We Are People OF Our History: Take a Look At Passover

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                           

Eating matzos during 8 days of Passover; no regular bread
this is unleavened;  flour and water only.

Here we see Jewish children under 6 at a special dinner called a Seder
designed as a teaching lesson about the Exodus.  At the table is a textbook called a Haggadah that tells the story.  The food you see plays a part that reminds us of certain events and facts.  We will recite these facts.  Our youngest child is to ask 4 questions about it:  Why is this night different? Why do we eat bitter herbs on this night?  Why do we dip the herbs twice when we never do this?  Why, tonight, do we all recline when we sat up straight?
We learn that there are 4 types of children:  an intelligent one, a wicked one, a simple one and one still too young to ask questions.

A child's personality and makeup are created by the time they are 6 years old.

  It only takes that long to develop inherited and learned personality traits, and we are set for life.  Luckily, some bad traits can be redefined with the help of a good psychologist, but so much of us affects the genes we inherit
to be good or bad traits.  Whether we were fortunate enough to have wonderful, intelligent parents or the type that were child-beaters,  sometimes our genes outweigh and save us under even the harshest of horrible conditions of our environment. 
                                                               

            

So it is with nations and the people within.  The world's population since cave man has been under attack at different periods of time.  I often feel so lucky to have been born in 1934 after WWI and all preceding it into a modern world to wonderful parents.  My original inbred shyness has been remodeled to become an outgoing teacher with her classes.  Was it my paternal grandmother who was shy?  Was it my mother?  How is it that my Jewish ancestors have suffered so much in this world?  Has it always been so?  Why do the Arabs hate Israelis so much?  Why do some nations continually attack others?  
                                                                             

Jews in Poland being forced into one area to live in,
then to be transported to death camps to be gassed.
This turned out to be the total extinction of 6 million Jews in Europe
and other places.  

From the beginning of the birth of Judaism, Jews have found themselves in hot water.  Christians can read about the Jews' history and have been doing so since the history of Jesus in about 37 CE; that is for the past 2,000 years at least. The Greek Syrians and then the Romans occupied Jerusalem in c 312 BCE and took over the Temple until the Romans burned Jerusalem down in 70 CE.  We first read about it in our story of Chanukah with the eternal light returning to the Temple that lasted for 8 days and nights instead of one night. With that final blow, Jews were massacred while most others escaped to all parts of the world.  We were then in what was called the Diaspora, and found we were not accepted, for our  religion was so different.                                                     

The Old Testament in Deuteronomy 14:2 states:  "For you are a holy people to the Lord your G-d, and the Lord has chosen you to be his own treasure out of all the peoples that are upon the face of the earth."  In other words, originally, G-d chose the Jews as his favorite.  Because of this, the rest of the Christians must have felt a lot of jealousy.  In fact, some Protestant groups insist that they have replaced us and we are no longer special.  Well, as Tevia said in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Ha Shem, why couldn't you have picked someone else?"  What is the "Old Testament?"  "The Old Testament (abbreviated OT) is the first part of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred Word of God. "  We believe that the 1st 5 books in it were written by Moses himself.  Moses gave the Jews (the Israelites) 613 laws to follow in order to be molded into very special and moral people in order that they would be the light of the nations; the example of good behavior.  Moses saved these people from 400 years of living in Egypt of which most was spent in slavery-servitude to the Egyptians.  All who were these slaves followed Moses to freedom of which we celebrate with the upcoming holiday Wednesday night of Passover.  
                                                     

Hillel, a 1st century BCE also called, "The Elder";  a scholar,
founded a school "House of Hillel"
Born in Babylonia, settled in Eretz Yisrael (Judah) , was a laborer working
with his hands while studying with well-known teachers-Shemaiah and Avialyon, just before the time of Jesus.  

Second most famous Jewish words comes from the original teachings of Torah and is called the Golden Rule written by Hillel who said simply,  "Don't do to others what you don't want to happen to you."  

                                                      

Moses, b: 1391 BCE-d: 1273 BCE at 120 years.
Wandered with 600,000 Israelites for 40 years before
reaching Canaan and could not enter with Joshua and others
because he had lost his temper once.

The ancient Hebrews, as Israelites came to be called because they spoke Hebrew, were the 1st to base their life as a nation under Kings Saul, David and Solomon on the idea of One G-d, the G-d of all nations and all peoples.  In a very real sense, the ancient Hebrews were also "chosen" to bring this message to the world.  The most famous lesson was the Ten Commandments. Just think, laws are made to fix things and make them better.  We have the law of wearing seat belts when driving, and this was to keep people from being killed in an accident.  The Ten Commandments are found in Deut. 4:13;10:4, etc proclaimed by G-d on Mt. sinai and transmitted through Moses to Israel.  This is considered the fountainhead of all the other laws.  They are given in Exod. 20:2-14   The 1st 5 describe man's duties to G-d, and the last 5 his responsibilities to his fellow-man.

 An example: 1. Belief in G-d;  2, Prohibition of idolatry;  3. Prohibition of vain oaths, 4.  The Sabbath,  5.Honor your father and your mother, so that your days will be lengthened upon the land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you.  6: "You shall not kill;  7. you shall not commit adultery;  Prohibition against kidnapping-meaning stealing... you shall not steal;  9. you shall not bear false witness against your fellow, 10. you shall not covet your fellow's house, You shall not covet your fellow's wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your fellow.  
                                                    

Esau and Jacob, twins of Isaac
DNA of J1c3d
as different as day and night

So, in our beginning, we were a people who were strong and free with Abraham as our founding father reaching back as far as 1948 BCE or in the 2nd millennium BCE who through his son Isaac and then his son Jacob, wound up during a famine and migrated to Egypt which was our only choice available at the time.  From there our story began.  Since then we have felt the slings, arrows, stones and bullets, rockets, and missiles real and of hatred from so many; Crusaders, Spanish Inquisition, on and on to the Holocaust, and now the Arabs in the Middle East.  For over 3,000 years we have believed in one G-d and the need of our moral compass given to us by Moses to be a compassionate and good people, only to find we are not acceptable in this world.  If Moses were to return to earth today, he would recognize much of the Torah, the Hebrew language, and many of the traditional teachings of our people.  Empires have come and gone since his time here, but ours continues.  
                                                      

That makes our history unique.  Since we have so often been ruled by those who sought to destroy us and they are gone and we remain makes it striking:  like the Hellenizers of Ptolemaic rule and then the Seleucids, the surrounding kingdoms of Israel, Philistines and Phoenicians.  

During our history we have changed the life and thought of humanity, bringing to the world ideals of equality, decency, and morality which, however imperfectly carried out, are the driving forces of today's civilization."

We see the world as good, believing that G-d has a plan for the universe, a plan in which each of us plays a part.  No individual is hopelessly evil.  Every person can choose to do good, and in that way help perfect the quality of life on earth.  
                                                 

Isaiah, painting by Raphael
lived during 740 to 701 BCE, prophesizing in Jerusalem
of a noble family, closely connected with the royal court under king
Hezekiah; against moral laxity;
Kindness, pity, and justice to the poor and underprivileged are more significant to G-d than offering sacrifices.  

                                         As Isaiah  2:2-4 put it: 
And it shall come to pass in the end of days,
That the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains,
And He shall judge between the nations,
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nations,
Neither shall they learn war anymore,   

Resource:
My People --Abba Eban's History of the Jews, adapted by David Bamberger
Passover Haggadah with a new translation by Chaim Raphael
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Who Was Moses and Why Do Jews Follow Him and Not Jesus or Mohammad?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

*Abraham, an Ibri (Hebrew, and meaning from the other side)  whose family  migrated  from the other side (east ) of the Euphrates River   was born in Ur, now in Iraq, and was the son of Terah, an Idol maker.  One day Abraham told his father his views that idols were just what they made, statues made of clay and had no higher power.  They were not gods.  Terah's business was ruined with this revelation and they left town to live by themselves as there was too much pressure in Ur to go along with this belief.    Behind all these ideas was G-d leading Abraham along and into a higher state of consciousness.  They wound up in nearby Canaan, a land of pagan idolaters similar to Ur, for that was what most people were in the days in the 2nd millennium BCE.  This means 2,000 years before Jesus was born.

(Euphrates: From the Caucasus Mtns of Armenia, it flows southwesterly across east-central Turkey, then generally southeast through Syria and Iraq, ending in the waters of the Persian Gulf. It joins with the Tigris in southern Iraq, and from that junction continues on as the Shatt al Arab. Overall it's (2,235 miles) (3,596 km) in length, and is certainly the longest river in the Middle East. Historically important in ancient history, the once great city of Babylon stood on its banks.)

Abraham's son was Isaac, born to him by his wife, Sarah.  Their grandson was Jacob.  Jacob took his household of 70 people during a famine into Egypt.  They stayed a little too long, and their numbers came to the attention of a population counter.  They were afraid of their becoming a majority group, and so took them all as slaves to work on the Pharaoh's building projects of pyramids and storage cities. Anti-Semitism started right here.  The Hebrews were too dangerous to keep and too important to lose. The Bible mentions that they were used as workers on these storage cities.

A new Pharaoh decided to kill off the Hebrews.    If a girl was born she would live, but the boys were to be killed. This would force the females to blend into Egypt's population. The pharaoh had a 2nd reason to decide on infanticide.  His astrologer told him that the savior of the Jews was about to be born, so he ordered all boys to be killed for that reason.    However, the midwives  wouldn't do it.  This went on until the Pharaoh came up with another ruling.  All boys born of the Hebrews were to be thrown into the Nile River.

 Amram and Jochebed, his aunt, both from the tribe of Levi,  were expecting a child and were wondering how they would keep it alive if it were a boy.  After concealing him for 3 months, she had to do something drastic for the edict still was in effect.  She put him in a wicker basket smearing with clay and pitch and put her boy into it and then put it in the river among the reeds growing along  the bank.  His older sister, Mirium watched for his safety at a distance so she could report back to her parents.

The Pharaoh's daughter found the baby boy as she and her maidens were walking along the river.  She took the baby and raised him as her own child, but she saw he was one of the Hebrew boys.  She allowed a Hebrew wet nurse to come and allow him to suckle, and it was in reality his own mother, Jochebed.  The princess named him "Moses", meaning "I drew him out of the water." He grew up in the household as a prince.

The next scene is that of Moses as an adult witnessing for the first time an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave, and it made him so angry that he struck down the taskmaster for being so cruel.  Evidently he accidentally killed him, so hid his body in the sand.  The next day he witnessed two Hebrews fighting each other and tried to break them up, and they in turn let Moses know that they witnessed him killing the taskmaster.  Now he was worried, as even then in Egypt you couldn't get away with that.  He found out that the Pharaoh had been advised about his deed, and so he decided that he had to leave Egypt.  He fled to Midian.

7 daughters of a religious Midianite man, a priest,   found him by a well just at the time they were being threatened by some shepherds with their sheep who were trying to drive the girls away. Moses roused himself just in time to come to their defense.  Moses wound up being given the eldest daughter, Zipporah for a wife.  His 1st son was named Gershom.  His 2nd was Eliezer.

One day when he was with his father in law's  sheep, he saw a bush on fire but not burning down.  Out of it came G-d's voice directing him to return to Egypt and go to the present Pharaoh and ask for the release of his people.  When asking who was sending him, the answer was, "I shall be as I shall be."

So went Moses and after much pleading, was able to take the 600,000 out of Egypt.  His older brother, Aaron, did the speaking for him as he had a speech impediment.  Then he proceeded along the way that took him 40 years to write the rules of future living for this people.  He wrote the 10 commandments first, but that was followed by much more which we call today, "The 5 books of Moses."

 One of the 12 tribes was Judah, and was the largest.  It survived the downfall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE when 10 of the 12 tribes were led into captivity.  This is why we are called Jewish and our faith is called Judaism and our language is Hebrew and our land was renamed "Israel," for the first state which was ruled by King Saul.

Many Jews own a 2 volume set of the 5 books called the Haftorahs.  There's a lot of information there to learn and to study.  Our main emphasis is about behavior being fair with others in all matters.  We believe in life, "L' chaim!"  We do not get concerned about what happens to us when we die.  That's in G-ds hands anyway, but we do believe in an afterlife, in a world to come (Olam haba) where man is judged and where his soul continues to flourish.  The belief is that all Israel has a share in the world to come" (Mishna Sanhaedrin 11:1).   Our Jewish tradition cherishes life.  The Torah was given to Israel so that "you shall live" by the teachings and not die through them.  Death to us has no virtue since "The dead cannot praise the Lord...."

 The first direction was to believe in one G-d only.  We feel that we are all the sons and daughters of the one G-d, that we have this spark within us.  That's why we do not worship Jesus or even Mohammad.  To us they remain as men, which even the Muslims agree with us.  It is the basis of our religion.  The Jewish concept of G-d rejects any compromise with the spirituality of G-d.  The notion of man becoming G-d or G-d assuming the form of man was repugnant to the Jewish religious spirit.  They were to see this happening over and over in the Greek and Roman civilizations.  The Jewish mind and faith cannot accept the notion of the infinite Divine reducing Himself to a finite mortal.

We were not to make representations of G-d in an image,  This was forbidden to us, which even Abraham realized before Moses's teachings.  The 2nd Commandments that "You shall not make for yourself a sculptued image...you shall not bow down to them nor serve them" was understood as even for people who didn't really believe that the image was G-d but was only a symbol representing G-d.  The sin of the Golden calf, when Aaron allowed the children of Israel to think that the calf was G-d when Moses had left the group to climb Mt. Sinai was not allowed just because they had demanded a visual image of G-d, Moses's unseen belief in a higher power.

 Moses was 80 years old when he started the 40 year trek, and died at age 120.  Moses had handed the mantle of leadership over to Joshua.  He died but outside of the Holy Land.  His burial place is unknown so as not to start any worship of him.  Moses is accepted as the author of the Pentateuch (5 Books of Moses) and the creator of Judaism, thereby the father of monotheism other than Abraham.  Other writings such as the Midrash and late Aggadah tell of many legends about him.  Other works were pseudepigraphically ascribed to him.

It is not easy to become Jewish.  We regard ourselves as being of one family, extended in most cases.  However, it has been said that one can find a common ancestor if you go back 5 generations between a husband and a wife.  Membership is through the mother, but not limited to just this way.  A convert is looked upon as adopted into it and becomes a partner in faith and with the people of Israel, assuming burdens and tribulation along with sharing in its heritage and its privileges.  They are assuming the spiritual mission of the future by tying themselves to our collective past.  When the central sanctuary in Jerusalem was built, Jews saw it as a "House of Prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56: 7) (Kings I 8:41-43.)  We come in all colors of skin.  Our kinship is a mystical experience more than a rationally definable one.  Jews are a conundrum.  We are a faith, a religion as well as a nation.    So we use the term people.  We are a people.

While many religions have fallen by the wayside along with their cultures and people, we  come out of the past intact. In fact, ancient prophecies by the well known prophets are now coming true, especially with the creation of Israel and the ingathering of the Jewish people.   We have maintained our beliefs but have kept up with the present, not to be thought of as "the old."  I for one am so proud to have had such stubborn ancestors who stood by their beliefs in a religion so rightous, that we do not have the history of forcing anyone to believe as we do, but have tried to upgrade whatever we have found that we were living in; like our environment, social life, everyone's lives, not just our own.  For Tikkun olam, repairing the world, is always on our minds, not destroying it.

Resource: Tanakh, Stone Edition, Exodus 1
*To Be a Jews by Rabbi Hayim Halaevy Donin-
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-moses-became-author-of-torah.html