History of Judaism

By shutting down the Palestinian concentration camps in Israel and re-establishing pre-1967 borders.

Response t

o the first point:

-- There are no Palestinian concentration camps in Israel. Palestinians living in
Israel have full Israeli citizenship if they want it, but with no military obligation.
They're free to reside there if they so desire, to own land, homes, and businesses,
to attend school, to receive medical care, to vote, to stand for election to office,
and to worship as they please. If life in Israel on that basis doesn't appeal to them,
then they're free to leave at any time, and migrate with their families to live among
their brothers in any of the countries that surround Israel. Israel is one of those
peculiar countries in the world that must build walls - not to keep their own people in
but to keep attackers out.

To the second point:

-- Israel has conquered the Sinai Peninsula during armed conflict, and returned it
to Egypt as part of a peace treaty.

-- Israel has conquered the Gaza strip in armed conflict, and turned it over to the
Palestinian Authority, in a gesture towards peace.

-- Israel has conquered southern Lebanon in armed conflict, and returned it to
Lebanon in return for the UN's agreement to monitor the peace in the north.

-- Israel has conquered the Golan Heights and the West Bank during armed conflict.
The countries bordering those areas maintain a state of war with Israel and vow
its destruction. Under those circumstances, to relinquish control over those areas
would be Israel's suicide. Though that might suit the first contributor just fine, the
truth is more as President Obama stated recently, that "Israel isn't going anywhere".
Until that can be guaranteed without the economic and emotional drag on Israel's
resources of maintaining control over the Golan and West Bank, there is no sane
incentive to hand them over to authorities sworn to Israel's destruction.

Further comment in support of the first statement

Israel continues to build illegal settlements in direct violation of UN law.

The International Court of Justice also concurs that these settlements are in violation of Geneva Convention Law.

Israel claims that it isn’t bound by UN law, unless of course, it works in its favor.

No foreign country, including the US, supports these settlements.

Ironically, while Israel seems oblivious to the UN and its decrees, it was vehemently opposed to the UN’s recognition of the Palestinian State.

While Obama may have recently said that Israel isn’t going anywhere, he also stated that there will be a Palestinian state.

Answer 1

A Jew is a follower of the Jewish religion. Many Jewish people have been prosecuted throughout history for various crimes, as is true of any group of people.

Answer 2

you would have to ask Hitler. jews have always been the scapegoat for all problems. WhY/ I HAVE NO CLUE. Being the only jew in my school its very difficult. i often get stupid people who think its funn to tell me to go to hell for no reason.

Answer 3

If by "prosecuted", the word meant was "persecuted", please see the Related Question below.

Jews have historically been prosecuted in courts to a greater degree than their population would account for due to blood libels, blasphemies, failure to pay unreasonable "Jewish" taxes imposed by non-Jewish States, and numerous other such events. These prosecutions were all Anti-Semitic in nature and not based on any fundamental legal principles that are respected today. Jews were only prosecuted by the State for crimes in the Modern Era since the Jewish Kahals (the Board of Directors of the Jewish Ghettos and towns) would usually have the autonomy to punish for normal crimes among Jews in the pre-Modern period (Medieval etc.)

Reasons for Palestinian Opposition to the Zionists/Israelis

The Palestinian Arabs were actually quite adamant about not giving the Jews any land or space as soon as it became clear in the late 1920s that the Jews intended and would soon realize their own state apparatus. They attacked the Jewish settlement in Hebron in 1929, scalping and beating many Jewish inhabitants. They organized militias to attack other Jewish settlements, they petitioned the British government to prevent Jewish immigration (resulting in the White Papers of 1939 which banned Jewish immigration during the entire Holocaust when a place of refuge was most necessary), and consistently fought against Jewish Militias who were targeting the British colonizers instead of uniting to overthrow the British before trying to decide a resolution. The Palestinian Arabs did not support a two-state solution prior to 1967 and did not accede to the idea of a two-state solution until the Oslo Accords of 1993. Still to this day, the idea of a two-state solution (as a final solution) is relatively unpopular in Palestinian circles. The reason that Israel exists as a country is because of UN Resolution 181 and the Zionist Jews who used that resolution as the basis upon which to declare a country and defend it from military onslaught.

Other Arabs Supporting the Zionists/Israelis

Unlike the Palestinians, there were several non-Jewish populations in Mandatory Palestine that made moves after World War II to indicate their support of the Yishuv (Zionist community) and the formation of a Jewish State. The Bedouins (especially in the Galilee Region) had strong ties with the early settlements and quickly developed a rapport. Some Bedouins even learned Yiddish to familiarize themselves with these returning Jews and numerous Bedouins and Jews would farm together. This friendship turned into a natural alliance in the late 1940s, with Bedouins organizing under the Star of David against the Sedentary Palestinians who had historically maligned them. The Druze also supported the Yishuv because of the way that Jews defended Druze access to Nabi Shu'ayb (the Tomb of Jethro). The Druze fought alongside the Yishuv during the Jewish-Arab Engagement (1947-1949). There were also some Palestinians, like the citizens of Abu Ghosh who passively assisted the Yishuv during the Jewish-Arab Engagement. All three of these groups were incorporated into the State of Israel without prejudice. So, while the Yishuv certainly used these groups to their advantage, it was well-rewarded with full-scale Israeli citizenship. With the partial exception of Jordan, no Arab country has treated the Palestinians in this way at all.

A:

The traditional assumption is that Jewish beliefs are unchanging and that therefore beliefs during the Late Second Temple period (and earlier) are closely reflected by modern rabbinic Judaism. There is certainly a good deal of continuity, but there were some differences although we know less about this period than we would wish. Randall Price (The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls) quotes Dr. Lawrence Schiffman as saying that SecondTemple Judaism can now be seen as a transition period in which the sectarianism and apocalypticism of the period gradually gave way to rabbinic Judaism, on the one hand, and Christianity, on the other. He says it is now clear that the Second Temple period was a kind of sorting out process.

There were also quite significant differences in belief between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, with more scribes being Pharisees. The Pharisees believed in resurrection of the dead, while Sadducees did not. Rabbinic Judaism has its roots in Pharisaic belief, so many pious Jews even today keep a small bag of earth from the Holy Land, which is to be put in their coffin so that when the time comes they can be resurrected on the spot. There was also a widespread belief in a coming messiah, with some expectations of two messiahs to provide military and religious leadership. Lady Wisdom (Greek: 'Sophia') was a spirit/goddess venerated until around the end of the first century.

Of course not. This kind of speculation is based upon wishful thinking or lack of research. It crops up from time to time but has been debunked by DNA testing. Just as today, Israelites came in differing skin-tones, heights, and body-types. Our tradition is that the twelve sons of Jacob (the 12 Tribes) were not completely similar to each other in appearance, though none of them was really dark-skinned (Rashi commentary on Genesis 12:11).
Abraham and Sarah came from southern Iraq and their wider family from northern Iraq. Since DNA tests have shown that Jews intermarried infrequently throughout history, Abraham and his Israelite descendants, including Levi, probably looked like Jews today.
DNA testing of Jewish communities worldwide has shown that they are all interrelated and of Middle Eastern genetics, not African or Egyptian.
In 2000, the analysis of a report by Nicholas Wade "provided genetic witness that Jewish communities have, to a remarkable extent, retained their biological identity separate from their host populations, evidence of relatively little intermarriage or conversion into Judaism over the centuries. The results accord with Jewish history and tradition." (See: What race were the Israelites?)

The only exception to this is the Ethiopian Jews, who show only a trace of DNA connection to other Jewish communities. Western ethnologists today hold the view that the Jews of Gondar (Ethiopia) either emerged from a Judaizing strain among Ethiopian Christians, or were converted by Yemeni Jews who crossed the Red Sea. A study by Professors Lucotte and Smets has shown that the genetic father of Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) was close to the Ethiopian non-Jewish populations. This is consistent with the theory that Beta Israel are descendants of ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia, not the Middle East. Hammer et al. in 2000, and the team of Shen in 2004, arrive at similar conclusions, namely that the DNA of the Ethiopian Jews probably indicates a conversion of local populations.It has been estimated that this happened some 2,000 years ago.

See also:

Are the African-Americans from the lost Israelite tribes?

1) The Jewish group that concentrated on the study, teaching and application of the Torah in every century was and is the Torah-sages and their many disciples, from Abraham down to today.
The word "Pharisees," which is based on a Greek misspelling used by Josephus, actually refers to the Sages of the Talmud. (The Hebrew word "p'rushim," to which he referred, means people of temperance; the opposite of epicurean.)The Torah-sages such as Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others, were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism.

Josephus talks of three groups among the Jews in late Second-Temple times: Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes. This may convey the mistaken impression that the Pharisees were just one "sect" among others, when in fact Josephus himself admits that the Pharisees (Torah-sages) with their disciples and followers constituted the large majority of the Jewish people. As he himself writes (Antiquities book 18), "the cities give great attestations to them."
Although the Christian Testament portrays them poorly, in fact the Pharisees were very egalitarian. They taught that all men were created in God's image and that all had the same rights, and the same right to an education, etc. They were devoted to the practicing of kindness, charity, the fulfillment of mitzvot, the study and teaching of Torah and the education of all people, regardless of status in society. They detested hypocrisy and actively sought it out and criticized it whenever they encountered it.

The Pharisees were the only movement to survive the destruction of the Second Temple and were the ancestors of modern Judaism.
Our traditional Jewish beliefs today, including the afterlife and the resurrection, are traditions continuing from the Prophets and the Sages of the Talmud ("Pharisees").

2) The Sadducees. These were men of politics and secular life, similar to the Hellenising Jews. They had abandoned various parts of Judaism; and they claimed no earlier source or tradition for their attitudes. They harassed the Torah-sages; and, like the tiny breakaway group called the Essenes, dwindled away after the time of the Second Destruction, like the earlier Jewish idolaters after the First Destruction.

Note that there is a common misconception that the Sadducees, like the much later (and now largely defunct) Karaites, made a deliberate decision to reject the Oral Law and reinterpret the Scriptures.
However, a careful perusal of the Talmud reveals that the Sadducees were actually opportunists who had nothing much at all to do with religion in any fashion. They were lax in Judaism and had little interest in Torah-matters.

At that time the Jewish courts still had the ability to enforce the Torah laws, and almost all Jews were Torah-observant; so, in order to avoid total rejection by the surrounding community, the Sadducees outwardly maintained a facade of keeping the major Torah precepts (such as the Sabbath), while simply ignoring the Oral Torah and customs.
They went lost not long after.
The group that did (on rare occasions) debate against the Torah-Sages concerning subjects of religious observance, were a tiny sect called the Baitusim (Boethusians), who quickly died out.

3) The Essenes were a small sect in Judea who eventually disappeared from the Jewish community. They styled themselves "observant; pious ones." The normative, majority Jewish community viewed them as breakaways from the common stream of Jewish tradition, because of their non-traditional beliefs and practices.

Their beliefs included an excessive amount of dabbling with the names of angels, messianic fervor, gnosticism and eschatological speculation; and their practices were more like Christian monasticism than the generally accepted Jewish way of living.

The practices of the Essenes included vegetarianism, dwelling in isolated groups, communal ownership, monastic asceticism and avoidance of money, commerce and private property; and (among some of them) celibacy. Also, they had some forms of non-traditional observances (such as round phylacteries [tefillin]). Some researchers identify the Essenes as a form of early Christianity, taking also into account the fact that early Christianity was far from uniform and was, for a time, thought of by some as a kind of modified Judaism.

4) The Samaritans. After the Assyrians exiled the Israelite Ten Tribes (about 2600 years ago), the Assyrian king brought non-Jews from Cutha, Babylonia and Syria (Hamat), and settled them in the depopulated area where the Ten Tribes had lived (Samaria). They were taught Judaism by one of the Jewish kohens (2 Kings 17:27), and they were taught the Torah, which they wrote in the Old Hebrew script.

While both Jews and Samaritans believed in One God, and both accepted the Torah, there were also some differences. Jerusalem was and is the holiest site for Jews, while the Samaritans took Mount Gerizim as their religious center. Later in history, the Samaritans aligned with the Greeks and accepted foreign gods (Talmud, Hullin 6a).

The Talmud relates how the Samaritans adopted some of the mitzvot (Torah-commands) but not others (Talmud, Berakhot 47b), how they denounced the Jews to Alexander in an unsuccessful bid to get him to destroy the newly-built Second Temple (Talmud, Yoma 69a), and how they interfered with the declaring of Rosh Hodesh (the New Moon) (Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 22b). Our traditions relate how the Samaritans would sometimes waylay the Jews who tried to journey to the Holy Temple.

Today the Samaritans are a small group of about 800, who practice an ancient form of Jewish worship, with animal sacrifices. They don't accept the Talmud, nor holidays such as Hanukkah.

5) The Zealots. These were a group of dangerous hotheads who acted against the advice of the Rabbis and fomented war against the Romans, leaving the Romans no choice but to crush the people and destroy the city of Jerusalem (Talmud, Gittin 56).