COVID UPDATE FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD TO SEE
Israel, Palestinians, and COVID vaccines: A reality check
excerpted from The Times of Israel
Written by David Harris
January 26, 2021
Dear All,
This is what we are dealing with now. Nothing short of Jew hatred in the form of Jewish State bashing. This is plain and simple: “Blood Libel” Read this and know the truth . . .
Warm regards,
Seth
Lerhaus Notes:
- and please note the responses — highlighted below of:
- Freshman Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY) the new darling of New York
- Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI). We know her . . .
- Here’s the test:
- If you single out Israel as your only target and spread bigoted lies only about the Jewish State, then you are both racist and anti semitic (i.e. as both a faith and an ethnic bigotry).
- Racist because you use racial terminology and
- Anti Semitic as that is the medium (both in language and in terminology — and in this case.
- In using the accepted term of Semite as Jewish) in referring to the Jewish people.
Although not mentioned in the Harris article (see button below), one can easily see/understand that we are talking about yet another permutation of the virulent anti Semitic canard of ‘blood libel’ — now in a new and updated form of denying vaccines on the part of ‘the perfidious Jews’ to ‘the innocent and victimized’ Palestinian people. This would constitute a combination of both racist and religious bigotry being perpetrated against ‘another people’ (under ‘the guise’ of racial, national and ethnic subjugation) and it is false.
Class Notes
In this week’s ‘class notes’ I have attached an article which attempts to explain, as an historical reality/theory, what really happened to cause the Israelite enslavement and the subsequent Exodus. There are many theories, many even historically based, some of which are interesting, but rarely do these historical analyses speak to those who practise religion as a faith, perhaps even as a faith alone. Sometimes they do . . . here’s a snippet and even a mention of a Canaanite god, who has the audacity to be known by a perfectly good Jewish name . . .
In the III Regnal year 11, first month (our month, not by accident, of Aviv) of akhet, birthday of Seth (a rather loud Semitic god): a sound of thunder was emitted by the Majesty of this god; birthday of Isis: the heavens rained.
A major rainstorm in late summer (first month of akhet), (which as mentioned above, is understood as our month of Aviv) the middle of the dry season, would have been quite unusual. Besides falling in the middle of the Theban campaign (the campaign to rid Northern Egypt of its Jews), the thunderstorm happened to begin on the day (just before the Egyptian New Year (also known much later as the birth anniversary of Aries/goat, at the same time as our Aviv) named after the deity Seth (thus ruining a perfectly good Jewish name for millenia yet to come). < — and for our notes: Seth was identified with the West Semitic storm god Baʿal Haddu.
Of course this raises any number of questions, especially the question as to how the Israelites even wound up in Egypt in the first place. If in accepting the story, as told by the Torah, and from the mouth of Joseph himself, then it is Gd as ‘architect’ who has masterminded and arranged the migration of Israelites to Egypt in the first place. And further, if we accept the story at face value, then it is not Josephs’ brothers who send Joseph off to his own Egyptian servitude, sexual assault and jailing, but instead it Joseph’s father who plays that role (a role Joseph spends years attempting to come to terms with), especially in his father’s over-attentiveness to Joseph, making him in the eyes of his progeny as a whole, nothing less than a impertinent pariah among them, and thus setting him up for his being sold and carted off to Egypt that will, when viewed in this way, result in the Israelite migration, the Goshen resettlement, the Joseph solution (to the famine), and the slow encroachment of misery and enslavement of the Israelite people to the Egyptian Pharonic regime. And all of this is if we accept the Torah’s narrative as written and originally told.
The conversation among our own gathering-participants often goes straight to the question of what really happened at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, sometimes even bordering on the question as to whether it really happened at all and if so, when did it happen and who were the villains — and even the perennial question as to how it was even able to happen at all, raises its head.
Of course, orthodoxies of all religions have their stock answers, which harken us back to Gd and all that Gd was able to do for the Israelites and subsequently, for us, the lucky recipients of such-good-Gd-like-fortune. The questions and the answers usually coexist in a realm of Gd’s benevolence, that is to say: in Gd’s freeing us from a tyrannical despotic king, (Pharaoh and his courtiers, i.e. henchmen) and returning the People Israel to freedom in Israelite-land.
The truth is that while I revere this tradition, as a faith message, it continues to inform and inspire us in every generation — and yet, I am acutely aware of competing narratives which have a both historical and legitimate claim on the story, both factually and religiously. And I should add, it is this religious-inspiration that crosses almost all boundaries, of all the monotheistic and even non-monotheistic faiths — and as a result, allow people of all faiths to join us in our studies and continue to be inspired by the story — as we have come to understand it, each in our own realm — and each in our own faith and traditions.
The attached article is well researched, factual to history, especially to the history as the author sees it. This is not in the realm of ‘alternative facts’ as some describe differing political views, instead this a ‘theory of history’ which can teach us an historical reality which our Torah and our traditions have fashioned in a way that we hold to be a truth, our truth and subsequently, our narrative. It make take you days or even weeks to read and review, but the time spent is well worth it. I would be interested in your opinions and please contact me in all the usual ways if you would like to talk about it further. While it may be a serious challenge/project to undertake, still I highly recommend the reading (maybe even print it out).
There is a lot happening in the world around us — so please make every attempt to join us this Wednesday at 7:00 PM and Sunday at 3:00 PM EST. We love seeing everyone and joining in the conversation of where we have been and ultimately,
Where we are going?
Warm regards,
Seth
