What Causes People To Be Good and Follow the Laws of Their Family and Country? Part I

 Nadene                                                                 

Religion seems to be the cause of people's behaviors in keeping people obeying the laws of their lands.  They can be threatened about what happens to them when they die.  

In the beginning, to be fertile was the desire of all peoples; both for animals and for people in order for the future to exist. Sacrificing something dear to them was used to persuade their god to help them out.                                         

                  Finding baby Moses in bullrushes.  

Shiphrah (Hebrew: שִׁפְרָה  and Puah (Hebrew: פּוּעָה  were two midwives who briefly prevented a genocide of children by the Egyptians, according to Exodus 1:15–21. According to the Exodus narrative, they were commanded by the King of Egypt, or Pharaoh, to kill all male Hebrew babies, but they refused to do so. When challenged by the Pharaoh, they told him that Hebrew women's labour was short-lived because they were 'lively' or 'vigorous', and therefore the babies had been born (and protected) before the midwives arrived. God "dealt well with the midwives" and "made them houses".  

It says "the midwives feared G-d and they did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, and they caused the boys to live."  According to the Sages, the midwives were really Jochabed and Mirium, mother andsister of Moses.   

Judaism developed out of the Laws of Moses, an Ivrit-from the other side-- Jewish man raised since birth in the Egyptian royal family to the point where he realized that beating a slave to death was not right, and he in turn when stopping the beating accidently killed the Egyptian beater and felt he had to flee being it was against the law to kill a man like that.  So Egypt had a rule about killing another, and this was a good 3,400 years ago.  We figure that Moses was born in 1391 BCE (almost 1400 BCE which was  3,422 years ago, and he was about 18 years old.  Moses knew of the law that was against killing a man, even under accidental circumstances.  He also may have had an instinctive feeling that what he did was overdoing a good deed and his killing someone was wrong.  As we understand, Moses was selected by G-d and given direction and laws so that the Exodus occurred. His family line went back to Abraham.  

Abraham (c1948 BCE) , ready to sacrifice Isaac, his son, but stopped by an angel, turned out to be a test of his obedience.  This was the only example of human sacrifice practiced by our Jewish people  of the Ivrit/ Hebrews   It was the Canaanites who sacrificed people.    

Abraham is considered as the father of Judaism due to his oral teachings to his children as they followed his and Sarah's behavior towards other people.  For instance, they always offered food and water to strangers passing by their tent. "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, HaShem appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty ; walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations." Evidently in those days, strangers could be attacked and killed for whatever they carried with them.  That was 3,600 years ago.

Jews of the 40 year Exodus from Egypt, figured by some to have commenced by 1579 BCE, others by 1445 BCE, were the descendants of Abram/Abraham and Sarah, and their children:  Isaac, then Jacob-Israel and their 12 sons including Judah, Boaz, Oved, Jesse, David-king of Israel, Solomon.

   Moses confronting the Pharaoh when he returned to Egypt at about age 80-81.  

Moses was from Levi of the 12 sons of Jacob.  He was the son of Levi's daughter, Jochabed who was married to Amram. It was Jochabed who saved Moses's life by hiding him in the bullrushes as a time when the pharaoh put out a "papal bull" saying that all boy babies under age 2 had to be killed because he feared his own death would come from this person.   

  Even in the book, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, England was pictured as a very dangerous land in the 12th century CE.  So after almost 3,000 years, people were really no better in their treatment of other people in Europe.  That shows that we have improved a great deal from 822 years ago, though.  

It wasn't until Jews had been taken to Babylon in 597 BCE and then more taken in 586 BCE and living there until 538 BCE living there for about 60 years and writing the Babylonian Talmud after 200 CE, that they had developed  more to their original ideas about death which was that  when people died, they joined their fathers.  Death was not an evil thing, but a premature death was looked upon as a great misfortune.  Even today, the Jewish blessing is that a person will live to age 120 (like Moses did).  

                 The Moabites and their human sacrifice

Now this was regarded at a time when all other nations believed in human sacrifice in order to right a bad situation.  Human sacrifice was going on during our biblical family's existence.  That's one reason they fought to keep their own religion going by resisting the temptations to do so that existed.   

A belief was that in death, there was some kind of existence in SHEOL (situated far below the earth, whose inhabitants will not give thanks to the Lord.  Sheol is more especially the dwelling of the wicked.  The dead had a certain kind of psychic powers.  Sheol is not  subject of any Shabbat service.  It has never been mentioned in my experience.                     

Later on in Hebrew Eschatology, death came to be considered a prime evil.  At the End Of Days hopefully many years in the future, death would cease and all the dead would rise.  The idea of Resurrection became a fundamental doctrine of Pharisaic Judaism.  Faith in God came to mean believing in the the Reviver of the Dead.  The Rabbis taught that death came to the world because of sin either that of Adam, from which mankind still suffers, or else personal sin.  

There were some Rabbinic legends that held the belief that the dead carry on some connection with the living and even take an interest in their affairs.  The practice of praying for the intercession of the dead is considered by the rabbis as of early origin. 

 The last act of the dying Jew is the recitation of the Shema which is still in practice today.  Shema Yisrael Adonoi Elohenu, Adonoi Echad.  Hear oh Israel, God is One.  It is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one" (Hebrew: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד׃), found in Deuteronomy 6:4

              Blowing the Shofar on Yom Kippur

Jews have a way of getting rid of their sin. First of all, what is sin?  It is defined as being any violation of righteous actions, whether toward God or one's fellow man, is considered sinful by Judaism.  There are variations in the degree of sin. 

1. unwillful sin (bet)

2. knowledgeable sin (avon)

3. rebellious sin (pesha)

No man is free of sin, although he has the free will to reject it.   

Jews have a day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.  Tishri 10  is the most solemn day of the year and is a fast-day of 25 hours of fasting and attending synagogue service.  In Lev.23:32 it is described as a Sabbath of solemn rest.  It is the day on which Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the 2nd tablets of the law and announced to the people the Divine pardon for the sin of the Golden Calf. 

(The people had been waiting for Moses by dancing around this golden calf they had made while waiting.  Aaron made it when the Israelites demanded it.  The calf was burnt by Moses who ground the gold to dust and subsequently obtained Divine forgiveness for the Israelites.  (Exod.32).  The sin of the Golden Calf immediately after the giving of the law, was regarded as the primary offense of the Hebrew people.)                          

Repentance and forgiveness are inextricably linked in Judaism with the subject of sin.  No sin is unpardonable.  Sacrifice, repentance, the Day of Atonement, and death bring forgiveness.  For a sin against a fellow-man, restitution and placation are essential.  Biblical narrative invariably links individual punishment and national calamity to sin.  Confession of sin is important in the Jewish conception of atonement.  This confession, however, is made directly to Heaven and not to any intermediary.  Moreover, it is considered improper to confess private sins aloud, and for this reason, the Day of Atonement ritual has all confessions in the plural. People recite together a list of sins listed in the prayerbook.  

 It just happened to be that calf worship had been going on with other people, especially the Canaanites.  Calves or young bulls were regarded as symbols of strength and fertility among ancient Semitic peoples.  Traces of calf worship are found in the bible in the stories of the Golden Calf constructed by Aaron at Mt. Sinai and the golden calves set up at Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam much later on after Solomon's death in 920 BCE.  

Mentioned in Exodus 32 and I Kings 12 in the Tankah or Old Testament, worship of the golden calf is seen as a supreme act of apostasy, the rejection of a faith once confessed. The figure is probably a representation of the Egyptian bull god Apis in the earlier period and of the Canaanite fertility god Baal in the latter.

Apis was the most important and highly regarded bull deity of ancient Egypt. His original name in Egyptian was Api, Hapi, or Hep; Apis is the Greek name. Worship of the Apis bull is recorded as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3150 - c. 2890 BCE) in ceremonies known as The Running of Apis but veneration of the bull in Egypt precedes this time, and so it is thought that Apis may be the first god of Egypt or, at least, among the first animals associated with divinity and eternity. He was originally a god of fertility, then the herald of the god Ptah but, in time, was considered Ptah incarnate. He was also, in some eras, depicted as the son of Hathor and was closely associated with her goodness and bounty.

        The bull is Baal, the Canaanite god.  

      Sargon, king of Assyria (721-712 BCE) is shown as a bull. He's the one who caused the 10 tribes of Israel to be taken to Assyria.  He had taken the throne when Shalmaneser III had died.  He died from being assassinated.      

We Jews do not make pictures or statues of G-d.  To us, G-d is an unseen force, the Supreme Being.  "The biblical God is already unique by virtue of His non-mythological character;  He has no body, no kindred, no human needs.  All depends on Him and He on nothing."  It definitely is not a man or woman, either, or animal like many in  the ancient world believed. 

                            Herman Wouk in Jerusalem 1955
 Herman Wouk(1915-2019) explains Judaism in This Is My God. "Our place in the world, I believe, depends on what we contribute to mankind.  We have contributed our Torah, the Mosaic vision of G-d, of right conduct, and of first and last things.  It is our life, and the length of our days.  As we keep that flame burning, it seems to me, we earn our right to survive as a people before G-d and man."  He's not a rabbi, but explains it so well.  Our rabbis, whatever type of Judaism they believe, whether Reform, Conservative or Orthodox, are highly well educated people in that religious persuasion.  

• Columbia University, New York, 1934 (A.B. with general honors)
• Yeshiva University, New York, 1954 (Hon. L.H.D.)Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City. The university's undergraduate schools—Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, Katz School of Science ...
• Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1960 (Hon. D.Lit.)
• American International College, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1979 (Hon. Litt.D.)
• Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 1990 (Hon. Ph.D.)

Grandson of Rabbi Mendel Leib Levine, rabbi in Minsk, New York, and Tel Aviv.  

After Christianity, Judaism is the next largest religious affiliation in the US, though this identification is not necessarily indicative of religious beliefs or practices. There are between 5.3 and 6.6 million Jews. A significant number of people identify themselves as American Jews on ethnic and cultural grounds, rather than religious ones. For example, 19% of self-identified American Jews do not believe God exists. (They could try reading This Is My God).  

 According to a 2020 study by the Pew Research Center, the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7.5 million people, this includes 5.8 million Jewish adults. According to study by Steinhardt Social Research Institute, as of 2020, the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7.6 million people, this includes 4.9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.6 million Jewish children.   According to a 2017 study, Judaism is the religion of approximately 2% of the American population.       Israel has two head rabbis and many synagogues.  

Empathy, the key emotion supporting a sense of right and wrong, emerges early and, it seems, naturally, said William Damon of Standford University.   Babies cry in response to the wails of other babies, "and not just because it's a sound that upsets them," notes Carolyn Zahn-Waxler of the National Institute of Mental Health. "They cry more in response to human cries than to other aversive sounds. Somehow, there's a built-in capacity to respond to the needs of others." Babies as young as 1 try to console others in distress. Toddlers offer their security blanket to a teary-eyed parent or a favorite toy to a distraught sibling, as if understanding that the very object that brings them comfort will do the same to another. 

This is used in Judaism, such as treatment of animals that show empathy.  We do not eat meat with milk so as not to hurt the feelings of the mother cow in that she gives mankind her self as meat, and she doesn't want to know that we drink her milk in this same meal. 

The Torah simply gives an example of a "kid in its mother's milk" because that was common practice in ancient times.

Some Jewish authorities give reasons for this prohibition. One reason given is, that it is cruel to cook a baby in the very milk that was intended to nourish it. The Torah forbids the cooking and consumption of any milk with any meat to prevent one from cooking a kid in its mother's milk.

 Even the whole law of kashrut teaches that only a small proportion of living creatures are permitted to be eaten, and every precaution is taken to avoid the consumption of blood or the partaking of meat with milk products.  Even milk from a prohibited animal is forbidden.  

Compassion is to be extended to animals as well as to humans. It is strictly forbidden to cause unnecessary pain to animals. There is a Talmudic rule (Gittin 62a), still followed by pious Jews, that before sitting down to a meal one must first see that the domestic animals are fed. The Midrash remarks that Moses proved his fitness to be the shepherd of Israel by the tender care with which he treated the sheep when he tended the flock of his father-in-law.

In Jewish teaching compassion is among the highest of virtues, as its opposite, cruelty, is among the worst of vices. 

The Amaleks were the cruelest of all people met shortly after the Exodus and always hostile to Israel, annihilating the weak and the wearyl.  they were eventually defeated by the Isrelite army under Joshua (Exod 7-8-13).  They were finally regarded as an eternal foe, the extermination of which was a national mission incompletely carried out later by King Saul. In king David's time they invaded southern Judah, burning the town of Ziklag.  David fought and defeated them heavily, but 400 got away.  In 720 BCE the tribe of Simeon overwhelmed the Amalekites and settled in their territory.  Haman, the Agagite, is regarded as a descendant of Agag, king of Amalek.  

The prophet, Jeremiah, speaks of the people from the north country who ‘lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel, and have no compassion’ (Jeremiah 6:21). The people of Amalek, in particular, are singled out in the Jewish tradition as perpetrators of wanton cruelty, and an uncompassionate Jew is called an Amalekite. 

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States#:~:text=People%20with%20no%20formal%20religious,%25%20Catholic%20and%202%25%20other.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/golden-calf

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

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

https://www.worldhistory.org/Apis/

https://www.jccmb.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1339531/jewish/Milk-and-Meat.htm

https://ulpan.com/why-hebrew-is-called-ivrit/

The Akkadian Religion That Abram/Abraham Left Behind in Ur, Mesopotamia (Part III)

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Abram/Abraham was born in 1948 BCE of the 2nd millennium, during the

 Akkadian Empire Period.  

Ur, the city that Abram left for Canaan, was part of Sumer in Mesopotamia which is today's Iraq.  The religion that they were leaving behind for a monotheistic belief without idol-worship was polytheistic.  Abram was born in about 1948 BCE, the 2nd millennium.  Ur was the largest city in Sumer, a state, which was in Mesopotamia. 

The Sumerians were advanced: as well as inventing writing, early forms of mathematics, early wheeled vehicles/chariots, astronomy, astrology, written code of law, organised medicine, advanced agriculture and architecture, and the calendar, they created the first city-states such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Isin, Kish, Umma, Eridu, Adab, Akshak, Sippar, Nippur and Larsa, each of them ruled by an ensí. The Sumerians remained largely dominant in this synthesised culture, however, until the rise of the Akkadian Empire under Sargon of Akkad circa 2335 BCE, which united all of Mesopotamia under one ruler. The ancient city of Babylonia is mentioned in Genesis 10:10; 

 residence of Sargon the great.  

   However, I have other information that says that Sargon was the king of Assyria from 

721 to 712 BCE.  He's the one who attacked the northern Ten Tribes in Samaria in 720 

BCE and exiled many of the best of the inhabitants. There were 2 Sargons.  

Sargon of Akkad (/ˈsɑːrɡɒn/; Akkadian: 𒊬𒊒𒄀 Šar-ru-gi), also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC. He is sometimes identified as the first person in recorded history to rule over an empire.

He was the founder of the "Sargonic" or "Old Akkadian" dynasty, which ruled for about a century after his death until the Gutian conquest of Sumer.The Sumerian king list makes him the cup-bearer to king Ur-Zababa of Kish. He is not to be confused with Sargon I, a later king of the Old Assyrian period.

His empire is thought to have included most of Mesopotamia, parts of the Levant, besides incursions into Hurrite and Elamite territory, ruling from his (archaeologically as yet unidentified) capital, Akkad (also Agade).                              

 Perhaps the most significant legend to survive from Mesopotamian religion is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which tells the story of the heroic king Gilgamesh and his wild friend Enkidu, and the former's search for immortality which is entwined with all the gods and their approval. It also contains the earliest reference to The Great Flood.

                                                 

   " Back before Moses was given the Torah, there were basically TWO deities worshipped. The Egyptians worshipped the SUN while the Sumerians and Babylonians worshipped the MOON. We’ve all heard of the ANNUNAKI, right? The main players consisted of ANU (heaven), ENKI or EA (Water, Earth) and Enlil (Sky, Air). ANU was actually God of the ecliptic dome while Enlil was heaven/sky and Enki was earth and underworld. This was the first TRINITY. Anu had three wives also and the KI was the Earth one. (KI means Earth) . Hence the Annuna KI. These were also the ELOHIM or SONS of GOD that got the boot from heaven…"

Ur's patron deity was Nanna (in Akkadian, Sin), the Sumerian and Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) moon god, and the name of the city is in origin derived from the god's name. UNUG^KI, literally "the abode (UNUG) of Nanna".

The site is marked by the partially restored ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, which contained the shrine of Nanna, excavated in the 1930s. The temple was built in the 21st century BCE (short chronology), during the reign of Ur-Nammu and was reconstructed in the 6th century BC by Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon. The ruins cover an area of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) northwest to southeast by 800 metres (2,600 ft) northeast to southwest and rise up to about 20 metres (66 ft) above the present plain level.

The archaeological evidence demonstrates that the dominant religion in Arabia was the cult of the moon-god. The Old Testament consistently rebuked the worship of the moon-god (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3; II KIngs 21:3,5; 23:5; Jeremiah 8:2; 19:13; Zephaniah 1:5). When Israel fell into idolatry, it was usually to the cult of the moon-god, SIN. Remember the Golden Calf?

He was also depicted as the son of Enlil, the BULL OF HEAVEN, . Many scholars have also noticed that the moon-god’s name, Sin, is a part of such Arabic words as “Sinai”, the “wilderness of Sin”, and so forth. On our modern news we have the Yazedi cult stranded on MT. SIN JAR. (Yazedi’s believe they are Adam’s offspring but not Eve’s. They believe they came from a JAR Adam possessed.The SIN JAR perhaps?)  According to numerous archeological inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al-ilah, i.e. “the deity,” meaning that he was the chief or high god among the gods.

                                            

Ishtar, (Akkadian), Sumerian Inanna, in Mesopotamian religion, goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West Semitic goddess Astarte.

 The goddess Ishtar, winged and wearing a version of the horned cap of divinity. Detail of the so-called "Ishtar vase", early 2nd millennium BCE (Louvre AO 17000)

Goddess during Abram's day.   A Sumerian list of around 560 deities that did this was uncovered at Farm and Tell Abû Ṣalābīkh and dated to circa 2600 BC, ranking five primary deities as being of particular importance.

                                                   

                    

Each Mesopotamian city was home to a deity, and each of the prominent deities was the patron of a city, and all known temples were located in cities, though there may have been shrines in the suburbs.  The temple itself was constructed of mud brick in the form of a ziggurat, which rose to the sky in a series of stairstep stages. Its significance and symbolism have been the subject of much discussion, but most regard the tower as a kind of staircase or ladder for the god to descend from and ascend to the heavens, though there are signs which point towards an actual cult having been practiced in the upper temple, so the entire temple may have been regarded as a giant altar. Other theories treat the tower as an image of the cosmic mountain where a dying and rising god "lay buried." Some temples, such as the temple of Enki in Eridu contained a holy tree (kiskanu) in a holy grove, which was the central point of various rites performed by the king, who functioned as a "master gardener."

There was a strong belief in demons in Mesopotamia, and private individuals, like the temple priests, also participated in incantations (šiptu) to ward them off. Although there was no collective term for these beings either in Sumerian or Akkadian, they were merely described as harmful or dangerous beings or forces, and they were used as a logical way to explain the existence of evil in the world. They were thought to be countless in number, and were thought to even attack the gods as well. Besides demons, there were also spirits of the dead, (etimmu) who could also cause mischief. Amulets were occasionally used, and sometimes a special priest or exorcist (āšipu or mašmašu) was required. Incantations and ceremonies were also used to cure diseases which were also thought to be associated with demonic activity, sometimes making use of sympathetic magic. Sometimes an attempt was made to capture a demon by making an image of it, placing it above the head of a sick person, then destroying the image, which the demon was somehow likely to inhabit. Images of protecting spirits were also made and placed at gates to ward off disaster.

The king was thought, in theory, to be the religious leader (enu or šangū) of the cult and exercised a large number of duties within the temple, with a large number of specialists whose task was to mediate between men and gods: a supervising or "watchman" priest (šešgallu), priests for individual purification against demons and magicians (āšipu), priests for the purification of the temple (mašmašu), priests to appease the wrath of the gods with song and music (kalū), as well as female singers (nāru), male singers (zammeru), craftsmen (mārē ummāni), swordbearers (nāš paṭri), masters of divination (bārû), penitents (šā'ilu), and others.

The ancient Mesopotamians believed in an afterlife that was a land below our world. It was this land, known alternately as Arallû, Ganzer or Irkallu, the latter of which meant "Great Below", that it was believed everyone went to after death, irrespective of social status or the actions performed during life. Unlike Christian Hell, the Mesopotamians considered the underworld neither a punishment nor a reward. Nevertheless, the condition of the dead was hardly considered the same as the life previously enjoyed on earth: they were considered merely weak and powerless ghosts. The myth of Ishtar's descent into the underworld relates that "dust is their food and clay their nourishment, they see no light, where they dwell in darkness." Stories such as the Adapa myth resignedly relate that, due to a blunder, all men must die and that true everlasting life is the sole property of the gods.

 It was believed that man originated as a divine act of creation, and the gods were believed to be the source of life, and held power over sickness and health, as well as the destinies of men. Personal names show that each child was considered a gift from divinity.  Man was believed to have been created to serve the gods, or perhaps wait on them: the god is lord (belu) and man is servant or slave (ardu), and was to fear (puluhtu) the gods and have the appropriate attitude towards them. Duties seem to have been primarily of a cultic and ritual nature, although some prayers express a positive psychological relationship, or a sort of conversion experience in regard to a god. Generally the reward to mankind is described as success and long life.

There are no known Mesopotamian tales about the end of the world, although it has been speculated that they believed that this would eventually occur. This is largely because Berossus wrote that the Mesopotamians believed the world to last "twelve times twelve sars"; with a sar being 3,600 years, this would indicate that at least some of the Mesopotamians believed that the Earth would only last 518,400 years. Berossus does not report what was thought to follow this event, however.

Resource:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mesopotamian-religion

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

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

https://endtimelect.com/tag/sinnannaallah/  blog article on moon god