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Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts

Saturday, February 15, 2014

People that Validate Jewish History From Torah

Nadene Goldfoot                                                             

 One group of Protestants still respect  the Old Testament  who are called "Evangelicals."  James B. Irwin, astronaut on Apollo 10, was active in believing the writings in the Bible, especially after his experience on the moon.  He led an expedition to search for Noah's Ark.  I don't think his not finding it deterred him as he later "founded an evangelical religious organization."  His knowledge of science did not deter his validating the writings of the Torah. 

 What religion should do for a person is to give them that moral fiber to be moralistic. That includes all the good that people should be and how they treat each other.  One look at this world of ours, and we can see we are failing.  People are as crude and rude as they were back in the Neolithic days, ready to kill off most of the planet's population much quicker than the cave men could.  Those that are most ready to do so do not think much of the 10 Commandments, so basic to civilization.   

Christopher Columbus in 1492 could have been Jewish.   Jews in 1492 were hiding the fact to keep from being converted or killed and were called Marranos.  He could have been one, for that matter, though he is listed as a Catholic    He spoke Spanish better than Italian.   He wrote to his son in Hebrew.This was at a time where Spain was telling Jews that they had to convert or leave the country. The New Testament had replaced the Jews' history found in the Old.    The mapmakers he met with when in Genoa were Jews, as Jews had been merchants way before 70 CE and traveled a lot on the seas from Israel and Judah and probably did a lot of charting.  He must have found credible facts to undertake such a voyage, for Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 14 hundred and 92. If he trusted their map making, it also could be that he trusted their history, found in the Christian "Old Testament."  Being he was to become a very famous person, I have included him for representing a time when Jews were suffering the worst and had been forced to leave Spain, then Portugal and finally find other countries to live in such as Syria.

The United States of America was settled by religious people in 1620 who came to Plymouth Rock, the land later to become the state of Massachusetts.  They believed in G-d, and had a  relationship with the Old Testament, which they read. They even studied a little Hebrew.     They had broken off from Catholicism long before in England to become Protestants, and these Pilgrims were a branch of that group who felt they still had no religious freedom of choice, so off they went from Holland, which they had tried to settle in, to the unknown land of America in a little sailing ship called "The Mayflower."  They weren't the first to arrive in North America. English people had sailed to Jamestown much further south and established it with a colony  on May 14, 1607   "The colony gave England its first foothold in the European competition for the New World, which had been dominated by the Spanish since the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the late 15th century ".It later became Jamestown, Virginia.  

Being that the south was not settled by religious people of that day, they saw nothing wrong about having slaves and defied the request from the President and the North  to free them, which England had already done in 1833.   Therefore, the refusal to do so  started   the American Civil War in 1861 and didn't end till 1865. Since then, religion did make its way into the South.  

Religion is losing out in the USA.  Less and less people have any respect for the Old Testament, the part that tells the history of the Jewish people.   They think it is just an Old Wives' Tale, legends, having nothing to do with today's scientific facts.  Bring up borders, boundaries, land, and few heed the information IF it comes from the Bible.  "Oh, I don't believe that stuff.  It's not true."  Little do people realize that this written history is actually recorded history of the Jews, telling of battles and who with and what happened.  It even includes geography and genealogy.  Hebrew texts, material written in Hebrew, date back to the 2nd millennium BCE, when Abraham was living.

Why are Hebrew writings so easy to ignore?  This is history recorded in writing.  At the same time there was writing going on in Egypt, Babylonia and China. Moses (1391-1271 BCE) most likely was schooled in hieroglyphics.  In 1391 BCE Amenkotep III was the pharoah.   People pay attention  to material from those sources.  Why is the Torah not paid respect as a source of history by people other than the Jews?  The Culture, the foods, the animals and plants, all are recorded there.  It's a wealth of information. The Babylonian Empire, which existed at the same time, wrote in the Akkadian language.  That's where Hammurabi came from.  People were writing Akkadian, a cunieform style of writing  in 2,500 BCE.  Sumerians invented it in the 4th millennium BCE.

Jewish people do not use the King James edition of the Old Testament, however.  Translation errors have been made from Hebrew to Greek to English.  Our word for bible is Tanach, so we use The Stone Edition Tanach from the ArtScroll Series which is considered to be the most accurate.  There are people who think that the Torah has changed over the years, and they do not understand the original and continuing care that has been taken to make sure that not one word was changed.  Even pieces found in the Dead Sea Scrolls are proving that they haven't changed since the 1st century for the past 2,000 years.  One can visit the Dead Sea Museum online or in person which is in Jerusalem and view the original findings.  Evidently people like to be told things, like in a preached speech, and personal detective work is awkward for them to do a study on their own.  If they're not told this is it, they don't trust the information that this is not just folk lore.  .

 DNA, another science from geneticists, is giving us a clear cut road map of people, calling this new science population genetics.  Someday, the two must get together and see if they can mesh their findings with what we have known since Moses and his people who existed for over 3,000 years.  One thing about our writings.  They never have been known to put themselves in a better light by leaving out the bad parts.  Egypt was known to do that by covering over hieroglyphics that the next ruler didn't approve of.  They only wrote about their successes.  We wrote about our sins, that of David, especially, and the women in his life.  We learn from from, or try to.
                                                                               

Francis S. Collins, PhD is one of the world's leading scientists who studies genetics.  He was the head of the Human Genome Project.  He's also a man of unshakable faith in G-d and scripture and believes that faith in G-d and faith in science can coexist within a person and be harmonious.  He wrote the book, "The Language of God," which of course is our DNA.   In fact, discovering our DNA has made him more religious.  One of the more interesting chapters in his book is "Genesis, Galileo, and Darwin. Darwin is most interesting to me because the Nazis took his theories and used them to prove they had the right to exterminate all the Jews in the world, of course which was not what Darwin had intended.   

The book, followed up with its own movie,  "Roots," by Alex Haley, set me on fire as far as dabbling into my own genealogy.  He tells of the African custom of reciting their oral history before their family group. He was able to trace his family line to one tribe in Africa through oral history.

 Our oral history has accompanied our written history as well.  We Jews probably did the same thing, recite this history of ours, telling of things left out when Moses set down his 5 books, another thing that modern people of today want to pooh pooh.  We have since printed the oral history before we forgot it.  It's called the "Mishnah."  So we have 3 sources of importance, The Torah or 5 books of Moses, the Talmud and the Mishnah.  Rabbis have been discussing our writings since the fall of Jerusalem of 70 CE with Rashi being the most famous commentator (1040-1105 CE)

Jews in Israel depend on the Torah for their strength.  I've known of soldiers who used its geography descriptions of the terrain to get themselves out of harm's way when confronting the enemy.  It worked!  They found paths, ancient, but still usable for them.  The description of Eretz Yisrael giving the boundaries and the description of it is found in the Tanakh.

King David (1010-970 BCE)  is said to be the author of Psalms.  I found #62 that is most prophetic. He speaks for all Jews of today.   The first stanza goes like this: and is addressed to the wicked, murderous schemers.  One must never allow the power and ill-gotten wealth of the oppressor to erode one's trust in G-d and faith in His justice.

For G-d alone my soul waits silently,
    my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my Rock and my  salvation
     my stronghold,
   I shall not falter greatly. 
 ------------------------------------------------
To falter-means to stumble, to hesitate.
-------------------------------------------------
You'd think someone wrote that today, knowing how many have tried to convert us since the many Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition and people ringing our door bells.  For us, G-d remains that unseen force that created everything.  Could it still be that anti-Semitism, because Jews have not converted to others' religions, is the cause of not wanting to believe anything written by Jews?  It most likely goes like this:  since Jews are wrong about G-d, their book has to be all wrong, too.  They ignore that their Savior was a practicing  Jew.  
                                                                               

Therefore, when we give testimony of our former history in Eretz Yisrael, people can hoot and holler all they want.  They just show me that they have read but very little history.  The archaeologist just beginning in their professions seem to be one of the worst in reading about our history, thinking they can know all the history from the few remains they find after 3,000 years. Of course the findings are fantastic and  validate our history, but somehow there are those who still hold out that our Torah is just stories for children. "Oh no", they say, "It can't be." I'd say they are in denial, like an alcoholic.  They want to ignore the findings that do prove our existence and story.  For instance, an ancient 4th century CE Samson Mosaic  was found in a synagogue in Israel in September 2013. A stone altar was discovered in November 2013 dating back to the Israelite kings at Shiloh from 1010 BCE.  "Three complete cooking pots and a small ceramic oil lamp were uncovered in June 2013 inside a small cistern in a drainage channel that runs from the Shiloah Pool in the City of David to Robinson’s Arch near the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City that were at least 2,000 years old.  A 2nd Temple period ritual bath was located  in April 2013 in the  Qiryat Menachem quarter of Jerusalem, a rare ritual bath - known as a mikvah in Hebrew." So, young archaeologist, pay attention to what has been going on in the archaeology areas in Israel before you say nothing is found to prove our existence there or our facts thereof.  

Christopher Columbus updated: 2/19/14.
Resource:  http://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/america-did-not-start-with-the-pilgrims/
http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/talmud_&_mishna.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Irwin
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/10/us/james-b-irwin-61-ex-astronaut-founded-religious-organization.html
http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpapers/fp009_navigation.htm
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=883&dat=19651105&id=46ccAAAAIBAJ&sjid=smEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3959,4986769 (Columbus)
http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/egyptian.html
http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishhistory/a/Hebrew-Language-Origins-History.htm
https://www.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian/akframe.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Archaeology/archdiscovery2013.html
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/09/archaeologists-stunning-find-ancient-treasure-trove-at-temple-mount-is-a-once-in-a-lifetime-discovery/

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Fox Hired to Watch Over Henhouse: Russia's Involvement in Syria

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                
    UN inspectors searching for Sarin Gas use on shrouded bodies

Forty-eight hours previously, President Obama was going to make a call to arms against Syria.   Evidence has been found that Sarin gas was used on the population killed.   At the last hour yesterday, President Obama pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the announcement that instead of hitting Syria with missiles as a punishment for killing hundreds of children and adults of his own people with chemical weapons identified as Sarin gas, their sponsor, Russia, will take over and collect the chemical weapons and see to their destruction, saving Obama from a vote that would not pass at this time to do his bidding.  The fact that Assad has killed over 100,000 of his people by modern and horrible conventional weapons in their 2 1/2 year old civil war is not being dismissed in our minds, only by our government's agenda.

 It is, after all, Syria's own civil war.  A country of over 22 million people, several million are already overpowering the capabilities of Jordan and Lebanon, who is full of terrorist groups already.  Many took refuge in Egypt and are not even registered as refugees due to the bungling of Morsi.  Their government troops number about 296,000 and it is they who must have used the Sarin gas on their own people.  Otherwise, Al Qaeda terrorists are part of the rebels along with other terrorist groups.  Christian groups are divided in their loyalty.  Syria is backed by Iran and Iran is backed by Russia who backs them both.  The country is now physically and economically in ruins.  Homes and cars have been demolished by weapons.  Businesses are no more.  One anti-government activist, K. Ibrahim, is one of the refugees who is completely bewildered by the USA action.  She doesn't understand what is happening or why but was against US striking Syria.  Just recently the Syrian government bombarded towns across the Damascus suburbs with air and artillery strikes.  Barrages around Homs went on between rebels and security forces.  There is infighting between the rebels.  It has all made normal residents continue to run to another state such as nearby Lebanon.

Did our government realize that Russia will now feel free to be  in the act of selling to Iran some S-300 missiles so they could down other ballistic missiles and commercial airplanes from a distance of 120 miles?  They will be in a good position to get away with such a sale of one of the most lethal anti-aircraft systems in the world.

If any sanctions are created, Russia is ready to sell them the Antei-2500,AKA S-300VM, or SA-23 Gladiato,  something ground forces would be using.  .

Russia is also willing and able to build them a 2nd nuclear reactor in Bushehr, which would make it very clear to Israel what their intentions for that is for.  Russia, when the USSR fell apart, has been in dire need for money.  China has also, and has been loaning out money to the USA.  They both have become weapon suppliers to Iran and Syria which give these countries something to counter Western superiority.

Selling these missiles will net Russia about $700 million and puts Putin in the lead of all nations.  Iran's Defense Minister, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan,  is anxious for this sale, promised in 2005.
                                                                         
Obama is now giving serious consideration that international monitors would be able to take over and destroy Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons.  He can't tell now if they will really succeed.  He feels that any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keep its commitment, and who is the verifier but Russia, the fox watching the henhouse for us.

Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, said yesterday that Syria will turn over its chemical weapons arsenal to Russia, the UN and other countries, which is quite a concession.  It was just this week that Assad said they never possessed chemical weapons.
                                                                             
Obama asked his congressional leaders to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while he pursues "this diplomatic path."   Some of our leaders, however, feel that this gives Syria time for further mischief and play on our instincts of not striking if things go awry.  Securing chemical weapons stockpiles in the middle of this civil war is going to be an impossible goal.  He didn't promise to stop his war.

The steps since Monday have led to Russia clashing with the USA and France in making the proposal binding and backing it up with the threat of force or not.  Kerry is pushing for a full resolution on this measure and will meet with Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, in Geneva on Thursday to work on their disagreements, so its not all light and roses yet.  Kerry wants swift action.

Ten days ago Obama described the Security Council as "completely paralyzed and unwilling to hold Assad accountable and now our government  is doing just that.  Carl Levin,, chairman of the USA's Senate Armed services Committee,  said that a resolution to authorize a military strike is set it aside for now if Assad complied is "kind of a twofer".  It's a way of keeping the pressure on Syria and on Russia to get rid of chemical weapons, which is the goal of the whole effort.  If they fail, it would keep the authorization to launch a strike as planned originally.

There is no doubt that Syria has committed atrocities and the question is what the USA and the international community is prepared to do about it because such acts also threaten our own security, and especially Israel's security, as if they hadn't been receiving enough threats already.  What affects Israel's neighbors affects Israel's security as well.  Israel must stay out of this civil war, but is prepared if it reaches their shores.  "The Jewish state deployed strikes in July against Syrian missile convoys destined for one its principal enemies on its northern border, the Lebanese-based Hezbollah."  If Sarin gas is ever used on Israel, their reaction will be "fierce."  One personal  comment about the USA standoff from an Israeli minister was "“One doesn’t need to wait for tens of thousands more to die in order to intervene.”  I think that is how many of us feel, though intervening doesn't necessarily mean to react with more violence.  

Would Russia be then ready with their own S-300 missiles and down ours?  Would the 2 superpowers be pulled into battling each other?

Resource: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/russia-heats-up-cold-war-with-threat-to-sell-iran-s-300-missiles/2013/09/11/
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/will-syria-attack-israel-if-the-us-attacks-syria/279469/
Oregonian newspaper 9/11/13 page A6, Official admits syria has chemical arms by Anne Barnard NY Timees News, Front page, Obama calls for vote delay on Syria by Mark Landler and Jonathan Weisman NY Times 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Syria Threatens Israel If American Coalition Attacks

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

Syria's defensive tactic if the USA and Britain attack its rocket bases is to attack Israel full force, including mystery surprises.  It's like taking a hostage for protection and Israel is the closest to pick on.

This comes from Syria's Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem today.  He mentioned al-Qaeda in in his speech, strange, since it's Hezbollah out of Lebanon who are on the side of Syria along with Iran.  However, he did mention that Israel's attackers would be a Syrian-led mob made up of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and themselves, the usual countries that have warred against Israel in the past.

Muallem is demanding proof that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against their own people, which have been collected by investigators other than the UN investigators who were delayed beyond the time which would have divulged more facts.  Just the fact that Doctors Without Borders had reported Saturday that about 3,600 patients had been treated at 3 hospitals for symptoms coming from exposure to chemical weapons in which about 300 have died tells the story, but they aren't the Official Inspectors.  The group told Monday that out of their 100 volunteers, 70 who had actually taken care of these patients became ill and one had died.

This has caused the USA with John Kerry citing this evidence to talk about the military response, and we know that Britain's ships are also in the Mediterranean along with 4 of the Americans ready to attack with cruise missiles.   Targets in Syria are the military ones.

In the next few days the USA's intelligence agencies will give Assad the proof he is asking for telling how his forces used chemical weapons.  They have proof from radio or phone calls between Syrian military commanders.  The UN inspectors were to be given free passage by the Syrian government but the lead car in a caravan was hit in the tires and front window and taken out.  They were going into a Damascus suburb.  Kerry was brilliant in his retort to Walid al Moallem on Thursday that if the Assad government had nothing to hide it should provide immediate access to the attack site, which never happened.  They had stalled for 5 days and then attacked the area even more by shelling it and destroying all evidence.

If the Syrian government turns around, this can all be averted.  This has been a moral obscenity and is inexcusable to do to their own citizens of which over 100,000 have already been killed.  Russia is expected to veto an action from the UN.  France might step in to help out the allies.   Is one of the "surprises" intended to harm Israel the Al-Nusra Front, which is an al-Qaida-linked jihadist group?  Assad acts like the chemical weapons cause  is just a front to go in and take over Syria.   Already a top Syrian offical had threatened Israel if Syria were attacked by the West.  This was from Syria's Deputy Information Minister, Half Al-Maftah,  said in Arabic.

Israel has intended to stay out of the conflict,  but if they are attacked, they will not be held back.  They have warned Syria not to retaliate against them.  Of course Israel is being blamed for even thinking Syria would do such a thing.  "A member of the Syrian Baath Party national council, Halef al-Muftah, said that Syria regards Israel as being "behind the aggression".  Israel said the chemical attacks came from outside Damascus in the mountain range where the headquarters is of the 4th Armoured  Division and  is located and commanded by Assad's brother, Maher al-Assad.

A thought:  Could Maher be framing his brother just so he could become President instead?  It wouldn't be a first in the Middle East.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper 8/27, 13 Front page and p. A4, : US sets stage for Syria action by Michael  R. Gordon and Mark Landler NY Times,
Arutz Sheva news@israelnationalnews.com Syrian FM threatens "Surprises" for Western Forces by Ari Soffer
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11115311

Friday, May 25, 2012

Shavuot, the Dairy Holiday This Year in Portland

Nadene Goldfoot
What a special week-end this is to be!  Sunday is the first day of Shavuot which is a special Jewish holiday commemorating the giving of the Ten Commandments, G-d's revelation to Israel which turned out to be a list  of 613, and Israel's acceptance of the Torah (5 books of Moses).   One thing about our religion, you can't hardly turn around without preparing for the next holiday.  These holidays are all centered around teachable historic events that we are not to forget, and this is emphatically etched into our minds with food.  For Shavuot there are the favorite  dairy products, like cheese blintzes.

The whole theme of this holiday is centered around the fact that the release from physical bondage-which went on in Egypt for 400 years-and the political freedom that is represented by our holiday of Pesach "Passover", does not constitute complete freedom unless it culminates in the spiritual restraints, disciplines and duties represented by Shavuot.  I take it then that we just shouldn't go off the deep end with our basic carnal values but keep the restraints at least of 10 commandments, which is hard enough in our lives. Even those who only expect to keep 7 of them are doing well.  

We are to eat at least one dairy meal during these 2 days.  This may come from remembering that Israel is "a land flowing with milk and honey."  I like the commandment of  "You must not boil a kid in its mother's milk", which is the prohibition of eating meat and milk together in the laws of kashrut (kosher).  Of course a kid was a goat, not your child, heaven forbid!  Here, the meaning is very deep.  It has to do with the unity of the verse and the authenticity of our Oral law as well.  It is also something that gives us pause to reflect the very feelings of a cow for her calf, and that this cow has given us milk for our dairy products and we are not to hurt her feelings by eating her child in that very milk she herself had produced.  It is to give us feeling for all of humanity, not just for animals, but people, too.  As a result, Jews are not big on hunting.  We'll buy  meat preferably from a kosher butcher where animals allowed to us were killed as humanely as possible.  We don't dine on all animals, however.

In the states we also have Memorial Day to celebrate on the very next day, Monday the 28th which of course is the 2nd day of Shavuot.  Already many people here in Portland are driving to the coast to spend a 3 day weekend, prodded by the sun that actually shone this morning without rain clogging up the streets.  . It's a celebration of barbecuing and potlucks.  This commemorates what we used to call "Declaration Day", which was remembrance after the Civil War of the Union soldiers.  It's extended now to all fallen military men and women  in service to our country.  What with the thought of a vacation,  I wonder if people remember or honor the original meaning of this time off from work. There always are organized groups whose duty it is to do such things, however.   .  

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day
Book:  To Be a Jew by Donin