Wasn't David Chosen As A Moral Person and Why It's Important

Nadene Goldfoot                                                      

According to the Bible, Samuel, the Prophet,  anointed David as king of Israel after God chose David to lead the people: King David ruled from c.1000 -960 BCE, and was the youngest son of Jesse, born in Bethlehem. According to the Bible, Jesse was the son of Obed and the grandson of Ruth and of Boaz. He lived in Bethlehem, in Judah, and was of the Tribe of Judah, he was a farmer, breeder and owner of sheep. He was a prominent resident of the town of Bethlehem.

 Jesse was the grandson of Ruth and her husband, Boaz.   Jesse lived in Bethlehem but for fear of Saul, lived for a time in Moab.  Ruth was a Moabite.  Her Israelite husband, Mahlon, died so she went  his mother;   her mother-in-law, Naomi,  back to Bethlehem and eventually re-married   Naomi's cousin, Boaz.  Boaz was wealthy with property.  The ROYAL HOUSE OF DAVID  is known as THE STOCK OR ROOT OF JESSE. (Is. 11:1.10)                                                                     

Saul suffers with headaches and David, also a musician, soothes him with his music with his harp.  King Saul David and Saul, oil on canvas by Ernst Josephson, 1878; in the National museum, Stockholm, Sweden.  Saul was son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, yet to fight against the Philistines and Ammonites.  He would have to make expeditions against the Moabites, Ammonites, and Arameans.  Internally, he carried out a purification of religions and elimination of witchcraft.  

   King Saul, 1st king of Israel, The prophet Samuel selected Saul as the first king of Israel, under the direction of God: God's choice: God told Samuel that Saul was the chosen candidate to be king. Samuel's anointing: Samuel anointed Saul with oil and gave him God's blessing. Public acclamation: The Israelites also publicly acclaimed Saul as king after he led them to victory in battle against the Ammonites. Saul's stature and military ability: The Israelite tribes supported Saul because of his kingly stature and military ability.  Saul was a strong, handsome, and well-built man who was a foot taller than everyone else in Israel.  He must have been 6 feet plus at the time.  

At age 25 David became King Saul's, (Israel's first king), armor-bearer.  He had been the best friend of the king's son, Jonathan.  He fought in the war against the Philistines and showed Saul his military prowess, so for that was chosen as King Saul's daughter Michal's husband.  David went on to take other wives, but never as many as his son, Solomon, would have.  

David was such an outstanding young man that Saul became jealous of him, and it became dangerous for David.  He sought refuge with Achish, king of Gath.  David returned to Israel after Saul and 3 of his sons had been defeated and killed in battle at Mt. Gilboa.  David decided to live in Hebron and while there, declared himself king of Judah, a rather egotistical act !  

Was David ever immoral?   Yes, according to the Bible, King David committed several immoral acts, most notably committing adultery with Bathsheba and then arranging for her husband Uriah to be killed in battle to cover up the affair; this is considered a significant immoral act in the biblical narrative.   He committed 4 immoral acts during his life: Without a code to follow, he didn't know.  

• Adultery: David had an affair with Bathsheba, who was married to Uriah the Hittite. 
• Murder: To conceal his adultery, David sent Uriah to the front lines of battle with the intention of getting him killed. 
• Abuse of Power: As king, David used his authority to facilitate his affair and cover up his crimes. 
• Deception: He attempted to deceive the prophet Nathan about his actions.                                  

At first, Saul's general, Abner, sided with David's opponent, Saul's son, Eshbaal  by crowning him king in Mahanaim.  After Elkshbaal's murder, all the tribes accepted David as king!                                                           

        Red Sea Crossing on the Exodus Route 

After being king for 8 years, David captured the Jebusite stronghold of Jerusalem and made it his capital.  Eventually, he moved the ARK there.   He was able to break the Philistine military power and annexed the entire coastal belt !  He defeated the Edomites which by that move, gave the Israelites an outlet to the Red Sea at Ezion-Geber.  

Our King David was considered a very moral person.  He was chosen as King of Israel before the time of Moses leading the Israelites out of their Egyptian Servitude that amounted to a 40 year march to escape from that land after living there for 400 years.God chose David because of his good heart, not his appearance.   though he was said to be good looking and had gingy colored hair.  God told Samuel to look at the heart, not the outward appearance. Samuel anointed David in front of his brothers when David was around 15 years old. The Spirit of the Lord took control of David immediately after the anointing. David reigned for 40 years and became the most famous king in Israel's history. 

What gave Samuel, the Prophet, the ability to be able to choose a leader for a growing population of Israelites who clamored their need for a king?  

Before the Israelites arrived in Canaan to live, the elders of this community acted as judges over problematic situations.  Afterward, the soldier-leader, priest, or prophet took on this responsibility as well as their original ones.  So, we find the prophet, Samuel, traveled from place to place to administer justice.  (I Sam.i7:15-17).  

Samuel was the last Israelite JUDGE, something they had before the need for a king over all.  He was born into a Levitical family   and lived on Mt. Ephraim and Ramah in the land of Zuph.  His mother consecrated him before he was born as a Nazirite who would serve in the sanctuary at Shiloh.  While there, he received a Divine call as a child and later prophesized the destruction of THE HOUSE OF ELI and his sons and the decisive defeat of the Israelites by the Philistines at the BATTLE OF APHEK.  Samuel tried to restore the traditional religious worship .  He lived in Ramah and judged the Israelites in the sacred towns of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, preparing the way for national unity.  He started groups of prophets that formed to guide the people.  In his old age, he reluctantly gave into popular demand for a king and had picked Saul, but lived to experience tension between himself and Saul.  

 It was Moses who established the rules of morality, however, written down as the Torah, our 5 Books of Moses that starts the Old Testament. He eventually throughout the 40 years of traveling, gave his charges 613 rules of morality to keep them on the straight and narrow path.  

How was it that David had morals?  He hadn't even been given the list from Moses as yet. His genes and his environment including his relationship with his parents decide his thoughts and ways.  

 Today's Matt Gaetz is up for an important position  to be attorney general has many Justice Department employees reeling, worried not only about their own jobs but the future of the agency that the Trump loyalist has railed against. The president-elect’s pick of the Florida Republican sent a shock throughout the Cabinet department, considering Gaetz’s lack of experience in law enforcement and the fact that he was once the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation. The names of well-regarded veteran lawyers had circulated as possible contenders for the job, but Gaetz’s selection was broadly interpreted as an indication of the premium that Trump places on personal loyalty and Trump’s desire to have a disruptor lead a department that for years investigated and ultimately indicted him.  In other words, the Justice Department was mean to him, so he is punishing that department with Matt Gaetz.  Matt was once under investigation for sex trafficking!  

I can say to look at the parents and ancestors of Matt Gaetz and their ways of behaving towards him and others.  They set down their rules, and either follow them diligently and fairly with love or are just plain lax.  It's either Matt's environment or his genes that create his behaviors.  Now look at Trump's reasons for selecting him in the first place.  Trump is using such a man as Matt for his own personal reasons.  

            Jewish family of someone's ancestors living on Mt. Zion some generations back.  In the Hebrew Bible, Mount Zion was first used to refer to the City of David, and later to the Temple Mount. In the Old Testament, it was a metaphor for Israel, the Promised Land.

 In the New Testament, it was a metaphor for Jerusalem, God's eternal holy city.  

Rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures, Zion originally referred to a specific geographical location but evolved to symbolize the presence of God and the spiritual heart of Israel.

The term “Zion” (צִיּוֹן, pronounced Tziyon in Hebrew) holds a profound significance both in the Bible and today. “Zion” (צִיּוֹן, pronounced “Tziyon”) means “a sign” or “a landmark.” The root צ-י-ן forms a verb in modern Hebrew today that means “to point out.”

In the Bible, Zion refers to the city of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. It symbolizes the spiritual heart of Israel and the presence of God. The term Zion is also the source of the political movement known as Zionism, which seeks to establish a Jewish state in Israel.  

As for David, many of us Jews have turned to DNA analysis and find we have many cousins, even 5th cousins can register in our list. Many of us claim a DNA connection to David.   Actually, it is said that all Jews are at the least, 30th cousins, because it was originally a family way of belief that grew into a nationalistic empire; squashed long ago but revived before it was too late.  I am always happy to see we are trying to follow our moral codes no matter what the problems are.  They make up our soul.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saul-king-of-Israel

https://firmisrael.org/learn/the-meaning-of-zion-in-the-bible/#:~:text=Zion%20in%20Hebrew,the%20historical%20land%20of%20Israel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Zion#:~:text=Mount%20Zion%20(Hebrew:%20%D7%94%D6%B7%D7%A8%20%D7%A6%D6%B4%D7%99%D6%BC%D7%95%D6%B9%D7%9F,the%20entire%20Land%20of%20Israel.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saul-king-of-Israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_(biblical_figure)#:~:text=The%20Book%20of%20Samuel%20states,Amasa%2C%20the%20son%20of%20Abigail.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/matt-gaetz-was-once-under-investigation-for-sex-trafficking-now-he-could-lead-the-justice-department

https://apnews.com/article/trump-attorney-general-gaetz-justice-department-852d3096a6f154fcdb23581948f906e6

 

The Lithuanian Jerusalem: VILNA

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Autumn shopping center in the main street of Vilnius,
Gediminas Avenue today

From the 18th century onwards, Vilna, Lithuania was called the Lithuanian Jerusalem.   Napoleon named it "the Jerusalem of the North. 
                                                                             

                         Vilna many years ago, the Jewish cultural and religious center

This is why my paternal grandmother was so proud to have come from Lithuania.  It was a center of Jewish learning.  She couldn't read or write but wanted us all to know that she was a LITVAK. She came from Lazdijai and her husband, our grandfather, came from Telsiai (Telz) , Lithuania.  
                                                   

It's best-known scholar,Elijah ben Solomon Zalman was universally known as the Vilna Gaon, with Gaon meaning: genius.  Thus, this became a center because of him. 
                                                        

    Many Haskalah (Enlightenment Movement) leaders lived here., starting in 1832 with Judah Jeiteles, a movment originating in 1750 to 1880 believing that Jewish Emancipation needed intellectual and social conformity with the non- Jewish population and that the this could be achieved by modernizing and westernizing the Jewish religion and customs including the active literary use of the Hebrew language.  It tried to mediate between Orthodoxy and radical assimilation that was happening in Germany.  The more German Jewry modernized, the more anti-Semitism grew.  Perhaps it was because Germans became more aware of Jews as competition in all things, especially in business.  This movement was very challenging to Judaism, but came through a desperation of wanting to be treated humanely, as much as any other people.   
                                                      

    Hibath Zion Movement (Love of Zion, Zionist movement starting in Russia in 1882 from an 1881 pogrom-slogan-TO PALESTINE which aroused tremendous enthusiasm and societies were organized in Russia, Poland, Romania and England.  Students bought land in Palestine, religious leaders stood aside.  Opposition came from assimilated Jews of Russian Jewry and those in Western Europe-notice-they hadn't been present in the many pogroms.  One can say that hateful and harmful pogroms of eastern Europe caused the re-population of Jews into Palestine with the 5 different aliyah populations.  
                                                            

    An important Hebrew press of over several generations was that of the family ROMM, whose edition of the Talmud became standard, called the Vilna Shass.
   Vilna was a Zionist center.  

                                                         







                                

Bund's way of demonstrating a point
with their bodies 

 Vilna was the birthplace of the BUND (General Federation of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland and Russia, a Jewish Socialist Party founded at a conference in Vilna in 1897 a trade union and political party, struggling for better working conditions.
                                                       

    Lithuania itself was known for its GREAT YESHIVA OF SLABODKA.
    The smaller towns of Telzh, where our paternal grandfather was from, Ponivezh and Kelem were where hundreds of foreign students studied.
    The Salant community where from here that the Musar (Ethics) Movement began and spread from Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (Israel Lipkin 1810-1883), whose principles were based on the idea of intellectual activity and knowledge in order to correct and improve the behavior of the individual. He had set up special houses for the study of ethical literature and published a journal (Tevunah) of the ideas found.  The movement spread among the Torah students of Lithuania.   
                                                       

   Populating Jews in Lithuania and especially in the city of Vilna all started in the 14th century by the invitation of the Grand Dukes Gediminas and Vytautas (Witold).  

In 1388, one year after the Christian-Catholic religion was introduced to Lithuania, the Duke granted the Jews a preferred civil status and incomparable BILLS OF RIGHTS in many different areas such as protecting their bodies and property;  freedom to maintain their religious rituals;  significant alleviation in the field of commerce, and money lending-being permitted in relation to Christians.  There was a particular regulation to protect Jews against blood libels (accusation of using blood of child in the making of matzos) .  

Then, in 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue-the Spanish Inquisition took place against Jews which affected Jews throughout the whole world.  
                                                           

Lithuanian King  Vytautas The Great Aleksander (Kiejsturowicz Giedyminowicze) 1350-1430

By 1495, only 3 years later when all Jews were kicked out of Spain unless they converted to Catholicism, the Grand Duke Alexandear expelled all the Jews of Lithuania, then numbering more than 6,000 Jews and even confiscated their hard-earned property.  8 years later he became King of Poland, and he allowed Lithuanian Jews to return to their homes and gave them back part of the property.  Most privileges were left as they had been given to the Jews originally, meaning nothing since they hadn't protected them but for a long period they were of some help in preserving the legal, civil and economic status of Jews.  

The Christian townspeople of Lithuania were mostly Germans that had moved to this new country.  They had organized themselves into merchant and artisan unions and had the MAGDEBURG RIGHTS from Germany and in their eyes,Jews were competitors.  They had an edict written up forbidding Jews into Vilna or to trade in this city.  For hundreds of years, the townspeople threw insults at Jews including students of theological seminars (Yeshivot).  The NW part of Lithuania had been settled by ethnic Lithuanian tribes and had accepted Christianity much later in 1413, so did not react to Jews in this anti-Semitic way.  

"Jews and Germans were sometimes competitors in those cities. Jews lived under privileges that they carefully negotiated with the king or emperor. They were not subject to city jurisdiction. These privileges guaranteed that they could maintain communal autonomy, live according to their laws, and be subjected directly to the royal jurisdiction in matters concerning Jews and Christians. One of the provisions granted to Jews was that a Jew could not be made Gewährsmann, that is, he could not be compelled to tell from whom he acquired any object which had been sold or pledged to him and which was found in his possession. Other provisions frequently mentioned were a permission to sell meat to Christians, or employ Christian servants."

These special privileges all came about because of the terrible anti-Semitic treatment Jews suffered in the first place by these new Christians.  They realized they couldn't begin to enter a place unless the powers that invited them gave them protection from the anti-Semitic masses.  
                                                        

Vilna, Jewish quarter, 1900s. 

In looking at it's history, Jews had come to this Vilna at the end of the 15th century, but suffered from banishment in 1527 by Sigismund I at the request of the burghers. Jews expelled went to nearby towns such as Zamut where they found other Jews in the business of CUSTOMS AND COLLECTION for the government.   A number of Jews had returned later to Vilna but were the victims of a riot in 1592.  The following year, Jews were formally allowed to settle, acquire houses, and lend money since that's about all Jews were allowed to do all over Europe because of Christian prejudice to them entering their closed labor groups. 

This was a country of feudalism.  Most made their living from farming but Jews were not allowed to own land.  Some Jews then became peddlers, or dealt with import and export of agricultural products.  

By 1633, permission was granted to trade in precious stones, meat, and livestock and to be craftsmen.  An anti-Jewish riot took place in 1635, and while in 1655 those members of the community who had not fled from such anti-Semitism were massacred by the Cossack army. 

4,000 Jews were among the victims of famine in Vilna in 1709 to 1710..  This is the century that the city became the great center of rabbinical study, called the Lithuanian Jerusalem. 
                                                          

Vilna Jewish ghetto 

German rule in Lithuania in World War I caused famine for the Jews as well as the Gentiles.  An extra suffering they endured was that of of a pogrom at the hands of the Polish troops in 1919 after the war. 

YIVO (YIVO (Yiddish: ייִוואָ, [jiˈvɔ]), established in 1925 in Wilno in the Second Polish Republic (now Vilnius, Lithuania) as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut (Yiddish: ייִדישער װיסנשאַפֿטלעכער אינסטיטוט,, Yiddish Scientific Institute), is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish."  It had its headquarters there from 1925 to 1941, the beginnings of the 2nd World War. 
                                                         

Nearby Kovno undergoing massacre on June 27, 1941 

          The Jewish population of Lithuania on the eve of the Shoah (Holocaust) was about a quarter of a million including the Vilna region and the refugees from Poland ..  This amounted to around 0.9% of world Jewry during the 20 years of Independent Lithuania.  It had been recognized for a long time as the specific religious-cultural unit in comparison to neighboring Jewish centers of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.   Today Jews make up only about 0.02% of the world population.  

The Jewish population number in Vilna was 140,000 at the end of the 19th century, but by 1941 had dropped to 65,000 which included an additional 15,000 refugees from Poland.   The Germans created 2 ghettos in Vilna, where 30,000 Jews were killed there by the end of 1941.  The 12,000 remaining were augmented in 1943 to transports from White Russian rural districts. 

By August of 1943, deportation began and Jews were taken to extermination centers.  There was some resistance.
                                                    

The Russians entered Vilna in 1944 and found 600 Jews hiding in the sewers.  Jews from other areas began converging on Vilna after the war and the Jewish population in 1988 had built up to 13,000.  

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Preserving Our Litvak Heritage, a history of 31 Jewish communities in Lithuania  by Josef Rosin; Joel Alpert, Editor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdeburg_rights
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2018/05/center-of-jewish-learning-vilna.html
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-happened-to-lithuanian-jews.html

Damascus, Syria and It's Jewish Citizens:Relating to Prophecy and The Ingathering of Lost Israelis

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

Let's see what the Tanakh, the Bible, the "Old Testament" says about Israel.  Can there be anything there that relates to today's trials and tribulations?  
In Jeremiah:  30: 12-31

The warning:  to those harming Israel.  Maybe the UN should take heed.  

 All who devoured you shall themselves be devoured;  

All who oppressed you will all go into captivity

Who trampled you will be trampled

All who despoiled you, I shall deliver to become spoils

For I will make a cure for you,

And I will heal you from your wounds-the word of Hashem (G-d);

For they called you "Discarded!"  Saying, "She is Zion--no one cares about her!"  

What is Zion?  The prophets called Jerusalem "Zion." when they wished to stress it as a spiritual symbol.  In Maccabean times of the 1st century BCE or CE, Mt. Zion was identified with the Temple Mount and the City of David together, in opposition to the hellenistic quarter on Acra hill.  Josephus identified Zion with the Upper City and its identification with the eastern hill.   Zionism is the movement to secure the Jewish return to the Land of Israel. 

In Jeremiah 31:  7-8, the nation of Israel was referred to was Ephraim, because 10 of the 12 tribes had lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which was led originally by Ephraimite kings.  The entire nation is called "G-d's firstborn, and Ephraim had the status of Joseph's firstborn.  Ephraim's parents were Joseph and Asenath.  Assyria attacked and took the 10 tribes in 721 BCE.  

G-d says, "Behold, I will bring them from the land of the North and gather them from the ends of the earth.  Among them will be the blind and the lame, the pregnant and the birthing together;  a great congregation will return here.  With weeping they will come and through supplications I will bring them;  I will guide them on streams of water, on a direct path in which they will not stumble;  for I have been a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. "                                    
                                                                           

Israel was the northern kingdom with kings David and son Solomon.  After Solomon died, Jeroboam took over (933-912 BCE).  The last king was Hoshea (730-721 BCE).  Israel's strength was weakened by constant warfare with the kingdom of Damascus (Syria) and both then fell to Assyria.  Samaria was taken by Sargon in 721 BCE which ended the history of the kingdom of Israel until 1948 CE.  Hosea and Amos, biblical prophets, had stayed with the Israelites.  The Prophets Elijah and Elisha tried to check growing idolatry and social injustice that was occurring there, however.  Whenever we acted like other states, we were in trouble.   That is our lesson.  We are to stand apart.

Damascus's Jewish associations go back to the reign of King David in whose realm it was comprised.  It was the capital of Aram-Dammesek which stood out in the period of the Kings as either sometimes a friend or an enemy.  Damascus had a large Jewish population during Herod's day who built there a theater and gymnasium.  Many of its Jews were killed in the riots in the early stages of the Jewish Revolt against Rome starting in about 67 CE..  The community kept on going throughout all the centuries and was untouched from the Arab conquests of 635 CE when the Muslims were out converting people to Islam.  By the 9th and 10th centuries, Damascus became a Karaite center.  By 1170, Benjamin of Tudela found 200 Karaites and 3,000 Rabbanite Jews.  After 1492's Spanish Inquisition more Jews came to live in Damascus.  

The Turks of the Ottoman Empire captured the city in the 16th century which led to an improvement for Jews who had many wealthy merchants.  The Damascus Affair of 1840 caused many Jews to leave Damascus and the city declined. That was a blood libel used to attack Jews when the superior of the Franciscan convent disappeared and his servant led to a search of the Jewish quarter instigated by local Catholics who were supported by the French consul.  They tortured leading Jews.  One died from it to elicit a confession of murder.  A campaign had been started of incitement against Jews.  A public outcry where Sir Moses Montefiore had to go to Alexandria to interview the ruler of Syria, Mehemet Ali,  led to the quashing of the charges and the release of the survivors.  Montefiore visited the sultan in Constantinople and got a firman condemning the Ritual Murder libel and got back Jewish rights, such as they were being 2nd class citizens or dhimmis.

 By 1848, Benjamin II found 4,000 Jews there but all the Karaites had left.  WWI caused an Arab nationalist feeling and many Jews then moved to Palestine,  Lebanon and other distant countries.  Of the 10,000 Jews there in 1940, only 3,000 remained by 1990 and had been treated horribly by Assad's regime, impoverished materially and intellectually , subject to unbelievable restrictions. 1967's war when all the Arab nations attacked Israel and Israel won, Israel had defeated the Syrian army and occupied the Golan Heights from which the Syrians had been bombing Israeli  towns and cities.  Now, holding onto it is very important for Israel's security.

 It was thought that the  last Jews left in a 1994 airlift to Tel Aviv.  Many Syrian Jews live in Brooklyn, New York today.

Resource:  http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/israeli-cabinet-unanimously-passes-resolution-bring-bnei-menashe-israel/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=08072f6532-BIN+New+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9598c31ced-08072f6532-19638061
Tanakh, Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia