Thomas Cahill's Feelings Towards Israel

 Nadene Goldfoot                                    

FILE - Historian and author Thomas Cahill poses in his New York apartment on Sept. 29, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Hawthorne, File)

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Thomas Quinn Cahill (March 29, 1940 – October 18, 2022) was an American scholar and writer. He was best known for The Hinges of History series, a prospective seven-volume series in which the author recounts formative moments in Western civilization. One of the 7 was his "THE GIFTS OF THE JEWS,  how a tribe of Desert Nomads changed the way everyone thinks and feels."    A man of my day, dying only 4 years ago.  

Cahill was born in the Bronx on March 29, 1940. His father, Patrick, worked as an insurance executive; his mother, Margaret (Buckley), was a homemaker. Cahill attended Regis High School in Manhattan, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin. He was thrown out and went on to graduate from Fordham Preparatory School. He continued his study of Greek and Latin literature, as well as medieval philosophy, scripture, and theology, at Fordham University.                                  

                           They will now embark on their vocations as Jesuit priests, serving the Catholic Church and the people of God.

There he completed a Bachelor of Arts in classical literature and philosophy in 1964, before obtaining a pontifical degree in philosophy the following year as part of his studies to become a priest for the Jesuits. Jesuit, member of the Society of Jesus (S.J.), a Roman Catholic order of religious men founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 and officially established by papal approval in 1540. Noted for their educational, missionary, and charitable works, the Jesuits are regarded by many as having been the principal agents of the Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. The religious order was later a leading force in modernizing the church. In 2013 Pope Francis (formerly Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires) became the first Jesuit to serve as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

He ultimately decided not to pursue the priesthood, and went on to complete his Master of Fine Arts in film and dramatic literature at Columbia University in 1968.

In anticipation of writing The Gifts of the Jews (1998), Cahill studied scripture at Union Theological Seminary, a Christian school in New York. He also spent two years as a visiting scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he studied Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible. In addition to Hebrew, he read French, Italian, and German. In 1999, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Alfred University in New York. Alfred University is a private university in Alfred, New York, United States. It has a total undergraduate population of approximately 1,600 students. The university hosts the statutory New York State College of Ceramics, which includes The Inamori School of Engineering and the School of Art and Design.                                                              

Cahill was definitely on the Left.  The current Hall of Justice at 850–880 Bryant Street served as the San Francisco Police Department's operational headquarters until 2015. It is internally referred to as "850 Bryant" and "the hall". The complex serves as the main San Francisco County Jail, as well as base of operations and headquarters for the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, and garage for the majority of vehicles for the SFPD. The San Francisco Police motorcycle traffic division is completely based there as well. In 1994 the Hall was renamed for Thomas J. Cahill, the Chief of the SFPD from 1958 to 1970.

Prior to retiring to writing full-time, Cahill was the director of religious publishing at Doubleday for six years. He and his wife divided their time between New York and Rome.                                                 

Thomas Cahill’s attitude toward the Jewish people and ancient Israel is overwhelmingly positive, deeply respectful, and highly celebratory, as evidenced primarily by his bestselling 1998 book, The Gifts of the Jews. However, it is important to note that his focus is primarily historical, theological, and cultural rather than political, centered on the ancient Israelites and the foundation of Judaism rather than the modern State of Israel. 

His perspective can be understood through several key themes:  I bring this up because his writing and interpretation has a feeling of Catholicism seeing the scope of our history, not that of a Jewish person. One's background does color the picture.  I noted that and found it difficult to carry on.  A young cousin had the same experience.   

1. Architectural Value to Western Civilization

Cahill famously argues that the ancient Israelites are the foundational architects of the Western worldview. He asserts that "virtually the entire modern world is based on the Book of Exodus" and its core narrative of national and individual freedom. In his view, Western ideas of progress, human rights, and the value of the individual stem directly from early Jewish thought. I'm happy with these conclusions.  

 I figure that even though he studied Hebrew, he is using the Greek interpretation of words in a New Testament Bible, not my Tanakh, a Stone Edition that covers the Torah, the Genesis,  Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also with comments by people like RASHI.  

2. The Shift from Cyclical to Linear Time---AND BACK--SPACETIME

Before the emergence of Israel, ancient civilizations (such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians) viewed time as a wheel—an endless, repetitive, and fatalistic cycle of life and death. Cahill credits the ancient Jews with the revolutionary realization that time is linear and irreversible, possessing a distinct beginning, a purpose, and a trajectory toward a better future. This concept gave birth to the modern belief in historical progress. 

    Why Science Says It’s Not Linear:  Cahill is not in touch with Time

Relativity and Spacetime: Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity showed that time is not a universal metronome. Instead, it is woven into a flexible four-dimensional fabric called spacetime. 
Time Dilation: Time is relative and elastic. Clocks tick at different speeds depending on your speed (velocity) or how close you are to a heavy gravitational field. As discussed by users on Reddit, time dilation is a verified physical reality used in technologies like GPS. 
The Block Universe: Many physicists view the universe through the "block universe" or eternalism model, where past, present, and future all exist simultaneously in a multidimensional coordinate matrix. 
Quantum Mechanics: Emerging quantum research and non-local causality suggest that basic equations of the universe do not strictly demand a one-way flow, and recent experiments even test how causality or state-reconstruction can behave non-linearly. 

3. Ethical Monotheism and "The Conscience of the West"  (He studied Hebrew, not Judaism)

Cahill highly lauds the Jewish transition to monotheism. He writes that by introducing a single, unified God who values compassion and justice over outward ritual or polytheistic chaos, Israel provided "the Conscience of the West". He highlights how Jewish law and the biblical prophets uniquely demanded care for the poor, marginalized, and downcast, establishing a moral continuum that continues to govern modern ethics. It's good he sees this coming from Judaism, not from just one person.  

4. The Perspective of the "Margin"

"As a historian, Cahill was fascinated by how a relatively small, nomadic tribe could permanently alter human psychology. He attributed their deep insights precisely to their lack of imperial power, noting that because the Jews historically lived on the margins of dominant societies, they were uniquely positioned to look inward and "see more deeply into the truth of things" than those at the center of empires." 

That small tribe multiplied quickly and grew into an empire, David's Empire.  They were powerful for over 1,000 years.  

Critical Nuances

While highly complimentary, Cahill's work has drawn specific types of critique:

Academic Criticism: Scholars from forums like r/AcademicBiblical note that his popular history sometimes borders on hagiography. They point out that he occasionally overstates the absolute isolation or originality of certain Jewish concepts, downplaying parallel or surrounding regional influences (such as Persian Zoroastrianism). 
Modern Ethical Judgment: Some theological reviewers have expressed frustration with the final sections of The Gifts of the Jews, noting that Cahill occasionally uses a modernist moral framework to judge or dismiss harsher elements of biblical narratives and ancient divine judgments that do not align with modern ethics. 
We have 613 rules given to us with the first 10 the most well-known.  The other rules are made up of rules we already practice unknowingly.  Others have a wonderful background explaining the ethical effects on people.  What he didn't understand, naturally he dropped.  That happened a lot.  They adore Jesus as their god-or most do, and have adopted what the believe he said, but it was all from Judaism in one form or another as that was his background first and foremost.  After all these years of Judaism's development, he may have also added a pinch of this and a pinch of that from other communities, for sure.  


I think he was the perfect person to give the Catholic perspective of The Jews.  It was kind.  He saw its importance to the world and hopefully to his own religion.  

History Of Line Of Jewish People

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

The story in the bible of Jacob and his 12 sons that became the 12 tribes of Israel happens to come out of history itself, names and all.  This one story is surely the base of truth of what the bible relates.  From there, the rabbis could go back in time tracing Jacob's family as well as go forward. Judah is the tribe we get "Jewish" from. People have also heard of Judea and Samaria... This tale showing our early development is my favorite, and was just the right explanation Moses was able to give 4,000 years ago to people without today's knowledge we have stored in our brains.  This they could understand, and we can, too.  "In Jewish tradition, the Patriarch Jacob is a foundational figure whose journey from a shrewd, calculating youth to a mature, spiritual leader (Israel) represents the core ethical evolution of the Jewish people."

                                 Chief Rabbi in Ireland, Hertzog

 Jews use the 5 books of Moses by following it and the rest of scriptures in what is called the "Old Testament."  My personal book is called a Tanach which includes the Torah or 5 books, the prophets, and writings...the 24 books of the Bible translated and annotated.  The annotations are so informative, explaining the setting, often by the Rambam and Rashi, who I have found is one of my distant relatives, rabbis of the Middle Ages.   

There are people who do not believe anything in the bible is of value and is only a fairy tale. Usually they are atheists.  Atheists are individuals who do not believe in the existence of a god or any gods. The term originates from the Greek word atheos, meaning "without God". Rather than being a set of doctrines, it is primarily a single characteristic: the absence of a belief in deities.

DNA is the best way along with the Bible to understand our beginnings.  Middle Eastern Roots: Genome-wide scans show that global Jewish diaspora groups share common ancestral ties to the Middle East, tracing back over 2,000 years. Their ancient DNA frequently shows high affinity with historical populations from the Levant.  Ashkenazi Jewish Profile: For Jews of Central and Eastern European descent, DNA is typically an admixture of roughly \(40\% - 50\%\) Middle Eastern (Levantine) and \(50\% - 60\%\) European ancestry. Paternal lines typically trace back to the Middle East, while maternal lines often show Southern or Eastern European origins.

Autosomal DNA studies show high levels of genetic relatedness among Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi Jews, corresponding to a shared Middle Eastern ancestry with variations in regional admixture. Autosomal DNA evidence supports the historical narrative of Jewish populations originating from the ancient Levant, with genetic diversity shaped by migrations, admixture, and isolation over millennia  We can take tests with several companies on our autosomal DNA and go back quite far and find 5th cousins easily today.  Those men with J1 and J2 can see their Jewish line,  which is where the Cohens come from.  

                                       Rabbi Judah haNasi

Population Bottlenecks: Ancient DNA studies (like those examining medieval Ashkenazi remains in Erfurt, Germany) show that today's large Ashkenazi population descended from a very small founding group. This bottleneck amplified specific genetic mutations found within the community.  This is why we are distantly related with 20%-30% connection to our many cousins we didn't know we have.  Supposedly there are 4 women who were our base of origin, but not necessarily our own outstanding women of Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, and Leah.                           

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson born October 5, 1958) is an outstanding American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, and thinks well of our 5 books explaining the development of man and our planet. An astrophysicist is a scientist who applies the laws of physics and mathematics to understand how the universe works. They study the birth, life, and death of celestial bodies like stars, planets, and galaxies, as well as complex phenomena such as dark matter and black holes.

 He thought, as do I, that our beginning history as shown is a metaphor of the scientific facts.  I found him on You tube being interviewed and he explained his findings.  Though he has a Catholic background, he may not have found Jacob being the anchor to our history.                                   

Thomas Quinn Cahill (March 29, 1940 – October 18, 2022) was an American scholar and writer. He was best known for The Hinges of History series, a prospective seven-volume series in which the author recounts formative moments in Western civilization

Although there is Thomas Cahill's book, The Gifts of the Jews--how a tribe of desert nomads changed the way everyone thinks and feels..which may be talking about the fact that when Judaism, given to Moses, a descendant of Jacob,  came about when the world had gone for polytheism, and Jews staunchly stuck with Judaism and hasn't even accepted Jesus as the son of G-d.  ". He argued that ancient Israelites radically altered the trajectory of human history by introducing concepts like linear time, individual destiny, and ethical responsibility to the powerless.

                                 Rabbi Shnearson 

When asked during a question session at the University at Buffalo if he believed in a higher power, Tyson responded: "Every account of a higher power that I've seen described, of all religions that I've seen, include many statements with regard to the benevolence of that power. When I look at the universe and all the ways the universe wants to kill us, I find it hard to reconcile that with statements of beneficence. Beneficence is the ethical principle of acting in the best interest of others. It involves taking positive steps to prevent harm, remove harm, and improve the welfare of others. The word originates from the Latin benefactum, which literally translates to "good deed."

So here we go.  This happens to be a BIG principle in Judaism, though with the war at hand, Tyson may not accept that, and he may not be alone.  We have the MITZVAH in our belief system of trying to keep all of us from harm, to improve the welfare of others, even those who were our enemy.  We visit the sick, which is a mitzvah, and do many good deeds in our lives.  So does our army.  It so happens that our enemy, Iran and their terrorists of the moment, are fighting in a new way, that of destroying our good reputation.  Being anti-Semitism has been with us since the Hellenistic days, most people are now believing lies about us.  They allow their own people to be victims just to damage our good name.  So such opinions may have come to Tyson as well, and that would be very sad.  

In an interview with Big Think, he said: "So, what people are really after is what is my stance on religion or spirituality or God, and I would say if I find a word that came closest, it would be 'agnostic'... at the end of the day I'd rather not be any category at all." Additionally, in the same interview with Big Think, Tyson mentioned that he edited Wikipedia's entry on him to include the fact that he is an agnostic:   An agnostic is a person who believes that nothing is known (or can be known) about the existence of God. Unlike atheists, who assert that God does not exist, or theists, who believe in God, agnostics suspend judgment because they believe the truth is currently unknown or inherently un

                                Rashi
knowable. 

 So I'm trying to show that in Judaism, there is worth in our story of Creation and development of our tribes that led to Judaism, and that it doesn't have to be believed  word by word....until,....that is, when you get to Jacob. and how he was father of the 12 tribes.    

Resource:

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

Causes of Knowing Right From Wrong Part II

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. Socrates was born in 470 or 469 BC to Sophroniscus and Phaenarete, a stoneworker and a midwife, respectively, in the Athenian deme of Alopece; therefore, he was an Athenian citizen, having been born to relatively affluent Athenians. He lived close to his father's relatives and inherited, as was customary, part of his father's estate, securing a life reasonably free of financial concerns. His education followed the laws and customs of Athens. He learned the basic skills of reading and writing and, like most wealthy Athenians, received extra lessons in various other fields such as gymnastics, poetry and music. His family religion was to believe in many gods who lived on 

Mt. Olympus and 

acted pretty  much like people on earth.  Although he never outright rejected the standard Athenian view of religion, Socrates' beliefs were nonconformist. He often referred to God rather than the gods, and reported being guided by an inner divine voice.

Religion is one way of conditioning people to understand right from wrong.  Another is something we all should be born with, and that is our conscience.  Knowing right from wrong has been the topic of conversation ever since the Greeks with Socrates.  

Conscience. is , a personal sense of the moral content of one's own conduct, intentions, or character with regard to a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.  It's developed by the ethics of the family one belongs to, usually.  

Historically, almost every culture has recognized the existence of such a faculty. Ancient Egyptians, for example, were urged not to transgress against the dictates of the heart, for one “must stand in fear of departing from its guidance.”  They understood it to be something we're born with to guide our behaviors.  We find today that there are people who have missed that gene, and seem to be amoral--without a moral compass, and that certainly is a sickness as they do get in a lot of trouble.  

Being amoral  appears in the late 1800s. The prefix a- means "not" or "without," as in atypical or asymptomatic. The dictionary definition of amoral is "having or showing no concern about whether behavior is morally right or wrong"—compendiously, "without morals." For example, an infant, unlearned in what is right and wrong, is amoral; someone who lacks the mental ability to understand right or wrong due to illness might be described as amoral. These are illustrative examples, however; amoral can be used to describe any person, or his or her actions, who is aware of what is right and wrong but does wrong anyway and responds indifferently about it.  Amoral can describe those actions with no moral consequence or intention. 

Immoral, on the other hand, describes those actions with bad or harmful intent or consequences. 

Obviously moral would then describe the actions stemming from good intentions.

 In some belief systems, conscience is regarded as the voice of God and therefore a completely reliable guide of conduct:

 Among the Hindus it is considered “the invisible God who dwells within us.” Among Western religious groups, the Society of Friends (or Quakers) places particular emphasis on the role of conscience in apprehending and responding through conduct to the “Inner Light” of God.

A growing number of researchers now believe  that babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality, and while parents and society can help develop a belief system in babies, they don’t create one. A team of researchers at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center, known as The Baby Lab, showed us just how they came to that conclusion.

Dr. Karen Wynn runs the Baby Lab, and she and her team have been studying the minds and behaviors of babies for decades. About eight years ago they began running a series of studies on babies under 24 months to see how much these babies understand about good and bad behavior.

Paul Bloom, author of “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil” and a professor of psychology at Yale, says these studies show that even before babies can speak or walk, they judge good and bad in the actions of others because they are born with a rudimentary sense of justice.

But Bloom, who is married to Wynn, says this sense of justice is “tragically limited.” Although babies are born with an innate sense of morality, they are also born with flaws.

Thus the need to be raised in a condusive environment praising good and reflecting disappointment in evil acts.

I can't help but think of the act of the Aztec Indians of Central America who manually ripped hearts out of living prisoners for sacrifice.  How could anyone watch this and think it was morally okay?  One thing, they all must have been scared to death.

Canaanite Baal worship-an idol that is a bull and considered their god. This worship included human sacrifice.  How could they watch such an act and not feel pain; empathy for the victim?  

Therefore, the environment that one is raised in is most important as to their ethics and how they came by them in order to continue them, even though we supposedly are born with a conscience.  At least we are given something to build upon.  

Believe it or not, it was very hard for our prophets to stop people from attending such ceremonies and act and take part in this belief system. Something so horrid should have made their stomachs curdle.  Idol worship ultimately led to cruelty in some form or other.

 How did Nazis justify their killing of Jews?  How did they live with this knowledge?  6 million people were killed because of their religion.  This is the most horrible act ever on this planet by man.

Resource:

https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/us/baby-lab-morals-ac360/index.html

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

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/using-unmoral-immoral-nonmoral-amoral#:~:text=The%20dictionary%20definition%20of%20amoral,due%20to%20illness%20might%20be

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/socrates#:~:text=Although%20he%20never%20outright%20rejected,by%20an%20inner%20divine%20voice.