Developing The Perfect Democratic Society Thousands of Years Ago When Beer Was Invented

 Nadene Goldfoot

The Era of Abram                                         

Those were the days.  Welcome to the ancient city of Ur.   This Sumerian city was one of the first classed as an official city to be brought up and was an important trade city at the time sitting next to the Euphrates River with 2 connected harbors north and south west of the city.

Deep in the Middle East over 4,000 years ago of the 2nd millennium BCE lived a  man named Abram living along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in a city not unlike New York City  of their day called Ur of the Chaldees.  Abram, son of Terah, the idol maker, knew that the common belief in idol worship and belief in many gods controlling man's lives was not his understanding; ;not for him.  This religion  didn't make sense to him.  He was about to marry his love, his niece, Sarai, and he knew that this would bring him many children, and this belief of his fathers was not what he wanted his children to grow up with.                                                                             

Something was brewing in Ur.  The whole area believed in human sacrifice to satiate the gods into giving them good harvests, plenty of water, food, and human wants, and was becoming so prevalent that children were being sacrificed, a practice going on for many years now.  Many of his family were preparing to leave Ur and travel Westward into the hinterland towards Egypt's lands, and his family was one of them.  Something caused the group to leave; perhaps a warring neighbor of Ur about to strike, higher taxes, a change in climate.  Mankind always seemed to think that the grass was greener beyond their own fields, and this urge was itching this group as well.   Terah and his son, Abram were city boys and had to learn to camp out on their trek with the rest of the relatives leaving Ur.  There'd be a lot they'd miss, but it was better to leave such a sick environment and start fresh.   

 Once writing was invented, c. 3500-3000 BCE, the scribes seem almost obsessed with recording every facet of their cities lives and, because of this, archaeologists and scholars in the present day have a fairly clear understanding of how the people lived and worked.

The population of ancient Mesopotamian cities varied greatly. In c. 2300 BCE Uruk had a population of 50,000 while Mari, to the north, had 10,000 and Akkad 36,000 (Modelski, 6). The populations of these cities were divided into social classes which, like societies in every civilization throughout history, were hierarchical. These classes were: The King and Nobility, The Priests and Priestesses, The Upper Class, the Lower Class, and The Slaves.                                                                           

                                                                            

A Sumerian  votive plaque.  A votive plaque of white marble. The lower part shows two men carrying a large jar (probably filled with beer) and another man in front of them seems to steer an animal from behind, perhaps a cow or horse. At the upper part there are two seated figures (a man and a woman) sitting in front of each other holding two glasses and drinking something (very likely beer) in "a cheers action". Early dynastic period, 2900-2300 BCE. From Ur, Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan).  

• Many Sumerian clay tablets have been found with writing. Initially, pictograms were used, followed by cuneiform and then ideograms.
• Sumerians believed in anthropomorphic polytheism, or of many gods in human form that were specific to each city-state.
• Sumerians invented or perfected many forms of technology, including the wheel, mathematics, and cuneiform script.                                                                                                                                

              Beer Allocation Clay Cuneiform Tablet from Southern Iraq                                              

This specific tablet is describing the allocation of beer rations for workers. Beer was one the most popular drinks in Mesopotamia and was also used as pay for the workers  This clay tablet is currently being kept in the collection at the British Museum in London.   This clay tablet was discovered in in the rich Mesopotamian city of Uruk (modern day southern Iraq) and was created around 5,000 years ago (3100 - 3000 BC). It displays some of the earliest writing discovered in the world.  

As almost any cereal containing certain sugars can undergo spontaneous fermentation due to wild yeasts in the air, it is possible that beer-like drinks were independently developed throughout the world soon after a tribe or culture had domesticated cereal. Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date.  

The earliest known traces of wine were also from Persia (today's Iran) from 5,000 BCE.  The spread of wine culture westwards was most probably due to the Phoenicians who spread outward from a base of city-states along the Mediterranean coast of what are today Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and Palestine.    

In those days, writing was practiced to record business transactions, mostly.  It was done on damp clay pieces that was easily scratched with a stick that recorded information and was fired in a kiln, hardened and easily kept.  Ur became a deposit of many of these clay pieces, found today by archaeologists and read.

Like today, man had to be warned of the dangers of wine and beer.  Our writings are full of warnings, such as :Proverbs 20:1 ESV / 69 helpful votes :  Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. However, wine is used ceremonially in Shabbat where grape wine is used to make kiddush.  The conditioning and use of wine in this way seems to have worked in its association with connection to observance in tradition of respect of G-d  and not as a change in emotions.  Alcoholism has not been a problem with Jews, at least in our past.  

Before entering Canaan, today's Syria or Palestine, Abram saw that it was a land of city-states, not unified into one organized area protected by a powerful army.  Judges were set up who were tribal leaders, mainly Levites,  using both male and females as these guidance counselors and advisors of arguments.   Later, soldier-leaders, priests or prophets assumed in addition to his or her chief functions,  that of the judge.  Joshua was the first, and then people like Deborah and Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson were best known as the judges.                                                                                         

                   Abram, Sarai and son Isaac in their new tent-life of Canaan

Abram's idea of the world was that of a force was responsible for the creation of the world that he understood to be from one G-d.  He felt that this power, G-d, had communicated with him, hearing the ideas in his mind, for he didn't think he could have thought of all this strange idea all by himself.  That's how he explained it to his children and wife when he shared his ideas in Canaan as they camped out in tents, like today's modern hippies, for they had come from stable strong homes of Ur.  Living in tents was new to them.  As they learned to get along with the few native Canaanites there, they developed more understandings, and this is shown in their story-telling at night-time camp-fires by changing their names to Abraham and Sarah, which was told as G-d's way of enlightening their minds to  a higher level.    Abram, now called Abraham, give his people new ideas of valuing human life and the treatment of each other by introducing  kindness.                                                                        

We remember our Patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and our Matriarchs of Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel.  Here we see Leah and her 6 sons and 1 daughter, Jacob and Rachel and son Joseph, and the wives' two handmaids with their sons. Rachel would later have one more son, Benjamin.  

As time went by, Abraham's descendants were taught the concept of a single G-d who created the earth until it got to Moses, now belonging to the tribe of Judah, one of the 12 tribes of Jacob who had continued to live in Canaan.  A time of famine had hit the land and Jacob's family of 70 members traveled to Egypt, living there as nomads tending their sheep until they grew in size, scaring the Egyptians who did not know of their unusual religious concept of the world and their peaceful tendencies.  They were taken as slaves,  and this continued from the time of their entrance, for 400 years until a descendant of Abram was born, Moses.  Moses was unable to learn his birth mother's history, but may have been with her if she became the wet-nurse, as the royal step-mother could not have fed him.  

Moses lived through a period of the pharaoh having all new born sons of the Judeans being killed of of fear of their growing possible power along with their growing numbers and retaliation for their terrible treatment of the past 400 years.  He had been a foundling, raised by one of the pharaoh's daughters as a son of the royal house, and educated along with them in all areas and found to have been the smartest of all.                                                                     

                 Beer was generally known as “Hqt” (“heqet” or “heket”) to ancient Egyptians, but was also called “tnmw” (“tenemu”) and there was a type of beer known as haAmt (“kha-ahmet”). ... There is some evidence that as a staple foodstuff, ancient Egyptian beer was not particularly intoxicating.                                                              

    600,000 leaving Egypt with no time to waste before the Pharaoh changed his mind, taking what they could with them.  They mixed flour and water to make a type of hardtack to eat on the road, now called matzos, baked quickly in the hot sun.  

Moses had the same experience as Abram had, receiving instructions as to a perfect society with the motivation that freeing his ancestors from slavery could experience.  He was able to free over 600,000 slaves including others not of his family line, and they all left on the Exodus, a wandering that took 40 years before reaching Jacob's old homeland of Canaan once again.  During all this time, Moses took it upon himself to give lectures as to how they were to live in their newly found freedom that included 613 rules to follow which were not that hard, as many of them were already being founded through Abraham's way of life.                                           

                              Receiving and writing the 10 commandments.  The first 10 were the most well known and remembered by all.  The first 5 describe man's duties to G-d;   the latter 5 his responsibilities to his fellow man.

  All this came to him word by word from a single entity, G-d, a voice that most likely mystified even him that he heard in his mind.  

A strata was set up whereas Moses's older brother, Aaron, was given the responsibility of being a leader and continuing to teach their new way of life.  When he died, his male heirs would take on this responsibility.  Moses and Aaron were members of the tribe of Levi, and they, in turn, were recognized and given other responsibilities of teaching all the other 11 tribes.  So the strata was now of priestly line of Aaron called the Cohens, the Levites, and the rest of the tribes were called the Israelites, called that for Jacob, aka, Israel, changed to show the development of his new understanding of the world through G-d's communication with him.  The people knew their place in this society;  Cohens, Levites and Israelites.  They knew the limits of what was expected of them in their society.  

                                                                           

                                        Fighting against the Amaleks on their trek towards Canaan

The only problem they had was that they were not alone on a new planet.  They still existed with other people who had the opposite of  beliefs, and found that they had to fight to continue living, but being a stubborn people, held onto their beliefs that were not so strange to them, much coming from Abram so long ago.  At least the population wasn't as crowded as it had been in Ur. 

A January 2014 report is that An archaeologist thinks he has found evidence of wine provided to the slaves who worked on Temple Mount in Bronze Age Jerusalem.  In September last year while excavating a Byzantine site, an earthenware jar was uncovered by a team from the archaeological institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the Ophel area of the city, not far from Temple Mount.  It was immediately spotted as being much older and was dated back to the 10th century BCE, the days of King Solomon but at first experts thought that the letters were from an ancient near eastern language.  Solomon was born much later in 961 BCE than people of the Exodus. Solomon was of the direct line of Moses.  Today's DNA lists their DNA as J1 or the Cohen gene.   

Now professor Gershon Galil from Haifa University has claimed they are ancient Hebrew – or something closely related – and indicate that the jar contained wine for slaves and poorer members of society – possibly those who helped build Solomon’s temple, palaces and city walls.  If correct it is some of the oldest Hebrew ever uncovered.  Galil has said he thinks the word “yayin” “wine” is written as well as hints to the year and place of its production although the necessary letters are missing.According to Galil, “yayin” has a close resemblance to a word in the Ugarit language of northern Syria which indicates low quality wine.                                                               

                                         Coming to the Red Sea

That 40 year march from Egypt to Canaan, a distance closer than they realized, gave them time to develop their minds, grow some more dendrites in their brains in problem solving, and adjust to a new way of belief.  Within that time period, were 2 generations where the old died out and the new were born in freedom, ready to fight for their new way of life with Joshua leading the way.  His name was Hoshea ( הוֹשֵׁעַ‎ Hōšēaʿ) the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, but Moses called him "Joshua", the name by which he is commonly known in English. According to the Bible he was born in Egypt prior to the Exodus. He was much younger than Moses and was Moses's protege. 

                                                                       

 Homo Sapiens  appeared in Southwest Asia around 100,000 years ago and elsewhere in the Old World by 60,000-40,000 years ago.  Abram of the 2nd millennium  BCE and his ancestors had been around for a long time already when we hear of him and his beliefs.  Being born in about 1946 BCE was actually quite close to us, only about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.  He truly was someone to write about, and Moses did in his famous 5 books.  

Mankind, we homo Sapiens, have developed our technical abilities by leaps and bounds, reaching for the moon and stars already, but not so much emotionally or physically.  Will we improve in that area?  

Resource:

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

https://history2701.fandom.com/wiki/Beer_Allocation_Clay_Cuneiform_Tablet_from_Southern_Iraq

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=670778102

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

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2014/01/3000-year-old-bin-end-wine-label-deciphered/

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2263/sumerian-votive-plaque/

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-sumerians/

Leaving Ur For Canaan or Lech Lecha Part II)

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Abram and Sarai on the move from Haran to Canaan  

They are now away from Abram's father's house.  Terah, Abram's father, had died in 2083 BCE in Ur Kasdim. His son and Abram's brother, Haran, also died in Ur Kasdim.  Sarai's sister, Milkah, married Nahor, Abram's 3rd and last brother.  

Terah had 3 sons; Abram, Haran and Nahor.  Terah had started off with son Abram and Lot, the son of Haran and his grandson, his daughter-in -law Sarai, wife of Abram and his son, and they left Ur Kasdim and set off for Canaan. That's 4 people.   First they arrived at Haran where son Haran lived and settled there.

 Isaac, Abram's son, was 35 years old at the time.  His mission is to leave these influences which could alter a person's thoughts and actions.   This same call comes to all Abram's descendants in every generation, to

They will leave the Euphrates River and go west through Syria to Canaan.

separate themselves from all associations and influences that are inimical to their Faith and Destiny.  Their country had been Babylonia, north of their homeland of Ur.  It had been the most powerful empire in the world with a highly developed city-civilization, commercial society, and literary culture.  The land they are headed for has not been specified.  He was to follow whithersoever the will directed him.       

      They are going out West, to beautiful unsettled land, unlike urbanized Ur, largest city in the world.  

Abram and his family are leaving Ur and all it implies for Canaan in the Wild West.  They are leaving a highly urbanized society similar to Los Angeles or New York City for unknown, uncharted land to start anew.  They are to leave as the evil in Ur and Haran would contaminate them.  "When a flask of balsam is sealed and stored away, its fragrance is not perceptible;  but, opened, and moved about, its sweet odor is widely diffused." Away in Canaan, the hope is that evil will be diffused.   It's a monumental shift in the Bible.  

                       Noah on his ark, an ancestor of Abraham. 

The first 2,000 years from Creation were considered as the Eve of Desolation by the Rabbis.  Adam had fallen, his son Abel had been murdered by his own brother, Cain, showing the impulse of rebellion and killing,   Idolatry had been introduced to the world, and 10 dismal generations of life had been washed away by the Deluge or Flood, and the 10 generations from Noah had failed.                      

Abram had been born in the year 1948 BCE  from the time of Creation. (a number selected by imminent rabbis including my great ancestor, Rashi) With the emergence of Abram, The Era of Desolation had come to an end and the Era of Torah had begun.  Abraham will now be viewed by the rabbis as being on trial and the judge is G-d who gives him 10 trials to pass through.  The first is leaving the land he was brought up in.   In the year of 2,000 BCE---4 years after the Dispersion and 6 years before the death of Noah---he started to influence disciples to serve G-d. 

Abram is told to leave his land, leaving his relatives and leaving his father's house where he had lived. He was expected to give up his entire past.   He is to become a great nation, in other words, his descendants will become a great nation of people, unlike those he's leaving in Ur who worship idols; greater than they have been.  They will become a great and blessed people with a wonderful reputation and will be a blessing to others.  Those that help you shall be helped by me, and those who are your enemies will be cursed by me.  

Abram left with his nephew, Lot, son of his brother, Haran.   They most likely left after Haran had died.  Terah, his father, had also died in Haran before they had left from there (Haran is Abram's brother and for this the place of his home became a town and then a city, also called Haran.)  He had lived for 205 years.  They had been living with Haran, outside of Ur which was on the highway to the West.  Abram had made this decision to leave at the age of 75.  He took Sarai, daughter of his brother, Haran, his wife and his niece,  for his family was very concerned about how he had married, and kept land and goods in the family this way.  Also, they were very proud of their lineage, coming from Noah.  They left with all the wealth they had amassed.  Coming this far from Ur had given Abram the assurity that this is what he is to continue doing now.  Lot is pictured as a mere follower.  He doesn't seem to be inspired with the same ideals as prompted Abram's departure.  

They also "left with all the souls they made in Haran."  These "souls" were their slaves and dependents.  They were proselytes whom Abram and Sarai made among the men and women each knew.  These "converts" willing to leave and who saw the truth about idols after Abram had spoken to them,  became subservient to a law and followed their master in his spiritual adventure.  To travel now on the road less traveled was more dangerous, and good that they left in a large group, a group of like people.  

Abram left the land of his birth and all the glamour and worldly prosperity of his native place and became a pilgrim for life, enduring trials,famines, privations, and wandered into Canaan as a traveler and then into Egypt as a refugee and back again into Canaan---all for the sake of humanity that it might share the blessings of his knowledge of G-d and Righteousness; a way to look at their own importance of life in a far better way.                               

They found that Canaanites were living in the land scattered about. They went through and came to the site of Shechem (modern Nablus, 30 miles N. of Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities of Israel.) Then they came to the Plain and Terebinth of Moreh and saw evidence of Canaanites.  This was an oracular tree held sacred by the tree-worshipping Canaanites.  Such trees were attended by priests, who interpreted the answers of the oracle to those who came to consult it.  The terebinth or turpentine tree grows to a height of from 20 to 40 feet, and may therefore well have served as a landmark.  

Before the age of Abram, the Canaanite was then in the land, and had settled there in these lowlands.  The Canaanites had formed part of the population down to the  days of the later Kings.  Nevertheless, Abram felt and was told that this was to be his land, even though the Canaanites were warlike and racially alien.  He was told that this land would be given to his sons.  So he built an Altar to G-d in that place.  Then he went to the mountain on the east of Beth-el and pitched a tent.  Beth-el (in Central part of Canaan, the modern Beitin, 10 miles North of Jerusalem.  Jacob had given it this name) was then on the west and Ai was on his east and he built another altar there.  They journeyed onward, going toward the South this time. 

1. Primarily an altar was a place of worship; where G-d was adored for who He is and what He has done. Only burnt offerings were offered to Him in the days of the patriarchs, since the Law of Moses was not yet given.
2. An altar was also a place of testimony to the only true God in the midst of widespread idolatry. We read that Abraham built his altars unto the Lord, and that there he called upon His Name, Gen. 12. 7-8. Thus recognizing no other god but HaShem-one G-d)

                                                

A famine came into his land.  (This is another test of faith.) He went southward now, leaving his promised homeland,  and went into Egypt.  When nearing Egypt, he warned Sarai that since she was a beautiful woman, the Egyptians would kill him being he's her husband to have her.  He told her that they had to pretend they were siblings.  Sure enough, the princes of the Pharaoh saw Sarai and took her away to the Pharaoh of Egypt.    

This was a common custom in those days.  A papyrus tells of a Pharaoh who, acting on the advice of one of his princes, sent armed men to fetch a beautiful woman and make away with her husband.  Another Pharaoh is promised by his priest on his tombstone, that even after death he will kill sheiks and include their wives in his harem.  We see that our hero, Abram, falls prey to fear several times in the biblical narrative and plays with the truth in order to preserve is life.  There is no partiality towards its heros in the Bible.  They tell it like it was and not like superheros beings being superhuman and sinless.  They err.  Scripure does not gloss over their faults.  The great Jewish commentator, Nachmanides, refers to Abram's action as "a great sin."  Well, Sarai being his niece was rather partially true, wasn't  it.  

Because of the pretense that they carried on, the pharaoh gave Abram sheep, cattle, donkeys, slaves, maidservants, female donkeys and camels as a reward for Sarai.  Sarai was taken to the Royal Harem.  

Then the Pharaoh's house was hit with a plague,  illness, sickening the Pharaoh himself with his household.  The Pharaoh decided immediately it was Abram who caused it because of Sarai and had him brought before him.  He asked Abram why he didn't say she was his wife?  He gave her back and told them to leave.  Soldiers escorted them out and all that he had.  

End of Chapter 12 in Genesis of the Adventures of Abram and Sarai

Abram and Sarai's names will be changed later to Abraham and Sarah.   

Resource:

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

Tanach, The Stone Edition (Bible-Old Testament)

Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Volume I, Genesis, Dr. JH Hertz, chief Rabbi of the British Empire  (my father's) 1941

https://www.preciousseed.org/article_detail.cfm?articleID=81

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

Following in the Footsteps of Abraham

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

Abram/ Abraham was an Ivri (Hebrew) of the 2nd millennium BCE or 1948 BCE according to the Tanach who came from the East with his people and father, Terah, and settled in Ur of the Chaldees which is in today's Iraq. Ur was an ancient Babylonian city.   

When Abraham was born, the era of desolation (the first 2,000 years from Creation)  had come to an end and the era of Torah had begun when Moses would come to write down the history of his people. It had been desolate because Adam had fallen, Abel had been murdered, idolatry had been introduced to the world, 10 generations had been washed away by the flood, and 10 generations from Noah had failed.   

In Hebrew Ivri  is spelled going from right to left, ayin, bet/vet, raysh which means the other side.  He came from the other side of the Euphrates River.  Looking at this figuratively, it means that he was on the other side of a moral and spiritual divide from the rest of the world.   Possibly not much was known geographically in Abraham's day.  He had heard of the Euphrates River from his father, but not the Tigris that ran so close and parallel to it?  Did they come as far east as the Caspian Sea?  Evidently Terah never mentioned that so they must not have been that far east.  His people descended from Eber, grandson of Shem (Gen. 10:24). I found Eber to be the great grandson of Shem by following the given genealogy.   This meant one who came from the other side of the Euphrates River.  Eber's descendants formed a group of Semitic peoples and tribes including the Israelites, called the Hebrews. The Euphrates is the western of the 2 rivers.  The eastern one is the Tigris.  They enclose Mesopotamia, the Land of the Two Rivers.   The Euphrates was to be the boundary of the Israelites.  Many Jewish communities lay along the Euphrates in talmudic times and after.


 1 Shem . 2 Elam . 2 Asshur . 2 Arpachshad b: in 2 years after flood ..... 3 Shelah ......... 4 Eber ............. 5 Peleg ................. 6 Reu . 2 Lud . 2 Aram ..... 3 Milkah ......... +Levi ......... 4 [2] Jochebed ............. +[1] Amram ............. 5 [3] Aaron d: in Mt. Hor, border of Edom ................. +[4] Elisheba ................. 6 Nadab ................. 6 Abihu ................. 6 Eleazar ..................... +Daughter of Putiel ................. 6 Ithamar ............. 5 [5] Moses b: in Egypt ................. +[6] Zipporah ................. 6 Gershom ................. 6 Elieaer ............. 5 [7] Mirium ......... 4 Gershon ............. 5 Livni Ladan ............. 5 Shimei ......... 4 Kohath ............. 5 [1] Amram ................. +[2] Jochebed ................. 6 [3] Aaron d: in Mt. Hor, border of Edom ..................... +[4] Elisheba ................. 6 [5] Moses b: in Egypt ..................... +[6] Zipporah ................. 6 [7] Mirium ............. 5 Izhar ................. 6 Korah ................. 6 Nepheg ................. 6 Zichri ............. 5 Hebron ............. 5 Uzziel ................. 6 Mishael ................. 6 Elzaphan ................. 6 Sithri ......... 4 Merari ............. 5 Mahli ............. 5 Mushi ..... 3 Uz ..... 3 Hul ..... 3 Gether ..... 3 Mash
                                                             

Terah, his father,  was an idol-maker in Ur. Abraham became the father by his concubine, Hagar, an Egyptian princess who was his wife's handmaid, of Ishmael, and the father of Isaac by his wife, Sarai/Sarah.  Ishmael became the father of the Arab nation and Isaac became the father of the Jewish nation.  Both carried the genetic  haplotype of their father, J1.
                                                                             

 Ivrim (plural ) was sometimes used interchangeably with Israelites (Exod. 9:1) . Jacob, Isaac's son, had 12 sons that became 12 tribes.  Jacob's name was changed by G-d later on to be Israel.  His descendants became the Israelites.  They spoke Hebrew.    HABIRU  and Hebrews must be the same word, just different spellings.    Habiru was the word used for mercenaries or slaves.  Remember, they were slaves for 400 years in Egypt.  The word Habiru was found in the Tel el-Amarna tablets and in other documents of the 15th to 14th centuries BCE.  Many scholars are of the opinion that the word Habiru is identical with Ivri (i)m (Hebrews), and some think that the reference in the threat of the Habiru to the Canaanite cities alludes to one of the stages in the Israelite conquest of Canaan that took place with Joshua later on in about 1,500 BCE.  .

Terah had 3 sons; Abraham, Haran and Nahor.  Abraham took his father and family and moved out of this idol-worshipping city to live among the Canaanite and Philistine people.  Canaan was the name for Syria in the 15th to 13th centuries BCE.  It applied to the coast of the land Jews referred to as Eretz Yisrael.  The land was divided in Abraham's day into small city-states.  The northern part of Eretz Yisrael was called Aram (Syria).

   First Abraham went to Haran, his brother, who lived in Canaan.  Where Haran lived  became a town called Haran.  Haran was the father of Lot. Haran died in Ur Kasdim when his father, Terah, was still alive.  Haran had a daughter, Milcah who married her father's other brother,  Nahor.   Haran was a trading town of NW Mesopotamia, and a center of a moon cult.  Assyrian inscription from this time mention a Habiru (Hebrew?) settlement in the vicinity which some scholars link with Terah's home there.  Terah died in Haran at the age of 205.  .
Abraham left Haran at age 75 with his wife Sarah and Lot, his nephew.   He  visited  Egypt because of famine in the land  and returned to live in Hebron, a city to become a part of Israel.  He was involved with fighting  to help his nephew, Lot,  from the attacks by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, Amraphel who was king of Shinar and their allies.

Hebron, also called Kiriath-Arba, became a city in Judah which was 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  Before Abraham lived there, it was in control of Hittites.  Today a mosque stands on the site.  When Joshua led the 12 tribes into Canaan, he assigned hebron to Caleb, and it became a levitical city and a city of refuge.  King David reigned there for 7 1/2 years before transferring his capital to Jerusalem.   In 1929, Arabs massacred many Jews in Hebron, home of 700 Jews, and the survivors were forced out.  About 30 families returned in 1931.

He talked with G-d in a vision who told him  that his descendants would live in the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates River in the East and made a covenanat with him which was shown by circumcision, and tested his loyalty through the sacrifice of Isaac.

When Sarah died, he bought the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite as his family burial place. It was near Hebron.   Then he married Keturah.  Abraham died at the age of 175 and was buried by Sarah. So was sIsaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah interred in this cave.   He is considered a prophet by both Jews and Muslims and the founder of monotheism.  (Gen.20:7).  According to Hellenistic legends, he was also king of Damascus.  Arabs say he laid the foundations for the sanctuary at Mecca with the help of his son, Ishmael.

Machpelah was marked by a church during the Byzantine period.  After the Arab conquest by a synagogue, but from the 12th century, Arabs prohibited the enty of non-Moslems except under special circumstances.  Since the 6 Day War, it has been a popular place for Jews to make pilgrimage.  The cave is now blocked but is surrounded by a building, the foundations of which date back to the 2nd Temple times.
                                                                             

Supposedly, according to Islam, which started in c630, Abraham had gone to Saudi Arabia's Mecca and there built the Kabba.                                          

. Arabs knew that in Mohammad's day there were many Jewish tribes living in Medina.  They were probably the descendants of Assyria's attack on Israel in  721 BCE when they carried away 10 of the 12 tribes into slavery after destroying the Temple in Jerusalem.  Or they could have been tribes from the Babylon conquest when they conquered Jerusalem again in  586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar and took slaves.
                                                                         

 Since Abraham lived almost 3,000 years before Mohammad (570-632) I wonder when he could have traveled there.  It was to have happened when he was still in touch with Ishmael, who he had sent away. The distance from Jerusalem to Mecca is 2,119.1 km or 1,216.75 miles.  This would be going to Cairo and traveling south all the way along the Red Sea to Mecca.  The means of Abraham's transportation would have been by Dromedary camels who could travel 80 to 120 miles per day carrying a rider.  He would have wanted 3 of them; for Abraham, Ishmael and food, water and other  necessary supplies.  This trip would have taken at least, going on the average of 100 miles per day, at least 13 days or at least 2 weeks.  How long would it have taken to create the Kaaba?   This trip is not recorded in Jewish literature.  "According to Muslim belief, an angel spoke to the prophet Abraham, and told him to institute the rite of the stone in the hajj at Mecca."

The biblical commentator, Rashi, said that Abraham faced 10 trials in his life.
1.  He hid underground for 13 years from King Nimrod, a Cushite, who wanted to kill him.A strong hunter, had a kingdom made of Babylon, Erech, Accad, etc.  Assyria was known as the land of Nimrod.  An ancient Babylonian king is assumed, not proven.  Assyrian war-god Ninurata could be base of story.
2. Nimrod flung Abraham into a burning furnace.
3. Abraham was commanded to leave his family and homeland.
4. Almost as soon as he arrived in Canaan, he was forced to leave to escape a famine.
5. Sarah was kidnapped by Pharaoh's officials for Abimelech, king of Gerar (Philistines), less corrupt than Egypt was,  to be part of a harem; corruption in Egypt.
6. The kings captured Lot, and Abraham was forced to go to war to rescue him.
7. G-d told Abraham that his offspring would suffer under 4 monarchies.
8. At an advanced age, he was commanded to circumcise himself and his son.
9. He was commanded to drive away Ishmael and Hagar.
10. The binding of Isaac on the altar, his only child at that time, to sacrifice to G-d.

Chronology shows that Isaac was 37 at the time.  This proved to G-d that Abraham and Isaac were determined to serve G-d no matter how difficult te circumstances, which is the very reason for Israel's continued existence.  Abraham could not understand this as Isaac did not deserve to die because he had been found unworthy or had become evil.  He knew this was not the case.  This happened on Mount Moriah which is where the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was built.

G-d called Jerusalem "Yerushalayim.'  The original name of the place was Shalem, a name given to the village by Shem, son of Noah---whom the Sages identify with Malchizedek, king of Jerusalem.  After the sacrifice of Isaac that was stopped by G-d, Abraham called the village as Yireh (Hashem will see).  In deference to both Shem and Abraham, G-d put both names together and called it Yerushalayim.

Resource:  The New Standarad Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanach (Old Testament) the Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series.
http://www.allsinai.info/sites/fauna/camel.htm
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/archaeologists-discovery-may-be-abrahams-home-city-of-ur/2013/04/05/
https://www.google.com/search?q=idols+found+in+Ur,+Iraq,+pictures&biw=1024&bih=634&tbm=isch&imgil=TueMyRizFtrNRM%253A%253BdwVeHfOczmcV4M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.sandrashaw.com%25252FAH1L03.htm&source=iu&pf=m&fir=TueMyRizFtrNRM%253A%252CdwVeHfOczmcV4M%252C_&usg=__OX0VqQOOxcm9bAFUyUjFXmMSyUg%3D&ved=0CDkQyjc&ei=MuE2VKSmHomwjALT5IC4BQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=TueMyRizFtrNRM%253A%3BdwVeHfOczmcV4M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.sandrashaw.com%252Fimages%252FAH1L03Idol3.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.sandrashaw.com%252FAH1L03.htm%3B191%3B440
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/05/discord-in-abrahams-tent-over-control.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-abraham-back-to-noah-and-our.html