Between Our Genes and Our Dendrites: The Making or Breaking of Humans

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

  Today's DNA scientists, perhaps at Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas.  They show me that my ancient origins show the autosomal DNA I carry from ancient European groups are:  28% hunter-gatherers;  50% farmers;  22% metal-age invaders.  

Scientists can examine our genes by putting our spit under something like a microscope.  Our genes are in all our cells of our body.  To be exact, DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the blueprint of life, the sequence of chemicals that defines each human being as unique.

 Twins, but not identical twins: Esau, born 1st with ruddy complexion,  and then Jacob who was to become the father of 12 sons:  the 12 tribes of Israel, for Jacob's name changed to Israel when he struggled or wrestled with a heavenly emissary and overcame him, being then given the name, Israel.  Each twin is so unique.  

Think of Isaac and Rebekah who had their twin sons, Esau and Jacob, 20 years after they were married. The Bible says he was 100 years old and when "his eyes were too dim to see", when he called his eldest son, Esau, to give him his last blessing recognizing his birthright.  Their DNA were obviously closer than any other brothers or sisters would be, but still carried some different genes as well. Isaac was the son of Abraham who was born in about 1948 BCE, about 4,000 years ago. They had accumulated far less genes than we carry today.  I suppose they were in the hunting-gathering stage. 

In this example, Isaac and Rebekah were 1st cousins, so their DNA overlapped. Terah was the father of Abraham and Rebekah's father was Bethel  who was also a son of Terah.  Rebekah's brother was Laban, the man that her son, Jacob, worked for in order to marry Rachel.  He had been working for his uncle.    

Twin brothers married twin sisters and they bore sons who look alike.  Amazing!   

Actually, "Identical twins form from the same egg and get the same genetic material from their parents — but that doesn't mean they're genetically identical by the time they're born.

That's because so-called identical twins pick up genetic mutations in the womb, as their cells weave new strands of DNA and then split into more and more cells. 

On average, pairs of twins have genomes that differ by an average of 5.2 mutations that occur early in development, according to a new study." 

Human DNA contains 3,147 million chemical nucleotide bases (A,G, C,T).  The total length of DNA present in one adult human is about 2x10"13  meters, the distance from the earth to the sun and back.  The DNA in an average chromosome-we have 23 of those, is about 5cm long.  Almost all (99.9%) nucleotide bases are exactly the same in all people;  and 97% are the same as the chimpanzee's.

Dendrites are part of our brain.   Hopefully, we have grown a lot of them.   Dendrites are appendages that are designed to receive communications from other cells. They resemble a tree-like structure, forming projections that become stimulated by other neurons and conduct the electrochemical charge to the cell body (or, more rarely, directly to the axons).  The more we use our brain to solve problems, the more dendrites we grow.  They're like the star we earn for every puzzle we solve.  Einstein must have had a lot of them as his IQ was 180, with 100 being average.  

Willis suggests that the most pleasant and rewarding way to increase your dendrites is to “meet and interact with intelligent, interesting people.” Try tournament bridge, chess, even sailboat racing. And remember, researchers agree that it's never to late."                        

Science has shown that mankind went into hunting when first becoming humans.  After he wised up, he became farmers.  But did you ever wonder why our Native Americans were still at the  hunters' stage  when the Mayflower landed in 1620?  They hadn't gone through the farming stage that Europeans had.

             Grinding corn they grew, made own pottery, too

The exceptions were  a few more isolated tribes such as the Pueblo who lived in higher housing and couldn't get out to hunt as well.  They resorted to growing corn and that saved them.  Traditionally, Pueblo peoples were farmers, with the types of farming and associated traditions of property ownership varying among the groups. Along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, corn (maize) and cotton were cultivated in irrigated fields in river bottoms. Among the western Puebloans, especially the Hopi, farming was less reliable because there were few permanent water sources. Traditionally, women did most of the farming, but as hunting diminished in importance, men also became responsible for agricultural work.

It has long been thought that prior to white settlement, Indigenous Australians lived a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Now some scholars argue that the first Australians practised forms of agriculture and aquaculture, writes Cathy Pryor.  Some evidence is that they grew bananas, states another reference.

When Great Britain sent their criminals into exile in Australia, they also found a people different from themselves.  They were the "Aboriginal Australians who are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands." As they tell us,  "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the proud keepers of arguably the oldest continuous culture on the planet. Our heritage spans many different communities, each with its own unique mixture of cultures, customs and languages. Before the European invasion in 1788 there were more than 250 Indigenous nations, each with several clans.  Were they hunters or gatherers or farmers?  "Our people were great storytellers, passing on their cultures through songlines – an animist belief system expressed through songs, stories, paintings and dance. We were also expert hunters and gatherers and had sophisticated ways of taking care of the land.  The prevailing theory was that they had not yet gone through the farming stage.  

It seems that different people progressed according to how fast their particular DNA warranted the speed which was controlled by the dendrites, or vice-versa.  Necessity is said to be the mother of all invention, so it may be that necessity causes how fast our bodies react; as threat-free environment allows us to just live and enjoy.  

Our holy writings and legends all tell us that we came from Adam and Eve, one man and one woman, and this particular woman also came from Adam;  his rib, as a matter of fact, so she shared his DNA.  Yet, the sons of Adam haven't all developed at the same time nor at the same places other than knowing human life started in Africa. 

In fact, science is now thinking that before our stone age period, our paternal ancestor was something more like an Orangutan (tree man)  who was able to walk on two feet.  He lived in trees and finally came down, and he's the father of all of us;  going back extremely far, of course, and this came about after studying the remains of bones of the leg.  Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus Pongo, orangutans were originally considered to be one species.                                 

Intelligence comes from having the right genes and the use of our brains.  Having the right genes but being lazy about using your mind will get you nowhere.  A person who is constantly using his mind and learning, even as he or she ages, are using what they have, and need not worry about what genes they have inherited, except if their ancestors suffered from dementia a lot.  

Intelligence isn't everything, either.  One has had to have ambition and guts to get things accomplished, or the right friends in the right places and a lot of money for pay-offs.  

All this has to be dependent on our ecosystem; the water and nutrients in the soil that we eventually ingest.  This should have something to do with what kind of people we turn out to be. 

Animals are either getting smarter or always have been smart.

Wolfgang Kohler, the psychologist in 1920, observed that chimpanzees not only used tools to reach food, but that they could also make tools to reach food. 

Jane Goodall observed chimps in the 1960s doing so in the wild.  Until then, it was thought that only humans were able to make tools.  

We now know that Dolphins have a language, elephants mourn their dead, and even cats and dogs reason in their own cat and dog ways.  Dogs have been known to save their masters' lives in one way or another.  Bees communicate the way to the nearest flower through a kid of bee-dance.   

This all means that the modern day expectant mothers should be taking all the nutrients that modern medicine has to offer  in order to produce the best and healthiest child possible, and stay away from all the bad things like drugs, smoking, and alcohol. We don't want to be surpassed by the animals.  We are to stay on top.  

In the end, it's those genes and our environment that have made us who we are, and that environment helped to create all the dendrites that we had collected.  One seemed to affect the other.  We couldn't do much about the genes we inherited, but all through our lives, we are either prisoners or partners of our environment. Go and enjoy life.   

  

Resource:

DNA & Genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick & Andrew Yeiser

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.intoxicatedonlife.com/all-the-twins-in-the-bible/

https://www.amnesty.org.au/eight-facts-about-indigenous-people-in-australia/?cn=trd&mc=click&pli=23501504&PluID=0&ord={timestamp}&gclid=CjwKCAjwv4SaBhBPEiwA9YzZvJ2lSoFf5ltre5GWcrxftKwacr4xDo5d1F0CNP9xlzgKC2V1mJbt_xoCJ0IQAvD_BwE

youtube on orangutan father of us all

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pueblo-Indians

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bushtelegraph/rethinking-indigenous-australias-agricultural-past/5452454

https://www.sdbif.org/articles/dendrites_grow.pdf

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

Science Phylums and Kosher Law of Mammals and Fish

        Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

Today,  Israel has by far the most productive dairy cows in the world,” writes Bloomberg.Israeli technology has made the country’s “Super Cows” world famous, as they produce much more milk than other countries’ cows, up to 10.5 tons a year, 10% more than in the U.S. and almost 50% more than in Germany, Bloomberg News reported in March 2014.  

 Mammals

                                                 
Science places Mammals in the subclass of Eutheria-Placental mammals.  "Placental mammals (subclass Eutheria) are advanced mammals whose young are born at a relatively advanced stage (more advanced than the young of other mammals, the monotremes and marsupials). Before birth, the young are nourished through a placenta. The placenta is a specialized embryonic organ that is attached the mother's uterus and delivers oxygen and nutrients to the young.

There are almost 4,000 known species of placental mammals. There are more rodents and bats than other types of placental mammals. Scientifically, placental mammals are called eutherians. "

                                                               

Sheep are kosher, and of course, lamb

The order is Artiodactyla, which means:  even-toed ungulates:   a hoofed mammal of an order that includes the ruminants, camels, pigs, and hippopotamuses. Mammals of this group have either two or four toes on each foot.

The animals in this order are: antelope, deer, camels, pigs, cows, sheep and hippos.
Cows and sheep belong to the Family of Bovidae which includes antelope, cattle, gazelles, goats, sheep and their relatives.  We eat only the tamed ones such as cattle, goats and sheep.  We kill them a special way without pain.  The others in this family must be hunted, and that we do not consider as a kosher act because it can bring on fear, worry and pain to the animal.  .

Kosher law allows us to eat only from cows, goats and sheep.  Why?  They are different in that they have a split hoof.                                              

                                      The donkey does not have split hooves. . These are the front and rear hooves.
                                                                           

 A camel's hoof is partially split, so we do not eat that animal, either.   The camel, for chewing the cud without its hooves being divided makes it not a kosher animal.  A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Wikipedia

Another consideration that leaves out other orders, such as Carnivora in which cats and bears belong to, the Panda, Polar and Grizzly bears, and weasels, is the stomach.

 It must have a ruminant stomach made up of 4 stomachs.  Here, the food travels from the mouth to the 1st stomach or rumen.  From the 2nd stomach  or reticulum food goes back to the mouth, and they chew their cud.  From the mouth this cud goes to the 3rd stomach or omasum.  Then it goes to the 4th stomach or abomasum.  None of these animals gives us meat for our table.
                                                               

We do not eat from the pig:  The pig, for having cloven hooves without chewing the cud
                                                                             

We do not eat from the hare or rabbits:  The hare, for chewing the cud without having cloven hooves. 
  They are from the order of Lagomorpha, and are not kosher.

 Unlike Leviticus 11:3-8, Deuteronomy 14:4-8 also explicitly names 10 animals considered ritually clean:

• the ox
• the sheep
• the goat
• the deer--but must be hunted, a no no.
• the gazelle--must be hunted, a no no.  
•              

Donkey-not kosher

                                                               

Horse-not kosher

Poor people are tempted to eat horse meat because it's usually much cheaper than beef.  It belongs to the order of Perissodactyla along with the rhino and tapir, and is also not kosher.
                                                                     
So a kosher animal must have split hooves.  This is what is looked at.  They in turn should have a ruminant stomach.  Cows are perfect examples.

I'm so glad we don't eat camels, donkeys and horses.  They should be in a class by themselves that help people.  What would mankind have ever done without them?  Pigs are smelly but have a very high IQ, higher than the other animals.  Just keeping pigs in a pen is stinky business.  Today there is a very small breed used for pets such as the pot-bellied pigs.  China is creating a tiny pig to be used as pets, also.  .
                                                                           

Holstein Friesien Cow, a dairy cow, kosher laws include using a kosher animal for milk as well, so no camel milk.  

In June of 2015, Prime Minister Netanyahu commented that ‘The Jewish cow’ is udderly superior to all other cows in the world." He was boasting about miraculous Israeli innovations came in an award speech he made last week (for the actor Michael Douglas), which was published by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs:  Israel is making the best of their limited kosher animal with their high-tech dairies.  They use the Holstein Friesien Cows which are among the world's best performers
                                                                       
                                                   Fish
                                                     

Fish must have 2 things:  fins and scales to be kosher for eating.
Some of the fish I'm familiar with are: Albacore and Tuna, mackerel, herrings, anchovies, bass, carp, caviar, channel bass, chinook and coho salmon, trout, cod, flounder, haddock.  My great aunt said to use as many as possible together when making gefilta fish, a recipe we use during Passover.  My mother used salmon in hers along with a whitefish.

There is more to being kosher than just picking the animal.  Steps in the killing and preparation follow the kosher laws as well.

Gideon back in the 12th century BCE from the tribe of Manasseh used a type of phylum to select men to fight with him against Midian in Judges 7:5.  G-d told him that everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, he was to put them apart from the others, and so too everyone who knelt on his knees to drink.  300 men  lapped with their hands to their mouth, and all the rest knelt on their knees to drink water.  The 300 were kept and the others were told to go home.

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_animals
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/82675/jewish/Kosher-Fish-List.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mini-pigs-pets-china_us_560de3cde4b0af3706e0434e
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/jewish-superior-netanyahu/
Tanach, The Stone Edition, page 2041 The signs of kosher animals and Fish

How Israel's Standards Differ From Her Neighbors in Daily LIfe

Nadene Goldfoot                       

Israel, a Jewish state,  follows rabbis' views based on the Torah, the Laws of Moses.  They have adopted a viewpoint that is broad enough to include every living soul.

This is similar to the USA following their Constitution that was written by 1776 by a body of righteous men with astounding foresight for their day who came from people who chose to brave the elements and social pressures and immigrate to a new land where they could have religious freedom.  They didn't think to include racial freedom.  

The rabbis taught 3,000 years ago, that non-Jews were to be accorded full rights.  Before the throne of G-d there is no difference between the Jew and the non-Jew," said Samuel. "There are good and noble men among all the nations of the world."  This was said 2,876 years before the new Americans wrote similar such ideas into their constitution in 1776.  Strangely, the Puritans in New Amsterdam (New York) didn't want to accept into their land the Jewish Dutch-Spaniards who turned out to own their Amsterdam company They were Jews who owned it.  When this was revealed, they did allow them to land.
                                                                           

 The Samuel who said this lived in the 11th century BCE and was a prophet and the last Israelite judge, for Israel had judges before they had kings.   He was born in a Levitical family, being from the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Jacob who were given the special job of being the teachers and helpers of the Cohens, another special position awarded to Aaron, brother of Moses and Aaron's descendants.  We have brother helping brother, in respect.

His family lived on Mt. Ephraim and at Ramah (Ramathaim-Zophim)  in the land of Zuph (a district, meaning of word is honeycomb in Hebrew).  His mother consecrated him  before he was born to be a Nazirite who would serve the sanctuary in Shiloh, where the ark and Tabernacle were kept.   While there he received a Divine call when only a child and later foretold the destruction of the House of Eli, the high priest at the shrine of Shiloh and one of the last judges, a mentor of Samuel.. Eli had fallen from his chair when he heard of the Philistine capture of the Ark.  His family was subsequently deprived of the high priesthood due to the immoral conduct of his sons Hohni and Phinehas.   Samuel  later lived in Ramah and judged the Israelites in the special sacred towns of Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh.  By doing this he was preparing the way for national unity.

It most likely was he who instigated the gathering of prophets to guide people.  It was he who weakened by listening to his people who wanted a king like other people surrounding them, and he chose Saul.  He later anointed David as Saul's successor, so he played a very important part in our history, both religiously and politically by picking  two of our  kings. There was no democracy in those days.  He was a prophet who had a 6th sense through G-d's guidance  who could fill the bill.  He was trusted by the people.  Leave it to his mother; she had everything to do with his future, just like Jewish mothers today play a most important role.

In the philosophy of the prophets and rabbis who followed, they concluded that their religion did not accept an official set of beliefs other than what the Torah had laid down.  While leaders of other religions held bitter debates over doctrine, our rabbis insisted that such matters be left to each individual.  They worked on developing practical rules for daily life so that every phase of it---from doing business to eating a meal---could be conducted with justice and decency, purity and kindness.    Such things as what happens when we die and all the thoughts included in this were not the goal to decide about with the rabbis.  This is a major part of where we differ from Christianity and Islam.  It believes that if you live your daily life correctly, the rest is in the hands of what G-d wants.  

In Israel, the Jews try to live up to a standard set down thousands of years ago of being truly noble in their actions and decisions.  They've taken on acts that help them to live up to this standard but which add a burden to their life that is slightly different from other people.  

1. Samuel forbade merchants to make more than 1/6th profit on a sale.  Such a standard cuts into one's possible profits.  Yet, from living in others' countries and only being allowed to deal with lending money, a distasteful  occupation for their own people so left for the Jews who were not allowed to buy land or be in other occupations, Jews were held in distaste as moneylenders.  Usually the kings that they lent money to managed to weasel out of the debt by banishing them from their country. As it turned out, Gentiles were asking a higher % of interest than Jews were.  Jews had already left their homeland in pursuit of trading.  I found this interesting as the ruling came long before Jews lived in other countries of Europe where the only occupation open to them was moneylending.  Our ancestors were already open to the facts of not charging high interest.  

2. They were to show mercy to criminals.  They felt that life comes from G-d and that only G-d should end life, and so they all but abolished capital punishment.  Israel follows this.  Now an atheistic country such as Russia would not believe in this.  They have replaced mercy with Siberia.  This shows how Israel was able to live with their decision of releasing Palestinian murderers  in a trade for peace with their neighbors, a decision unfortunately that wasn't so good.  One knows that Israelis will show mercy whereas I'm yet to see their neighbors follow suit.  Israelis are called Sabras; hard on the outside but soft on the inside.  The Sabra is a prickly pear, common in Israel.  They may come on harshly, but have their soft heart.  
                                                                                 

3. They would lose some of their natural sleep.  It was said by rabbis that those who wake early to study a chapter of sacred text of Torah or other works brings a special blessing on the people of Israel.  We just lost 4 rabbis in their special morning prayers.  We will miss their blessings.  They died while following their teachings.  The friends of the terrorists who slaughtered them with butcher knives celebrated their death by passing out candy to each other and cheering.  This shows how utterly different we are in our philosophies.  Our experience in seeing the Egyptian soldiers drowning in the sea chasing the people of the Exodus taught us not to ever cheer at someone else's pain and death.  Every time I see our neighbors doing this about a death of a Jew, I shake my head in wondering how people could think like this  

4.  They would feel some discomfort at times.  All animals are to be treated with the utmost consideration.  Their masters, pet owners, are to feed them before we have our own meal.   Jews are to think of others first before themselves from this teaching, even though it makes one a little uncomfortable at that moment.   It would be in what you say to them, how you treat them.  Here's where the Golden Rule comes in.  "Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you."   

Well, we're used to doing these things.  It's 2nd nature to us.  No big deal.  Are these acceptable ideas with our neighbors?  Right now all I see is that they think of taking over our Israel and this is their main goal in life.  The worst thing is that the rest of the world seems to think that's okay. They show it with their BDS movement and with how they vote at the UN.  We're a small group of a crazy people who still believe and trust in G-d and follow the 3,000 year old rules of the man who led us out of bondage, of slavery.  By not giving up our standards, we have achieved the impossible.  We're back home-against all odds again. 

                                                                             

 Do the odds figure that we could?  What were the odds  that the Jews are the only ancient people of the area who survived as a people?  No, not the Palestinians.  There never has been a state of Palestine.  Arabs aren't even one of the ancient people.  They're fairly new as a people who inhabited the Arabian peninsula and certain adjacent regions.  .  Have your ever read that Joshua fought the Arabs?  Did you know that Arabic is a cognate to Hebrew and is a branch of the Semitic languages?  It was Eber that was the forefather of Abraham as well as of Joktan, the ancestor of the southern Arabs.  Arabs trace their line back to Ishmael, half brother of Isaac.   Syria is a land that goes back in the Bible but was called Aram.  In the 8th century BCE Syria (Aram) was overrun by the Assyrians.  Jews lived there as well as in Israel and Judah.  The Phoenicians were in the Bible but do not exist today.  Bagdad was in the Bible and was not a friend. they attacked and took away Israelis as slaves in 597 and 586 BCE.   Iran was called Persia.  It was the scene of Queen Esther and our Purim Story where Haman plotted to kill all Jews in the realm.      

                                                                             

               The Jewish Homeland as voted on by League of Nations included blue and gold in map of Israel and Jordan

We needed our state and prayed for 2,000 years, mainly because of anti-Semitic acts against us  until the right time came for us to return.  We didn't attack a nation in order to achieve this great need.  The League of Nations agreed with us and in the division of land at the end of WWI, awarded the land back to us.  

What fighting we had to do was in defense of our lives and  in regaining land rightfully already decided to be ours.  We stood up for our rights  decided by the whole world.  We even had to do it with the British acting as a deterrent to our rights. Now that  we're back, we are facing  the very reason that brought us back, anti-Semitism,  because we exist.  .  

Resource: My People, Abba Eban's History of the Jews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuph

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Good versus Evil

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

        
There must be  one opinion as to what is good and what is evil in this world just as there is but one G-d. Surely he isn't telling the Christians something different from the Jews or the Muslims.  There must be one accepted form of good and evil that we all can accept.  

 It's how mankind judges for themselves what they are doing and what category it fits into as to what we see as good or evil.  The highest form of goodness to perform is to save a life.  We can't all be lifesavers, such as what swimming pools hire, and such, but if the moment comes, that is a huge piece of goodness.  Evil would be to take a life such as in murder.

"To hate evil is as much a virtue as to love justice.

To hate cruelty is as much a virtue as to love mercy.

But it is not enough only to refrain from evil or to disdain cruelty.  One must also actively pursue justice and mercy for it is written in :  (Psalms 34:15, 37:27.)
  1.  Turn away from evil
  2. Do good.  

We start by being kind to animals. 

Eating the flesh of a living animal is forbidden. This teaches us to be sensitive to cruelty to animals

1. The Torah prohibits the torture or causing of pain to any living creature.  It is our duty to save every living creature from pain or distress, even if it has no owner.  
2. If the animal has hurt a human, we are allowed to kill it.
3. We look upon hunting which  involves an element of cruelty to animals in the kill as something we are not to do. .  Usually it has no utilitarian value as meat is available in stores.
4. We do not sit down and eat until our animals are fed.  "And I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied." Deut. 11:15)
5. We may drink before giving water to our animals because man is less capable of enduring thirst than hunger.  "Drink, and I will give your camels drink also." (Genesis 24:14.)
6. Show kindness to our animals:  A righteous man considers the life of his beast.  (Proverbs: 12:10)

Rules of Engagement  in War

War has been with us ever since man crawled out of caves.  Moses in Deuteronomy 20:19-20,  4,000 years ago,  laid down conduct in war: in the 2nd millennium BCE

 1. When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to seize it, do not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them,  for from it you will eat; and you shall not cut it down;  
2. Is the tree of the field a man that it should enter the siege  before you?  
3. Only a tree that you know is not a food tree, it you may destroy and cut down, and build a bulwark against the city that makes war with you, until it is conquered.  

Moses in Deuteronomy 20:10-12, 
1. When you draw near to a city to wage war against it, you shall call out to it for peace.  
2. It shall be that if it responds to you in peace and opens for you, then the entire people found within it shall be as tribute for you, and they shall serve you.  
3. But if it does not make peace with you, but makes war with you, you shall besiege it.  
4. ...and you shall smite all its males by the blade of the sword.  
5. Only the women, the small children, the animals, and everything that will be in the city---all its booty---may you plunder for yourselves.
The enemy back then was given the opportunity make peace.  Those who accepted this offer were required to pay taxes, perform national service, and if they were going to remain in the land, accept the 7 Noahide Laws of Behavior. Evidently it was a new way of thinking for many.

In 1864 the Geneva Convention was signed by some major European powers.  Nations came together to accept practice in War and came to positive international  humanitarian laws called "international treaties on the laws of war.  The opposite of positive laws of war was customary laws of war.  Some of these were discussed in the Nuremberg War Trials.  .  

The Hague Convention of 1907 was accepted by all civilized nations for about 50 years, and were part of the customary laws of war and binding on all parties whether the party had been a signer to the treaty or not

Decisions of laws of war:

1. Wars should be limited to achieve political goals that started the war; territory control, and should not include unnecessary destruction.
2. Wars should be brought to an end as quickly as possible.   WWI lasted from 1914 to 1918; WWII lasted from 1939 to 1945; Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, Viet Nam War lasted from November 1, 1955 to August 15, 1973 with it really being over April 1975; Gulf War of Desert Storm last from January 16, 1991 to February 28, 1991-43 days; January 29, 2002-March 19, 2003 Iraq War when Iraq, North Korea and Iran were called the Axis of Evil by President Bush.  
3. People and property that do not contribute to the war effort should be protected against destruction and hardship.  (refugees and their homes) 

Acts of Kindness

Being Good includes doing acts of kindness.  This is when we may even have to exert ourself on behalf of another. Even if this results in our inconvenience or to the injury of our interests, we are to show humanity and love for our fellow mortals.  We are taught in the  Torah, "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself in  (Lev: 19:18).   Hillell said:  "what is hateful to you, do not do to others."  We call this the Golden Rule.

 1. We are taught to extend the hospitality of one's home for food and lodging as the need arises.
 2. We are to visit a person who is ill as soon as possible when you hear about the illness.
3. Orphaned girls should be helped to marry.
4. If you find something that isn't yours, you are to return it to its rightful owners.
5. You are to help keep  money or property of another from being  lost or damaged.
6. If you see a neighbor whose life is in danger, you must go to every trouble and expense to help him.  "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." (Lev. 19:16).
7. If you hear of a conspiracy against another human, you must tell him to reveal the danger. "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor."

We see so much of what is mentioned here as still being enacted in warfare today.  We can count our civilization having existed already for 4,000 years.  Surely the idea of good and evil must be recognized as being important if we are to continue living together.

Evil is when Iran is busy making uranium with the purpose of making an atomic bomb to drop on Israel.  When Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking with Prime Minister Enrico Letta yesterday,  "He noted that many countries in Europe, North America and Asia have nuclear energy with neither centrifuges nor plutonium and added that Iran is insisting on centrifuges and plutonium in order to be able to produce enough materials for a nuclear bomb.'"  Evil is also being demonstrated by the world ignoring this fact.

We are told  to turn away from evil and in its place to do good.  We cannot turn away from evil by ignoring it.  I hope we are all on the same page as to what is evil and what is good.  Such use of uranium is for evil as its purpose is to destroy and to kill.  
.  
Resource:  To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Haleavy Donin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_war
http://www.auburn.edu/~allenkc/noahide.html
http://www.warchronicle.com/iraq/news/timeline_two_wars.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

How Jews Eat Affects Relationships With Others

Nadene Goldfoot
One thing that differentiates religious Jews from Christians or Muslims and others  is how they eat.  Jews who follow the laws of Kashrut do not eat meat in the same meal that they would drink milk. If you're eating a meat dish you do not add anything of a milk product to it such as cheese or milk or cream.  This also means we do not eat a cheese hamburger.  In fact, the rule for eastern European Jews is to wait 6 hours after eating meat before you can have a milk product like ice cream, but it depends on the heritage of your grandfather.  Dutch Jews wait one hour  and German Jews wait 3 hours.    The law does allow for people to have a milk dish first and then can follow it up with meat, but be sure they aren't together.  I just about cry when I see a ham and cheese sandwich on a bagel and sure don't eat it.

The reason for this is to develop empathy for life; humane feelings for animals and thus, to carry this over to people.  Picture Bossy, the cow giving milk to her farmer.  She doesn't want to envision that farmer eating her week old calf that he had just taken away from her along with drinking her milk, or knowing that her last year's daughter or son is tonight's dinner and will be mixed with her milk that had been intended for them in the first place.   The thought is repugnant to me.  That would hurt Bossy's feelings so much.  A people that do not want to hurt the very feelings of their cow by doing this certainly will have feelings for other animals and people as well.

Another part of the laws of Kashrut is in the method of killing an animal.  It must be done humanely and the most humane method adopted is for a special person, a Shekhet,  to do it who has very very sharp knives and is well trained.  Then then cuts the throat of the animal, which causes a quick death.  We do not want the animal to have pain, and this is known to be the least painful death. Also, we do not eat any blood, so blood is removed by salting and soaking.

 This also means that we don't go out hunting in the fall for deer.  Hunting is not on our list of things we do, for this means the animals hasn't been killed in the accepted humane way. We even have to say no to Col. Sander's fried chicken.   My father, being a butcher, used to take in the carcass of  hunters" animals and get them cut and packaged for them.  He said he had to throw away most of it as by the time they came in from the hunt, the animals were already decomposing and rotting.  Very little was edible.

That leads to the most important part of our food laws.  We do not eat just any old thing.  It has to be a kosher animal from the list in the bible.  That means we do not eat pigs, donkeys, camels or horses, (thank goodness). Muslims do not eat pigs, either.   There is a phylum of biology that is actually followed.  There are certain requirements that animals must have in order to be on the menu.  Fish must have scales and fins. We don't eat eels, catfish, shark, porpoise or whales.   Without one of the requirements they get to swim away.  No shellfish for Jews, either, no matter if there is a sale on crabs.

Knowing we have certain rules about eating is to also exercise control over our impulses and basic instincts of all our desires.  We have set boundaries so have have the knowledge and responsibility that we are masters of our own lives.

It used to be in the Roman days that the cooks simmered meat in milk.  It was so obvious of the connection, far more than a casserole of today.  It's a very deep psychological imprint in the mind when you are brought up this way of why we don't mix milk with meat that it does affect your associations and brings out empathy for other's pain early.  

So, for 3,000 years our ancestors have been following these food requirements that came from Moses himself.  Sometimes it even led to not becoming victims in some plague epidemic because of the sanitation rules that also go along with it.  The misunderstood part of it was that people thought Jews were being snobbish when they wouldn't eat with them.  It was just that we couldn't eat what they were most likely eating.  In the old days, people were not as understanding with each other's personal requirements and differences.

I had met a young man from a kibbutz, not orthodox but did follow the kashrut laws  who was in the states and the organization had placed him in the home of a non Jewish family.  She called me and asked what to serve him, and I told her.  She couldn't do it.  None of her recipes were so plain as to not mix meat with some milk product.  She just gave up trying to do it.  He managed to eat something from the table in this circumstance, but probably realized that our laws seem pretty difficult for others to follow.  It was a revelation for both of us.

Jews have been leaders in social political life.  Even in Russia they led the break from the Russian Tsars to free people and give them rights.  Caring for people comes from how we are brought up to treat animals and considering their feelings.  Jews have taken special steps to not injure civilians in times where they have had to go into Gaza to stop terrorists from killing them.  They have been more careful and took more precautions  than any other army group would have been.

Israel follows the laws of kashrut.  The hotels are kosher, and so are the supermarkets.  In times of Passover, the matzo products are not mixed into the other bread products.  There just aren't any other bread products around at that time, period.  Israel, surrounded by enemies that want to do her in, is still are raising their children to consider other's feelings and to be kind.  After all, Moses taught us a long time ago not to cheer when we saw the Egyptians drown in the waters when chasing us during the Exodus because they were G-d's children, too.  That was another sensitivity story we were taught by Moses.  So we're not happy when Arabs have been in the way of incoming fire and have been accidentally killed, either.  In fact, I for one cannot understand why adults have been in the line of fire with their children after being told to get under cover by pamphlets and audio systems coming from Israelis.

I want the people of the world to understand that Jews, a religious group who care about the feelings of animals also care very much for the feelings of people as well and would like better than anyone else to have an end to the warfare between the Palestinians and Israel and the the threats coming from Iran that can lead to their extinction.  Doesn't anyone care about our feelings?  One must remember that caring and having empathy  does not equate with being soft in the head or not  being resolute about defending our country.  Israel has been in a defensive mode for some time now, but will be humane in doing so.  

Resource:  The Jewish Catalog by Richard Siegel, Michael and Sharon Strassfeld p. 18-36