"Brit-Am Now"-677
Contents:
1. Amnon Goldberg: America's Founding Fathers and the Torah
2. Amerindians and Conspiracy
3. Question on Joseph and the Noachide Laws
4. Question on the Scythians
5. The Tribe of Asher, Olive Oil, and Copper Furnaces
1. Amnon Goldberg: America's Founding Fathers and the Torah
Further to "How Hebrew Came to Yale in 1777" (10 Adar), the caliber of America's Founding Fathers was very great. They were gentiles steeped and schooled in Hebraic civilization.
The curricula at Harvard, King's (later Columbia), William and Mary, Princeton, Rutgers, Dartmouth and Brown universities were designed by men of "Old Testament persuasion." Many of them knew Hebrew and even studied Talmud. In those days, Hebrew and Penateuchal laws was as much a part of the curriculum as was Latin: "Hebrew is essential to a gentleman's education!" (Samuel Johnson).
When looking for a model for their new nation, they looked to the Torah: "The civil polity of Israel is an excellent general model" (Samuel Langdon). The US Declaration of Independence refers to "the Laws of Nature and Nature's G- d", "The Higher Law," and appeals to the "Supreme Judge" and "Providence." How unlike the State of Israel's own Declaration, which outside of the Communist nations, is the only one in the world that does not explicitly mention the Creator!
The statutes of New Haven, New England and Massachusetts derived straight from the Chumash. The Torah's Seven Universal Laws of morality played a major role in the US success in integrating, subordinating, and moderating its many diverse immigrants, nationalities.
The holding of all men equal before the law, the district election of representatives, the senate, the federal system, the presidency (and the limitations on whom can bear the title), the Unitary Executive (unlike the State of Israel's fractious multi-party Plural Executive farrago!), the Supreme Court and the system of checks and balances placed on it (unlike Israel's Supreme Court which constantly rides roughshod with impunity over the abiding beliefs of the Jewish people) etc. etc., all these derived from and were inspired by our Torah, and were why the USA became the most successful nation in history.
A success whose time may be up!
Yours truly
Amnon Goldberg
Tzefas
2. Amerindians and Conspiracy
Re: Annoying Question
MJ Wiram wrote:
Yair,
I recently subscribed to your newsletter and my wife and I really enjoy it, thank you. We have a question, however, that has been annoying to us for about four years now - ever since we first became aware of the general concepts you, and others, have done so well to put forward.
I'm sure you are up on all the popular 'urban legends' and folklore that is popular on late-night talk radio - UFOs, Bigfoot, etc. Another legend circulating around is that there are caves in the U.S. that have been sealed by the govt that have Paleo-Hebrew script and Egyptian hieroglyphics in them. If Manasseh is in the U.S., wouldn't that have been their languages? Whats your take on that?
You have made it clear that you are against conspiracy theories almost to the point that you suggest a phenomenological design to world history, i.e, history is the result of random events. However, if this 'legend' is true, it is an anomaly that should be addressed.
There are also other curious parallels. The Cherokee call G-d, 'Ya-u-wa'. That is probably not the correct spelling, but it is close to the correct pronunciation. And recently, rabbis from Israel have approached the Navajo nation and asked them about their origins and they responded that their first tribal name was 'Ephraim'.
Respectfully,
Mark and Laurie Wiram
Boulder, CO
Shalom,
You asked two questions:
a. Amerindians and Israel
b. Conspiracy Theories in control versus
"history is the result of random events".
(a) Concerning the Amerindians we have answered the same or a similar question on numerous occasions
see
Answers to Queries on Peoples and Places
9. Question: Are the Amerindians from the Lost Tribes?
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesPeoples.html
The identification of the USA with Manasseh from a Brit-Am point of view
depends primarily on evidence dating from after early the British
Colonization of North America.
(b) Conspiracy Theories in control versus
"history is the result of random events".
We have said in the past that we do no deny collusions, planning,
historical tendencies, geo-political and economic realities,
even here and there possible attempted "conspiracies"
with a small "c".
We are against Conspiracy Theories with a big "C".
This is what we said on the subject:
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesChamish.html#Reaction
<<We all should know that there is a difference between "conspiracy" as defined by the Dictionary and "Conspiracy" which like its soul-mate Pornography is known when seen.
"Conspiracy" with a capital "C" is the idea that a group of elite individuals have ganged together to machinate and manipulate the rest of humanity for their own nefarious purposes, and that they are succeeding in their diabolic mission.
<<"Conspiracy" with a capital "C" nearly always identifies the scheming culprits who are running the world with the Jews and with the Anglo-American establishment or with elite sections of them. This is "Conspiracy" with a capital "C" and it is dirty and foul and false. If you believe in "Conspiracy" with a capital "C" you have a problem.
WE are AGAINST CONSPIRACY THEORIES WITH A CAPITAL "C"
BECAUSE THEY ARE EVIL AND FALSE
AND AGAINST BRIT-AM.
We have said this and repeated it over and over again in terms as simple as possible
that no rational person could misunderstand yet there still remain they who
attempt to put an interpretation on our words that is different from what we intended.
We admit that in the end both we and yourselves will have to answer for our attitudes,
words, opinions, and deeds before the
Great Conspirator in the Sky
who has a Grand "Conspiracy" of HIS own.
3. Question on Joseph and the Noachide Laws
Question:
I believe it is also the obligation of the lost ten tribes to keep Torah now, so when it is time to re-enter the land, they won't defile it! Why do you think they should only keep the 7 noachide laws?
Rhonda
Answer:
Rhonda Shalom,
We said:
Subject: "Brit-Am Now"-671
item #2. Brit-Am Peoples and the Noachide Movement
<<My private impressions (i.e. not an official Brit-Am statement but a private observation) are:
<<a. The Noachide Movement is "Kosher" and may serve as a useful tool for many who are searching.
<<b. As a long-term solution the Noachide Movement may be an answer for "Gentiles" in India, China, etc but not
for Israelites.
The Seven Noachide Laws are actually general principles and in their application include numerous
modes of behavior that would be quite a challenge to put into practice correctly.
The Constitution of the USA is considered to be based on Noachide Principles.
A point of interest is that possibly the only places where a "Noachide" Movement
could reasonably expect to have some success is in "Brit-Am" areas.
At all events we do not consider it a long-term solution for "Joseph"
or even necessarily a "short-term" one though it could help some along their path.
Brit-Am as an organization tries not to take "sides" in religious questions not involving us.
Personally, I think it is advisable for members of "Joseph" in our time to draw closer to their
"Hebrew Roots" but others would disagree with me and even I would not say it is an obligation.
This is a matter for each person or group to decide for themselves
and not a Brit-Am issue.
4. Question on the Scythians
Craig Blackwood:
Shalom Yair
I regularly refer your work to the skeptics and antagonistic. Your work is
much harder to pick at than many other authors.
What would your reply to this be?
Regards
Craig
-----Original Message-----
Hi Craig, the following is a reply to the britam link I posted onto
the forum(anonymously). I don't know if you have the time or the
energy to respond to it, but if you do I'll post it into the forum:
----------------------------------------->
oh joy. IN case you haven't had enough of BI in the RCs someone has
posted a link to Brit-am here. I was just browsing. on that site. It's
a load of cobblers. Some examples:
"DAN: Don, Danaster, Danaper, Danube (all rivers associated with the
Scyths)."
All the rivers of the Scyths have "Don" in them because it's the
Scythian word for river. This is as logical as Joan Rivers tracing her
family's history by finding all the rivers on a map... Ooh here's the
Murray River my ancestors must have migrated there. If I use that
reasoning all mine must be rabbits. haha
Tribes of Naphtali and Dan were interwoven and that both appear to
have been present in the Scythian Naphtalite group.
The Scythian Naphtalite group???
Josephus said the Scythians were
Magog.
It is really easy to disprove the claim that the Scythians were
the link by looking at the history of the Scythians. They were
cannibals who rocked into the mid east in about the 6th century BC.
They were nomadic horsemen from central Asia and they worshipped Mars.
According to Herodotus their first king - who lived around the time of
the exodus was called Targitaus.
Craig Shalom,
The attitude of the person asking the questions does not really deserve to be answered.
We do not have to argue with they who are obviously not prepared to listen.
There was an Iranian root word dn that meant river
and because of this it has been claimed that the following names arose
Don, Danaster, Danaper, Danube (all rivers associated with the
Scyths).
It has not been proven that the Scythians spoke an Iranian tongue.
Archaeological evidence indicates that east of the Caspian Sea Aramaic
was used.
In addition we also find the root "dan" and "don" as an ethnic appellation
in the Scythian region and outside of it and not only as applied
to rivers.
The trend at present is for linguistic historians is to disregard the Iranian
"dn" word meaning and to look for other explanations.
That Dan was an ethnic appellation has also been acknowledged though a connection
with "Dan" of Israel is not yet recognized.
The Naphtalites were a known people in the Scythian area,
The name Naphtali was applied to several different entities
at different times as was common in Central Asia for ethnic names to be transferred
through conquest or movement from one entity to another.
We have traced the name as originally belonging to an entity of Israelite
descent who were accompanied by another entity named after Dan and who migrated
to Scandinavia. See our work "The Tribes".
By Scythians we intend the Classical Scythians who encountered the Assyrians
and of whom we believe a good portion to have been Israelites.
Later Classical writers often used the term Scythian" for all peoples north of the Caucasus
i.e. from the region of "scythia".
Most of the peoples who were in the Scythian area and were later referred to as Scythians
are NOT the peoples we are referring to.
Josephus did identify the Scythians with Magog but he
also said that the Scythians were Gomer
and again that the Lost Ten Tribes were a vast multitude
east of the Euphrates:
Josephus writes that "the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country [to which the Assyrians deported them]; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the 10 tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers" (Book 11, Chapter V, Section 2).
At the time Josephus spoke there was still a large body of Sakae (Scythian) people in the Mesopotamian area
as remarked on by the Russian historian M. Rostovtzeff and beyond the Aras river (not so far from the Euphrates) in "Sacascene" (which was named after them) in northern Armenia south of the Caucasus area.
The Scythians were not cannibals and no evidence to such an effect is available.
They were reported of in the Middle East by 676 BCE and had emerged from out of the
Cimmerians who themselves were first reported of in 705 BCE or perhaps a little earlier.
In fact both Cimnmerians and Scythians originally appeared in the Middle East in areas to which Israelites
had been exiled by Assyria.
Targitaus (says Herodotus) was born from the Dneister River (just like Moses was found in the River)
about the same time as Moses and his legend may have been derived from the story of Moses.
The Israelite nation in a sense could have been considered as having been found by Moses.
See our books "Origin" and "The Tribes" where we quote archaeological evidence that
the Scythians revered Joseph and other evidence that an Israelite element was dominant amongst them.
See excerpts from our work
"The Tribes"
http://britam.org/3rd-Edition/The-Tribes-Chapter-One.html
especially the section:
"PARALLELS BETWEEN SCYTHIANS AND ISRAELITES"
In addition it may be mentioned that the name "Sambation" or "Sambation" River
that is connected to the Lost Ten Tribes is now proven to have
belonged to the Don River area.
For details and references see
"The Tribes" or "Ephraim".
5. The Tribe of Asher, Olive Oil, and Copper Furnaces
Ancient Cypriots fed olive oil to furnaces
Olive oil fueled the copper furnaces of Cyprus:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060314/lf_nm/cyprus_olives_dc_1
By Michele Kambas Tue Mar 14, 8:07 AM ET
PYRGOS, Cyprus (Reuters) - It is praised for its culinary and health properties by any cook worth his salt, but long before olive oil made it into the Mediterranean diet Cypriots used it as fuel to melt copper, archeologists say.
Italian researchers have discovered that environmentally friendly olive oil was used in furnaces at a site in southern Cyprus up to 4,000 years ago, instead of the fume-belching charcoal used in industry for hundreds of years since.
Described as "liquid gold" by the ancient Greek poet Homer, olive oil has long been associated with grooming, pampering and the religious rites of the ancients, but not -- at least in the Mediterranean -- with heavy industry.
"We know that olive oil made it into our food around 1,000 BC, but it is the first time we have laboratory evidence that it was used in smelting as a fuel," archeologist Maria Rosaria Belgiorno told Reuters.
Cyprus was famed in antiquity for its copper and is believed to have given its name to the Latin term for the metal, Cuprum.
The find by Belgiorno's team suggested mankind might be returning to its roots, at least in terms of energy.
"It is the first time this has been discovered ... and in Europe it's only recently that industry has turned to biofuels. This oil burns like benzene," Belgiorno said.
Today's Cypriots might, however, think twice about pumping this precious commodity into their petrol tanks instead of drizzling it over their meals.
Average annual production of about 13,500 tons just about meets local demand and olive oil now sells for around $6 per liter, compared to around 55 cents for regular fuel.
The smelting site known as Pyrgos Mavroraki is thought to be part of a larger industrial unit dating from 2,000 BC, when Cyprus was in its early to mid-Bronze Age.
Lying some 60 miles southwest of the capital Nicosia among sprawling villas, the complex includes copper smelting works, facilities for textile weaving and dyeing, a winery and an olive press.
"The olive press and storage facilities were in the middle of two areas where copper was worked. It shows that for sure they used olive oil. Can you imagine building an olive press in the middle of a metallurgy plant. Why?" said Belgiorno.
Tests carried out by the Italian Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, for whom Belgiorno works, have discovered olive oil residues in ovens on the site.
Belgiorno said researchers were puzzled by the fact that no charcoal -- the fuel most widely used at the time -- was found. Charcoal remains intact despite the passage of time, she said.
"There were no storage areas for charcoal. We have discovered that to melt copper you need five kilos (11 pounds) of olive oil, compared to 80 kilos (176 pounds) of charcoal."
Dark marks on the hard-packed earth in the complex might escape the untrained eye. But these are stains from the oil used in the furnaces, traces which also do not fade.
Belgiorno said metallurgy sites have been found close to olive oil production areas in Egypt and Jordan, so Cypriots could not lay claim to being the first to use biofuels.
It was, however, the first time science had conclusively proven that olive oil was used as a fuel, she said.
The highly prized commodity was a key ingredient of perfumes and ancient geographers noted the abundance of olive groves and copper mines in Cyprus.
"I suspect the technology came from abroad, most probably through contact with Palestine and Jordan," said Belgiorno.
Last year at the same site, Belgiorno's team found what they described as the world's most ancient perfumery, which used olive oil infused with local herbs.
The site's textile dyeing facilities also suggested Cypriots had a fashionable flair with their fabrics, using tiny veins painstakingly extracted from Mediterranean sea snails to dye their clothes indigo.
"Nobody can really speak about prehistory without mentioning Cyprus. It was a filter, it took technology from the Middle East and redistributed it to the western world," said Belgiorno.
Note especially:
"There were no storage areas for charcoal. We have discovered that to melt copper you need five kilos (11 pounds) of olive oil, compared to 80 kilos (176 pounds) of charcoal."
We will see elsewhere that the Tribe of Asher was especially rich in olive oil production and also
a leading element in the production of Bronze which is an alloy of copper and tin.
Note also:
<<Belgiorno said metallurgy sites have been found close to olive oil production areas in Egypt and Jordan, so Cypriots could not lay claim to being the first to use biofuels. >>
"Jordan" in that time was mainly occupied by Israelite Tribes
and Cyprus was conquered byn the Tribe of Dan and known to the Assyrians
as Ydanna or "Isle of the Dananu" i.e. Island of Dan.
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