Assyria, the Greeks, the Romans, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Medes, the Nazis, the Egyptians - all names of various huge ancient Empires, some of whose descendants still exist, some even in their own countries, but certainly not what they used to be. One of their victims, one which they oppressed with specific intent - the Jews or the Judeans or the Israelites, choose your name - we still exist and after thousands of years, and after these millennia we finally had our land back, a country and a place for us once more. Nor are we intending to simply hand it over to the Arab/Moslem world because they have decided they want it, all of it.
So where did it begin? It began with a man deciding that he could not buy into the whole idol theory of gods and a blossoming belief in one G-d, a monotheistic belief, unusual for the time. And he believed he was told by this G-d that he and the generations that followed would be as countless as the grains of sand or the stars in the sky and would have a land of their own, the land of Canaan.
This man raised his family in this belief, so strong in that belief that when called upon to sacrifice his son, Isaac, after waiting so long for him, he prepared to do so. And where was that altar? On top of Har Moriah - now known as Temple Mount, yes, the very same place where the Wall remains, where now, according to the UN, should any Israeli approach this place or even simply claim a tie to it throughout our history - why that person is a criminal, an outlaw, a doer of illegal deeds!! Yup. Such is the wonderful essence of Resolution 2334.
Sacrifice cancelled, the family, the tribe flourished along with some incidents not so good or pretty, but always there seemed to be a purpose behind these events. Joseph sold into slavery then pulled Egypt out of a destructive famine to be and in so doing enriched it as well as saved the area's residents as they were able to find food in Egypt. Yup, the same Egypt that wanted to introduce that same resolution replete with lies and anti Semitic feelings and justification for all the anti Semitic and anti Israel sentiments and actions of the UN, even admitted to by the Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon! Such is objectivity, huh?!
Anyway, these same saviors of Egypt received their gratitude from that nation and regime by being enslaved. You know, all those pyramids, all those movies, Charlton Heston. That one. After hundreds of years, by various actions, they were freed and left, on their way to receive the Torah, a set of laws, of history of these people, that which would bind them together as a nation, not a group of runaway, or chased away, slaves. And then, off they were to go to their Promised Land. But oops!! Old beliefs in golden idols raised an ugly head and Canaan was delayed for forty years, traded off for the desert. But when it finally came to happen, what was amazing was the finding and coming across places with the names found in that same Torah. Ha!! History coming alive.
And so they conquered their promised Land, all working together for the most part, doing what all nations of the time did, and they settled in for a happy ever after life. But! Not so quickly. You know, when people have a good life, they always seem to want more and since they have spare time on their hands, they begin to look for things to spice up the day and so groups began to fight with each other and thus we have the Jewish people of today who on a deserted island, with population of one, will have three synagogues - one as the synagogue he usually attends, one for when he is angry at the place so he needs another one and the third for the one he vehemently would not step a toe into!! Not on your life!
So history intervened and this stubborn group, this nation, decided to keep its land and fought mighty empires for it and when after valiant battle they were conquered and exiled, they fought thru the years to return. Their First Temple having been destroyed, they wished to return and build a Second Temple, even more beautiful than the original which had stood as a miracle in the ancient world. And all the while, for the most part, they kept true to their beliefs, their religion and did not succumb to despair for they knew in the very depths of their souls what would be.
And return they did and rebuild they did and flourish they did and Temple they rebuilt - until there it happened again. But always, always, there were Jews, Israelites, who remained in the land and always and forever there was a deep tie to the land, no matter where fortune or disaster took them, scattered them. Always they prayed for a return to Zion, for a return to Jerusalem, their eternal city, always a return hoped for, always with the statement that next year they would be there and for thousands of years they never lost this prayer of this hope, engraved in their hearts and minds.
I know I have simplified a long and complex history, but the point is to help explain the tie of the People to the Land and the errors of a world, the willful errors, that are meant to destroy this history and the historic truths. It is meant to illustrate the trying history of a People who persisted, nevertheless, to continue to be, to exist and to sing thru all dangerous times - Am Yisrael Chai!! - the People of Israel Live! Later today or Sunday, a continuation.
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