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Thursday, June 16, 2011

We Haven't Forgotten Jerusalem, Dr. Sanduqa

Nadene Goldfoot
Right from Psalm 137 in our Bible is the saying said since 586 BCE, over 2,500 years ago, "If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem.....and we haven't.  Our religious people have been saying this every day of their lives.  Yet Dr. Sanduqa, Palestinian researcher,  is trying to rewrite history and says this is from Zionist propaganda.  Evidently he hasn't read anything but the Koran. What he's actually doing is trying to rewrite Jewish history.  His own people will fall for it but not the Jews nor most of the Christians in the world.  I think the others will be smart enough to research this on their own before they become so gullible. 

This was written as a lament of the Jewish exiles who were taken away into captivity to Babylon, which today is Iraq.  Actually, we had three different waves of Jews taken by them into captivity.  The first was in 597 with King Jeconeah.  The second was in 587/6 with King Zedekiah.  Our Yehud Province then had a Babylonian governor and we were dragged away in 582.  Our exile ended in 538 when Babylon fell to the Persian (now Iran) King Cyrus the Great who actually wanted Jews return to Judah with the plans of rebuilding their temple to restore their religion.  Many remained in Babylon as families had been there some 60 years and they were not prepared to be pioneers in a wasteland, for nothing had happened there. 

Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and cried when we remembered Zion (our land).  On the willows nearby we hung our harps.  Those who captured us told us to sing; they told us to entertain them:  "Sing us a song about Zion!"  How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?  May I never be able to play the harp again, if I forget you, Jerusalem!  May I never be able to sing again, if I do not remember you, if I do not think of you as my greatest joy!  Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did, the day JErusalem was captured.  Remember how they kept saying, "Tear it down to the ground!"  Babyon, you will be destroyed!  Happy is the man who pays you back for what you have done to us--......... from Book: The Psalms

This is not the only saying I've heard.  Another is " If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning."  This is from the King James version of our bible and is the translation for Psalm 137.5. 

From our own Jewish Bible, called the Tanach, my Stone Edition: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows within it we hung our lyres.  For there our captors requested words of song from us, with our lyres (playing) joyous music, "Sing for us from Zion's song!"  How can we sing the song of Hashem upon the alien's soil?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.  Let my tongue adhere to my palate.  If I fail to recall you, if I fail to elevate Jerusalem above my foremost joy.  Rememher Hashem, for the offspring of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, for those who say, "Destroy!  Destroy!  to its very foundation.  O violated daughter of Babylon, praiseworthy is he who repays you in accordance with the manner that you treated us.  ..........

Babylon has played a major part of the Jewish history.  Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, which was Babylonia   It had been known in the Bible as the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim(Chaldees).  Abraham migrated to Canaan where he later fought  Amraphel, King of Shinar.  Babylon was to the prophets a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.  Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) had inherited the Assyrian Empire after his conquest of Judah (597, 586).  He's the one who caused the exile of Jews from Judah.  Members of the 10 Tribes were exiled before that and then became lost.  They either died or were assimilated into other surrounding nations.  . 

So, Dr. Sanduqa.  Don't try to rewrite our history.  You're doing this in trying to erase all connections Jews have with the land of Israel in order to take it from us.  You want Jerusalem and can't stand that we have a greater claim to this ancient city.  You're going to the UN in September in an attempt to claim Judea, Samaria and Gaza as your own without any plans of even making peace with Israel.  I remind you that Judea and Samaria and Gaza was once our land, and that we have much history there.  For the sake of peace, our leaders have always been for reliquishing our land to you.  Why aren't you ready to accept that we've come back home?  We've bought and paid for the property and we're not running away.  

 We've been documenting our history  for a long time.  Moses did a great job of writing and so did the prophets.  We've been a very old literal group ,  Jerusalem is from our history.  It's even more to us than New York is to the United States, for it's the center of our religion.  It's what Salt Lake City is to the Mormons.  Ever since 1948, the whole state of Israel has blossomed, but especially Jerusalem.  It shines in the sun like a city of gold.  It is our heart and soul. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Exile.html
http://blog.standforisrael.org/articles/palestinians-practice-psalm-denial?s_src=SFIEN&s_subsrc=EN31106XXEXXA
http://bible.cc/psalms/137-5.htm
Book: The Psalms for modern man from American Bible Society, NY
Book: the New Standard Jewish Encycloopedia

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