Deborah was the only female judge of her period.  The judges generally headed only their own tribe or an alliance of tribes.  
                                                                                   

Dinah: Jacob's only daughter listed as she was important and changed her parents, Jacob and Leah's lives.  She was a rape victim, raped by Shechem and was avenged by her brothers, Simeon and Levi without their father's knowledge.  This may have been the beginning of the conquest of Canaan by Israelite tribes.  The brothers annihilated the men of the town of Shechem for this dastardly deed.  
                                                                                      

Naomi: The best of mother-in-laws.  She was the wife of Elimelech.  They and their sons, Malhon and Chilion, left Bethlehem for Moab during a period of famine.   They were away from home for several years when her husband and sons all died.  She returned home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth and helped her to find a new husband, and selected her kinsman,  Boaz for her, a man of property.  He was an ancestor of David as well, soon to be King David.  She thought of the welfare of  Ruth before her own, and Ruth wasn't an Israelite, either.    
                                                    

Ruth: A Moabite, ancestor of King David, 1st husband was Malhon, went back with her mother-in-law to Bethlehem, a new city for her, and found Boaz acceptable for a 2nd husband just as Naomi had suggested.  Moab was a country in Transjordan, kinsmen to Israelites, being traditionally descended, like the Ammnites, from Lot.  Their language was much like biblical Hebrew. Ruth helped to get the 2 women food by gleaning in the fields after harvest time.  
                                                         

Queen Esther: daughter of Abihail, one of Jews taken by Babylonians to Persia, lived in the time of King Ahasuerus, biblical book or scroll about her life-Scroll of Esther,-the Megillah,  a festival is about her-Purim.  She was selected by the king to be his 2nd wife-found in a beauty contest.  She saved the Jewish people by telling her husband of the plot of Haman's, the king's chief minister,  overheard by her Uncle Mordechai, to kill them all.  In the end, all of Haman's sons and Haman himself were hung .  Persia covered much land, and it was to happen to all Jews living in the lands.  Mordecai was a Jew and Haman knew it.  What they didn't know was the Esther (Hadassah) was his niece and was also a Jewess.  Esther had to finally tell King Ahasuerus that she was Jewish.  Haman had hated Mordecai's independent attitude so hated all Jews.  I suppose he didn't grovel and bow enough to Haman.  
                                                      
                                                 May 14,1948
                                                     Golda Meir   

Golda Meir, during announcement of birth of Israel
in politics since she arrived in Palestine at age 23

                           

Golda Meir 1914 age 16 

                          

Golda as a Prime Minister of Israel

Golda Meir: (1898-1978) Russian born in 
Kiev, Ukraine-
 lived in Milwaukie, Wisconsin after experiencing pogroms, made aliyah in 1921 to Palestine, became Prime Minister of Israel  in 1969, served during Yom Kippur War, , retired afterwards in 1974; wrote excellent book I've read, MY LIFE.  smoked, drank lots of coffee during her service, known for her wisdom and her sayings have lived on.  From Labor party; best they have produced.  Thought of as everybody''s grandmother.  
                                                                             

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/matriarchs-liturgical-and-theological-category
https://www.biography.com/people/golda-meir-9404859

ISAAC, True Follower of His Father, Abraham,The Real Middle Easterner

Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Abraham with Lot back in 1948 BCE, his nephew who was the son of Haran, Abraham's brother.
He had traveled with Abram from Aram-Naharaiam to Canaan and wound up  with their shepherds being at odds with each other over pasture-land, so they parted with Lot settling at Sodom, and that's another story. 

It was Abraham, born in Ur, in today's Iraq, who was married to Sarah, his niece, who brought monotheism to the world.  Up to then, people believed in many gods who controlled all the elementary forces of nature and man's needs.  They could go to whatever god was important to them at that moment and plead for help.  These gods were depicted for them in idols and statues.  They belonged to large god-families.

Abraham saw that there was only one force-one God in the world.  He even carried on a conversation with G-d and knew it was in his place to continue this opening up of his mind and that his children were to carry on his new belief.
                                                                         

Terah, the idol-maker of Ur and father of Abram,
Nahor and Haran

All around him were people that believed in multiple gods used for multiple problems, so, since the world was far less populated than it is now, he left, taking his father, Terah, who was the son of Nahor I and Iyoska,  and family with him and struck out for open spaces where he could control the environment of people and their beliefs.  He couldn't wait to have children and form a new culture depending on one true G-d.
                                                                       

Sarai gives Hagar to Abram

Sarah was old by standards of those days and still hadn't produced a child.  Abram, as he was originally called, grew anxious.  He was getting older.  Sarai, her original name, allowed him to take her Egyptian maid, Hagar, to start the family growing as she was afraid her child-bearing days might be over, too.  She could have even been 40, going through the menopause as we know it today.   Sure enough, right off the bat Hagar was pregnant.  The child, according to their law, was a product belonging to Sarai, but Hagar was so proud of becoming a mother, actually being an Egyptian princess herself and thinking that this gave her more status now other than having to obey Sarai's every wish, that she started snubbing Sarai and not doing her chores.  After all, she had Abram's baby!
                                                                         

Abram,on foot, with camels, in the heat in the 2nd millennium BCE, over 3,000 years ago
recorded in the Torah by the scribe, Moses 631 years later, who also made his own journey at age 80 to return to Egypt to argue with the Pharoah,
 son of his old step-brother and insisted on releasing 6 million Jewish slaves.
 

Ishmael grew and followed his mother's behaviors, having half of her genes and as she was the one discipling him, and he was spoiled, doing as he wished, being very headstrong.  He didn't even listen to Abram.  This pregnancy of Hagar's triggered Sarah's hormones and lo and behold, she was finally pregnant!  She bore another boy-child and they named him Isaac.  Isaac was a carbon copy of Abraham AND Sarai.  He was quiet and introspective.  He noticed things and filed it away in his mind.  Ishmael was very jealous of his father's new attention going to his tiny new brother, and often he tried to hit the baby.  This continued with Ishmael always trying to interfere with Isaac and tease him.
                                                                             

The Torah relates the story of Abram being asked by G-d to sacrifice
his son, Isaac which he complies with in preparation but is stopped,
and had been tested to see  if he would obey.  This was to be the last time
that man was to sacrifice another human according to the beliefs in Judaism and
this was the lesson to be had.  NO MORE HUMAN SACRIFICES. 

We know the story and it plays out in many families today with the problem of jealousy among siblings unless the parents really work at keeping all the children happy.  This jealousy within Abram's family caused Hagar to leave with Ishmael and she went off to live with her own people. Sarai had insisted she and Ishmael had to leave their compound, so Abram took them away.
                                                                               
Isaac married, and his wife was also a relative.  It was Rebekah,  his 1st cousin once removed.  Her father was Bethuel and her brother was Laban.  Bethuel's father was Nahor II, also born in Ur of the Chaldees, father of many men.

1  Isaac b: in Negev
.. +Rebekah b: in Aram
                                                                     

                                                                       

Isaac and Rebekah had twins; Esau and Jacob.  Esau emerged into the world first  of these fraternal twins.  He was completely different in coloring and behavior.  He didn't like to listen to his father's lectures about life and belief in one G-d., but Jacob listened intently and was most intrigued.  Finally, as a teenager, Esau ran off to find Ishmael and his family, for that is what pleased him, a more active lifestyle.  He wanted action.  

Abraham now had only Jacob to carry on the family belief in one G-d, but he didn't realize this as he lay dying.  He thought both sons were near him and would follow his beliefs.  It had been Jacob who had tricked Esau into selling him his birthright as the first born. ." The birthright was two-fold. First, it included a double portion of the inheritance from the father. Second, it included a special ceremonial blessing from the father" .  As it was, both Jacob and Esau buried Isaac.  Then Esau took Caananite wives for himself. Esau and his large family clan moved away from Isaac to Mt Seir.  He is later referred to as the people of Edom.  Before the days of King Saul, there were kings who reigned in the land of Edom.  Esau had become the father of Edom.  

                                                                             

All this has been recorded in the Torah, written by Moses b: 1391BCE and who died at age 120 in 1271 BCE.  He was in communication with G-d who dictated it to him while on the Exodus, traveling from Egypt back to Canaan which took him 40 years, traveling with the freed slaves of Egypt of over 6 million people.  

Those people, Jacob's descendants, are the remnant of his 12 sons, being the tribe of Judah had remained in existence all these years under the name of  THE JEWISH PEOPLE.  They have been the true inheritors of Canaan, later called Palestine, named by the Romans who had destroyed  Solomon's 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. The Romans named the land "Palestine" after the Jews' worst nightmare-the Philistines, who had come to their shore from Asia Minor and Greek islands who came in waves of groups on ships. 

                                                                               

They did not enter in peace but were warlike, fighting right away Abraham and son Isaac.  Then others had entered from the island of Crete after being kicked out of Egypt by Rameses II in 1194 BCE.  They took over the southern coastal area.   and founded GAZA, ASCALON, ASHDOD, EKRON AND GATH.   It was the Greeks from the time of Herodotus that called the land Palestine in honor of the Philistines.  The Greek name was Syria Palaestina, and so when the Romans under Hadrian had conquered the Jews, they gave the name officially to the former land belonging to the tribe of Judah.  

 For it was the Jews that had carried on true Monotheism as Abram had seen it, through his descendant, Moses,who  had been instructed  through G-d himself,   Moses had added, not only the belief in ONE G-d, but all the values of behavior that went along with this belief.  The values were so different from the surrounding native beliefs, that they also needed to go back to their origins to have the same visions to bring it about.  

                                                                       

The Philistines were conquered by King David who reigned from 1010 BCE to 970 BCE.  The Canaanites were conquered when Joshua had battled them who were made up of some city-states.  The Israelites called the land Eretz Yisrael  THE LAND OF ISRAEL, a name still in use , and if not all were killed, they married into the new inhabitants and became one people, the Israelites. THE NORTHERN PART was called Aram (ie, Syria.
                                                                               

The Israelites had taken an oath while on the Exodus to follow the laws that Moses taught them.  Out of the 6 million present, only the tribe of Judah had been present through the 2,000 years up to the time of the destruction of the 2nd Temple by the Romans. The 10 other tribes of the North were lost to them after Assyrians  had taken them in 721 BCE.   Their one-G-d belief was now called Judaism for the tribe of Judah.  It must be remembered that along with  the change from believing in a multiple of gods being part of a pantheon of gods, they also had 613 laws given to them by Moses through G-d that were to reshape their way of thinking towards G-d and their fellow man.  For they were to believe in life in a different way.  The 1st 10 laws were the most important and have lasted through the ages with the 1st 5 about G-d and the last 5 about our treatment towards other people.  People today still have problems with a few of these laws.  

It was around this period that Jesus emerged to be the founder of Christianity which was a break-away belief from Judaism.  It would take another 500  some years for Islam to come into the world, an offshoot  from Judaism through the teachings of Mohammed.  His city of Medina  had been full of Jewish tribes who taught Judaism on the streets with readers reading to large crowds.  Mohammed (570-632)  couldn't read or write but he could listen and remember the stories.

More on Birthright:

The Birthright

This all important and strongly coveted birthright consisted of several benefits. They were:

• The leadership in worship and the head of the family.
• A double portion of the family inheritance.
• Right to the covenant blessings that God promised Abraham in which all nations would be blessed

https://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/jacob/
Resource: Tanakh, The Stone Edition (Old Testament)
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia