2,000 years of Jewish Judges on Abortion

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

Right now the USA is in a conundrum because out of 9 Supreme Court Judges,  from 2010 Court:
one has died, and Scalia was a conservative in the mix of 4 liberals and 5 conservatives.  Right now they are left with 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats.  Obama wants to appoint another quickly of his choosing since the issue of abortion is on the table.  They are:

to right): Back row (left Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito, and Elena Kagan. 

Front row (left to right): Clarence Thomas,  Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts,  Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 
                                                                                                                Appointed year
Antonin Scalia was appointed by  Reagan. Republican      1986  Recently died at 79. 
Anthony Kennedy b: 1936 .......................... Reagan                            1988-80 years old
Clarence Thomas b: 1948........................... Bush, father                     1991-68 years
Ruth Bader Ginsburg b: 1933......................Clinton, Democrat           1993-83 years
Stephen G. Breyer b: 1938..........................Clinton                               1994-78 years
John G. Roberts b:1955..............................Bush, Republican, son     2005-61 years
Samuel A. Alito b: 1950............................... Bush                                 2006-66 years
Sonia Sotomayor b: 1954............................Obama, Democrat          2009-62 years
Elana Kagan b: 1960....................................Obama                             2010-56 years

Why is it that our federal government is deciding on a question of morality?  Death is in the picture.
In today's modern world, females can opt to take birth control pills or apparati.  When does abortion come into their life as a decision to make?  Why isn't the female allowed to make decisions for her own body and life?  If a female feels she must have an abortion and it is against the law to do so, she will find a way.  There have always been abortionists who have gone against the law and have performed them, to the detriment of the female, of course in many situations, for there is no way to make sure it is done professionally and safely.
                                                                       

Rashi, (1040-1105) from Troyes, France, famous codifier of the law, comparable to
constitutional lawyer, only on religion, descendant of King David.    

This question of abortion has been in the Jewish culture for probably over 2,000 years and the decisions are not the same as the Catholic church, but they came about with the wisest of judges who discussed the issue.  They had some basic laws to consider their decision, our moral laws.

                                               Basic Law
Rabbis made these decisions in their writing of the Mishnah in (Oholot 7:6).  It was concluded not later than the end of the 2nd century CE:  Also, the Bablonian Talmud in Sanhedrin 72b speaks of abortion further.  The commentator, Rashi, also adds information.  Mishnah was finished in about 220 CE.  by Rabbi  Judah Ha-Nasi of the Palestinian (Judah) Jews.  B. Talmud was finished in about same period, but a Talmud includes the Mishnah.  

It all stems from the 6th Commandments of Moses.    of Thou Shalt Not Kill.  It says in our Tanach that this takes faith in G-d.  Someone with belief in G-d as the Creator and Sustainer of human life will not commit murder.  Hopefully, today people see the reasoning for not killing (murdering), but it is still happening in our communities.   
                                                                
1. It is not permitted to murder one person in order to save the life of another.
2. It is permitted to kill a potential murderer if this is the only way in which the life of his intended victim can be saved.  A potential murderer is called a rodef, translated as a pursuer, one who pursues another in order to kill him.
3. A fetus is not considered as a literal person.  Destroying a fetus is not considered as an act of murder.  Therefore, its destruction is not an act of homicide.
                             
                                                     Why Abort?
 Codifiers were divided on what would be weighty reasons for terminating a pregnancy.

1. Agreed:  None would permit abortion for economic reasons or where the child is simply unwanted.
2. When the birth of a child would cause the mother to lose her sanity.
3. Permit it if child would be born seriously deformed or as an imbecile such as thalidomide babies.
4. Pregnancy is the result of rape, especially if woman is already married.
5. To save the life of the mother in which case is extremely rare.

                                               Judicial Reasoning

1.  If a woman finds it is extremely hard to give birth to her child and there is great danger to her life, the child must be destroyed in her womb since the life of the mother has priority over the life of the child.  BUT, if most of the child has already emerged from the womb in giving birth, it must not be harmed, since the claim of one life cannot override the claim of another life.

2. Because once the greater part of the child has emerged from the womb, it is considered as if the child had been born and the child is then a person according to Jewish law.  The life of the mother must not be saved by destroying that of her child.

3.  While the child is still in the womb, it is not a person in law.  Then this is not an act of murder.  One cannot compare this killing done to save the mother's life to the case of murdering one person in order to save the life of another.  It's more like comparing "destroy" with that of "murder"  There is this legal difference.

4.  The Talmud asked the Mishnah why it made a distinction between the fetus and the child when the greater part had emerged?  The answer is that the child upon emerging is a person, called a nefesh., but he is not a rodef.  It is the child which threatens the life of the mother and the law is that a rodef must be killed in order to save the life of his intended victim, and this applies even if the rodef is a minor and so not responsible for his actions.

5. The Talmud stated that the mother is not being "pursued" by the child but by "Heaven."  This means it is the result of natural causes and so the child's life can't be made forfeit on the grounds that he is a rodef.

6. Rashi, the famous commentator, said that the question of rodef can be disregarded since it is all due to natural causes.  The principal applies that it is forbidden to murder one person in order to save the life of another so that once the child has become a nefesh, when the greater part has emerged, it is forbidden to destroy him even to save the mother's life.
   BUT, a fetus is not a person (nefesh), and its destruction is not an act of murder.  The fetus then must be destroyed if this is the ONLY way in which the mother's life can be saved.

Update:  9:56am; Permissive rulings for abortions before the 40th day, and in some instances up to 3 months, are found in certain dire instances.  Opinion have ranged from stricter views of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Isaac Unterman, to liberal views of Yehiel Yaacov Weinberg, rabbinic scholar and halakhic authority.

Today's Americans, not Jewish scholars, but 9 Judges of the Supreme Court,  must decide whether or not an abortion is permitted to be considered to be a homicide or not.  If it is, then no abortion would ever be permitted.  Evidently Catholicism does not allow it but considers life to start at conception, if one listens to the 17 various  Republicans who had thrown their hat into the ring of presidential hopefuls.

All the Jewish codifiers agreed that where the life of the mother is at stake, an abortion is not only permitted, but must be performed.

Isn't this decision stepping on the toes of religious rights?  Either the Catholic view will be followed or the Protestant one will, they most likely are varied on this..  A woman makes the decision to have some romance and then if found pregnant from it all-without protection-her decision is not her own?  This will only lead to abortion mills, as some women have always done.   On the other hand, if abortion is legal, women will not be as careful about using protection as they can always run to the hospital to have an abortion-most likely free under liberal health laws.  Abortions will be the accepted thing.  Is this the gift of the future for women?  This morality finding itself in the garbage pile?  Choosing a judge under today's circumstance takes much thought, as they will provide answers for more than abortion for us all.  Do they leave the "beholding to the president that appointed them" at the door, or do they think of just the problem before them to judge and how to they come to a decision?  What skills to they bring to the table to decide?  Who will be as acceptable as Judge Scalia was?

Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Justices_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
Book:  What does Judaism say about...?  by Louis Jacobs, and his reference was from Birth Control in Jewish Law, by David M. Feldman, New York, 1968, part 5, pp 251-294.
To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin

Ups and Downs of Jews Being Accepted in Western World

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Antiochus IV Epiphanes King of Greece

The Roman Empire had no specific anti-Jewish religious discimination laws in the Roman Empire--
 except for going into their temple and putting up a statue of Zeus and taking over with King Antiochus IV Epiphanes the Greek in about 150 BCE  as the Roman leader who fought against Judah Maccabee.
                                                                             

Arch of Titus leading away Jewish slaves and temple gold when they led thousands of Jews away as slaves for Rome and beyond.  

                                                                           

Judah Maccabee

.  Our holiday of  Chanukah in December is all about Judah Maccabee reclaiming our Temple and putting in the eternal light once again by retrieving oil from a nearby town to rekindle it..  Discrimination happened like when in sports and players played naked.  Jews were circumcised and it was noticed and remarked about by making fun, and discriminating.  No specific anti-Jewishness laws were written down except in taking over Judah and burning down Jerusalem and the Temple.  That's all.
                                                                                 

Jews had benefited from the Edict of Roman Emperor Caracalla who was of Punic and Syria descent in 212 CE which extended universally the rights and duties of citizenship to Jews as well.

Then in 640, 721 and 873 Jews in the Byzantine Empire were forcibly converted to Christianity.  1146 was when Jews of Spain were first forcibly converted to Christianity, and then they did it again to them in 1391.
                                                                       

It was from the 4th century onward, that the Christian Empire had an elaborate system of discrimination against the Jews which was adopted and used in medieval Europe as well as in the Islamic world.  From this came laws of discrimination against Jews throughout the world that have lasted in many places throughout the whole world for the past 2,000 years.  It's still going on in United Nations.

 In 1096 the German Crusade massacred Jews in European towns.  In 1099 Jews in Jerusalem were massacred by the Crusaders.  The Crusades changed the moral atmosphere towards Jews for the worst, contributing to the process which drove Jews out of trade and forced them increasingly into the profession of moneylending which was taboo for Christians according to their church morality.  It was looked down upon.
                                                                             

A DNA article from this past year stated that in 1200-1400, there were only 350 Jews left in Western Europe.  This goes along with DNA results showing that Ashkenazi Jews of today originated from only 4 Jewish women.  

There were the 1298 massacres in Germany started by Rindfleisch, a knight, 1336  by fanatics named Armleder, and in 1348/9 at the time of the Black Death (epidemic that killed a great part of the population of Europe and led to murderous attacks on many Jewish communities, particularly in Germany, especially from 1348 to 1349)  when Jews were accused of causing and spreading perpetrated with extreme barbarism by the Germans.  Over 350 Jewish towns suffered and over 200 Jewish communities were utterly wiped out. The townspeople accused Jews of poisoning their wells. Though German Jews were hit the hardest, attacks on a smaller scale to Jews happened in Poland, Catalonia and northern Italy.    In 1356 "as a consequence of the fictitious confessions extracted under torture from the Jews of Trent, the populace of many cities, especially of Ratisbon, fell upon ...to them all possible evils.   In the 2nd half of the 14th century, the survivors were kept perpetually poor by the imperial authorities' cancellation of the debts due to them.

 Throughout the Middle Ages Jewish men continued with talmudic study.  Toward the close of the Middle Ages, most large German cities banished Jews.  The 16th century began with Jews only in Frankfort-on-Main and Worms surviving.

It was intensified by the Ghetto system which aimed at the complete expulsion of the Jews from gentile society.
                                                                           

In 1290 Jews were expulsed from England and were not allowed back in until 1655.  Jews were expulsed from France in 1306. In 1355, 12,000 Jews were massacred by the mob in Toledo, Spain. From 1349-1360 Jews were expelled from Hungary.  In 1420 the Jewish community in Toulouse, France was annihilated.  1421 saw Jews expelled from Austria,  1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, 180,000 Jews were expulsed from Spain while 50,000 converted to Christianity in order to remain in Spain.  Most descendants today are called Anusim and are returning to Judaism.  Jews were expelled from Lithuania in 1495.  Sicilian, Sardinian and Portuguese Jews were expulsed in 1497.  All Jews of Rhodes were forcibly converted, expelled or taken into slavery in 1502.  Jews of Naples, Italy were expelled in 1541.
                                                                               

In Ukraine-E. Poland the Chmielnicki Massacres and Rabbi Nathan Hanover and family were trapped in it.  

Then the horror happened from 1648 to 1656 when 100,000 Jews were murdered in the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland.    Jews were expelled from living in Russia in 1727 and 1747.  Catherine II ordered that they would only live in the Pale of Settlement-never Russia again.   So between 1882 to 1890 750,000 Jews from Russia were resettled in the Pale.  It wasn't until 1891 that Jews from Moscow and St. Petersburg, large cities, were expelled.  Like the movie, Fiddle on the Roof, between 1871 to 1921 there had been anti-Jewish pogroms in towns of Russia.  This is when many immigrated to the USA, especially by 1900.  The most inhuman laws came from Russia with the MAY LAWS of 1882.  It took the Russian Revolution to change life in 1917-the end of WWI.  Romania managed to evade laws that came to their land by the Berlin Conference of 1878.  Full emancipation only came in Czechoslovakia.
                                                                             

Imam Ali Mosque in Meshed, Persia

The whole Jewish community in Meshed, Persia (Iran today) were forcibly converted to Islam in 1838.  the Muslims excluded Jews from full rights only in certain states of theirs, so the Nazis reversed the process and used race to exclude, saying Jews were a race and not a religion.

New settlements were established by the cultured and Europeanized Spanish and Portuguese Marrano (Anusim) settlers in Northern Europe in the 17th century.  They were treated normally as emancipated people.  The same can be said of the "Court Jews" were were on a higher social status in Germany at that time.
                                                                         

                                                           

In the British Colonies in North America, Jews tended to intermingle with their neighbors on equal terms, though the first Jews had trouble landing in New Amsterdam (New York) in 1654  being they were Jews.  It wasn't until it was known that they were part of the Dutch Trading Company that started New Amsterdam that they were allowed to land. "In 1654, 23 refugee men, women and children fleeing from the former Dutch colony of Recife, Brazil, landed in New Amsterdam. "   Jews  had taken part in events leading up to the American Revolution.
                                                                           

1776 was the birth of the USA.  Virginia had full religious freedom in 1785, pretty good for a state that had racial intolerance.  The constitution of the USA in 1787 formally completed emancipation in stipulating that no religious test should be required as a qualification for any public office.  I'm afraid they were thinking more of Protestant and Catholics and not Jews.  Maryland's emancipation wasn't until 1825.  North Carolina in 1868.  New Hampshire in 1876-7.

France was different.  Jewish emancipation was a natural corollary of the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789 and was extended in 1790 to the long-established Jews in Avignon and the Sephardim of Bordeaux.  I notice people had rights, but Jews seemed to be a special case that was handled individually, then.  Again, more went into the declaration between Christian religion than contemplating others.
                                                                             

Alsace Jews suffered. Alsace is a northeastern French region on the Rhine River plain. Bordering Germany and Switzerland, it has alternated between German and French control over the centuries and reflects a mix of the 2 cultures.  Jews living there were Germanized and it was with great difficulty that they finally came under emancipation in 1791.  Napoleon's decret infame of 1808 restricted Jewish municipal rights in Alsace.  It expired in 1818 and was not renewed.  It wasn't until 1831 that emancipation included Jews in France and became a subsidized state religion like Christians were.  It was the armies of the French Revolution that introduced the conception of Jewish emancipation into the countries they conquered.  

Jews of Holland were easily socially assimilated but formally emancipated in 1796.  Jews of Belgium were treated better when Belgium's independence was established in 1830.  Italy and Germany were introduced in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era by the French.  Westphalia in 1807, Frankfort in 1811, Prussia even conceded a qualified emancipation in 1812.
                                                                             

Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821

Then Napoleon fell.  All these concessions were rescinded or diluted in varying degrees.  The Jews were expelled from some towns in Germany and the ghetto system was restored in Rome and other parts of Italy where it began in the first place and received the name "ghetto."

   By the 19th century, life was a see-saw process of treatment of Jews.  Emancipation was again gradually  accepted in Germany under Hesse-Cassel in 1833 (a state directly subject to the Emperor);  Brunswick in 1834;  Prussia in a modified degree in 1850;  Baden in 1862;  Saxony in 1868;  and was included in the constitutions of the N. German Federation of 1869 and of the German Empire in 1871.  It was introduced into Austro- Hungary in 1867.  In Italy the kingdom of Piedmont had established it in 1848 and it spread throughout all of Italy.  Denmark began in 1814 and granted municipal emancipation. in 1837 and political in 1848.  Other Scandinavian countries followed somewhat later.  The Swiss had been highly intolerant but modified their attitude from the mid-19th century and in 1874 had full religious liberty.
                                                                                 

English man in 1700s

.  Returning in 1655 after being expulsed for 365 years,  Jews of England now had a high degree of personal liberty in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Catholics were emancipated in 1829 and they started treating Jew more tolerantly but it happened only gradually.  Laws against them were removed piecemeal.  Jews were allowed in municipal offices from 1830 to 1855, and to parliament after a long struggle.

Britain was ahead of emancipation where it was established in the Barbados from 1802-1820, Jamaica in 1831, Canada in 18311-1832, while in South Africa and Australia there was no legal discrimination on religious grounds anyway.
                                                                             

Pre-War 1930s in Germany and how they treated the Jews.  The Jewish population of Greater Germany in 1938 was about 540,000.  By September 1939, the number was half that.  By 1942 none remained.  

Warsaw, Poland Ghetto 1943 before slaughter of Jews here

Murder of 6 million Jews took place from 1939 to 1945 by German Nazis and their European collaborators-the Holocaust.  Germany's economy had fallen and Jews were again the scapegoats to blame.  Many of their businesses were still afloat and that made the ones who had lost their income angry.  Here is an example of being successful as being the force bringing about hatred.  Instead of being a handicap on the German society, they had been helping to keep it afloat for as long as it had.

Baghdad's Jews were then attacked by mobs killing 180 of them  in 1941, hatred spilling out from Germany.  Jews in the Soviet Union from 1917 to the present day were denied the right of their national identity.  Synagogues had been closed.  They were not allowed to study Hebrew.  Many have now made aliyah to Israel.  Arab countries from 1948 on with the birth of Israel were persecuting Jews for the change in the Middle East of Palestine.  There were mass expulsions.  As many Jews were forced to flee to Israel as there were Palestinians who were forced to leave Palestine by their leaders, not by the Jews.  It was not a planned trade-off of population, but seemed to happen at the same time.  Jews had to leave their treasures, money in the Arab countries.

Champions of the Jewish cause to be treated equally were John Toland and T.B. Macaulay in England;  Aabbe Gregoire in France, C.W. von Dohm in Germany and M. d'Azeglio in Italy.

Update: 7/30/15 6:43pm 
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia on Emancipation
facts about Israel  from division of Information, ministry for foreign affairs, Jerusalem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landgraviate_of_Hesse-Kassel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_IV_Epiphanes
http://americanjewisharchives.org/education/timeline.php
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/amsterdam.html
http://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-9420291#early-years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=Germany&commit=search

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

Jewish Women's Rights and Responsibilities

Nadene Goldfoot
Jews came along after Abraham, living in Ur (today's Iraq) in the 2nd millennium BCE , realized that there was one G-d.  Moses (1391-1271 BCE) was from the tribe of Judah and laid down the laws that made us truly Jewish.  From there we have the practices of Judaism that we have followed for the past 3,000+ years that concern both males and females.  .

In today's modern age, some Jewish women in the USA are not only becoming rabbis (teachers of our religion) , but  are even wearing tallit.  They are surprised to find that this is unacceptable in Israel, for a religious observance at the Western Wall, where it was being done, must be in accordance with the custom of the holy site and which doesn't offend the sensitivities of the worshipers.  Women that wear prayer shawls have been deemed unduly provocative because of the biblical injunction against women wearing men's clothing and vice versa.  No transgender clothing.

A tallit or prayer shawl  is a four-cornered robe with the required tzitzit and has become the garment traditionally worn by men during morning prayer services.  It is the fringes or tzitzit on the 4 corners that provide it with its religious significance.  It is one of the mitzvot to put on tzitzit so that you may look upon them and remember to do all the commandments of the Lord.

Chabad, an orthodox Jewish group, says that women are not obligated to wear a tallit because they are exempt from fulfilling almost all time-bound positive commandments, like reciting the Shema.  Women may fulfill all mitzvot if they so desire, but the prevailing custom is that women don't wear  a tallit.  There is not even a requirement for men to wear one.  She is drawing undo attention to herself  by showing  excessive piety in an inappropriately ostentatious manner if she wears one.   What is unusual is that this practice is happening in the Conservative and Reform movements but not in the Orthodox where the men do perform  this act.    On a mystical level, the inner workings of this mitzvah are male oriented and just don't "do it" for a woman.

For women who want to wear one or who are doing so,  Rabbi Moshe Feinstein of the 20th century writes that a woman should wear a distinctively feminine tallit and that this comes from a yearning to fulfill this mitzvah and recognize that they are not doing it out of a requirement and that it isn't a protest, challenging what they perceive as a gender bias in Jewish law.  Then it would not be considered as a mitzvot but to the contrary.

Back in 1981, my neighbor in Safed, Israel, Harry Hazen, explained to me why these certain practices are not for women.  There are certain things that are only for men, and because one held to be only for men means that others cannot be done legitimately.    The wearing of tefillin  is expected just for men.  They are the straps that wrap around his arm and the box he wears on his forehead.    This is worn first for a boy when he is 13 and sets apart the men from the boys.  It is the religious symbol and ritual obligation identifying with becoming Bar-Mitzvah "of age."    A male Jew is testifying to his identification with the Jewish past, its present, and its future.  Whether he prays in the synagogue or in his home, it is a required daily weekday observance and something a woman does not have to do.  For the man, tefillin is a reminder of the entire Torah which he is bidden to observe.

Women are not bound  to the formal prayer service or the set times for the 3 daily services.  They are not required, as are the men, to join in public congregational worship.  This is taking into consideration a woman's primary responsibility as wife and mother.  A woman nursing a child is not expected to drop everything, including her baby, to attend set prayer schedules but a man is expected to arrange his schedule and work to conform to religious requirements.   The law can't distinguish between nursing and non-nursing mothers so this leniency extends to all.  Women are required to pray but can do so at anytime convenient for them and in private if they wish.  They attend synagogue on Sabbaths and festivals but their attendance is not a religious statutory requirement.

Women have had more respect and regard in Judaism than in any other religion.  Wasn't it the women who didn't give up in their 400 years of servitude in Egypt and kept on having children when the men had given up all hope? Mirium, sister of Moses  led the Israelite women in triumphal song and dance and is one of our prophets. She and her brother Aaron even challenged Moses's lone leadership.  For her chutzpah she suffered with leprosy, but it was a temporary condition.   Perhaps that is why Deborah (Devorah) from 1150 BCE roused the Israelite tribes to revolt under Barak against the Canaanite King Jabin of Hazor and Sisera as told in Judges 4:4.  She was a leader, prophetess and a judge.

We remember and respect our 4 matriarchs of the Jewish people, Sarah, wife of Abraham and mother of  Isaac; Rebekah, wife of Isaac and mother of Esau and Jacob; Leah, sister of Rachel and 1st wife of Jacob; Rachel, 2nd wife of Jacob. We also remember  Ruth the Moabite, daughter in law of Naomi and mother of King David, and  Queen Esther who saved all the Jews from total annihilation by Haman's  decree in Persia.  We've had Queen Jezebel of Israel and Queens Athaliah and Salome Alexandra of Judah.  We should not forget Prime Minister Golda Meier of Israel in today's world.  Women have not taken a back seat in our lives.

Back in the Hellenistic times Jewish women were treated in a superior status from Greek women.  A Jewish female was in independent legal personality permitted to own property either as a single or married woman.  .Monogamy didn't happen until about  1000 CE but continued in Oriental Jewries.  Judaism has always looked upon sex as a healthy act and so recognized a woman's dignity.  In Eastern Europe it was the tradition for the woman to work in order to help her husband to study.  Thus they became great businesswomen.  The Hadassah organization came about by women for women and have taken in men today as well.  Wizo (Women's International Zionist Organization)  is another one that helps the community, started by women.

In the USA Jewish women have been called the "Jewish American Princess"  because we expect to be treated royally by our husbands.   Every Friday night a Jewish man reads a special tract from the book of Proverbs 31 by King Solomon "A Woman of Valor" (Eshet Chayil) that speaks royally of his wife.  It also gives a woman something to live up to.   A male cannot but feel likewise if he's heard this all his life at his table as a son.

 Is a person a Jew or not? In orthodoxy  it depends on his mother.  If she's Jewish, he is also.  Not only is this something that could be verified as to where he came from, he is taught and raised by the mother. This is why.

Israel was created to be a democratic haven for Jews.  We have been without our state for over 2,000 years and have been living in Christian and Muslim lands with their laws.  Being we are a small group, 0.02% of the world population, this is the only Jewish state in the world with Jewish laws.  If we lose the taste of Judaism here, there will be no reason to call it a Jewish state.  Soon the population would be wiped..  Unlike any other state or country, Israel does have  rabbis who sets down the rules to be followed.  In fact, the Chief Rabbinate consists of 2, the Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger and the Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar.  If Judaism is to continue in this world, it is important that our practices are happening in Israel.

There is one thing that rabbinic male Jews have a problem with, and that's in the Book of Proverbs which warns men against female wiles, and we have used them, for sure, I admit.  But it also depicts the "woman of worth" who is the mainstay of her household.  The Talmud is nervously aware of the sexual power of the woman.  Evidently Jewish men are easily aroused by a woman's hair whereas other men might be aroused by our legs, bottoms, or even upper arms as well as our faces.  This is why the Orthodox women cover their beautiful luxurious hair and are modest in their dress which includes covering their arms to below their elbows.   In the Middle Ages when Jews were objects of ownership by gentiles like the Blacks were in the USA's south not too long ago, the landlord would take a woman sexually before she was married  if he were such a cad, and many were.  So in order to turn him off, the young lady would shave her head.  He'd see her and suddenly freeze.  This has really been the basis for head coverings.

Women's rights in Judaism are found in the Mishnah (Horayot 3:7, in which it is stated that in some respects a woman takes precedence over a man and in others a man over a woman. A woman must be provided with clothing from the charity chest before a man because she suffers greater embarrassment.  If both man and woman are captured by bandits the woman must be ransomed first.  If both a man and woman stand in danger of defilement by bandits the man must be freed before the woman because his defilement (by other men) is unnatural.  Wow!  This tells me that raping has gone on ever since mankind including the act of man raping another man.  .

If both are in danger and only one can be saved, the man's life comes first.  I think that this is because of his ability to father more life.  We need the man's sperm to carry on a family line.  There are always very practical reasons for doing things. Could it also be that Jewish men were scarcer to have than women in a community:?  A man in turn was capable of defending more people than a woman was?    If both a man and a woman lose some property and only one of them gets theirs restored, the man comes first.

Quite frankly, I had noticed in Conservative synagogues  that with the change of accepting women in  a minyon  (10 Jews) that are needed at a service, the men were sluffing off.  They might have felt that their showing up was not a necessity to the group anymore.  That is sad.  It's been happening in the workplace as well.  They are being replaced.  I've always felt that Judaism had provided equal roles for men and for women.  I've even felt superior, being a Jewish princess, that we are not expected to show up for all these prayer groups because we are innately superior anyway.  It's the men who need to pray, ask for forgiveness and guidance, etc. We had other just as important responsibilities.

Isn't it amazing  to see  the subjects our Jewish  men have discussed and have come to agreements of what is right or wrong to do and put it all in writing?   It speaks to the mind and imagination and events over eons of time they knew about.  I bet that TV and movie script writers would love to have spoken with them to create more involved plots about life.  The book, "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth in 1969  goes into dealing with his strongly willed  Jewish mother and puts Jewish mothers in a bad light.  The novel tells the humorous monologue of "a lust-ridden, mother-addicted young Jewish bachelor", who confesses to his psychoanalyst in "intimate, shameful detail, and coarse, abusive language".

I'm proud to be a Jewish woman and love the fact that our religion goes back so far in time with such wisdom.  I'd hate to have our rituals  cast off.  They all make up the taste and flavor of our religion.  These are all reminders of who we are, our history  and what we should be doing and heavens knows we really do need them.  One only has to look at the reasons for these acts and know that there is an intelligence behind our religion.

Resource: Oregonian newspaper, February 13, 2013, page B8,  For orthodox religion, a tradition-modernity clash; Men Holding the Line, by Ruth Marcus on Editorial page.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/587787/jewish/Is-it-appropriate-for-a-woman-to-wear-a-tallit.htm  by Rabbi Menachem Posner
 To Be a Jew-a guide to Jewish observance in contemporary life by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Rabbinate_of_Israel
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
What Does Judaism Say About.. ? by Louis Jacobs
http://judaism.about.com/od/shabbatprayersblessings/f/eshetchayil.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portnoy's_Complaint