"Brit-Am Now"-512
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 10:44:26 +0200
"Brit-Am Now"-512
Contents:
1. Early British Kingdoms
2. Pelagians
3. Religious Reconciliation?
4. Karaite Clarification
5. Need for Acceptance of Tradition?
6.
7.
8. Roses
9. Appeal for Offerings and Book Purchases

1. Early British Kingdoms
A somewhat detailed but interesting history of the Early British Celtic Kingdoms:
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/kingdoms/410.html

2. Pelagians
Pelagians were an early Christian "heresy" that originated in Britain.
Pelagius (c. a. 354-418)
Pelagius was Scotch, or Welsh, or Irish but most accounts say Welsh. His name in Britain was "Morgan".
At one state the Pelagian belief was very important in Britain.
One of the doctrines of Pelagius was that: The (Mosaic Law) is as good a guide to heaven as the Gospel.

3. Religious Reconciliation?
Dear Yair

Regarding your sentence and reconciliation. "The Bible says that there must be an authority to decide what to do when how the Law is to be applied is uncertain. The Bible also says that Legal Decisions reached by this authority must be adhered to even if one does not agree with them"

I believe with you that reconciliation between Jews and Christians is of key importance. None more so than between Orthodox Jews such as yourself and committed Christians such as myself, who have discovered thanks to your research that they are of Jewish descent. Many others between these extremes probably wont bother to have the argument and have little interest in resolving the issues. My question is this; if you wont join a religious discussion how can we achieve the third "R" Reconciliation?

Answer:
Shalom,
We at Brit-Am will probably never engage directly in religious discussion though there may be a "religious" aspect to everything about us.
The dialogue you wish for may well be needed very greatly but we are not the address for it.
You will not convert us and we have no wish to convert you.
Neither will we modify our own beliefs having already approached the edge of where we would wish to go.
What then do we mean by "Reconciliation"?
We mean recognition of Brit-Am Identity on the part of those who are identified by us as the Ten Tribes of Israel and Joseph along with a realization of the truth of this identification by Judah.
We would expect an increased and intensified belief in the Bible to result from this and a conscious drawing together of the two "sticks" when it is understood that we have a mutual destiny.
This is the will of the Almighty and this is what the Almighty wants as we understand from Scripture.
You may say that much more than this is required and that may be so but if so then other people will have to be found to meet the requirement.
We may be entering the first stage and those who believe in this process should support us as well as they can.

Yair Davidiy is speaking for himself and feels that he is not qualified to conduct any such dialogue and even if he was is not suited for it.

4. Karaite Clarification
In "Brit-Am Now"-511
Item 1. Karaites
we said:
"b) Karaites on the Internet. These are a group of mainly young American Jews in Jerusalem whose parents or grandparents were Orthodox Rabbinical Jews and who I understand (if they are Jewish) have to get married in Rabbinical Courts since the Karaite community in Israel does not recognize them."

This remark may be considered a little "under the belt" and was in fact superfluous since whether one agrees or disagrees with the Karaite position should not necessarily be dependent on their social status or lack of it.
The statement may also have been inaccurate.
By "Karaites on the Internet" I was referring to a group I thought existed but may not do so. Some time ago I was invited to speak to what I was told was a group of Karaites. The meeting place was an apartment attached to the Karaite Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem and assumedly belonging to the Karaite Congregation. 8 to 10 (?) people were present and I was asked not to refer to Rabbinical sources in my talk but concentrate on Biblical passages. After the talk I received a check imprinted with an address containing the expression Karaites or Karaite Community or something like that. We had not publicized the meeting and the only people who knew about it as far as I knew were those inviting us.
I therefore assumed that I had been speaking before a group of Karaites.
I am now told that I was mistaken.

Nehemiah Gordon (who represents? "Karaites on the Internet"?) says he was offended by my remarks and informs me that:
"Seeing as how you made a generalization based on meeting me and perhaps 2-3 other Karaites (not everyone at that meeting was Karaite) it is in fact an individual attack against me and the 2-3 others."

Nehemiah also says that:
"I was married by a Karaite court and sit on the Karaite Religious Council (most of whose members are Karaites from Egypt)! "

I repeat the remark was superfluous and I did not mean to offend anyone.
On the other hand as far as I understand, apart from the case of Nehemiah, the remark itself was factually correct.

5. Need for Acceptance of Tradition?
The following note was received from somebody who is active in Christian "Torah-Observant" circles and illustrates the confusion that can result one no traditional authority is recognized. The writer wishes to remain anonymous:

"To begin with, I already have a new appreciation of the place of the Oral Law in the overall Torah commandments. Rabbi Feld makes sense. This is an area where Torah-observant Christians have much confusion and some are actually suspicious of the Oral Law traditions due to the possibility of human error creeping in. I'll give one example: among Torah-observant Christian communities, there is much confusion and dissent on calendar issues. It seems that each group has its own way of calculating the calendar and scheduling the High Days each year. This has led to considerable confusion as the Feast Days are held on different dates all over America by different observant groups. Some calculate the months (and Holy Days) by observed sightings of the lunar crescent and others go by calculated dates. However, some groups base their decision based on sightings of the lunar crescent in Jerusalem and others base their decisions on the visible sightings here in the USA. Others go by Karaite observations at a Karaite website. Others base their decisions on observing ears of the barley harvest. Good friends have been parted because of calendar differences. I was at a Feast of Tabernacles meeting two years ago where there was a general discussion of the various dating methods. To my surprise, I was only one of the few people there who observed the dates based on the Hillel system (with postponements) which are the dates set by Jewish authorities (correct me if I'm wrong on this). My understanding of the subject is that God gave the Jewish religious authorities the right to "sit in Moses' seat" and this authority includes the setting of the calendar dates and festival dates for the entire community. I freely admit that I am not a calendar expert so I rely on the dates as established by the Hillel dating methods. What is happening in the Torah-observant community here is an example of the confusion which occurs when everyone uses their own method. Even though each group is well-intentioned, chaos results when there is no recognized authority to set the dates."

6.
7.

8. Roses
Pictures of Roses from a Jewish Festival Prayer Book from Worms, Germany, dated from ca.1280 CE may be seen at
http://britam.org/rosesm2jpg.jpg
http://britam.org/rosesmachzor.jpg
The pictures depict the "lily of the valley" in Hebrew the word translated as "lily" is shoshana and more correctly means "rose".
It represents the Tribes of Israel and its description is similar to that of the Tudor Rose which is still one of the official symbols of Britain.
An article on the Tudor Rose and its significance may be seen at:
http://britam.org/Roses.html

9. Appeal for Offerings and Book Purchases
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