-- Merneptah’s stele doesn’t prove Israel was a nation in 1208 BCE --
(from Dan McClellan)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rrSyOtRPTI

#Egypt #Israelites #history #archaeology #language #Bible

The #reconnaissance team could have returned with a more encouraging report. But most did not; the people despaired and rebelled. Nothing would be the same for the #Israelites afterward.

The #Spies | #Numbers 13:1-14:45
https://www.deverbovitae.com/articles/spies/

What is being Jewish and why it's so confusing to people who are not Jewish, in my own personal perspective of being an Israeli Jew with a mixed middle eastern and north African background.

Those are personal view points and I'm very open to other perspectives. This topic is incredibly taboo in Israel, even though we are such critical thinkers in our culture and like questioning everything, this topic is never being questioned in schools or even family dinners or between friends in my experience.

First of all, origins - Jewish comes from the word Judea, which was an Israelite tribe of the 12 tribes, as well as a region which today many call the West Bank, but Israelis call Judea and Summaria, which is where the tribes of Judea and Summaria lived for thousands of years before christ and after. Many empires have come to this desirable territory of the middle east, and each had their issues with the local Israelites. And most of them left but some of them stayed beyond the time of their empires, and some of them exiled most of us.

This resulted in a very mixed background of ethnicity for most of us who live today in Israel.
Most Palestinians have mixed Jewish genes and Arab genes. And most Jews and Israelites today also, have mixed genes, Jewish genes and genes of many more countries. Often, any random Israeli you would point at, will have at least 4 to 8 different ethnic backgrounds, but more than anything they identity with being Jewish, just as their family have normally identified for thousands of years, keeping their Jewish culture and in the absolute majority of cases, their marriages and childbirth too, within the Jewish community wherever they were exiled to around the world. Why are we even called Jewish though, if many of us have Cohen, Levy, and other last names which are proof of belonging to another Israelite tribe? Because Europe. Europe called us Jews. If you ask Igbo Israelites if they are Jewish some will say yes and some will say no. Some have become Christian or Muslim, therefore, no matter their ethnicity, they are not Jewish in the eyes of most Jews and Jewish law / guidance, AKA our "halacha", those who see themselves as Jewish, often are incredibly deeply connected with the Jewish religion and culture and wish to interact more with the rest of us from around the world.
But, the absolute majority of us, from all areas of the world who live in Israel, normalized calling ourselves Jews, even if we are of different Israelite tribes. For us anyways that's semantics, what matters is that we are Beni Israel, meaning, Israelites. And wether you are an Israelite and considered Jewish or not, no matter your other backgrounds from all around the world (including of course Africa, Europe, Asaia - anywhere), is decided by:
- assumed ethnicity, based on being born into a Jewish/Israelite family who celebrates Jewish holidays for generation and is of a Jewish lifestyle background.
- your own identification, culture and lifestyle.
- religion.

And it can be one without the other. You can say you are not Jewish, but if you were born into a Jewish family background, you have Jewish ethnicity or assumed ethnicity, even if you don't celebrate any Jewish holidays or do any praying or any religious rituals whatsoever, you will still be seen as Jewish by the tribe and normally by others too (Nazis have made it very, very clear). And also, while you can't just wake up and decide you're Jewish, if you do feel a strong belonging to our tribe, you can convert, become Jewish through a very very intense and long process of lifestyle and religious studying and more. We would call you a "lost Jewish soul". So in the end of the day, it's pretty spiritual. But many of us don't see it that way unless you're religious. There's the concept of having Jewish souls, and we see ourselves as exactly the same people who have been there in the times of the bible and witness the greatness of HaShem.

But for others, that explanation is never understandable so we have to put it down to ethnicity/genes, religion and culture.

In the end of the day, Jews have a far more ancient, religious and cultural deep connection to the land of Israel, and any attempts of assimilation following brutal exiles have traumatized us as a people to the core. Any random Israeli you would point at, likely suffers from anxiety, depression or PTSD, personal or generational, and it makes us incredibly strong and wise people but also very stressed people which leads to difficult living with high ambitions.

And to clarify, Palestinians still do often have a deep connection with the land, but until Israel started, they predominantly saw themselves as part of Arabia, as Arabs living in British Palestine, not as Palestinians and certainly not as natives.

None of this has anything to do with who has any right to unalive or exile who. I deeply believe we should strive to live here side by side in peace as we already do in the majority of the land and with zero political interest can only say that ... There's nothing more Jewish than Hope.

#jewish #jews #israelites

Biblical Gilgal: A Common Place Name or a Cult Site near Jericho?

“Gilgal was a national cult centre of the Kingdom of Israel, and in several references its name appears alongside that of Bethel (1 Sam 7:16; 2 Kgs 2:1–2; Hos 4:15; 12:12; Amos 4:4; 5:4–5). Bethel, located in the highlands, was the seat of a national temple (see Amos 7:13) and the place where the golden calf, the animal sacred to the Storm God, represented the God of Israel in his temple.”

Naʾaman, N. (2024). Biblical Gilgal: A Common Place Name or a Cult Site near Jericho? Tel Aviv, 51(1), 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2024.2327800

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #DOI #History #Histodon #Histodons #Archaeology #Arcaheodons #Israel #Israelites #MiddleEast #Levant #NearEast #Asia #Academia #Academic #Academics @archaeodons @histodon @histodons