"Brit-Am Now"-71

Date:  Sun Aug 11, 2002  5:26 am

Contents:
1. William Rasmussen: Puritan "Yom Kippur or Succoth"?
2.archaeological web-site
3. Descendant of Levi?
4. A Christian site about Islam,
 

1. William Rasmussen: Puritan "Yom Kippur or Succoth"?
From: William Rasmussen <brasshalom@y...>
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-70

Shalom Yair: Todah rabah for all the excellent and
informative material that you send to those of us on
the Brit-Am mailing list. I would like to comment on
the posting by David Klinghoffer regarding the
Pilgrims: The posting is informative in many respects,
but has one glaring error: David says that the
Pilgrims imagined Thanksgiving as a kind of Yom
Kippur, a day of repentance, prayer and fasting. With
all due respect to David, how could a Feast with
harvest bounties shared with the Wampanogs be
"fasting"? A cursory look on the internet produced
countless Jewish and Christian sources that said
Thanksgiving was based on Sukkot. Sukkot is a Mo'ed
with multiple themes. Several relevant to
Thanksgiving are "Feast of the Ingathering", "Feast of
Thanksgiving", "Season of our Joy". While it is true
that the Pilgrims participated in a solemn manner, in
no way can it be construed as a type of Yom Kippur.
Any Jewish person knows that rejoicing and feasting
come "after" Yom Kippur, not on the day of Yom Kippur.
It is essential that one see the connection of
Thanksgiving to Sukkot because in one sense, America
was being "dedicated" by the Pilgrims perhaps
unwittingly, as an Israelite nation to HaShem. If
America is indeed a repository of Manasseh, Ephraim
and the bulk of the other tribes, then it stands to
reason that the separist Pilgrims were indeed
Israelites and Hebrews who came to dwell in this land
as members of the commonweatlth of Israel. Dwelling,
dedicating, thanking, harvesting are all themes of
Sukkot. I am sending you three postings found on the
internet that link Thanksgiving to Sukkot. Shalom
v'b'richot, Bill Rasmussen

> 1. The early USA and Israel
> From: Moonhorse2@a...
> Subject: Excerpts from Enemies or Allies by David
> Klinghoffer ( Toward
> Tradition )
> In North America where Puritans established their
> commonwealth as an
> experiment in radical Protestantism, there arose a
> culture of
> philo-Semitism. American has seen in its own history
> a replaying of the
> sacred history of the people Israel. This was
> evident even before the
> country was founded. Just as Israel fled from Egypt
> to establish a godly
> society in Canaan, the first Americans fled from
> England to establish a
> godly society in Massachusetts. Both groups were
> called " separatists" as
> the word "Hebrews" ( Ivrim) can fairly be
> translated. When they celebrated
> Thanksgiving for the first time, in 1621, the
> Pilgrims imagined it as a
> kind of Yom Kippur, a day of repentance, prayer, and
> fasting. The legal
> codes of colonial Massachusetts and Connecticut were
> based explicitly on
> the legal framework of the Five Books of Moses. Sir
> William Bradford,
> second governor of the Plymouth colony, observing
> that Hebrew was the
> Lord'..........
> In the 18th century the great preacher and
> revivalist Jonathan Edward
> declared that God, true to His word, would return
> the Jews to the Land of
> Israel.
>
> By 1891 the evangelist William Blackstone was
> seeking a way to persuade the
> American government to make such a state a reality.
>
>
2.archaeological web-site
A good site run about archaeology in Israel and the Temple, has plenty of
features only part of which I was able to utilize but it was worth it:
http://www.archpark.org.il/

3. Descendant of Levi?
>My name is Donald Levesque, I believe that this name is derived from the
>name of Levi, In Canada across from Quebec there is a city called
>Levi, There are many French Canadians like the name of Begin, who I
>believe their ancestory were forced to change their faith years ago. Do
>you have anything concerning this matter?
I always felt that my name was connected to Israel.
Todah,
Don Levesque

4. A Christian site about Islam,
worth visiting:
http://www.salemthesoldier.us/omega_on_islam.html



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