Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Land of Israel aka Promised Land aka Greater Israel


 Land of Israel 
The Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl, Eretz Yisrael) is one of several names for an area of indefinite geographical extension in the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine(q.v. Israel (disambiguation)). The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba, and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt” (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).".
These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms; over time these have included the United Kingdom of Israel, the two separated kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Herodian Kingdom, which at their heights ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries.
The Jewish religious belief that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people is based on the Torah, particularly in the books of Genesis and Exodus, as well as in the later Prophets.[1] According to the Book of Genesis, the land was first promised by God to the descendants of Abram; the text is explicit that this is a covenant between God and Abram for his descendants.[2] Abram's name was later changed to Abraham, with the promise refined to pass through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This belief is not shared by most adherents of replacement theology (or supersessionism), who hold the view that the Old Testament prophecies were superseded by the coming of Jesus,[3]a view often repudiated by Christian Zionists as a theological error.[4] Evangelical Zionists variously claim that Israel has title to the land by divine right,[5] or by a theological, historical and moral grounding of attachment to the land unique to Judaism (James Parkes),[6] The idea that ancient religious texts can be warrant or divine right for a modern claim has often been challenged,[7] [8] and Israeli courts have rejected land claims based on religious motivations.[9]
During the mandatory period (1920-1948) the term "Eretz Yisrael" or the "Land of Israel" was part of the official Hebrew name of Mandatory Palestine. Official Hebrew documents used the Hebrew transliteration of the word “Palestine” פלשתינה (Palestina) followed always by the two initial letters of "Eretz Yisrael", א״י Aleph-Yod.[10] [11]
The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the West Bank, which is referred to in official Israeli discourse as Judea and Samaria, from the names of the twohistorical Jewish kingdoms.[12]
Etymology and biblical roots
1916 map of the Fertile Crescent byJames Henry Breasted. The names used for the land are "Canaan" "Judah" "Palestine" and "Israel"
Map of Eretz Israel in 1695 AmsterdamHaggada by Abraham Bar-Jacob.
The term "Land of Israel" is a direct translation of the Hebrew phrase ארץ ישראל (Eretz Yisrael), which occurs occasionally in the Bible,[13] and is first mentioned in the Tanakh at 1 Samuel 13:19, following the Exodus when the Israelite tribes were already in the Land of Canaan.[14] The words are used sparsely in the Bible: King David is ordered to gather 'strangers to the land of Israel'(hag-gêrîm ’ăšer, bə’ereṣ yiśrā’êl) for building purposes (1 Chronicles 22:2), and the same phrasing is used in reference to King Solomon's census of all of the 'strangers in the Land of Israel' (11 Chronicles 2:17). Ezekiel, though generally preferring the phrase 'soil of Israel' (’admat yiśrā’êl), employs eretz israel twice, respectively at Ezechiel 40:2 and Ezechiel 47:18.[15]
According to Martin Noth, the term is not an "authentic and original name for this land", but instead serves as "a somewhat flexible description of the area which the Israelite tribes had their settlements".[16] According to Anita Shapira, the term "Eretz Yisrael" was a holy term, vague as far as the exact boundaries of the territories are concerned but clearly defining ownership.[17] The sanctity of the land (kedushat ha-aretz) developed rich associations in rabbinical thought,[18] where it assumes a highly symbolic and mythological status infused with promise, though always connected to a geographical location.[19] Nur Masalhaargues that the biblical boundaries are "entirely fictitious", and bore simply religious connotations in Diaspora Judaism, with the term only coming into ascendency with the rise of Zionism.[13]
The Hebrew Bible provides three specific sets of borders for the "Promised Land", each with a different purpose. Neither of the terms "Promised Land" (Ha'Aretz HaMuvtahat) or "Land of Israel" are used in these passages: Genesis 15:13–21,Genesis 17:8[20] and Ezekiel 47:13–20 use the term "the land" (ha'aretz), as doesDeuteronomy 1:8 in which it is promised explicitly to "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... and to their descendants after them," whilst Numbers 34:1–15 describes the "Land of Canaan" (Eretz Kna'an) which is allocated to nine and half of the twelve Israelite tribes after the Exodus. The expression "Land of Israel" is first used in a later book,1 Samuel 13:19. It is defined in detail in the exilic Book of Ezekiel as a land where both the twelve tribes and the "strangers in (their) midst", can claim inheritance.[21]The name "Israel" first appears in the Hebrew Bible as the name given by God to thepatriarch Jacob (Genesis 32:28). Deriving from the name "Israel", other designations that came to be associated with the Jewish people have included the "Children of Israel" or "Israelite".
The term 'Land of Israel' (γῆ Ἰσραήλ) occurs in one episode in the New Testament(Matthew 2:20–21), where, according to Shlomo Sand, it bears the unusual sense of 'the area surrounding Jerusalem'.[20] The section in which it appears was written as a parallel to the earlier Book of Exodus.[22]
Biblical interpretations of the borders
Genesis 15 (describing "this land")
Num. 34 ("Canaan") & Eze. 47 ("this land")
Interpretations of the borders of thePromised Land, based on scriptural verses
Genesis 15
Genesis 15:18–21 describes what are known as "Borders of the Land" (Gevulot Ha-aretz),[23]which in Jewish tradition defines the extent of the land promised to the descendants of Abraham, through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob.[24] The passage describes the area as the land of the ten named ancient peoples then living there.
More precise geographical borders are givenExodus 23:31 which describes borders as marked by the Red Sea (see debate below), the "Sea of the Philistines" i.e., the Mediterranean, and the "River", the Euphrates), the traditional furthest extent of the Kingdom of David.[25] [26]
Genesis gives the border with Egypt as Nahar Mitzrayim – nahar in Hebrew denotes a large river, never a wadi.
Exodus 23
A slightly more detailed definition is given inExodus 23:31, which describes the borders as "from the sea of reeds (Red Sea) to the Sea of the Philistines (Mediterranean sea) and from the desert to the Euphrates River", though the Hebrew text of the Bible uses the name, "the River", to refer to the Euphrates.
Only the "Red Sea" (Exodus 23:31) and the Euphrates are mentioned to define the southern and eastern borders of the full land promised to the Israelites. The "Red Sea" corresponding to Hebrew Yam Suf was understood in ancient times to be theErythraean Sea, as reflected in the Septuagint translation. Although the English name "Red Sea" is derived from this name ("Erythraean" derives from the Greek for red), the term denoted all the waters surrounding Arabia—including the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, not merely the sea lying to the west of Arabia bearing this name in modern English. Thus the entire Arabian peninsula lies within the borders described. Modern maps depicting the region take a reticent view and often leave the southern and eastern borders vaguely defined. The borders of the land to be conquered given in Numbers have a precisely defined eastern border which included the Arabah and Jordan.
Numbers 34
Numbers 34:1–15 describes the land allocated to the Israelite tribes after the Exodus. The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh received land east of the Jordan as explained in Numbers 34:14–15. Numbers 34:1–13 provides a detailed description of the borders of the land to be conquered west of the Jordan for the remaining tribes. The region is called "the Land of Canaan" (Eretz Kna'an) in Numbers 34:2 and the borders are known in Jewish tradition as the "borders for those coming out of Egypt". These borders are again mentioned in Deuteronomy 1:6–8, 11:24 and Joshua 1:4.
According to the Hebrew Bible, Canaan was the son of Ham who with his descendents had seized the land from the descendents of Shem according to theBook of Jubilees. Jewish tradition thus refers to the region as Canaan during the period between the Flood and the Israelite settlement. Eliezer Schweid sees Canaan as a geographical name, and Israel the spiritual name of the land. He writes: The uniqueness of the Land of Israel is thus "geo-theological" and not merely climatic. This is the land which faces the entrance of the spiritual world, that sphere of existence that lies beyond the physical world known to us through our senses. This is the key to the land's unique status with regard to prophecy and prayer, and also with regard to the commandments.[27] Thus, the renaming of this landmarks a change in religious status, the origin of the Holy Land concept. Numbers 34:1–13uses the term Canaan strictly for the land west of the Jordan, but Land of Israel is used in Jewish tradition to denote the entire land of the Israelites. The English expression "Promised Land" can denote either the land promised to Abraham in Genesis or the land of Canaan, although the latter meaning is more common.
The border with Egypt is given as the Nachal Mitzrayim (Brook of Egypt) in Numbers, as well as in Deuteronomy and Ezekiel. Jewish tradition (as expressed in the commentaries of Rashi and Yehuda Halevi, as well as the Aramaic Targums) understand this as referring to the Nile; more precisely the Pelusian branch of the Nile Delta according to Halevi—a view supported by Egyptian and Assyrian texts.Saadia Gaon identified it as the "Wadi of El-Arish", referring to the biblical Sukkotnear Faiyum. Kaftor Vaferech placed it in the same region, which approximates the location of the former Pelusian branch of the Nile. 19th century Bible commentaries understood the identification as a reference to the Wadi of the coastal locality calledEl-Arish. Easton's, however, notes a local tradition that the course of the river had changed and there was once a branch of the Nile where today there is a wadi. Biblical minimalists have suggested that the Besor is intended.
Deuteronomy 19
Deuteronomy 19:8 indicates a certain fluidity of the borders of the promised land when it refers to the possibility that God would "enlarge your borders." This expansion of territory means that Israel would receive "all the land he promised to give to your fathers", which implies that the settlement actually fell short of what was promised. According to Jacob Milgrom, Deuteronomy refers to a more utopian map of the promised land, whose eastern border is the wilderness rather than the Jordan.[28]
Paul R. Williamson notes that a "close examination of the relevant promissory texts" supports a "wider interpretation of the promised land" in which it is not "restricted absolutely to one geographical locale." He argues that "the map of the promised land was never seen permanently fixed, but was subject to at least some degree of expansion and redefinition."[29]
Ezekiel 47
Ezekiel 47:13–20 provides a definition of borders of land in which the twelve tribes of Israel will live during the final redemption, at the end of days. The borders of the land described by the text in Ezekiel include the northern border of modernLebanon, eastwards (the way of Hethlon) to Zedad and Hazar-enan in modern Syria; south by southwest to the area of Busra on the Syrian border (area of Hauran in Ezekiel); follows the Jordan River between the West Bank and the land of Gilead to Tamar (Ein Gedi) on the western shore of the Dead Sea; From Tamar to Meribah Kadesh (Kadesh Barnea), then along the Brook of Egypt (see debate below) to the Mediterranean Sea. The territory defined by these borders is divided into twelve strips, one for each of the twelve tribes.
Hence, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47 define different but similar borders which include the whole of contemporary Lebanon, both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and Israel, except for the South Negev and Eilat. Small parts of Syria are also included.
From Dan to Beersheba
The common biblical phrase used to refer to the territories actually settled by the Israelites (as opposed to military conquests) is "from Dan to Beersheba" (or its variant "from Beersheba to Dan"), which occurs many times in the Bible. It is found in the biblical verses Judges 20:1, 1 Samuel 3:20, 2 Samuel 3:10, 2 Samuel 17:11, 2 Samuel 24:2, 2 Samuel 24:15, 1 Kings 4:25, 1 Chronicles 21:2, and 2 Chronicles 30:5.
Division of Tribes
The 12 tribes of Israel are divided in 1 Kings 11. In the chapter, King Solomon's sins lead to Israelites forfeiting 10 of the 12 tribes:
30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, andMolek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.34 “‘But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name.
— Kings 1, 11:30-11:36[30]
Jewish beliefs
Rabbinic laws in the Land of Israel
According to Menachem Lorberbaum,
In Rabbinic tradition, the land of Israel consecrated by the returning exiles was significantly different in it(s?) boundaries from both the prescribed biblical borders and the actual borders of the pre-Exilic kingdoms. It ranged roughly from Acre in the north to Ashkelon in the south along the Mediterranean, and included Galilee and the Golan. Yet there was no settlement in Samaria.[31]
According to Jewish religious law (halakha), some laws only apply to Jews living in the Land of Israel and some areas in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria (which are thought to be part of biblical Israel). These include agricultural laws such as the Shmita(Sabbatical year); tithing laws such as the Maaser Rishon (Levite Tithe), Maaser sheni, and Maaser ani (poor tithe); charitable practices during farming, such as pe'ah; and laws regarding taxation. One popular source lists 26 of the 613 mitzvot as contingent upon the Land of Israel.[32]
Many of the religious laws which applied in ancient times are applied in the modern State of Israel; others have not been revived, since the State of Israel does not adhere to traditional Jewish law. However, certain parts of the current territory of the State of Israel, such as the Arabah, are considered by some religious authorities to be outside the Land of Israel for purposes of Jewish law. According to these authorities, the religious laws do not apply there.[33]
According to some Jewish religious authorities, every Jew has an obligation to dwell in the Land of Israel and may not leave except for specifically permitted reasons (e.g., to get married).[34]
There are also many laws dealing with how to treat the land. The laws apply to all Jews, and the giving of the land itself in the covenant, applies to all Jews, including converts.[35]
Inheritance of the promise
Traditional religious Jewish interpretation, and that of most Christian commentators, define Abraham's descendants only as Abraham's seed through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob.[24] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] Johann Friedrich Karl Keil is less clear, as he states that the covenant is through Isaac, but also notes thatIshmael's descendants, generally the Arabs, have held much of that land through time.[46]
Modern Jewish debates on the Land of Israel
The Land of Israel concept has been evoked by the founders of the State of Israel. It often surfaces in political debates on the status of the West Bank, which is referred to in official Israeli discourse as Judea and Samaria, from the names of the twohistorical Israelite and Judean kingdoms.[12] These debates frequently invoke religious principles, despite the little weight these principles typically carry in Israeli secular politics.
Ideas about the need for Jewish control of the land of Israel have been propounded by figures such as Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, who has written about the historical entitlement that Jews have to the whole Land of Israel.[47] Ginsburgh's ideas about the need for Jewish control over the land has some popularity within contemporary West Bank settlements.[48] However, there are also strong backlashes from the Jewish community regarding these ideas.[48]
The Satmar Hasidic community in particular denounces any geographic or political establishment of Israel, deeming this establishment has directly interfering with God's plan for Jewish redemption. Joel Teitelbaum was a foremost figure in this denouncement, calling the Land and State of Israel a vehicle for idol worship, as well as a smokescreen for Satan's workings.[49]
Divisions within the Jewish community concerning Israel speak to how Israel not only represents an international point of contention, but also a continuous ideological and internal introspection and negotiation specific to the Jewish community and its larger history.
Christian beliefs
Inheritance of the promise
During the early 5th century, Saint Augustine of Hippo argued in his City of God that the earthly or "carnal" kingdom of Israel achieved its peak during the reigns of David and his son Solomon.[50] He goes on to say however, that this possession was conditional: "...the Hebrew nation should remain in the same land by the succession of posterity in an unshaken state even to the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the Lord its God."
He goes on to say that the failure of the Hebrew nation to adhere to this condition resulted in its revocation and the making of a second covenant and cites Jeremiah 31:31–32: "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah, a new testament: not according to the testament that I settled for their fathers in the day when I laid hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my testament, and I regarded them not, says the Lord."
Augustine concludes that this other promise, revealed in the New Testament, was about to be fulfilled through the incarnation of Christ: "I will give my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts, and I will see to them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people". Notwithstanding this doctrine stated by Augustine and also by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (Ch. 11), the phenomenon of Christian Zionism is widely noted today, especially among evangelical Protestants. Other Protestant groups and churches reject Christian Zionism on various grounds.
Modern history
Jewish religious tradition does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities.[51] Nonetheless, during two millennia of exile and with a continuous yet small Jewish presence in the land, a strong sense of bondedness exists throughout this tradition, expressed in terms of people-hood; from the very beginning, this concept was identified with that ancestral biblical land or, to use the traditional religious and modern Hebrew term, Eretz Yisrael. Religiously and culturally the area was seen broadly as a land of destiny, and always with hope for some form of redemption and return. It was later seen as a national home and refuge, intimately related to that traditional sense of people-hood, and meant to show continuity that this land was always seen as central to Jewish life, in theory if not in practice.[52]
Early Zionism
Having already used another religious term of great importance, Zion (Jerusalem), to coin the name of their movement, being associated with the return to Zion [53] the term was considered appropriate for the secular Jewish political movement ofZionism to adopt at the turn of the 20th century; it was used to refer to their proposed national homeland in the area then controlled by the Ottoman Empire and generally known as the Holy Land or Palestine.[54] Different geographic and political definitions for the "Land of Israel" later developed among competing Zionist ideologies during their nationalist struggle. These differences relate to the importance of the idea and its land, as well as the internationally recognized borders of the State of Israel and the Jewish State's secure and democratic existence. Many current governments, politicians and commentators question these differences.
When Israel was founded in 1948, the majority Labor leadership, which governed for three decades after independence, accepted the partition of the previous British Mandate of Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states as a pragmatic solution to the political and demographic issues of the territory, with the description Land of Israel applying to the territory of the State of Israel within the Green Line. The then opposition revisionists, who evolved into today's Likud party, however, regarded the rightful Land of Israel as Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema (literally, the whole Land of Israel), which came to be referred to as Greater Israel.[55] Joel Greenberg, writing in The New York Times relates subsequent events this way:[55]
The seed was sown in 1977, when Menachem Begin of Likud brought his party to power for the first time in a stunning election victory over Labor. A decade before, in the 1967 war, Israeli troops had in effect undone the partition accepted in 1948 by overrunning the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ever since, Mr. Begin had preached undying loyalty to what he called Judea and Samaria (the West Bank lands) and promoted Jewish settlement there. But he did not annex the West Bank and Gaza to Israel after he took office, reflecting a recognition that absorbing the Palestinians could turn Israel it into a binational state instead of a Jewish one.
Following the Six Day War in 1967, the 1977 elections and the Oslo Accords, the term Eretz Israel became increasingly associated with right-wing expansionist groups who sought to conform the borders of the State of Israel with the biblical Eretz Yisrael.[56]
British Mandate
The British Mandate for Palestinecovered Palestine 1923–1948 and Transjordan 1923–1946.[57]
Three proposals for the post World War I administration of Palestine. The red line is the "International Administration" proposed in the 1916Sykes–Picot Agreement, the dashed blue line is the 1919 Zionist Organization proposal at the Paris Peace Conference, and the thin blue line refers to the final borders of the 1923–48 Mandatory Palestine.
This 1920 stamp, issued by theEgyptian Expeditionary Force, set a precedent for the wording ofsubsequent Mandate stamps.
The Biblical concept of Eretz Israel, and its re-establishment as a state in the modern era, was a basic tenet of the original Zionist program. This program however, saw little success until the British acceptance of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Chaim Weizmann, as leader of the Zionist delegation, at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference presented a Zionist Statement on 3 February. Among other things, he presented a plan for development together with a map of the proposed homeland. The statement noted the Jewish historical connection with "Palestine".[58] It also declared the Zionists' proposed borders and resources "essential for the necessary economic foundation of the country" including "the control of its rivers and their headwaters". These borders included present day Israel and the occupied territories, western Jordan, southwestern Syria and southern Lebanon "in the vicinity south of Sidon".[59] The subsequent British occupation and British acceptance of the July 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine,[60] advanced the Zionist cause.
Early in the deliberations toward British civilian administration, two fundamental decisions were taken, which bear upon the status of the Jews as a nation; the first was the recognition of Hebrew as an official language, along with English and Arabic, and the second concerned the Hebrew name of the country.
In 1920, the Jewish members of the first High Commissioner's advisory council objected to the Hebrew transliteration of the word “Palestine” פלשתינה (Palestina) on the ground that the traditional name was ארץ ישראל (Eretz Yisrael), but the Arab members would not agree to this designation, which in their view, had political significance. The High Commissioner Herbert Samuel, himself a Zionist, decided that the Hebrew transliteration should be used, followed always by the two initial letters of "Eretz Yisrael,” א״י Aleph-Yod:[61]
He was aware that there was no other name in the Hebrew language for this land except 'Eretz-Israel'. At the same time he thought that if 'Eretz-Israel' only were used, it might not be regarded by the outside world as a correct rendering of the word 'Palestine', and in the case of passports or certificates of nationality, it might perhaps give rise to passports or certificates of nationality, it might perhaps give rise to difficulties, so it was decided to print 'Palestine' in Hebrew letters and to add after it the letters 'Aleph' 'Yod', which constitute a recognised abbreviation of the Hebrew name. His Excellency still thought that this was a good compromise. Dr. Salem wanted to omit 'Aleph' 'Yod' and Mr. Yellin wanted to omit 'Palestine'. The right solution would be to retain both."—Minutes of the meeting on November 9, 1920.[62]
The compromise was later noted as among Arab grievances before the League's Permanent Mandate Commission.[63] During the Mandate, the name Eretz Yisrael (abbreviated א״י Aleph-Yod), was part of the official name for the territory, when written in Hebrew. These official names for Palestine were minted on the Mandate coins and early stamps (pictured) in English, Hebrew "(פלשתינה (א״י" (Palestina E"Y) and Arabic "( فلسطين"). Consequently, in 20th century political usage, the term "Land of Israel" usually denotes only those parts of the land which came under the British mandate, i.e. the land currently controlled by the State of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and sometimes also Transjordan (now the Kingdom of Jordan).[64]
Declaration of Independence of Israel
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181(II)) recommending "to the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the future government of Palestine, of the Plan of Partition with Economic Union." The Resolution contained a plan to partition Palestine into "Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem."[65]
On May 14, 1948, the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum, and approved a proclamation, in which it declared "the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel."[66]
Usage in Israeli politics
Early government usage of the term, following Israel's establishment, continued the historical link and possible Zionist intentions. In 1951–2 David Ben-Gurion wrote "Only now, after seventy years of pioneer striving, have we reached the beginning of independence in a part of our small country."[67] Soon afterwards he wrote "It has already been said that when the State was established it held only six percent of the Jewish people remaining alive after the Nazi cataclysm. It must now be said that it has been established in only a portion of the Land of Israel. Even those who are dubious as to the restoration of the historical frontiers, as fixed and crystallised and given from the beginning of time, will hardly deny the anomaly of the boundaries of the new State."[68] The 1955 Israeli government year-book said, "It is called the 'State of Israel' because it is part of the Land of Israel and not merely a Jewish State. The creation of the new State by no means derogates from the scope of historical Eretz Israel".[69]
Herut and Gush Emunim were among the first Israeli political parties basing their land policies on the Biblical narrative discussed above. They attracted attention following the capture of additional territory in the 1967 Six-Day War. They argue that the West Bank should be annexed permanently to Israel for both ideological and religious reasons. This position is in conflict with the basic "land for peace" settlement formula included in UN242. The Likud party, in the platform it maintained until prior to the 2013 elections, had proclaimed its support for maintaining Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank and Gaza, as the territory is considered part of the historical land of Israel.[70] In her 2009 bid for Prime Minister, Kadimaleader Tzipi Livni used the expression, noting, "we need to give up parts of the Land of Israel", in exchange for peace with the Palestinians and to maintain Israel as a Jewish state; this drew a clear distinction with the position of her Likud rival and winner, Benjamin Netanyahu.[71] However, soon after winning the 2009 elections, Netanyahu delivered an address[72] at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studiesat Bar-Ilan University that was broadcast live in Israel and across parts of the Arab world, on the topic of the Middle East peace process. He endorsed for the first time the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, while asserting the right to a sovereign state in Israel arises from the land being "the homeland of the Jewish people".[73]
The Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace, signed on 1993, led to the establishment of an agreed border between the two nations, and subsequently the state of Israel has no territorial claims in the parts of the historic Land of Israel lying east of the Jordan river.
Palestinian viewpoints
According to Palestinian historian Nur Masalha, Eretz Israel was a religious concept which was turned by Zionists into a political doctrine in order to emphasize an exclusive Jewish right of possession regardless of the Arab presence.[74] Masalha wrote that the Zionist movement has not given up on an expansive definition of the territory, including Jordan and more, even though political pragmatism has engendered a focus on the region west of the Jordan River.[75]
See also
Notes
  1. "Exodus 6:4 I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners". Bible.cc. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  2. "Gen 15:18–21; NIV; - On that day the LORD made a covenant". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  3. Michael J. Vlach, Has the Church Replaced Israel?: A Theological Evaluation,B&H Publishing Group, 2010 pp.3-5.
  4. Stephen Spector,Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism, Oxford University Press, 2009 p.21.
  5. Donald E. Wagner, Walter T. Davis, Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land, The Lutterworth Press, 2014 p.161.
  6. Anthony J. Kenny, Catholics, Jews, and the State of Israel, Paulist Press, 1993 pp.75-78.
  7. Michael Prior, The Bible and Colonialism: A Moral Critique, A&C Black 1997 p.171: ‘As an agent of legitimacy in international law, the Zionist appeal to Tanakh for legitimation of its claims to Eretz Israel is not much more compelling than if the Portuguese and Spanish Governments today presented to the UN the bulls off Nicholas V and Alexander VI, which also claimed divine authority, in their bid to reclaim the lands of the New World. p.171.
  8. Ian Bickerton, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Guide for the Perplexed, A&C Black, 2012 p.13.
  9. Eugene Cotran, Chibli Mallat, David Stott, (eds.) The Arab-Israeli Accords: Legal Perspectives, BRILL, 1996 pp.11-12.
  10. The Holy Land in History and Thought: Papers Submitted to the International conference edited by Moše Šārôn
  11. Israel Cohen, A Short History of Zionism, p.96, London, Frederick Muller Co., 1951
  12. Emma Playfair (1992). International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories: Two Decades of Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Oxford University Press. p. 41. On 17 December 1967, the Israeli military government issued an order stating that "the term 'Judea and Samaria region' shall be identical in meaning for all purposes . .to the term 'the West Bank Region'". This change in terminology, which has been followed in Israeli official statements since that time, reflected a historic attachment to these areas and rejection of a name that was seen as implying Jordanian sovereignty over them.
  13. Masalha 2007, p. 32.
  14. Keith W. Whitelam, The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History, (1996) Routledge 2013, page 43.
  15. Joseph Blenkinsopp, Ezekiel, Westminster John Knox Press, 1990, p.152: Quote: "It may be surprising to learn that the designation “the land of Israel” (’ereṣ yiśrā’êl), in common use today, occurs for the first time in Ezekiel (40:2; 47:18) and very rarely elsewhere (I Chron. 22:2; II Chron. 2:17), apart from the more restrictive allusion to the Northern Kingdom. By preference, however, Ezekiel speaks of the "soil of Israel" (’admat yiśrā’êl), a phrase that occurs eighteen times in the book and nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. (The title “holy land," literally “holy soil”, used preferentially by Christians, occurs only once, at Zech. 2:12.)"
  16. Noth, Martin (1960). "The Land of Israel". The history of Israel. Harper. p. 8. An authentic and original name for this land as a whole has not come down to us from Old Testament times, and presumably no such ever existed; since as a natural phenomenon it was never a homogeneous, self-contained entity and was never occupied by a homogeneous population, and it was hardly at any time the scene of a political organisation which substantially coincided with its actual area. So the expression 'the land of Israel' may serve as a somewhat flexible description of the area which the Israelite tribes had their settlements.
  17. Anita Shapira, 1992, Land and Power, ISBN 0-19-506104-7, p. ix
  18. Bradley Shavit Artson, 'Our Covenant with Stones: A Jewish Ecology of Earth,' in Judaism and Envirobnmental Ehics: A Reader,Lexington Books, 2001 pp.161-171,p.162
  19. Michael L. Satlow, Creating Judaism: History, Tradition, Practice, p.160, Columbia University Press, 2006.
  20. Sand 2012, p. 27.
  21. Rachel Havrelock, River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line,University of Chicago Press, 2011, p.21.
  22. Goldberg 2001, p. 147: The parallels between this narrative and that of Exodus continue to be drawn. Like Pharaoh before him, Herod, having been frustrated in his original efforts, now seeks to achieve his objectives by implementing a program of infanticide. As a result, here - as in Exodus - rescuing the hero’s life from the clutches of the evil king necessitates a sudden flight to another country. And finally, in perhaps the most vivid parallel of all, the present narrative uses virtually the same words of the earlier one to provide the information that the coast is clear for the herds safe return: here, in Matthew 2:20, "go [back]… for those who sought the Child's life are dead"; there, in Exodus 4:19, "go back… for all the men who sought your life are dead."
  23. Kol Torah, vol. 13, no. 9, Torah Academy of Bergen County, 8 November 2003
  24. See 6th and 7th portion commentaries by Rashi
  25. Stuart, Douglas K., Exodus, B&H Publishing Group, 2006, p. 549
  26. Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Walter A. Elwell, Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2001, p. 984
  27. The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny, By Eliezer Schweid, Translated by Deborah Greniman, Published 1985 Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press,ISBN 0-8386-3234-3, p.56.
  28. Jacob Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: JPS, 1990), 502.
  29. Paul R. Williamson, "Promise and Fulfilment: The Territorial Inheritance", in Philip Johnston and Peter Walker (eds.), The Land of Promise: Biblical, Theological and Contemporary Perspectives (Leicester: Apollos, 2000), 20–21.
  30. "1 Kings 11 NIV - Solomon’s Wives - King Solomon". Bible Gateway. Retrieved2013-08-11.
  31. Menachem Lorberbaum, ‘Making and Unmaking the Boundaries of Holy Land,’ in Allen E. Buchanan, Margaret Moore (eds) States, nations, and borders: the ethics of making boundaries. Cambridge University Press, 2003 pp19-40 p.24
  32. p.xxxv, R. Yisrael Meir haKohen (Chofetz Chayim), The Concise Book of Mitzvoth. This version of the list was prepared in 1968.
  33. Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim, Shmita
  34. The Ramban's addition to the Rambam's Sefer HaMitzvot.
  35. Ezekiel 47:21 "You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance," declares the Sovereign LORD.
  36. "Edersheim Bible History – Bk. 1, Ch. 10". Godrules.net. 19 December 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  37. "Edersheim Bible History – Bk. 1, Ch. 13". Godrules.net. 19 December 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  38. "Albert Barnes Notes on the Bible – Genesis 15". Gotothebible.com. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  39. "Genesis – Chapter 15 – Verse 13 – The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible on". Studylight.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  40. "Parshah In-Depth – Lech-Lecha". Chabad.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  41. "Did God send the angel to save Ishmael so that Islam could exist since Moslems believe Ishmael is the father of the Arabs?". Bible.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  42. "Reformed Answers: Ishmael and Esau". Thirdmill.org. Retrieved 13 November2011.
  43. "The Promises to Isaac and Ishmael". Christianleadershipcenter.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  44. "God Calls Abram Abraham". Washingtonubf.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  45. "Nigeriaworld Feature Article – The Abrahamic Covenant: Its scope and significance – A commentary on Dr. Malcolm Fabiyi's essay". Nigeriaworld.com. 17 March 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  46. Keil, Carl Friedrich; Delitzsch, Franz (1866). "Biblical commentary on the Old Testament".
  47. Yitzhak Ginsburgh, Rectifying the State of Israel (Israel: Gal Einai Institute, 2002), 52.
  48. "Pinḥas, the Quest for Purity, and the Dangers of Tikkun Olam". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 2015-12-11.
  49. Teitelbaum, Al Ha-Ge‘ulah ve-al Ha-Temurah (1967), pp. 7-9, 20, as translated in Ravitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism, 75.
  50. Augustine, The City of God (Book XVII), Chapter II. "And it was fulfilled through David, and Solomon his son, whose kingdom was extended over the whole promised space; for they subdued all those nations, and made them tributary. And thus, under those kings, the seed of Abraham was established in the land of promise according to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan..."
  51. Solomon Zeitlin, The Jews. Race, Nation, or Religion? (Philadelphia: Dropsie College Press, 1936). Cited in, Edelheit and Edelheit, History of Zionism: A Handbook and Dictionary
  52. Hershel Edelheit and Abraham J. Edelheit, History of Zionism: A Handbook and Dictionary, Westview Press, 2000. p 3.
  53. De Lange, Nicholas, An Introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press (2000), p. 30. ISBN 0-521-46624-5. The term "Zionism" was derived from the word Zion,which is the other name for Jerusalem, and is associated with the Return to Zion and coined by Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, in his journal Selbstemanzipation (Self Emancipation) in 1890.
  54. "The First Zionist Congress and the Basel Program". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  55. "The World: Pursuing Peace; Netanyahu and His Party Turn Away from Greater Israel". The New York Times. 22 November 1998. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  56. Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Israel's Contested Identity and the Mediterranean, The territorial-political axis: Eretz Israel versus Medinat Israel, p. 8
  57. "British control: Mandate Palestine". news.bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  58. 3 Feb 1919 Statement, quote "... recognize the historic title of the Jewish people to Palestine and the right of Jews to reconstitute in Palestine their National Home"
  59. "Zionist Organization Statement on Palestine, Paris Peace Conference, (February 3, 1919)". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  60. "League of Nations Mandate for Palestine". Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 24 July 1922. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  61. Israel Cohen, A Short History of Zionism, p.96, London, Frederick Muller Co., 1951,
  62. Meeting on November 9, 1920, quoted in: Memorandum No. 33, "Use of the Name Eretz-Israel’," in the Report by the Palestine Royal Commission, 1937,Memoranda Prepared by the Government of Palestine, C. O. No. 133.
  63. League of Nations, Permanent Mandate Commission, Minutes of the Ninth Session (Arab Grievances), Held at Geneva from 8 to 25 June 1926
  64. Israel's declaration of independence says "the British Mandate over Eretz Yisrael, and the Israeli law uses the term Eretz Yisrael to denote the territory subject directly to the British Mandate law, e.g. Article 11 of the "Government and Law Ordinance 1948" issued by Israel's Provisional State Council.
  65. "UNITED NATIONS ''General Assembly: A/RES/181(II):29 November 1947Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine'': Retrieved 24 April 2012". Domino.un.org. Retrieved 2013-08-11.
  66. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: THE DECLARATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL: May 14, 1948: Retrieved 24 April 2012
  67. David Ben-Gurion, "The Call of Spirit in Israel", in State of Israel, Government Yearbook, 5712 (1951/1952), page x.
  68. David Ben-Gurion, "Israel among the Nations", in State of Israel, Government Year-book, 5713 (1952), page 15.
  69. State of Israel, "Israel, the State and the Nation" in Government Year-book, 5716 (1955), page 320.
  70. Likud – Platform, knesset.gov.il, archived from the original on 2012-02-04, retrieved 4 September 2008
  71. "Tzipi Livni: give up half of Land of Israel". The Telegraph. 2009-02-16. Retrieved2015-04-23.
  72. "Full text of Binyamin Netanyahu's Bar Ilan speech". Haaretz. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
  73. Keinon, Herb (14 June 2009). "Netanyahu wants demilitarized PA state". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  74. Masalha 2007, p. 2-6.
  75. Masalha 2007, pp. 32–38.
Further reading
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eretz Israel.
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, July 29, 2016

7 Wonders of Jewish History


7 Wonders of Jewish History



Over 300 years ago, King Louis XIV of France asked Blaise Pascal, the great Christian philosopher, to give him proof of God. Pascal answered, “Why the Jews, your Majesty, the Jews!”
That the Jewish nation—such a tiny group of people—survived two thousand years of exile and persecution was nothing short of a supernatural phenomenon. Pascal wasn’t the only one who was so amazed by the survival of the Jewish people. Other thinkers, philosophers and historians have noticed something unusual about the Jews.
Mark Twain, an agnostic and self-acknowledged skeptic, penned this in 1899 in Harper’s Magazine:
“The Egyptian, Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away. The Greek and Roman followed, made a vast noise and they are gone. Other peoples have sprung up, and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out and they sit in twilight now or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal, but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
Why were Pascal, Mark Twain and many others so amazed by the survival of the Jews against all odds?

The Seven Wonders of Jewish History

1) Eternal Nation

(TOP)
It has been prophesied in the Torah that Jews would be an eternal nation:
“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and your descendants after you, throughout the generations. An eternal covenant to be your God, and the God of your descendants after you” (Genesis 17-7).
This promise is repeated many times throughout the Torah (Leviticus 26:43, Deuteronomy 4:26-27, Deut. 28:63-64). And it has come true. Even though Jews did not have a homeland, a common language or a shared history (the factors that historians use to define a nation), they have remained a distinct people.

2) Exile and Dispersion

It has been prophesied in the Torah that Jews would be exiled and dispersed:
“And you, I will scatter among the nations, at the point of My drawn sword, leaving your country desolate and your cities in ruins” (Leviticus 26:33).
Jews have remained a people despite exile and dispersion. In all of human history, there have been less than ten exiles of an entire people out of their country. It’s a highly unusual phenomenon to take a whole people and throw them out of their country.
Multiple exiles are unheard of, since after the first one the people generally disappear—they simply become assimilated among other peoples. In human history, multiple exiles and dispersion are unique only to the Jewish people.
The dispersion of the Jewish People to the four corners of the globe is a completely unique phenomenon in human history. Jews have wandered and settled in almost every land on earth -while somehow managing to maintain their distinct national identity.
The Jewish people were exiled from Israel by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. They survived, returned to Israel after 70 years, and then built the Second Temple. Then in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, causing the Jews to go into exile once again.
Therefore, we see two different uniquenesses:
A. The only nation exiled twice from their own land
B. The only nation to ever survive and return from a previous exile
The Torah goes on to spell out one final uniqueness within this phenomenon—amongst these nations within which the Jews will be scattered, there will be a continual wandering. Immediately after Deuteronomy 28:64 (“And G-d shall scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other…”), the prophesy continues—“Among those nations you shall find no repose, not a foot of ground to stand upon, for there the L-rd will give you an anguished heart and wasted eyes and a dismayed spirit.” (Deuteronomy 28:65).
This prophesy of the “Wandering Jew” has remarkably not only characterized our ancient history, it continues to identify us as a unique people right up until and including the present day.
When we scan the diaspora of Jewry over the entire globe and throughout the entire civilized world, we are surprised to see that this Nation, which is almost the most ancient in the world, is in truth the youngest in terms of the land under its feet and the sky above its head.  As a result of the relentless persecutions and forced expulsions, most Jews are but recent new-comers to their respective lands of residence.  Ninety percent of the Jewish people have lived in their new homes for no more than 50 or 60 years!  (The Jewish People) are dispersed throughout over 100 lands on all five continents.
- Leschzinsky, “The Jewish Dispersion”, pg. 9 (Heb.)

3) Few In Number

It has been prophesied in the Torah that Jews will survive as an eternal nation despite dispersion and being few in number:
“God will then scatter you among the nations, and only a small number will remain among the nations where God shall lead you” (Deuteronomy 4:27).
To every other people, a small population spells extinction. We know from the records that the Romans kept about 2,000 years ago, there were between 8-10 million Jews living in the world. How many Jews do demographers say should be in the world today?
If in the same period of time, the Chinese went from a population of 30 million to over 1 billion people, there should be approximately 500 million Jews alive in the world today. After the Chinese and the Indians, the third largest ethnic group on the planet earth should be the Jews! But there are only 14 million Jews alive today.
There are virtually no more Jews in the world today than there were 2,000 years ago and yet throughout all this time, the Jews remained a distinct people.

4) Anti-Semitism

The term “anti-Semitism” itself is very curious. Why not refer to the hatred and persecution of Jews by more generic terms like religious bigotry, xenophobia, or racism? The Jews are the only group in the world with a unique term for their persecution. Why? The world seems to realize that anti-Semitism isn’t simply one more unfortunate example of hatred in the world, but is instead a phenomenon specific to the Jews.
There are four different aspects to anti-Semitism which characterize it as being a hatred like no other:
1) Universality
2) Intensity
3) Longevity
4) Irrationality

Universality:

The universal scope of anti-Semitism can be seen in the fact that Jews have been expelled from virtually every country in which they have resided. Jews were expelled from England in 1290, France in 1306 and 1394, Hungary in 1349 and 1360, Austria in 1421, from various places in Germany throughout the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, from Lithuania in 1445 and 1495, Spain in 1492, Portugal in 1497, and from Bohemia and Moravia in 1744-45. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, Jews were not permitted to enter Russia, and when they were finally admitted, they were restricted to one area, the Pale of Settlement.
Parallel to these atrocities in Europe were various levels of anti-Semitism at the hands of the Arabs. From Islam’s inception in the 7th century, the Jews living in Arab countries were constantly made to feel like second-class citizens. Violent outbreaks sporadically occurred throughout the following 1300 years and reached a climax during the years 1948 and 1967. During that period, almost all of the Jews living in Aden, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, over 500,000 in all, were forced to flee, fearing for their lives, in the wake of pogroms, assaults and massacres.
Even as far away as Ethiopia, where a small community of Jews were cut off from the rest of the Jewish people for over 2000 years, we find evidence of persecution from the neighboring peoples. There has even been evidence of anti-Semitism in Japan—a country where virtually no Jews ever lived!
 Jewish Persecution Timeline

Intensity:

The ultimate example is the Holocaust (acknowledged throughout the world as the ultimate manifestation of evil in all of history)—the only time an entire people (i.e., men, women and children) had a campaign of complete annihilation waged against them.

Longevity:

Most of the world’s great powers, even those with only a small percentage of Jews among them, regarded the Jews as a central enemy. This phenomenon began as early as the Greek persecutions of Jews during the Second Temple period. It continued with the late Roman Empire, the Arabs, and the Christian world for over 15 centuries (most notably with the frequent occurrence of blood libels all throughout the Middle Ages) and more recently with the Nazis and the Soviet Union, as well as the Arabs today.

FULL LIST OF EMPIRES AGAINST THE JEWS:

Egyptian Empire,
Chaldean Empire,
Babylonian Empire,
Greek Empire,
Roman Empire,
Byzantine Empire,
Spanish Empire,
Ottoman Turkish Empire,
British Empire,
Austro-Hungarian Empire,
German Empire,
French Empire,
Russia Empire,
Soviet Empire,
Nazi Empire

Irrationality:

We are the only people ever accused of “deicide” (killing a god)—this has been claimed as one of the major causes of anti-Semitism for almost 2000 years. Despite the fact that eating blood is as strong a prohibition as that against eating pork, Jews were constantly persecuted throughout the Middle Ages through blood libels, the charge that we drank the blood of non-Jewish children. We were attacked in pogroms for well-poisoning and once even for air-poisoning.
The Jews in Germany were accused of having brought Socialism and Communism to Germany, of being responsible for Germany losing World War I, and of causing the economic problems of the 1920’s. This paranoia existed in spite of the fact that the percentage of Jews in Germany at the time was only 0.8%. Many nations have even hurt themselves with their persecution of the Jews, most notably Spain (economically) and Germany (with science, culture, military, etc.).
A forgery purporting to be the conspiratorial discussions of Jewish elders plotting to take over the world, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was, next to the Bible, the best-selling book in the world during the 1920’s. It has since been printed in numerous languages. Since 1987 it is being widely distributed in Japan…
Of all the extreme fanaticism that plays havoc in man’s nature, there is none as irrational as anti-Semitism. The Jews cannot vindicate themselves in the eyes of these fanatics. If the Jews are rich, they are victims of theft and extortion. If they are poor, they are victims of ridicule. If they take sides in a war, it is because they wish to gain advantage from the spilling of non-Jewish blood. If they espouse peace, it is because they are scared and anxious by nature or traitors to their country. If the Jew dwells in a foreign land he is persecuted and expelled. If he wishes to return to his own land, he is prevented from doing so.                                                                                                                                          - Lloyd George, 1923
Whatever we do, that is precisely what is cited as the reason for the hatred against us. At the same time that Jews in America were accused of being communists, Jews in Russia were being labeled as capitalists. The more one studies anti-Semitism, the more obvious it becomes that the innumerable “explanations” offered throughout the various societies in which Jews have resided are not reasons at all (i.e. whose absence would necessarily result in no more persecutions), but rather excuses.
But as my research into Jewish history progressed, I was surprised, depressed, and to some extent overwhelmed by the perpetual and irrational violence which pursued the Jews in every country and to almost every corner of the globe. If, therefore, persecution, expulsion, torture, humiliation, and mass murder haunt these pages, it is because they also haunt the Jewish story.                                                                                       
- Martin Gilbert, “Jewish History Atlas” Oxford 1985
It has been prophesied in the Torah that Jews will be persecuted:
“Among those nations you shall find no respite, no rest for your foot. There God will make you cowardly, destroying your outlook and making life hopeless. You will live in constant suspense. Day and night, you will be terrified, never sure of your existence. In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were night,’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ Such will be the dread that your heart will feel and the sights that your eyes will see” (Deut. 28:65-67).
No other form of racial hatred comes close to anti-Semitism in its virulence, its intensity and its irrationality.
As Professor Michael Curtis of Rutgers University put it:
“The uniqueness of anti-Semitism lies in the fact that no other people in the world have ever been charged simultaneously with alienation from society and with cosmopolitanism, with being capitalistic exploiters and also revolutionary communist advocators. The Jews were accused of having an imperious mentality, at the same time they’re a people of the book. They’re accused of being militant aggressors, at the same time as being cowardly pacifists. With being a chosen people, and also having an inferior human nature. With both arrogance and timidity. With both extreme individualism and community adherence. With being guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus and at the same time held to account for the invention of Christianity.” (Colloquium on anti-Semitism, 1987)
If we look at the history of anti-Semitism, we see one unceasing chain of slaughter, pogroms, pillaging, expulsion, etc. There are horrendous levels of violence that lead up to the worst thing that can be done to a hated people: Genocide. Most nations in history have not been subjected to even one genocide. But in almost every generation there’s an attempted Jewish genocide somewhere in the world on a macrocosmic or microcosmic scale.
 Jewish Persecution Timeline

5) Light to the Nations

It has been prophesied in the Torah that Jews would be a light unto the nations,
“I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You shall become a blessing. And I will bless those who bless
Now, if you obey Me and keep my covenant, then you shall be My special treasure among all the nations for all the world is Mine. And you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Me… (Exodus 19:5-6)
The prophet Isaiah (42:6) states,
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand and keep you. And I will establish you as a covenant of the people, for a light unto the nations.”
Despite our small numbers, the Jewish People seem to occupy a disproportionate place as a focus of world attention.
As Mark Twain wrote of the Jew:
“He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning, are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.”
How could we imagine a small group having such a profound impact on the world all around it? The two approaches which seem to have some precedent to them are:
1) Conquest (like in the case of Greece and Rome), or
2) Proselytization (as with Christianity and Islam).
The difficulty, however, is that during the past almost 2,000 years, the Jewish people have rarely had an army, and have always shied away from conversions.
Despite being the most hated people, few in number and dispersed across the globe, Jews are the most influential people the world has known. Jews are responsible for the idea of ethical monotheism and the absolute moral standard that comes from a belief in one God.
Before the Jews, the ancient world thought that infanticide was morally correct (even Aristotle wrote in favor of it.) Before the Jews came along, the world thought that “might was right.”
It was the Jewish people that gave the world the ideas of respect for life, peace, equality, justice, love of neighbor, social responsibility, and holiness of human purpose.
Approximately three billion people (almost half the world) believes in some form of monotheism, and all agree that they got it from us (i.e. from Abraham). This is the clear prerequisite to both morality and civilization in the world.
All throughout the world, many of the major concepts within Judaism have been widely accepted:
  1. We are all “children of one G-d”, therefore we have a fundamental social responsibility towards others. This leads directly to “love your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:18)—a Jewish, not a Christian idea.
  2. Society must be committed to truth, justice, fair trials, etc.
  3. All people have free will and unlimited potential for greatness. “All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence). This may be why the Talmud mandated universal education about 2,000 years ago, while the rest of the world has only incorporated this into their society within the last 100 years.
  4. We should seek peace, not war. Today, on the wall outside the United Nations, the hope of the world is emblazoned, using the words of the Jewish prophet Isaiah: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nations shall not lift up sword against nations. Neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4) (click here for picture)
One might ask, “Aren’t these ideas intuitively obvious? How can we take credit for them? Didn’t other societies also have them?” The point being made is the following—we are the only society which doesn’t merely posses the ideas, but has a complete system for implementing them. Our society, in fact, was the only one until very recently which even attempted to actually put them into practice. It is very significant to note that many of these ideas were only accepted recently by the Western world—where our influence has been strongest, and are still not accepted in many areas of the rest of the world—where our influence has been more minimal.
A very fundamental question could be asked on everything which has been said within this prophecy until now: The prophecy is that the Jewish people will be a light unto the nations; all that has been shown until now, however, could be viewed as merely showing that the Torah alone has been a light unto the nations. Where do we have any indication that the Jewish people themselves, independent from Judaism, have an intrinsic ability to strongly impact the world? In other words, maybe there is nothing particularly distinctive about Jews themselves. Perhaps, it is only because the Jews have been in possession of such an extraordinary book, the Torah, that their impact upon the world has been so profound!
The difficulty with attempting to answer this question is that all throughout history, Jews have been so intrinsically connected with the Torah. It would seem that the only way to evaluate this would be to do an experiment in which we separated Jews from Judaism. We could then determine if Jews continued behaving in an extraordinary manner (although not necessarily in accordance with Torah guidelines) or simply faded into the background and acted like all other people.
This experiment has already been performed for us. Over the past 150 years, for the first time in all of Jewish history, we have Jews entirely disconnected from Judaism. What then do we find when we study the behavior of these first truly secular Jews?
The Wall Street Journal ran a 3-part series a few years ago on the three individuals that in their view had the greatest impact on the entire 20th century. Who do you think they selected? Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and Karl Marx. How likely is it that all three would turn out to be Jewish? Considering that the Jews have never (in recent times) exceeded 1/2 of 1% of the world population, that means that for every Jew that lived within the previous 150 years, there were over 200 non-Jews. Therefore the odds against the first of these three occupying this position of ultimate influence on the world were 200 to 1, the second joining him were 40,000 to 1, and the third being there as well, were 8,000,000 to 1.
Remarkably, Jews have received almostone-fifth of all Nobel prizes awarded since 1901. This is all the more striking when one considers that it was as recently as the middle of the 19th century that Jews were first given the ability to attend universities and enter many different professions, especially in the various sciences!
Jews continue to be exceptionally committed to education. In America, they are twice as likely to attend college as non-Jews. At Ivy League schools, about 23% of students are Jewish, even though Jews comprise just 2% of the U.S. population, according to Hillel. In numerous top colleges, Jews comprise in excess of 30% of the student population. At least 35% of Washington students and about 30% of Emory students are Jewish, even though these are in the south, with traditionally low Jewish student populations. In 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported that many colleges were actively recruiting Jews to their ranks. This encluded Vanderbilt where Jewish enrollment had gone up from 2% in the 70’s to 4% in the 2000s. Princeton in the 1980s cultivated ties with predominantly Jewish high schools by offering merit scholarships to their graduates. One third of the University of Pennsylvania’s student body is Jewish. 
Jews are prominently in the forefront pushing for social change:
1) Many of the top leaders of both the Russian and Hungarian revolutions were Jewish.
2) Approximately 60% of the members of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)—the major student activist organization of the 1960’s, were Jews. The two most well-known student activists of the 1960’s, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, were both Jews. In fact, a survey by the American Council of Education in 1966-7 stated that “the best single predictor of campus protest (during the 1960’s) was the presence of a substantial number of students from Jewish backgrounds.”
3) In 1967, 40% of all Peace Corps volunteers were Jewish.
4) In careers: Jews in the USA are over represented in proportion to the general population by 231% in medicine, 233% in mathematics, 265% in law, 300% in dentistry, and 479% in psychiatry.
5) In income: Jews in the USA have the highest income of any ethnic group, 72% above the average and 40% higher than the second highest group, the Japanese.
The Gemara says that Jews are more driven for meaning than non-Jews. It is this extraordinary drive for meaning which seems to be the common denominator for all of these many differences in the behavior of even secular Jews. Whether meaning is understood in terms of science, education, desire for social change, idealism, a prestigious profession, or just money—Jews are clearly more determined and able to achieve a remarkable level of success than the general non-Jewish population around them. One thing which is abundantly clear—this phenomenon of uniqueness is just as much a function and a statement of the Jewish people themselves as it is about the Torah.

6) The Interdependency of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel

It has been prophesied in the Torah that the land of Israel was rich and fertile while the Jews were living there:
“I have come down to rescue them from Egypt’s power. I will bring them out of that land, to a good, spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…”
(Exodus 3:8)
Even up until the time of Josephus (i.e. approximately 1300 years later), it was still very prosperous and fertile.
For the whole area is excellent for crops or pasturage and rich in trees of every kind, so that by its fertility it invites even those least inclined to work on the land. In fact, every inch of it has been cultivated by the inhabitants and not a parcel goes to waste. It is thickly covered with towns, and thanks to the natural abundance of the soil, the many villages are so densely populated that the smallest of them has more than fifteen thousand inhabitants.
(Josephus, The Jewish Wars; Book III 3:2 Penguin edition, p. 192)
And when they were exiled, it would become barren and desolate:
“So devastated will I leave the land that your enemies who live there will be astonished… Your land will remain desolate, and your cities in ruins.”
(Leviticus 26:32-33)
During the two thousand years of Israel’s exile from its Land, numerous empires have conquered the Land and countless wars were fought for its possession. And yet, astonishingly, no conqueror ever succeeded in permanently settling the Land or causing the deserts to blossom.
Mark Twain, who visited Israel in 1867, describes the Land of Israel:
“We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given wholly to weeds - A silent, mournful expanse… A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action . The further we went the hotter the sun got and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became.”
(“The Innocents Abroad” Vol. II)
Others make similar observations:
Outside the walls of Jerusalem however we saw no living being, heard no living voice. We encountered that desolation and that deadly silence which we would have expected to find at the ruined gates of Pompey… A total eternal dread spell envelopes the city, the highways and the villages… the burial grounds of an entire people.
Alfons de Lamartine, “Recollections of the East” Volume I London (1845) pg. 238 (Hebrew-French)
Until today no people has succeeded in establishing national dominion in the land of Israel… No national unity or spirit of nationalism has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed to settle there did so on lease, as temporary residents. It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the land.

Professor Sir John William Dosson in “Modern Science in Bible Lands” London (1888) Pp. 449-450
The Ramban comments on Leviticus 26:32
Similarly, that which He stated here, and your enemies that shall dwell therein shall be desolate in it, constitutes a good tiding, proclaiming that during all our exiles, our Land will not accept our enemies. This also is a great proof and assurance to us, for in the whole inhabited part of the world one cannot find such a good and large Land which was always lived in and yet is as ruined as it is [today], for since the time that we left it, it has not accepted any nation or people, they all try to settle it, but to no avail.
The “land of milk and honey” turning into a desert, is a phenomenon unique in the annals of history.

7) The Return of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel

It has been prophesied in the Torah that Jews would be exiled from the land and that they would return to the land:
And it shall come to pass when these things shall come upon you, the blessing and the curse that I have placed before you, you will take it to heart amongst all of the nations where God has scattered you; you will return to the Lord your God and you will listen to His voice according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your children with all of your heart and with all of your soul. Then the Almighty will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you; and He will return and gather you from among all of the nations where he has dispersed you. If your dispersed ones will be even at the ends of the heavens, from there God Almighty will gather you and from there He will take you. And God your Lord will bring you to the land that your fathers inherited and you shall inherit it and He will do good for you and make you more numerous than your forefathers. (Deuteronomy 30:1-5)
No other people has ever gone into exile and survived for thousands of years to come back to re-establish a national homeland. The return of the Jews from exile to the land of Israel was nothing short of a miracle.
However, not only was the physical return of the Jewish people prophesied, the re-blossoming of the land was as well.
As for you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for their return is close at hand. For behold, I am with you and I shall turn to you; then you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply men upon you, the entire family of Israel… Then I will multiply men and animals upon you, and they shall increase and be fruitful. I shall cause you to be inhabited as in your former times and I will make you even more bountiful than you were in your beginnings. You shall know that I am G-d.

Ezekiel 36:8-11
As long as Israel does not dwell on its Land, the Land does not give of her produce as she is accustomed. When she will begin to reflourish, however, and give of her fruits in abundance, this is a clear sign that the end—the time of Redemption—is approaching, when all Israel will return to their Land.

Maharsha, R. Shmuel Eliezer Aidels (1555-1631)
Just as after the 1300 years of prosperity from when the Jewish people first entered Israel from Egypt, we’d have expected this fertility to have continued, after almost 2000 years of desolation, we’d certainly expect this to continue as well. Either—even a good land would be ruined by then, OR—if the land was still good, wouldn’t we figure that someone else would have been able to have made it work before almost 2,000 years had gone by?!

Conclusion

When we look at Jewish history, we see a history where the Jewish people have defied the laws of nature and the laws of history! We have survived and impacted this world though we have been thrown out of our land not once, but twice! We have impacted the world perhaps more than any other people in history—the concepts of the value of human life, universal education, justice and equality, the importance of and goal of world peace (as opposed to glorifying war), the importance of a strong stable family as a basis for a moral foundation for society, individual and national responsibility for the world—though we were beaten, killed and exiled from one nation to the other. Though few in number and spread to the four corners of the earth, we survived as a people, never assimilating into anonymity. Even our land, the Land of Israel, defied the laws of nature, only fertile when the Jewish people inhabited it.
Coincidence? Good luck? A roll of the dice? Perhaps—except that each and every phenomena was prophesied and predicted in the Torah hundreds and thousands of years before the events. Does it make you think that perhaps something is going on here? That perhaps there is a special relationship between the Almighty and the Jewish people?
The Almighty, the Jewish people and the Torah are intertwined. In the past 3,300 years there have been effort after effort—from within as well as from without—to redefine and redirect our people. Each and every one has failed. If you wonder why, then perhaps the time has come to read the Torah and find out.  The Torah is not only our heritage, it is the game plan for the Jewish people and the world.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)