Why is it so frustratingly hard to talk with today’s living descendants of European Christian and Arab Muslim colonizers of Indigenous Peoples’ lands (lands not European nor Arab, but occupied by them, in too many ways)? Consider this, please:
The Jewish people of Judea-Samaria are very much like the Igbo people of Nigeria. Both have a theocratic ethno-religious way of life that defines our ethno-national identity and requires our continuing presence upon our ancestral land. (1)
Colonizers are, by systemic design, culturally raised to believe in Colonizer revisionist history – a history that validates the Colonizers’ history of conquests (land grabbing) and that erases the historical presence and history of the Indigenous Peoples (whose lands were occupied or outright taken). Thus, those raised as the colonized and the livng descendants of the Colonizers honestly *cannot* hear you nor understand you, as occupied minority peoples, because European and Arab Colonizers’ racial/religious supremacy over Indigenous Peoples’ lands must ultimately and always be right. So say the Colonizers!
The Jewish people are the only Indigenous People in this world who have been propped up by the world’s two Colonizer religions to be a “World Religion” (a “European” world religion, so says both Colonizers, though we are always the minority people of the Middle Eastern Levant), in order to justify the existence of the conquesting and proselytizing Christian and Muslim gentile religions (2.4 billion converts to Aegean-created Christianity and 1.9 billion converts to Arabia-created Islam) that based their legitimacy upon *our* Jewish ancestors (our people’s origin myths, all 15 million of us), rather than obsessing over their own ancestors and (now replaced) ethno-religious traditions.
So, even if/when speaking, we Indigenous Jews of Judea-Samaria are repeatedly and constantly *erased* in the social narratives (unheard in person) along with our history. Europeans and Arabs and their dutiful colonized *must* be right – less they face accounting for their violent, even genocidal, histories towards Indigenous Peoples upon this planet. Thus, we Indigenous Peoples clinging to and fighting for our land and our Indigenous Rights simply can’t be right in their minds! And they overwhelming outnumber us, and *must* speak for us!
When online, know a colonized troll when you see one, call that colonized troll out with accurate, factual, demonstrable real world history, then move on (don’t feed the troll with meaningless arguments!). We Indigenous Peoples, we the Jewish people, need to own our own narrative and guide conversations with historical truth, for the sake of the silent readers/listeners (they are out there!).
Want to be a friend and ally of the Jewish people? Then, put your religion aside, and be a public active supporter of all Indigenous Peoples Indigenous Rights to unthreatened *peaceful* self-sovereignty upon *our* ancestral land! Indigeneity does not mean primative. Indigeneity does not mean poor. Indigeneity does not mean brown skin! Again, not all indigenous peoples are brown skinned! Please, look up the U.N definition of what an Indigenous People are, for knowledge is power!
(1) – Geographically, the Igbo homeland and the Israeli (Jewish) homeland are mirror images of each other. The Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Niger river – an eastern side (which is the larger of the two) and a western side. The Jewish homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Jordan river – an eastern side (which is the smaller of the two) and a western side (Judea-Samaria).
For both Igbo and Jewish indigenous peoples, both theocratic in nature, spirituality has always played a defining role in their everyday lives. Odinani is a pantheistic and polytheistic ethno-religion, having a strong central deity at its head. Judaism started out as a Canāanite polytheistic religion, with a strong central deity at its head – then, centered on henotheism (exclusive devotion to only the Landlord deity) from the 2nd Temple period into the European “Middle Ages” period of the history of human civilizations (wherein Rabbinic Judaism established a new religious devotion, now called *monotheism*!).
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I get this a lot from the questionably Jewish or the outright not Jewish: “Are you trying to separate folks that have Jewish Faith from those of us with DNA? Anyone can convert but, for some of us, it’s heritage. So, why are you segregating?”
Let me clarify that in Halacha, in Jewish law, there is no Jew by “faith” in Judaism! We are not a religion! We are an Indigenous People with an ethno-religion, and we do not have an inherent faith theology to define who is Jewish. That latter part is gentile Christianity and Islam, who are constantly speaking for us, full stop!
Jewish identity is derived solely through our people’s Halacha, again, full stop!
Like there is no skin color concept in Jewish law, there is no DNA concept, as well! For example, if I have a brother from the same father, but from different mothers – where my mother is Jewish and his mother is non-Jewish – the halacha of our Jewish people (for most Jewish communities) is very clear – I am Jewish by birth and he is gentile by birth, full stop!
In other words, for my brother of a gentile mother to be Jewish, he must ethno-religiously convert. Even though we both share the exact same Levantine DNA Y haplogroup between us! Jews by conversion are Jewish, because they were giving this membership in the Jewish people via a community’s halachic determination, and this has nothing to do with personal choice or a declaration of “faith.” And, now Jewish, he/she is legally entitled and expected to marry a Jew and give birth to Jewish children.
Folks, this is how Indigenous People status is determined in this world! It’s not about belief, but about Indigeneity – the continuity of ethno-religious tradition to keep the Indigenous identity, the relationship with the ancestral land, and the Indigenous way of life alive. Regardless of looks and skin color or DNA!
Many born Jews are born into Marxism, atheism, and political Zionism, and have never stepped into a synagogue or learned Talmud/Torah a day in their life. Yet, halachically, they are Jewish and must be recognized as such. Likewise, many born Jews are raised in our Jewish ethno-religion and are religious Zionists every day of their life, and they too are obviously Jewish.
Just because you have Jewish ancestors somewhere, this alone does not make you Jewish by Jewish law. As well, just because you have a specific DNA that is common among Jews, this is not a determining factor on legitimate Jewish status. Lastly, for those who do this, just because you personally choose to claim to be a Jew, practice our ethno-religious rituals, and some of our Jewish halacha, if you’re not born into a Jewish family by halacha or have not faced a community’s beit din determination on your Jewish status or are not a bonafide Talmud recognized “tinok she’nishba,” then you are not Jewish, full stop!
Does *anyone* reading actually have questions?! We Jews can tell the Colonizers and the Colonized, simply based on the demonstrable fact that the colonized speak *for* us, and never ask *questions* that may create supremacist doubt about their beliefs.
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Jews do not need to prove the historicity of our ethnocentric tall tales for them to be our sacred stories. (That’s non-Jewish Christian and Muslim thinking!) Jews approach our Torah’s stories as if they were history, because within Torah it is the history of our people. (And this, in itself, is enough!)
Archaeology shows that Israel has always been in Moab and Judea-Samaria. And Archaeology shows that it was Canāanites that traveled south (some, not all) and settled in northen Egypt for over 400 years, before several exoduses back north (most, not all) during the 19th and 20 Egyptian dynasties.
Torah makes very clear that the people of Israel became a unique ethno-religious people in Moab, west side of the (Jordan) river, then crossed the river, and settled (inherited) Judea-Samaria. The Torah was written and redacted by the people of Judea-Samaria, possibly some of it during temporary exile in Babylon.
The only real world history (as opposed to Torah world history) that is important for Jews is that we Jews became a unique ethno-religious indigenous people in Moab, and that we became an ethno-nationality in Judea-Samaria.
The rest is commentary. And for Jews that love our Torah stories, proving historicity (beyond the obvious two above) is a foolish endeavor, for it is unnecessary. It’s also counterproductive for the Jewish people, for both Christianity and Islam uses our Torah stories to justify the non-Jewish religious idea that Jews, the Indigenous People of Judea-Samaria, are just Colonizers – just like European Christians and Arab Muslims (a very false equivalency!).
Both historically and very much presently, this is the “go to” argument by Christians and Muslims to justify their superseding belief that, somehow, Jews don’t deserve our Jewish right to self-determination on our ancestral land (which is the very definition of Zionism, Judaism, and the Covenant!).
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Yes, sacred mountains and sacred lands! … The key sentence in this article is: “The sources J and P say Sinai. The sources E and D say Horeb.” There were two different source traditions, that were expertly combined to preserve both literary positions.
The mountain of YHWH of the akedah story is tied to the mountain of Elohim in Horeb but, despite these encounters with the divine by foreparents visiting mountains, D is very clear that YHWH chose to make his Covenant with only the people of Israel living in Moab (not with the foreparent ancestors before). Moab is east side of the (Jordan) river, which the people of Israel crossed to also settle the west side, Judea-Samaria. But the Judean and priestly writings speak of a very different kind of divine encounter at Sinai.
Whether scholars are right that Horeb and Sinai are the same place or that scribes ultimately redacted the differing/conflicting story traditions into the Torah giving the semblance of the same place, what is important is to realize that this happened in Judea-Samaria, west side of the river. The Canāanites were the foreparents of Edom, Judah, and Moab – whom from a significant number traveled south, settled for over 400 years in northern Egypt, and in multiple exoduses during the 19th and 20th Egyptian dynasties return to Canāan.
Thus, the stage is now set for the surviving descendants, the Indigenous of Judea-Samaria, the Jewish people, to combine these inherited literary traditions into a uniquely Jewish-centric set of origin myths. A set of Judean conquesting origin stories that will rivel the empire stories of the Babylonians and of the Egyptians! A minority nation’s self-identity status as a people that is as royal as the conquesting (and often ruling) majority bigger nations.
Did I forget to mention that, in our greatest geographical size moment as the people of Israel (ANE period), we still were four times *smaller* than today’s United States’s State of New York, and Arabia was still 3.2 times larger than the US State of Texas?
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אוהב את זה!
Ysoscher Katz shares: “Miriam Anzovin’s subversive daf yomi tiktok videos have been all the rage the last few days.
The Forward describes her project as follows: “Following the same schedule as Daf Yomi, the page-a-day Talmud study cycle whose participants number in the tens of thousands worldwide, Anzovin hair-tosses, speed-talks and eyebrow-pops through her homemade recaps, distilling the daily dose to its sauciest moments.
In Anzovin’s very online breakdowns of the Talmud, everyone is relatable: Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa’s wife’s neighbor, thwarted by divine intervention more than 2,000 years ago, is a “Karen”; Rabbi Yochanan, whose radiant beauty is a matter of Talmudic discussion, is a “legendary hottie”; and Rav and Rav Huna are “besties” beholden to a “bro code.” (Forward 1/13/2022)
While some people might recoil from such a stark display of irreverence, the truth is that what she does is admirable and perhaps even essential.
In order for the Talmud to succeed at what religious texts are supposed to accomplish—to vivify and inspire—it needs to be presented in a manner that corresponds with people’s contemporary reality. Anzovin does exactly that, ingeniously. She reads Gemara through a contemporary and colloquial prism. While the core ingredients of the page of Talmud remain the same, she drastically changes the narrational (metaphorical) colors and fragrances, thereby making the content accessible and relatable. This allows her “followers” to be spiritually nourished by our foundational texts; by interpretively making it their own. The result: a text that was destined to wither in the scorching twenty first century’s cynical climate is instead given new life on tiktok.
True, the revised version has become unrecognizable to the traditionalists, who perhaps are appalled. Ultimately, though, creativity and adaptability will prevail—for obvious reasons. Because it is the only way Judaism’s foundational texts could be further perpetuated outside the confines of its ultra-religious cradle—by constantly fine-tuning the spiritual message it is trying to convey-and altering the means by which this message is articulated.
Metaphysically, religious texts are blank slates and only earn their raison d’etre from their encounter with their adherents. The audience that listens to a text’s religious message gives it its vitality; their interpretation gives it its meaning. The text only comes to life once the interpretive community has decided to discern its message and apply its wisdom to their life experiences.
Anzovin seems to be great at doing exactly that, and for this she deserves to be commended and applauded.”
Daf Yomi storytelling made simply relatable and fun for today’s simple minds!
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