Following The Path of the Ark

Nadene Goldfoot                                    

Moses, while on the Exodus, had written during those 40 years, the Law, which he wanted the Israelites to follow for the rest of their days, including all their descendants.  It had to be kept in something secure.  Security sometime before 1291 BCE in  the Middle East called for limited resources.  That was about 3,322 years ago.

A chest was devised, in which the 2 tablets would fit into.  The description of the ark is found in Exod. 25:10-22.  It was made of acacia wood, which was inlaid and covered with gold. There is a tree from Africa called the Acacia nilotica most likely  used.  

 It was 2.5 cubits in length., which was about the length of a man's forearm, and to us today about 18 inches or 44cm. That means it was 45 inches or 1 yard 9 inches long.  It was 1.5 cubits in breadth or wide, or 27 inches--2 feet 3 inches wide, and 1.5 cubits in height or 2 feet 3 inches in height.  

Moses was on the right track about acacia wood.  Because it can capture and store carbon and nitrogen emissions, this is considered eco-friendly.  It’s more durable and harder than most wood.  Registering at 2,300 psi on the Janka scale, acacia is 55% harder than European white oak, 23% harder than hickory, and 90% harder than carbonized bamboo, making it one of the most durable floors on the market. Because of its hardness, acacia wood is an excellent material for building furniture, decor, flooring, and more.

Moses had a molding of gold go around it and 4 gold over-laid wooden staves were placed through 4 rings on its sides.  A cover of gold was placed over it, 2 golden cherubim with outstretched wings screening the ark cover.  

The golden cover and cherubim symbolized the place where the Shekhinah or Divine presence dwelt.  The ark itself, containing the 2 tablets of the Law, stood for the Covenant between G-d and His people.  

It was said by Moses that G-d  gave detailed instructions for the design and construction of the Ark to ;himself and he in turn relayed the instructions to the Israelites that constructed it, principally Bezalel. It was made at the same time as the tent tabernacle along with all of the many items used therein. 

      Inside the Holy of Holies with ark on ground.  

The sacredness of the ark was such that even the high priest (Aaron at that time) could behold it but once a year and even then, only under a cloud of incense (Lev 16: 1-6).

 Leviticus 10 describes the death of Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, brother of Moses. This occurred on the eighth day of the dedication of the Tabernacle, when Nadab and Abihu each took a censer full of incense and offered before the Lord alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them (Lev. 10:1). As a consequence of this act, a fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them (Lev. 10:2). However, they were not completely consumed, their bodies remained and had to be removed (Lev. 10:4-5). TB Sanhedrin 52a understands that the fire that came from God only consumed their insides, leaving their body and clothing intact. 

Scientifically, their deaths were caused by the Ark functioning as a “Leyden jar,” which acted as a security device for the Ark.  The understanding that the Ark of the Covenant was an electrical device was introduced soon after the invention of the Leyden (or Leiden) jar in 1745. This was a crude battery, the first device made that could store electric charge, and was made of very simple materials.  A few years later, one of the founders of electrical science, Georg Wilhelm Lichtenberg (1743-1799) noted that the structure of the Ark of the Covenant is similar to the Leyden jar.

  According to an article that appeared in the March 5th, 1933 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, Frederick Rogers, the Dean of the Department of Engineering at the Lewis Institute of Technology, conducted a careful study of the construction of the Ark as described in the Bible, and concluded that its design matched a perfectly constructed simple electric condenser: He Said The Ark Of The Covenant Was A Giant Capacitor.  But the Ark of the Covenant was a much larger condenser….The divine directions called for the creation of two cherubim of pure gold to be placed on a gold slab or "mercy seat" overtop the Ark. These cherubim, Prof. Rogers explained, made up what he believes to have been the positive pole of the circuit.

He explained…that it is known among physicists that a "difference of potential" exists between the earth and the air which may be collected in electrical charges under certain favorable conditions…It was explained that even slight movements of heat rising in smoke—such as from burning sacrifices or even incense—would distribute lesser charges of static electricity….This, Prof. Rogers explained, may have accounted for the collecting of bolts powerful enough to cause death.  (https://gizmodo.com/the-engineer-who-said-the-ark-of-the-covenant-was-a-gia-1598583115)

Know this:  at 2022 prices for a troy ounce of gold, it costs  about $1,851.05 .  I don't think anyone can afford to do an experiment on a model ark to see if it is creating any electricity.  I'm sure Fred Rogers knew what he was talking about.  

Fred joined Lewis Institute in 1896 as an Instructor in Math and an Assistant in Physics. He worked there for over 40 years eventually becoming a Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering and then the Dean-Emeritus of Engineering and finally the Co-Director of Lewis Institute. Rogers retired in 1940 but was brought back by the newly created Illinois Institute of Technology (a combination of Lewis Institute and Armour Institute) to be the Director of their newly created War Training Program. Rogers then retired from that position at the end of WWII in 1945. 

https://library.iit.edu/uasc/news-perspectives/history-lewis-institute

The story of Uzzah and the Ark of the Covenant is found in 2 Samuel 6:1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. As the ark was being transported, the oxen pulling the cart stumbled, and a man named Uzzah took hold of the ark. God’s anger burned against Uzzah and He struck him down and he died. Uzzah’s punishment does appear to be extreme for what we might consider to be a good deed. However, there are the reasons why God took such severe action.

From the time of Moses until the construction of Solomon's Temple, the ark was taken out from the Holy of Holies in case of national need to lead the people on the journey and help them in battle.  During the period of the 1st Temple, the ark found a permanent place in the Holy of Holies and was never removed.                               

There is no mention of the ark among the vessels carried away and later returned from Babylon from 597-538 BCE when the Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE.

Talmudic tradition held that it had been hidden "in its place" by King Josiah.  

"It vanished. Much of Jewish tradition holds that it disappeared before or while the Babylonians sacked the temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C".

But through the centuries, Ethiopian Christians have claimed that the ark rests in a chapel in the small town of Aksum, in their country's northern highlands. It arrived nearly 3,000 years ago, they say, and has been guarded by a succession of virgin monks who, once anointed, are forbidden to set foot outside the chapel grounds until they die.

Tudor Parfitt-The British version of Indiana Jones, born in Wales--British historian, writer, broadcaster, traveller and adventurer. He specialises in the study of Jewish communities around the world, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Some of these communities have been recognized only since the late 20th century as having ancient Jewish origins.

Parfitt is emeritus professor of modern Jewish studies in the University of London at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he was the founding director of the Centre for Jewish Studies.

    This doesn't look like acacia wood to me.  

Tudor Parfitt thought he found the ark in southern Africa with the Lemba Tribe, but it doesn't look like the bible's description at all, even after over 3,000 years.  

             Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark

The miraculous qualities of the ark and the incidents connected with it inspired many poetical utterances in the Talmud and Midrash.            

Today, it inspired the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark and such people as Vendyl Jones, a Texan whose life is so much like the imaginary Indiana Jones in his quest for the ark.  He even went to Israel and learned Hebrew, helped the IDF, worked on the Caves of Qumran in Jordan that held the Copper Scroll, waiting for the translation in hoping to find what happened to the ark.  He died at age 80 in 2010, but had been interviewed by Gerard Robins in Houston, Texas, who wrote a lengthy article in UFO magazine about him and his finds.

Ronald Eldon Wyatt (June 2, 1933 – August 4, 1999) was an American adventurer noted for 

advocating the Durupınar site in Turkey as the location of Noah's Ark's landing place, along with almost 100 other alleged biblically-related discoveries.  Ron Wyatt’s 1982 discovery of the Ark of the Covenant has sadly been a topic littered with skepticism and nay-sayers throughout the years — even amongst fellow Believers! He banks his theory on the book,  Lives of the Prophets.

                                             

A doubtful Irish tradition maintains that the Ark is buried under the Hill of Tara in Ireland. Some scholars believe that this is the source of the Irish “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” legend. It  is a hill and ancient ceremonial and burial site near Skryne in County Meath, Ireland. Tradition identifies the hill as the inauguration place and seat of the High Kings of Ireland; it also appears in Irish mythology.                  

Even less believable are the claims of Ron Wyatt and Tom Crotser, Wyatt claiming to actually have seen the lost Ark of the Covenant buried under Mt. Calvary and Crotser claiming to have seen it on Mt. Pisgah near Mt. Nebo. Both of these men are held in low esteem by the archaeological community, and neither has been able to substantiate the wild claims with any evidence.

Could it be that the battery of the ark's makeup finally died after over 3,000 years?  It could no longer protect itself with its electrical charge, so strong that it killed?  As I think about it, Moses could not have known by himself, 3,000 years till the Leyden jar would be invented,  what he was creating with the tools he used, unless all Egyptians knew this scientific law, and they never did any such creation that we have heard about.  Truly, G-d was in Moses's creative mind, guiding him along in his acts.  HaShem was part of Moses's creative thinking process."  And that's my belief.  

  

Resource:

update: 6/22,   

https://gizmodo.com/the-engineer-who-said-the-ark-of-the-covenant-was-a-gia-1598583115

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/keepers-of-the-lost-ark-179998820/

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

The Lost Ark of the covenant by Tudor Parfitt

file:///C:/Users/Home.DELL.000/Downloads/Jones%20pt.2%20q%20(002)%20(1).pdf

https://www.jewage.org/wiki/en/Article:Tudor_Parfitt_-_Biography

https://jbqnew.jewishbible.org/jbq-past-issues/2017/453/electric-ark-history-interpretation/

https://lampuntomyfeetministries.church/2021/04/30/ancient-text-confirms-ron-wyatts-1982-discovery-of-the-ark-of-the-covenant/

https://library.iit.edu/uasc/news-perspectives/history-lewis-institute

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UNITED NATIONS SOUNDS ALARM ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR CAPABILITY

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Israeli troops hold a major drill in Cyprus, in an image published by the military on June 2, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)   The IDF concluded a one month long drill in Cyprus, in which thousands of troops participated. The drill simulated the IDF's ability to operate deep inside enemy territory such as Lebanon and combine massive forces such as infantry, tanks, engineering forces and other elite units to halt rocket fire from Hezbollah.   

Prime Minister Bennett met today with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi. Bennett urged the international community to stop Iran's nuclear development and said that Israel would use force against Iran if left with no other option.                         

The IAEA has sounded the alarm about Iran and their work on nuclear capability.  It was bad enough when Trump was in office and called off supporting the IAEA for not being responsible enough, but now, they reported finding that Iran is producing 18 times more than they had been back then.            

The fact is, that they are only 3 months away from being able to produce 4 crude nuclear devices.  The "crude" means that they are not going to be fitted on missiles but in another type of carrier. They have a large missile program, so it won't be much longer than 3 months, however.

That's something that Israel is well aware of.  It would be great if other countries were not so much in denial about such a danger.  It's on par with Russia's threat to the EU and the rest of the world, if not worse.                                      

Most countries are aware, I hope, of Iran's constant threats against Israel.  It seems their only reason for living is to destroy Israel.  In the days before Iran's Ayatollah government, Israel and Iran were good friends with the Shah.                                                    

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, and his wife, Queen Farah, prepare to depart after a visit to the United States. (photo: WIkicommons)  "The relationship between Israel and Iran dates back to the early years of the Jewish state, and constituted the basis of both countries’ geopolitical policies. This political relationship was not, however, merely a matter of the ruling elites. Insofar as Pahlavi’s Iran is concerned, even oppositional circles in the 1960s and 1970s had a complex and sometimes favorable approach to the State of Israel. Moreover, many of these viewed Israel and Iran as essentially exceptional in nature in the contemporary Middle East, a perception that would change definitively for the worse after the 1967 war."

 Iran's former name was Persia, and in biblical times, Queen Esther, a hidden Jew, was married to the Shah or king, which Jewish history called Ahasuerus.  The advisor of Ahasuerus, Haman, was a man who hated Jews for their demeanor, and actually started an attack of killing all Jews in the empire, sort of like an Ayatollah.  Esther was able to alert her husband who stopped it quickly.   

 Our prophets such as Daniel in biblical days had warned of just such a time as today, when horrid things would be happening.  That has alerted Israel more than other countries of the dangers.  They've been practicing for the defense of their country lately on the island of Cyprus, not far away.

Members of the Israeli military, excavators, trailers and other vehicles operating near the border of Lebanon on 5 December 2018 [Ali Dia/AFP/Getty Images]

Make no mistake.  Israel is ready to take on Iran.  They are prepared to the teeth.  It will be bloody.  Iran's most lethal proxy fighters, Hezbollah, are well known to Israel.  That's my prophecy.  Iran is spoken of as the Great Northern War that is on their horizon. 

Update: Meanwhile, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is set to meet with International Atomic Energy Agency Secretary-General Rafael Grossi in Jerusalem on Friday.

Grossi landed in Israel on Thursday evening, days before an 

IAEA Board of Governors meeting in which the US and the E3 

– France, Great Britain and Germany – are expected to push 

for the body to rebuke Iran following a report by Grossi 

that Iran has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear 

weapon and has not provided credible explanations 

for the IAEA’s findings of violations.

The Western powers had hesitated to promote resolutions against Iran in recent years, in order to continue negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. 

Resource:

The Watchman Report--Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HasWEDcpN8E/6/3/22 report seen on youtube

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hj0h0s8dq?utm_source=email

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkQ6udNklbI

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/20/iaea-director-warns-of-damaged-ability-to-monitor-irans-nuclear-activity-.html

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-cyprus-idf-runs-drills-for-potential-war-with-hezbollah-lebanon-ground-assault/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/17/iran-israeli-general-says-stopping-nuclear-program-will-be-tough.html

https://www.israpundit.org/israel-working-to-convince-us-to-push-iran-for-no-sunset-clause-nuke-deal/

Keeping Peace with Egypt and Jordan, First Members of Abrahamic Peace Accords

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     

   

Anwar Sadat was president of Egypt in 1979, the year peace was signed with Israel.   He was an Egyptian army officer and politician who was president of Egypt from 1970 until his assassination in 1981. He initiated serious peace negotiations with Israel, an achievement for which he shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for Peace with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Under their leadership, Egypt and Israel made peace with each other in 1979.      

                                                                   

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) meets Egyptian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nabil Habashi (R) in Cairo, Egypt on 9 December 2021. [Shlomi Amsalem / Pool - Anadolu Agency]  They've had 43 years of peace between the 2 countries.  

Menachem Begin was PM of Israel in 1979 when Egypt signed the peace treaty with Israel.

"During all the wars against the Gaza Strip, the regime in Egypt sided with Israel and took an anti-Palestinian resistance stance in Gaza, except the 2012 war that took place during the reign of Morsi, who fully supported Gaza, " Sawaf explained.

The analyst said that situation worsened further when the Rafah crossing – connecting Gaza with Egypt – was closed following the Israeli aggression as punishment for the Palestinian resistance. He said the crossing was restored only after Hamas leaders threatened to suspend all agreements with the Egyptian side regarding security in Sinai.                     

Sadat with Jimmy Carter of US and Begin of Israel with Camp David Peace Accords in 1978.  
               

    King Hussein of Jordan (l) shares a smoke with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after the signing ceremony of the Israeli – Jordanian peace treaty. October 26. Photo credit: Reuters

Jordan celebrating their 25th anniversary of peace with Israel 

The treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994 was the culmination of over thirty years of discreet engagement and cooperation, punctuated by periods of tension and conflict. It reflects a broad base of shared interests and of particular but complementary perspectives.

Yitzhak Rabin was the PM of Israel when Jordan signed their peace treaty with Israel.

Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel  in 1979 and Jordan signed in 1994, a span of 15 years.  "Since then, both countries have maintained full diplomatic relations, as well as close, though clandestine, military and security cooperation."                                          

   Bill Clinton of USA with King Hussein and  Rabin of Israel

                                                 

U.S. President Bill Clinton looks on as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat shake hands after the signing of the Israeli-PLO peace accord at the White House in this September 13, 1993. Photo credit: Reuters

Security, normalized interactions, acceptance of Israel in the region, the right of Palestinian self determination, and the role of Egypt and Israel in the newly emerging Middle East setting were topics of discussion at a historical meeting which had taken place in May 1979, in Cairo.  About a dozen intellectuals from Israel and Egypt met to discuss these and related issues. 

They identified important areas in which they shared crucial common interests with Israel which were shown by the dangers and threats posed by the rise of radical and militant Islamist groups such as Islamic State (ISIS) and the various jihadist factions affiliated with al-Qaida and Hamas.

Israel saw that there was a big difference between perceptions of the three of them of these dangers and the reality facing Jordan to the east and particularly Egypt to the west.

ISIS was such a danger, causing the struggling in bloody battles in Syria and Iraq and turning its eyes on Jordan for future take-overs.  However, Israel's security sources saw no evidence of its presence then in the Hashemite Kingdom.  They thought that Jordan and Israel really needed a "peace" border to forstall future changes, having nothing like a fence between them at the time.  

The Egyptian border was not calm and had more cause to worry Israel, though they had a peace treaty for a longer time.  Israel completed a 200 km long fence from Eilat to Gaza in 2012. It's 3-4 meters (13.1234 feet) high equipped with electronic sensors and cameras.   

The fence was first designed to stop the flood of African immigrants and job seekers from Eritrea and Sudan that were invading the little Israel when 6,000 to 10,000 people-sometimes entire families--were able to easily infiltrate Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. PBS reported 60,000 sought refuge in Israel by 2013. Just 12 people managed to reach what is for them the "promised land" of Israel the next year from these African countries.  

From 2011 to 2014, the fence became the stop, or at least scaled down the threat of terrorism. The 'sand clock') referred to the fence built by Israel along its border with Egypt. Initial construction on the barrier began on 22 November 2010.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime  in 2011 was toppled during the Arab Spring, and the installation of the Muslim Brotherhood regime of Mohamed Morse  In response, watch groups were organized by civilian vigilantes to protect their neighborhoods. On 11 February 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak resigned as president, turning power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).  He was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court.                                   

A terrorist group emerged in Sinai calling itself Ansar Beit al-Maqdas, meaning Supporters of Jerusalem. Later in 2014, they renamed itself ISIS (Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Daesh in the Sinai Province (SP)of the Islamic State, after pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.  Why?  Its ideology and hope for financial gain.  ISIS is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam.  

ISIS had split in 2012 from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and had introduced radical Islam.  Instead of advocating world terrorism with no borders, it preached the creation of territorial units that would follow  the fundamentalist 7th century ideas that ruled the region with the spread of Muhammad's Islam, more like Iran.  By 2014, ISIS conquered Iraq and Syria, spreading this view.  During 2015, SP militants killed 350 Egyptian soldiers, policemen, security servicemen and government officials. 

New York Times reported in August 2021 that An Islamic State (ISIS)  affiliate that is a sworn enemy of both the Taliban and the United States threatens a large-scale attack against the mission at the airport.  ISIS poses the biggest immediate terrorist threat to evacuation in Kabul, Afghanistan.   The United States has been battling the Taliban and their militant partners in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and the Haqqani network, for 20 years.

                 Egypt and Jordan's view of Iran

Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, and the appointment of ambassadors after nearly 30 years, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi made a historic first visit to Iran since the Iranian Revolution for the Non-Aligned Movement summit on 30 August 2012, where it handed over the rotating presidency to Iran. Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also visited Egypt in February 2013, making him the first Iranian president to visit Egypt since the Iranian Revolution..                        

Part of Iran’s expansion effort, as the Jordanian monarch noted, includes the destabilization of Jordan from the north, where drug smugglers are already wreaking havoc. Jordan also faces a threat from the south, with Iranian assets reportedly operating in the Red Sea. This all amounts to a direct threat to both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Both view the Hashemite Kingdom as a valuable asset. Stability on their respective borders is something both countries will protect at great cost.

Building on the momentum of the Red Sea islands negotiations, the White House has an opportunity to push the two sides in the right direction. After Abdullah’s recent visit to Washington, the Biden administration has renewed its commitment to Jordanian security. Enlisting the help of Riyadh and Jerusalem, separately and together, is the next logical step. 

Resource:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anwar-Sadat

https://www.jstor.org/stable/173749

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220218-normalising-ties-with-israel-still-lacks-popular-support-in-egypt-says-analyst/

https://jiss.org.il/en/krasna-the-jordan-israel-peace-treaty-at-25/

The Jerusalem Report, March 23, 2015 , magazine

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/spc/unpromised-land/ 2013

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/10/23/25-years-on-remembering-the-path-to-peace-for-jordan-and-israel/

https://thedispatch.com/p/jordan-has-an-iran-problem-can-israel?s=r

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_revolution#:~:text=In%20response%2C%20watch%20groups%20were,the%20Armed%20Forces%20(SCAF).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_barrier#:~:text='sand%20clock')%20refers%20to,from%20African%20countries%20into%20Israel.

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

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/us/politics/isis-terrorism-afghanistan-taliban.html

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Iran_relations#:~:text=Despite%20oft%2Dwavering%20tensions%20between,OIC%20and%20the%20Developing%208.&text=According%20to%20a%202013%20BBC,48%25%20expressing%20a%20negative%20view.

True Love From Telsiai, Lithuania Never Died

  Nadene Goldfoot                      

Leia noticed smoke coming from her wooden house.  She ran to help put out the fire, but it grew worse and she backed off.  Others came running.  A house on fire among all the other wooden houses was deadly.  To save theirs, they had to put out this fire.                                 

Luckily, they lived on the shores of Lake Mastis,, so water was nearby.  They didn’t save the house, but saved the others this way.  

The city was Telsiai, one of the oldest towns in Lithuania.  Meier ran to Leia and hugged her, letting her know that her parents and brothers and sisters were all right.  Meir adored Leia, hoping to marry soon.  He was working for the Russians, who were now one of three superpowers in the country, others being the Prussians and Austrians.  Soon, he hoped, to have enough money to build a house for them.  

  2,500 people lived in Telsiai in 1797 and of them,  1,650 were Jews (66%). By  1897, the Jewish population numbered 3,088, 51% of the total population. 

Jews were expelled during World War I, but by 1939, 2800 had returned, out of a general population of 8000. Many were involved in trade which included produce, wood, and crafts.                         

                     Telšiai Yeshiva building

A major source of income was the famous Telšiai Yeshiva, (a school for Talmudic study, sometimes called a rabbinical college). It was the largest and most famous yeshiva in Lithuania between 1875 and 1941, establishing Telšiai as a center of Torah studies (the entire body of religious law and learning, including both sacred literature and oral tradition). There was also an Orthodox Jewish rabbinical seminary and a Jewish day school providing secular and religious instruction for younger children.  

At the age of 15, inspired by an article he read, the soon to be become famous Hayim Nahman Bialik  convinced his grandfather to send him to the Volozhin Yeshiva in Lithuania, to study at a famous Talmudic academy under Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, where he hoped he could continue his Jewish schooling while expanding his education to European literature as well. 

No wonder that citizens were proud of their Litvak heritage.  It was a main center of learning.  Meir spent all his extra hours after work studying here and Dora was proud of him for doing so.  It gave her time to do things she wanted to accomplish.  

Marek Sats, the kosher butcher, father of Meir, tapped Meir on the shoulder, motioning him to follow along the side of the burning house.  There they found a pail and the remains of a can of petrol.  The fire had been started on purpose.  They both understood.  It’s because they were Jews.    They were the majority here in a majority Gentile country.

The Poles held a rebellion in 1830, hoping to overthrow Russia rule,  and  Leia and Meir suffered both from the rebels and from the Cossacks, even though Meir had a friend among them.  

Meir’s friend, Menashe Likniker, was even accused of helping the rebels and he also worked for the Russians.  He was hanged by these Russian rulers.

This caused the authorities in Telsiai to arm the population and to enlist men to fight the rebels. 

 Jews vocalized their thoughts, saying that they shouldn’t conscript Jews into the army, as they had no arms and also didn’t know how to use them.  Instead, they offered to supply the army with the necessary materials, such as steel, leather, gunpowder, etc, to which the authorities agreed, and a document was signed to this effect. 

Meir worked hard, shlepping hides to the Russians to be made into leather boots for the soldiers.  

Shooting was coming from many of the houses.  Meir ran home to get his gun to defend Leia and their Zalman and Rokhel.  He ran into a spray of bullets and dropped.  Leia screamed and ran to him, holding his head up. Meir’s head turned and Leia felt the life seep out of him. She sighed, picked up his rifle and held it to her eyes, and shot.  Leia had taken his place.  Their children would live.

Sam Gold had just interviewed a Harry Zeitz as a roommate in his big home in Portland, Oregon.  Sam was working for the Health Department of Beaverton, and this fellow was a student at the Law School at Lewis & Clark College.  They would get along fine.

Weeks went by and Harry mentioned that he had a sister back in Norfolk, Connecticut a few years younger than Sam and would it be all right if she wrote to Sam?  

“Of course, bring her on,” smiled Sam.  

The correspondence went well.  They had much in common.  Both loved possums.  Sam sent her a toy one.  Both loved dogs.  Sam had had several growing up.  

Finally came the day when Dora flew out to see her brother, and of course to meet Sam.  They had a glorious time walking through the parks.  Dora quickly learned where all the great spots were for entertainment and the young men enjoyed her visit more than they cared to say.  Then she flew back home.

Before they could imagine, a wedding was planned and the two lovebirds were together again in the same nest, Sam’s family home in Portland.  

Time went by and they celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.  

After talking to a genealogist on the phone, Dora screamed!  Oy vey!   I can’t believe this!  She couldn’t wait to tell Sam.  

“What happened,” he asked?

Dora caught her breath and gasped. “ I just found out that my Sats relatives came from Telsiai, Lithuania, and so did your Gold relatives!  They must have known each other !  It’s all proven by our DNA and by the genealogist who found both families living there.  How often can such a thing like this happen?  This is amazing!! It must be a one in a million event!  Somehow, two people in love married long ago in Telsiai and today their  descendants got back together for another love story event in Portland, Oregon. 

Sam, the scientist, looked at Dora and replied.  "It could be just a coincidence."

Dora thought a moment,, then had the last word. "There is no such thing as a coincidence.  It is part of the great plan!

"Really," Sam said quietly with a smile on his face. "Is it simply a colloquialism that signifies our faith in God’s Divine Providence, His ability to intervene in earthly affairs to ensure that His is carried out on earth?  Divine Providence and God’s intervention in nature are certainly widely accepted tenets of Jewish faith.  But to say that there is no such thing as a coincidence sounds to me like a stronger claim; it suggests more than the assertion that God has the power to intervene in the natural order or even that He does so whenever He chooses.  It implies necessity. 

"Why not?"  Dora whispered in Sam's ear.  " Well, they do say our city is a weird place !"  

Resource:

Update on Yeshiva, 6/2022

Preserving Our Litvak Heritage, a history of 31 Jewish communities in Lithuania by Josef Rosin with Joel Alpert, editor, by Jewishgen.inc.

FTDNA results

https://www.britannica.com/event/November-Insurrection

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALiCzsbTtgbXw59ErzsynfcXRO-CrxZr5g:1654263626594&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=Telz,+Lithuania&fir=Zb8h9zsBI-9dpM%252CsEKSn-Ce7cEugM%252C_%253BBSZDnbtnjvxyIM%252C59ctka2bXOo6NM%252C_%253BVSqcwIbQm_DVyM%252C59ctka2bXOo6NM%252C_%253BIX9l2pgq5ZY4GM%252CC5K0uVqx-jMeqM%252C_%253BF4tdh9L3bx325M%252CmBIw38xmEXx01M%252C_%253BkwJZ3TB33uMlSM%252CC5K0uVqx-jMeqM%252C_%253Bp_xf7Xp8bfjulM%252C59ctka2bXOo6NM%252C_%253Bz1FImAU5XZbeZM%252Cr3QLlXyfp5t-5M%252C_%253B6Kll3ZTdlBuMsM%252Cjfg9RHcgJG7i8M%252C_%253BHpb6j1iLrRkQiM%252CS3VeEcO_K6z8dM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kRHd7_VGk8mjJOcL75VYKHQivaxgA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3ts-etJH4AhW6FjQIHXJ_AdwQ7Al6BAgzEDk&biw=1745&bih=881&dpr=1.1   (many pictures of Telsiai, Lithuania)

Trip to Telsiai (Telz)-the capital of Samogitia (unique area in Lithuania with local dialect and has been known in the world as a spiritual centre of Jews.

 

Tour in Telz:
• Telz jeshyvah- Telšiai yeshivah, as a higher rabbinic school, was established in 1873 by rabbi Gaon Leizer Gordon. Telšiai yeshivah in the XIX century was acknowledged as one of the biggest in the world, there have improved the practicing rabbis from England, the U.S.A., Uruguay, SAR, Hungary and other countries. In the yashivah there have had studied up to 500 rabbis at a time.
• Former jewish hospital
• Jewish cemetery
• former synagogues (4) of Telz
• Telz old town and city centre