Torah is an Indigenous People’s collection of myths and *should be read* as such, for it was meant as such! I’ll explain.
The *placement* of the Gan Eyden myth (aka, “Adam and Eve”) in Torah is just as important to the overall origin story of we Indigenous Judeans (b’nei Yisrael) as is the correct understanding of the myth itself! Adam means “human,” and Chavah (“Eve”) means “life-giver.” What does this heavily appropriated Indigenous Judean myth teach us? And *why* wasn’t it the first or only creation story written to our Judean Torah?
To answer these questions, we must first understand what the myth of “Adam and Eve” is actually saying. What is this story about? This creation story “is a myth about a man created to tend the garden of a divine being, a woman created to be the man’s companion, and a talking snake who tempts the woman to eat fruit from a magical Tree of Knowledge, declared off-limits by the Being who created it all. This is a story about a woman disobeying her creator for the purpose of gaining wisdom. She is the protagonist who moves the story – and the subsequent history of humanity – forward. At her instigation, and with the guidance of a serpent, the humans trade a life of ignorance (and potentially immortality) as God’s gardeners, for a taste of divine knowledge.”
So, what precisely, then, is this Indigenous Judean myth meant to teach us, who are *listeners* to Torah chanting? First, it has nothing to do with Christianity’s idea of “original sin,” nor the talking serpent being “the Devil (whatever this is!),” nor the woman being created “subservient” to the man. Do not listen to appropriated *interpretations*!
To the latter, Adam (human) had no gender when formed *or* was both genders when formed by the land-god, YHWH, from the adamah (humus of the land). YHWH was assigned to this Levant land by high-god El. Adam would assign genders to all the creatures brought to him by YHWH, but Adam would not have a gender until Chavah (was removed from Adam’s side), wherein Adam, then, declares the existence of isha (woman) from ish (man). This is the mythic reason men and women seek to mate, because we “were taken from” each other.
But, as shared above, this Indigenous Judean story is about more. Way more! Adam and Chavah represent the First Peoples/nations of the Levant, YHWH’s land. And, this is our original origin myth on how the people of Israel came to be in this world, and *where* in this world that we came to be as a people. The scroll Bereishit is the first scroll of five, meant to be read in their assigned order. The first Judean scroll that was written by the Jewish people in Judea-Samaria, D’varim, is the last scroll in Torah order, and it echoes this “we are of the Levant land” sentiment, as the concluding Constitutional scroll of the five scrolls of Torah. D’varim says that we became a distinct Indigenous People in Moab, and became a distinct Indigenous nation north of Moab and across the river in Judea-Samaria.
But wait, folks, there’s still even more! There are two creation myths in Torah, not one. The first in the order of the two, “at the beginning” of creating, is the Six Days of Elohim creating a land, skies, waters, and all life on it from within Elohim god’s premordial body or elements. This is, then, followed by the (earlier discussed) Garden of Eden localized land-based YHWH god’s creation of a garden with a human upon it. Both are seperated by a Shabbat. Why?! And, more importantly, *why* wasn’t the Garden of Eden myth the first or only creation story written to our Judean Torah?
The answer to this question should be obvious, were it not for appropriating religions’ theologies and their massive worldwide influence. The myth of Levantine Jewish Indigenous origin upon Judea-Samaria, Gan Eyden, does not explain how other peoples came to be upon the greater land (the continent). And, if we Judeans are to know our place upon the land, we must know the other peoples of the land. Thus, the mythic stories of Bereishit were composed and redacted into a singular (internally conflicting) narrative that fulfills *this* very purpose!
The first creation story is about Elohim (the children of El) creating life as we know it and humans in general, male and female together upon the land. This is how all the other Indigenous Peoples/nations of the land came to be upon the continent. Then, the first Shabbat (day of rest) is taken by Elohim (the children of El). Then, the second parallel creation myth begins on YHWH’s assigned land in the next *week* (a human specific time creation), wherein the Levantine people (the Jewish people to be) were formed upon the land. Thus, this explains the myth of Cain killing Abel in jealousy, which results in him being banished from YHWH’s land, and how he finds a new people to make a name for himself among upon another land-god’s assigned land.
By progression of these myths, we learn that it would only be by Noah ending YHWH’s curse of drought upon the land (by saving humankind from the flood upon the continent), that all humans presently upon the land derive from Noah and family – and, by default, from Adam and Chavah. Thus, Levantine Jews now have an identity relationship with other peoples, by which to explain to ourselves why these peoples are the way they are and why we Judeans are the way we are as a people upon the continent. Further, being the vassaled people of YHWH’s land, “chosen” to fulfill the obligations (the “commandments”) of the land’s god-King upon Judea-Samaria, this is what justifies our existence as the Indigenous Jewish nation of Judea-Samaria, the nation of Israel – at least, in ANE mythic history form.
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As the vassaled people of Judea-Samaria, the Jewish people are desert-dwellers and we must find truly innovative ways to keep our Indigenous land obligations. Keeping a desert green with trees and the fruits of edible plants requires water. So, if we are not desalinating sea water, then we are drawing water directly from the air itself!
We have to! Because, how else are we going to support *both* our Israeli citizens and the equal number of “Palestinian” Arab land-squatters (settler-occupiers) who are determined to end our self-determining decolonization?! Eretz Yisrael Chai (the land of Israel lives), because of B’nei Yisrael (the Jewish people) and our faithfulness to our Indigenous land obligations!
You do know, don’t you? That it was the ruling Arab occupiers of Judea-Samaria (which foreigners, non-indigenous, call “Palestine”) who turned our Jewish ancestral land into lifeless desert and our waters into malaria filled swamps! The Arabs conquerors did this by ethnically cleasing Jewish families from our lands, ghettoizing us within Jerusalem and other Jewish cities until the land died from lack of care.
You do know, don’t you? That it was the Jewish people, Indigenous to Judea-Samaria, who restored our Arab-created barren land, starting in the 1880’s, who drained and cleaned the Arab-created malaria filled swamps, who revitalized over 600 acres of our ancestral land to Jewish agriculture sovereignty – before the Arabs and Europeans invaded our land to occupy again!
This achievement by an occupied Indigenous Judean people, the Jewish people (during Ottoman rule, and before and during the British-Egyptian post-WWI occupation of our land), is what drew so many Arab settler-occupiers to our land during the 1920s-1940s to lay residence upon our revitalized Jewish land. But, then, out came their anti-Jewish racism – both *Arab and European* – when they realized that we are seriously going to fight them for our right to reestablish Israel according to our terms, not theirs! We won, so they vilify us, occupy us, and call us Indigenous Judeans “colonial settlers” for this!
As the vassaled people obligated to the land of Judea-Samaria, agricultural sovereignty is a Jewish mandate! The settler-occupiers destroy and we Jews rebuild, generation after generation! Denying verifiable history for racist occupier gains does *not* change historical reality, folks!
#watersovereignty #agriculturalsovereignty
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“There are less than 1000 Jews in the entire Arab states (850,000 in early 20th century before they were ethnocided) and zero functioning synagogues in most of them, whereas there are almost 2 million Arabs in Israel (350,000 in pre-state Israel) and over 400 functioning mosques. Hebrew language and Jewish symbols are banned in most Arab states, whereas in Israel you can wave any Arab flag and wear any Arab/Muslim symbols.” – Himdad Mustafa, Kurdish historian of the Middle East, June 2022
“Photos below via Google Images: Tel Aviv,… For more than 70 years Arabs and Muslims have been praying to God for the destruction of this city but it is becoming more and more vibrant and beautiful.”
Then, there is Jerusalem, which has always been the Capitol of Israel. The place inside of Israel where much of the violent Arab religious extremism takes place, all to vilify Israeli police in social media propaganda (like within the former Jordan occupier’s named “West Bank”). It was European nations, such as the United States, that refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s Capitol (for anti-Jewish Colonizer reasons, of course), and set up their embassies in Tel Aviv instead. The Arab Colonizer still has a long ways to go in recognizing the Jewish Capitol of Jerusalem, as well.
#landsovereignty
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Racism is a disease, folks, and it is not curable once infected by it! Orgs like JVP, בצלם, Breaking the Silence, IfNotNow, BDS (etc) know this and they peddle in racist lies about the Jewish people near daily to draw in easy money! They know that Arabs and Europeans hate the Jewish people of Judea-Samaria, because we refuse to assimilate fully into Colonizer culture, refuse to prostitute ourselves to and validate their Colonizer religion (Christianity, Islam, Marxism), and refuse to give up our Indigenous identity as a people and our need to be sovereign upon our ancestral land.
So, these devotedly anti-Jewish organizations actively peddle in anti-Indigenous racism (aka, anti-Zionism), in conspiracy theories, and in blatant lies about the Jewish people. Because, they know that – so long as we Jews Indigenous to Judea-Samaria remain resolute, decolonized, and militarized upon our ancestral land for Indigenous Judean national survival – they get *easy money* from racist Arabs and Europeans looking to hate and vilify the world’s first and *only* successfully decolonized self-determining Indigenous refugee nation upon this planet.
The Jewish people’s nation, Israel, reestablished upon Judea-Samaria is an existential threat to Arab and European supremacist worldwide rule over Indigenous Peoples in this world. All because we refuse to be the colonized dhimmi of Arab and European occupiers of Indigenous Peoples’ lands ever again! So, 6 million Jews defending our Indigenous nation land rights and Indigenous identity is committing the sin of “Jewish supremacy” upon Judea-Samaria for refusing to be the sovereign-less dhimmi of 4,300 million Arabs and Europeans and their Colonizer countries, according to racist Arabs and Europeans and their United Nations.
The fear of racist Arabs and Europeans is this: The Jewish people succeeded in our decolonization and self-determining sovereignty, despite multiple wars against us to end our Judean nation. So, which colonized Indigenous People will be next to decolonize in this world, because Israel succeeds?! This is the question that racist Arab and European Colonizers do *not* want answered! So, they deny our reality, call them-Colonizer-selves victims, and reverse the historic role between Arab/European Colonizer and Indigenous Judean nation.
Racism is a disease, folks, and it is not curable! This is why – like the Fox News network and the BBC – organizations like JVP, בצלם (B’Tselem), Breaking the Silence, IfNotNow, BDS (etc) peddle in racism for easy money. And the only way to end and *prevent* further racism in this world is to correct the narrative on *every social media platform* that these racists spout their racist tropes about the Jewish people, other Indigenous Peoples (Kurds, Cree, Lakota, etc), African peoples, Asian peoples, and Hispanic peoples.
The Jewish people need allies who are willing to put their inherited Colonizer religion aside, and work together with us on *ending racism* of all kinds! Will you choose today to help the Jewish people to end this racism by Arab and European supremacists and their colonized in this world that we *all* have to live in?
Don’t worry, organizations like like JVP, בצלם (B’Tselem), Breaking the Silence, IfNotNow, BDS (etc) will find other ways to grift people for their money with their mastery of propaganda and lies!
“The vast majority of Mizrahim and Sephardim do not marginalize, tokenize or erase our own history. Expressing our communal values is not “brownwashing.” Organizations that capitalize on the increased attention to diversity within the Jewish community in order to burnish their credentials as “progressive” while ignoring the mainstream values of Mizrahim and Sephardim are exploiting us.
Just as anti-Zionist Jews try to represent themselves as conventional American Jews even though their political stances are on the fringe, these organizations and publications cherry-pick minority voices that are not representative of Jews from North Africa and the Middle East. These voices are chosen only because they are willing to affirm anti-Zionist viewpoints rather than tell our collective story. This tokenization lends an unearned legitimacy to those demonizing Israel and harms Mizrahi and Sephardic communities by rewriting our ancestors’ histories.
Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews were a crucial part of the project to re-establish a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. In 1558, Gracia Mendes Nasi — one of the wealthiest Jewish women of the Ottoman Empire — built a Jewish community in the Holy Land that’s credited as one of the earliest attempts at a modern Zionist movement. In 1839, Rabbi Yehuda Bibas, a scion of Moroccan rabbinical royalty, traveled across Europe to encourage Jews to make aliyah and reclaim Jerusalem. Scholar-socialite Flora Sassoon of the “Rothschilds of the East” staunchly supported the Balfour Declaration and Zionism. The son of a Moroccan immigrant, Haim Amzalak, used his position as the British Vice Consul of Palestine to acquire land for some of the earliest Zionist communities, such as Petach Tikvah and Rishon Letzion. Zionism not only has a place for Jews like our families; it was created by them.
Today, more than half of Israel’s Jewish population is of Mizrahi descent. We do not deny that, in its early days of independence, Israel sometimes failed the Mizrahim. Some of these issues persist today. Yet those failures pale in comparison to how Israel has helped us. Our struggles should not be weaponized by individuals and organizations—who have otherwise shown little interest in our stories—to advance a political agenda.
In many of the [Arab] countries our ancestors fled, we were dhimmis: second-class citizens whose safety was dependent on the whims of caliphs, emirs and sheikhs — and whether our neighbors had absorbed or ignored anti-Semitic tropes. In Arab countries, we were not even allowed to be referred to as Arabs. Persian Jews were similarly forced to pick a side after 1979: We could be Iranian citizens or we could be Zionists.”
https://www.jns.org/opinion/why-are-mizrahi-and-sephardic-communities-being-misrepresented-as-anti-israel/
Why are Mizrahi and Sephardic communities being misrepresented as anti-Israel?
#DefundRacism – #JVP #בצלם #BreakingtheSilence #BDS
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