Nee, we hebben het niet over een sprookje, er is geen Prinses, en geen seks kussende kikker, gewoon een verhaaltje over een landje, (laten we het even Prut noemen, dat een grens heeft met een vijandelijk groot land, dat gedurende de korte geschiedenis van de mensheid, meerdere malen het kleine landje Prut binnen vielen, daar na werden verjaagd door het leger van landje prut. Met de help van legers uit andere landen.
Nu heb ik het over de juridische staat van landje Prut.
Voor dat het landje Prut veroverd werd, was natuurlijk het landje officieel Pruttisch, en toen de Boze buur, het land veroverende, werd het land juridisch, het land van de veroveraar, toen werden de Buren verjaagd, en volgens de gehele wereld, is nu het landje Prut, juridisch bezet gebied.
Nee, ik heb het niet over Nederland, dat in 1940 veroverd werd door de moffen, en in 1945 bevrijd door de Nederlanders met een klein beetje help van de geallieerden. Niemand zal beweren dat Nederland bezet Duits gebied is, niet waar.
Ik heb het echter over Israel, en het buurland Jordanië, dat in 1948, de oude stad van Jeruzalem met Joodse en Arabische inwoners en de West Bank veroverden, maar daar de Engelsen die Palestina als een mandaat hadden, vertrokken waren, werden deze streken juridisch Jordaans (trans Jordanië heten het toen).Daarna, tijdens de 6 daagse oorlog, Israel met de help van “van boven” en vrijwilligers uit de gehele wereld, veroverde het kleine stukje land terug. Nu volgens mijn logisch denken, geld de Prut regels, van het begin van mijn blog, en de Juridische status van Jeruzalem en de West Bank is dus Israëli, en niet bezet, net als Amsterdam niet bezet Duits gebied is.
Daar hoef je dus geen hoogleraar in Internationale Jurisdictie voor te zijn, dat is simpel, de Internationale wet, zoals het Saar gebied tussen Frankrijk en Duitsland, zoals Gibraltar betwist door Spanje en Brittannië, of noemen jullie Gibraltar bezet gebied?
Nu weet ik dat logica nooit een sterke eigenschap in Nederland was, en hoor ik jullie al schreeuwen dat het Palestijns gebied is, maar mijn vrienden, tot nu toe bestaat er geen Palestijnse natie en geen Palestijns volk, misschien na een vredesoverleg tussen Israel en de Palestijnse bevolking, komt er een landje dat autonoom wordt, zonder leger, met plaatselijke politie, dat dan Falestina zal heten (want Palestina kan een Palestijn niet uitspreken, die hebben geen P in hun taal.
Ik heb het op het ogenblik niet over die arme Arabische mensen die rond huppelen met een kaffia of burka op hun hoofden, kamelen gebruiken als hun vervoersmiddel, leven in een Alibaba omgeving, maar een moderne gemeenschap die na de Israëlische Arabier, de rijkste en meest voortvarende Arabieren zijn uit het Midden Oosten. En het rare feit is, dat deze Palestijnen van Falestina, er waarschijnlijk erg op achteruit gaan, als Israel hun autonoom maakt, zo dat ze zelf voor alle sociale lasten moeten betalen, inclusief een wegen net waar meeste landen jaloers op zouden zijn.
In jullie makkelijke stoel, met commentaar over de slechte Israëli, denken jullie dat jullie mee spelen in het stoppen van de Islam verovering in de EU, mijn vrienden jullie zijn pionnen in hun spel van monopolie.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Chapter 2 - A great Empire; the Byzantines
Chapter 2 -A Great Empire; the Byzantines
As I told before around the year 132 AD there was another uprising by Jews in the Near East (Bar Kokba). The Emperor Hadrian outlawed teaching of the Law, and destroyed most of Judea. Many Jews went to Babylon, where they were fairly well treated and did quite well. In around 500 AD, they completed there the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of commentaries on and explanations of the Law. Around the same time the Judean Talmud was completed, which laid down the rules of behavior for the religious Jewish live, now that we do not have anymore the Temple as the heart of our religion.
The Talmud replaced the laws and rituals of the Jewish rites from the verbal passing on from father to son, to a more strictly regulated form of religion, similar as the testament of the Christians. Many rites and customs were adapted to ensure that the laws as was understood by the Rabbis of those days. This caused the break away of Jewish groups such as the Caraites. The Caraites attacked the Talmudic interpretation of the Bible, rejecting the oral law and interpreting the Bible literally, and they developed their own commentaries, which were in many respects more rigorous and ascetic than the Talmudic interpretations.
105 years ago, in the year 395 AD, the Roman emperor Theodosum I divided the empire and placed his son Arcadius at the head of the Eastern side and his other son Honorius on the throne of the Western side.
The city of Byzantium was chosen to be the capitol of the Eastern Roman Empire. Sixty five years later, however, the name of the city was changed to Constantinople in honor of its founder, Constantine. Even though, this radical change was made in the concept of the empire, the Byzantines always referred to themselves as the Roman Empire and their nation as the Nation of Rome. After the collapse of the empire, the historians began to refer to this empire as the "Byzantine" Empire and so it is remembered today. This empire began in 330 AD. A struggle between Moslems and Christians began to arise in the middle Ages. Those warriors known as the Crusaders were the most concrete example of the struggle between these two large religious beliefs.
The most important change made in the Roman Empire evolving the change in religion. While Rome had been a polytheistic society, the Byzantines accepted monotheism as the basis for their religious belief. The second greatest change that occurred in the empire was the change in language. The Roman Empire used a number of languages, but Latin was the official language of its government. Latin was used increasingly less after the founding of Byzantium and Greek began to take its place as the official language. Naturally, this change also brought with it major political changes.
The Byzantine Empire began with the Emperor Constantine who reigned for thirteen years. Then other emperors took over, were killed, removed, died, conquered etc. Those emperors came from different family lines. The leading ruling houses of Byzantium originated from Heraclion, Syria, Phrygia, Macedonia, Commenos, Angelos, and Palaiologos.
Although the Byzantines began their empire with a vast territory of land inherited from the Roman Empire, they soon lost the territories around the Northern and Easter Mediterranean and they became an empire with solely Aegean territory. Eventually by the time of the collapse of the Empire, Byzantium merely consisted of the city of Istanbul and its immediate surroundings, but this was of course not evident 500 AD., when Byzantium was still the center of civilization.
The juridical standing of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire was unique during the entire history of the Empire; they did not belong to the Eastern Christian Orthodox faith, which was the State Religion, nor were they--in most circumstances--grouped together with heretics and pagans. They were placed in a legal position somewhere between the two worlds. The place along the spectrum of social freedom in which Byzantine Jews found themselves varied somewhat--though far from drastically--with time, and depended largely on three factors: the desire of the state to maintain the Jews as a living testament to the victory of Christianity, the desire of the state to strengthen its control, and the ability of centralized rule from Constantinople to enforce its laws and legislatures.
The above reflections about this era I wrote many years later, when I was able to see a much wider spectrum of our life in Constantinople, the new capital of the civilization.
For us Jews, living in a relative friendly environment was a pleasant change from the hectic life of Jews in the Diaspora; finally we were recognized for our services, our knowledge and honesty.
Within the Roman Empire, the Jews were granted citizenship (like everyone else) in 212 AD. But we Jews were greatly disliked by other Roman citizens: We insisted on dressing differently, celebrating different holidays, eating different foods. Even more annoying was our exclusivity, our firm conviction that we are better than everyone else and our disdain for anyone other gods. The increasing popularity of one Jewish messianic sect -- Christianity -- only made things worse.
In 417 AD, Constantine, the first Christian emperor, lowered the Jew's status to secondary citizens of the Empire.
About 50 years before, Constantinople had been threatened by invasion of Atilla the Hun, the Hun' armies reached the outer walls of the town, but the circumstances caused the Huns to stop and abandon their attack Since the Huns disappeared from the scene, the trading routes are far safer, and the danger of Hun invasion seems to be averted
Those Huns after the death of Antilla and his dynasty eventually turned into the famous Khazar Empire, a kingdom of nomadic tribes that chose to convert to the Jewish religion.
Apparently, there was very little communication between our Jews and Khazars, and their appearance and disappearance never played an important part in the history of our people.
At that time of the Hun attack on Constantinople, I still lived in Smyrna, which had a large population of Jews. Around 200 years before, the town Smyrna had been the scene of frictions between the new Jews (the Christians) and the Jewish citizens in town.
Smyrna was a free city, a town that knew the meaning of loyalty and fidelity to Rome unlike most cities. Cicero called it, “one of our most faithful and our most ancient allies.” It was the first city in the world to erect a temple to the goddess Roma and to the spirit of Rome. Her fidelity to Rome was famous in the ancient world.
Another fact of importance concerns the Jews there.
The population of Jews in the city who were not only numerous, but influential and who did everything they could to oppose the growth of Christianity in Smyrna.
It also seems that a fair number of those Jews accepted Jesus as Messiah. For those who didn't, salvation of the Jews through Jesus infuriated them, and they sought to destroy this upstart movement. They had their means of doing so in the matter of Roman worship. They knew enough about Christians to know that Christians couldn't proclaim Caesar as Lord. They also knew the city leaders and knew of their heightened sense of loyalty to Rome. With those two bits of knowledge, threatening the Church was easy. All these Jews had to do was to meet the city officials (with whom they may have already had connections) and turn the Christians in.
Furthermore, in doing so they not only destroyed the Church, they also gained brownie points as faithful citizens (and those might prove useful in the future).
The Christian claimed that the Jews bore false witness against the believers in Smyrna, slandering them before the Roman authorities.
Their statement was that these Christians were political subversives, and therefore were dangerous to the Empire because they denied Caesar his proper place. There is no way for me to verify if this was really a true story, or the work of the Church leaders to create an animosity between the Christians and the Jews, is one of the known fore runners of Antisemitism, a hate which will in time develop in monstrous dimensions. The accusation that the Jews had crucified Joshua, the Nazarene was retold and became part of the Christian religion.
While until that time, the Jews and the Christians somehow tolerated each others, they now fought for the belief of the people. It should be noted that the tension between the Jews and Christian community became the root of animosity between the two religions. The Christians claimed that the Jews made the Christians looking bad in their complaints to the Romans, while the Christians started to teach and preach against the Jews. This became a chapter in the New Testament, which was composed many years later, however was accepted as the ground stone for justifying hatred of the Jews.
As I told before around the year 132 AD there was another uprising by Jews in the Near East (Bar Kokba). The Emperor Hadrian outlawed teaching of the Law, and destroyed most of Judea. Many Jews went to Babylon, where they were fairly well treated and did quite well. In around 500 AD, they completed there the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of commentaries on and explanations of the Law. Around the same time the Judean Talmud was completed, which laid down the rules of behavior for the religious Jewish live, now that we do not have anymore the Temple as the heart of our religion.
The Talmud replaced the laws and rituals of the Jewish rites from the verbal passing on from father to son, to a more strictly regulated form of religion, similar as the testament of the Christians. Many rites and customs were adapted to ensure that the laws as was understood by the Rabbis of those days. This caused the break away of Jewish groups such as the Caraites. The Caraites attacked the Talmudic interpretation of the Bible, rejecting the oral law and interpreting the Bible literally, and they developed their own commentaries, which were in many respects more rigorous and ascetic than the Talmudic interpretations.
105 years ago, in the year 395 AD, the Roman emperor Theodosum I divided the empire and placed his son Arcadius at the head of the Eastern side and his other son Honorius on the throne of the Western side.
The city of Byzantium was chosen to be the capitol of the Eastern Roman Empire. Sixty five years later, however, the name of the city was changed to Constantinople in honor of its founder, Constantine. Even though, this radical change was made in the concept of the empire, the Byzantines always referred to themselves as the Roman Empire and their nation as the Nation of Rome. After the collapse of the empire, the historians began to refer to this empire as the "Byzantine" Empire and so it is remembered today. This empire began in 330 AD. A struggle between Moslems and Christians began to arise in the middle Ages. Those warriors known as the Crusaders were the most concrete example of the struggle between these two large religious beliefs.
The most important change made in the Roman Empire evolving the change in religion. While Rome had been a polytheistic society, the Byzantines accepted monotheism as the basis for their religious belief. The second greatest change that occurred in the empire was the change in language. The Roman Empire used a number of languages, but Latin was the official language of its government. Latin was used increasingly less after the founding of Byzantium and Greek began to take its place as the official language. Naturally, this change also brought with it major political changes.
The Byzantine Empire began with the Emperor Constantine who reigned for thirteen years. Then other emperors took over, were killed, removed, died, conquered etc. Those emperors came from different family lines. The leading ruling houses of Byzantium originated from Heraclion, Syria, Phrygia, Macedonia, Commenos, Angelos, and Palaiologos.
Although the Byzantines began their empire with a vast territory of land inherited from the Roman Empire, they soon lost the territories around the Northern and Easter Mediterranean and they became an empire with solely Aegean territory. Eventually by the time of the collapse of the Empire, Byzantium merely consisted of the city of Istanbul and its immediate surroundings, but this was of course not evident 500 AD., when Byzantium was still the center of civilization.
The juridical standing of the Jews in the Byzantine Empire was unique during the entire history of the Empire; they did not belong to the Eastern Christian Orthodox faith, which was the State Religion, nor were they--in most circumstances--grouped together with heretics and pagans. They were placed in a legal position somewhere between the two worlds. The place along the spectrum of social freedom in which Byzantine Jews found themselves varied somewhat--though far from drastically--with time, and depended largely on three factors: the desire of the state to maintain the Jews as a living testament to the victory of Christianity, the desire of the state to strengthen its control, and the ability of centralized rule from Constantinople to enforce its laws and legislatures.
The above reflections about this era I wrote many years later, when I was able to see a much wider spectrum of our life in Constantinople, the new capital of the civilization.
For us Jews, living in a relative friendly environment was a pleasant change from the hectic life of Jews in the Diaspora; finally we were recognized for our services, our knowledge and honesty.
Within the Roman Empire, the Jews were granted citizenship (like everyone else) in 212 AD. But we Jews were greatly disliked by other Roman citizens: We insisted on dressing differently, celebrating different holidays, eating different foods. Even more annoying was our exclusivity, our firm conviction that we are better than everyone else and our disdain for anyone other gods. The increasing popularity of one Jewish messianic sect -- Christianity -- only made things worse.
In 417 AD, Constantine, the first Christian emperor, lowered the Jew's status to secondary citizens of the Empire.
About 50 years before, Constantinople had been threatened by invasion of Atilla the Hun, the Hun' armies reached the outer walls of the town, but the circumstances caused the Huns to stop and abandon their attack Since the Huns disappeared from the scene, the trading routes are far safer, and the danger of Hun invasion seems to be averted
Those Huns after the death of Antilla and his dynasty eventually turned into the famous Khazar Empire, a kingdom of nomadic tribes that chose to convert to the Jewish religion.
Apparently, there was very little communication between our Jews and Khazars, and their appearance and disappearance never played an important part in the history of our people.
At that time of the Hun attack on Constantinople, I still lived in Smyrna, which had a large population of Jews. Around 200 years before, the town Smyrna had been the scene of frictions between the new Jews (the Christians) and the Jewish citizens in town.
Smyrna was a free city, a town that knew the meaning of loyalty and fidelity to Rome unlike most cities. Cicero called it, “one of our most faithful and our most ancient allies.” It was the first city in the world to erect a temple to the goddess Roma and to the spirit of Rome. Her fidelity to Rome was famous in the ancient world.
Another fact of importance concerns the Jews there.
The population of Jews in the city who were not only numerous, but influential and who did everything they could to oppose the growth of Christianity in Smyrna.
It also seems that a fair number of those Jews accepted Jesus as Messiah. For those who didn't, salvation of the Jews through Jesus infuriated them, and they sought to destroy this upstart movement. They had their means of doing so in the matter of Roman worship. They knew enough about Christians to know that Christians couldn't proclaim Caesar as Lord. They also knew the city leaders and knew of their heightened sense of loyalty to Rome. With those two bits of knowledge, threatening the Church was easy. All these Jews had to do was to meet the city officials (with whom they may have already had connections) and turn the Christians in.
Furthermore, in doing so they not only destroyed the Church, they also gained brownie points as faithful citizens (and those might prove useful in the future).
The Christian claimed that the Jews bore false witness against the believers in Smyrna, slandering them before the Roman authorities.
Their statement was that these Christians were political subversives, and therefore were dangerous to the Empire because they denied Caesar his proper place. There is no way for me to verify if this was really a true story, or the work of the Church leaders to create an animosity between the Christians and the Jews, is one of the known fore runners of Antisemitism, a hate which will in time develop in monstrous dimensions. The accusation that the Jews had crucified Joshua, the Nazarene was retold and became part of the Christian religion.
While until that time, the Jews and the Christians somehow tolerated each others, they now fought for the belief of the people. It should be noted that the tension between the Jews and Christian community became the root of animosity between the two religions. The Christians claimed that the Jews made the Christians looking bad in their complaints to the Romans, while the Christians started to teach and preach against the Jews. This became a chapter in the New Testament, which was composed many years later, however was accepted as the ground stone for justifying hatred of the Jews.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Çapter 1 - The Romans
Chapter 1 – The Romans
I, David ben Menahem ben Joseef Hacohen, merchant by trade, left my homeland Judea, and my ancestors, in order to find a better life elsewhere,. Since the Roman legions have conquered my country, killed and tortured my people, destroyed our temple, forced us in sin, I had decided to flee to a less hostile place and less dangerous environment.
At that time I was not anymore young, already in my 40 years, witnessing terrible happenings, like how the Roman soldiers killed my family, burned our houses and fields. Today I am homeless, and nothing will keep me to one place, except perhaps my home sickness to the prewar days of my childhood. I became a merchant when the Romans trampled my vineyard and homestead, which has been in our family for many generations. I started selling and buying merchandise, traveling with my donkey from place to place, and everywhere, people were in despair, the Roman soldier had stolen and plundered everything. This despot, puppet King Herod, is a bloody dictator and madman, killing his own sons and wife, and thousands of my countrymen, but the Romans protector does not care, they allowed him to behave as a despot.
One day, I as hereditary priest in the Cohen clan, descendants from Aaron, the brother of Moses, had finished my temple shift in the holy temple; it was the third day of Passover. I hurried home to join my family in the celebrations of the holy days.
On way home, I encountered a crowd of yelling people, surrounding by a group of Roman soldiers, they were taking three men to be executed, one of them, (this I learned much later), was a Jew from Nazareth with the name Joshua ben Joseph, a trouble maker, who preached and continued preaching even on the way to his death, carrying his cross on his back.
I tried to push through the crowd, but was obstructed on my way by the Roman soldiers. Eventually, I came face to face with this Joshua, clearly suffering under his burden. I tried to get away, but the people around pushed me back. Joshua shouted something at me, but because the noise around me, I have no idea what he shouted, something what really has haunted me in later years when his disciples gathered a large following. This movement claiming that Joshua was the Messiah, and the son of God, Christianity as it was called later on, is a mainly Jewish movement, calling themselves New Jews or Nazarene's (Joshua came from Nazareth).
During that time, Judea was ruled by puppet kings of the Romans, the Herods. The Jews revolted 30 years after this incident and as punishment; the Romans destroyed our holy Temple in Jerusalem. However, the Bar Kokba revolt of three years of bloody clashes was suppressed, Jericho and Bethlehem were destroyed, and the Jews were barred from Jerusalem. The Roman Emperor Hadrian determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea. Therefore, he chooses the name Palestine and imposed it on all the Land of Israel. At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina.
The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more in slavery. Some of those who survived left the devastated country (and established Jewish communities throughout the Middle East) but there was never a complete abandonment of the Land of Israel. That is, there were always Jews and Jewish communities in Palestine, though the size and conditions of those communities fluctuated greatly.
In the mean time, I developed a very peculiar disease, (I will call it a disease, because I can't find another word for it), I don’t age, I look the same as I did 100 years ago, people around me die from illnesses and age, however, I keep feeling healthy.
People around me started getting suspicious and looked upon me as a freak, asking me for the secret of life, I have no idea why this happens to me, but I seem to be immortal. Often I move to new areas and locations, where nobody knows me, so they won't realize my real age. It is really a lonely life, and would I not have been a devout practicing Jew, life would have been unbearable. I travel with my donkey from Jewish communities; carefully planning my trip ahead so I won’t be caught out of Minyan (at least 10 Jewish praying men) required in order celebrating the holy Shabbat.
As merchant, traveling from place to place, I moved every time further away from my home land, from those beautiful rolling hills of Judea, from my family's vineyard, my family and neighbors, remaining alone is no fun, but my believe in God and my devotion to him is my only savvier.
I and many Jewish travelers went North, but others went West (Sepharad), or East (Kush) and South, into Africa. Of course I can not give an account what happened to my brothers who went in other directions, and in those days there was little contacts between the different Jewish groups, only later on we met again and reunited in one people.
When I lived in Tyre, I had a very short intimate relation with a lady, who (as I learned later on) was spying for the local king, near death, looking for a remedy for his illness. After a wild night with this lady, under influence of drugged drinks, I confessed to her that I am immortal. The day after, I was arrested by the king’s men and thrown in jail. I required to know my crime, but never received any answer.
I week later, I was brought to the king, where his servants tried to tap my blood from my veins, and inject it into the veins of the dying king. Something unexpected happened; the king got a seizure and died on the spot. In the excitement of this drama, I managed to flee the palace, gathered my possessions and donkey, and continued my wandering to the next Jewish colony.
I mentioned before of those followers of Joshua ben Joseph from Nazareth, who call themselves New Jews (or Nazarene's). This religion became rather popular by the Gentiles, many converted to their faith, sometimes facing torture and death by the hands of the local rulers, which served the Roman Gods. By the way, there are rumors that Joshua ben Joseph in reality did not die after his crucifixion, and that he fled with his wife towards the land of Kush, where he preached until his death.
The emperors, dictators, local Kings Men in the Roman Empire killed each other, intrigued, murdered, conquered and were defeated; however, the people in the provinces did not realize any differences. Who cares if the Caesar, far away is called Nero, Augustus, Titus, Hadrian or Vespasian, who cares if the local landlord is representing the emperor or a King or just some General, who had taken power in order to fatten his own treasury. Even though, the Roman law was still the law of the land, it protected only the very powerful and rich, the noblemen and the Roman citizens, but never the commoners, of course not the slaves, nor Jews or the Nazarene. Hoping to receive a fair deal was only for the upper class.
The common language in the Roman Empire was now Greek, that had replaced the Aramaic (a Semitic language spoken by the Mediterranean peoples).
In Rome they still used of course Roman (Latin), however in our region, only the ruling caste used that language. But we, the Jews continued using Hebrew as our holy bible, laws and prayer books are written in the ancient holy language. We also use Aramaic and Greek in order to converse with the Gentiles.
The Jews of those days, living in the Diaspora, are like me, religious people, keeping strictly to all the rites of our religion, including dietary laws, according the Jewish bible, celebrating Jewish holy days and of course Sabbath. We do not mix socially with the gentiles, we trade with them, we serve them, and advise them, but we do not integrate and keep our society apart, with our own rabbinical leaders, who will decide if we stay or move on, in order to strengthen another society, or in order to set up a new society as an independent unit in our Jewish network.
I might be cursed or blessed with immortality, but this secret I bear alone, I don't let anybody get too close to me, I keep myself apart, I have learned my lessons in Tyre.
I move on every 10 to 20 years, from the recent town and community, to a new place, where nobody knows me and will not get suspicious that I don’t age like them.
I slowly but surely wander on, leaving Asia Minor, through Aleppo, Smyrna, and finally reach Constantinople, which is the center of the civilization of those days.
As I told you before, Rulers, despots, Generals change continuously, and a history writer would know better what happened 200 years back, than somebody living in the middle of those happenings. The political changes and upheavals we hear from other travelers, spiced it with legends, sagas and half truths, and there is no way to know what really happened other than combining many stories into one flowing carpet of time.
In order to make my own story comprehensive, I started using the counting of years according the Nazarene (Christian timetable) that starts around the days of Joshua the Nazarene, indicated AD (after Christ). And if you add 43 years, you get approximately my real age.
I, David ben Menahem ben Yosef Ha Cohen, trader and traveler live now in the hub of the Roman World Byzantium; it is in the year 500 A.D.
I introduce myself with the name David Hacohen, an untraceable and very common name under the Jews, I dress and talk like the surrounding Jews, having a fine ear for local dialects and accents. I simply melt in the surroundings.
My sexual drive is normal for a middle age man, but I make sure not to get attached after what happened in Tyre. I seem to be not capable in getting a woman pregnant and thus have no offspring. I have many temporary friends, or should I say, conversation partners. I became rather useful during epidemics, as the illness does not touch me, I can provide and treat the patients; supplying them with food and water.
But never the less I am very lonely, long back to the days of my youth, working in our vineyard, doing my turn in the Temple, being surrounded by my own family.
I, David ben Menahem ben Joseef Hacohen, merchant by trade, left my homeland Judea, and my ancestors, in order to find a better life elsewhere,. Since the Roman legions have conquered my country, killed and tortured my people, destroyed our temple, forced us in sin, I had decided to flee to a less hostile place and less dangerous environment.
At that time I was not anymore young, already in my 40 years, witnessing terrible happenings, like how the Roman soldiers killed my family, burned our houses and fields. Today I am homeless, and nothing will keep me to one place, except perhaps my home sickness to the prewar days of my childhood. I became a merchant when the Romans trampled my vineyard and homestead, which has been in our family for many generations. I started selling and buying merchandise, traveling with my donkey from place to place, and everywhere, people were in despair, the Roman soldier had stolen and plundered everything. This despot, puppet King Herod, is a bloody dictator and madman, killing his own sons and wife, and thousands of my countrymen, but the Romans protector does not care, they allowed him to behave as a despot.
One day, I as hereditary priest in the Cohen clan, descendants from Aaron, the brother of Moses, had finished my temple shift in the holy temple; it was the third day of Passover. I hurried home to join my family in the celebrations of the holy days.
On way home, I encountered a crowd of yelling people, surrounding by a group of Roman soldiers, they were taking three men to be executed, one of them, (this I learned much later), was a Jew from Nazareth with the name Joshua ben Joseph, a trouble maker, who preached and continued preaching even on the way to his death, carrying his cross on his back.
I tried to push through the crowd, but was obstructed on my way by the Roman soldiers. Eventually, I came face to face with this Joshua, clearly suffering under his burden. I tried to get away, but the people around pushed me back. Joshua shouted something at me, but because the noise around me, I have no idea what he shouted, something what really has haunted me in later years when his disciples gathered a large following. This movement claiming that Joshua was the Messiah, and the son of God, Christianity as it was called later on, is a mainly Jewish movement, calling themselves New Jews or Nazarene's (Joshua came from Nazareth).
During that time, Judea was ruled by puppet kings of the Romans, the Herods. The Jews revolted 30 years after this incident and as punishment; the Romans destroyed our holy Temple in Jerusalem. However, the Bar Kokba revolt of three years of bloody clashes was suppressed, Jericho and Bethlehem were destroyed, and the Jews were barred from Jerusalem. The Roman Emperor Hadrian determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea. Therefore, he chooses the name Palestine and imposed it on all the Land of Israel. At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina.
The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more in slavery. Some of those who survived left the devastated country (and established Jewish communities throughout the Middle East) but there was never a complete abandonment of the Land of Israel. That is, there were always Jews and Jewish communities in Palestine, though the size and conditions of those communities fluctuated greatly.
In the mean time, I developed a very peculiar disease, (I will call it a disease, because I can't find another word for it), I don’t age, I look the same as I did 100 years ago, people around me die from illnesses and age, however, I keep feeling healthy.
People around me started getting suspicious and looked upon me as a freak, asking me for the secret of life, I have no idea why this happens to me, but I seem to be immortal. Often I move to new areas and locations, where nobody knows me, so they won't realize my real age. It is really a lonely life, and would I not have been a devout practicing Jew, life would have been unbearable. I travel with my donkey from Jewish communities; carefully planning my trip ahead so I won’t be caught out of Minyan (at least 10 Jewish praying men) required in order celebrating the holy Shabbat.
As merchant, traveling from place to place, I moved every time further away from my home land, from those beautiful rolling hills of Judea, from my family's vineyard, my family and neighbors, remaining alone is no fun, but my believe in God and my devotion to him is my only savvier.
I and many Jewish travelers went North, but others went West (Sepharad), or East (Kush) and South, into Africa. Of course I can not give an account what happened to my brothers who went in other directions, and in those days there was little contacts between the different Jewish groups, only later on we met again and reunited in one people.
When I lived in Tyre, I had a very short intimate relation with a lady, who (as I learned later on) was spying for the local king, near death, looking for a remedy for his illness. After a wild night with this lady, under influence of drugged drinks, I confessed to her that I am immortal. The day after, I was arrested by the king’s men and thrown in jail. I required to know my crime, but never received any answer.
I week later, I was brought to the king, where his servants tried to tap my blood from my veins, and inject it into the veins of the dying king. Something unexpected happened; the king got a seizure and died on the spot. In the excitement of this drama, I managed to flee the palace, gathered my possessions and donkey, and continued my wandering to the next Jewish colony.
I mentioned before of those followers of Joshua ben Joseph from Nazareth, who call themselves New Jews (or Nazarene's). This religion became rather popular by the Gentiles, many converted to their faith, sometimes facing torture and death by the hands of the local rulers, which served the Roman Gods. By the way, there are rumors that Joshua ben Joseph in reality did not die after his crucifixion, and that he fled with his wife towards the land of Kush, where he preached until his death.
The emperors, dictators, local Kings Men in the Roman Empire killed each other, intrigued, murdered, conquered and were defeated; however, the people in the provinces did not realize any differences. Who cares if the Caesar, far away is called Nero, Augustus, Titus, Hadrian or Vespasian, who cares if the local landlord is representing the emperor or a King or just some General, who had taken power in order to fatten his own treasury. Even though, the Roman law was still the law of the land, it protected only the very powerful and rich, the noblemen and the Roman citizens, but never the commoners, of course not the slaves, nor Jews or the Nazarene. Hoping to receive a fair deal was only for the upper class.
The common language in the Roman Empire was now Greek, that had replaced the Aramaic (a Semitic language spoken by the Mediterranean peoples).
In Rome they still used of course Roman (Latin), however in our region, only the ruling caste used that language. But we, the Jews continued using Hebrew as our holy bible, laws and prayer books are written in the ancient holy language. We also use Aramaic and Greek in order to converse with the Gentiles.
The Jews of those days, living in the Diaspora, are like me, religious people, keeping strictly to all the rites of our religion, including dietary laws, according the Jewish bible, celebrating Jewish holy days and of course Sabbath. We do not mix socially with the gentiles, we trade with them, we serve them, and advise them, but we do not integrate and keep our society apart, with our own rabbinical leaders, who will decide if we stay or move on, in order to strengthen another society, or in order to set up a new society as an independent unit in our Jewish network.
I might be cursed or blessed with immortality, but this secret I bear alone, I don't let anybody get too close to me, I keep myself apart, I have learned my lessons in Tyre.
I move on every 10 to 20 years, from the recent town and community, to a new place, where nobody knows me and will not get suspicious that I don’t age like them.
I slowly but surely wander on, leaving Asia Minor, through Aleppo, Smyrna, and finally reach Constantinople, which is the center of the civilization of those days.
As I told you before, Rulers, despots, Generals change continuously, and a history writer would know better what happened 200 years back, than somebody living in the middle of those happenings. The political changes and upheavals we hear from other travelers, spiced it with legends, sagas and half truths, and there is no way to know what really happened other than combining many stories into one flowing carpet of time.
In order to make my own story comprehensive, I started using the counting of years according the Nazarene (Christian timetable) that starts around the days of Joshua the Nazarene, indicated AD (after Christ). And if you add 43 years, you get approximately my real age.
I, David ben Menahem ben Yosef Ha Cohen, trader and traveler live now in the hub of the Roman World Byzantium; it is in the year 500 A.D.
I introduce myself with the name David Hacohen, an untraceable and very common name under the Jews, I dress and talk like the surrounding Jews, having a fine ear for local dialects and accents. I simply melt in the surroundings.
My sexual drive is normal for a middle age man, but I make sure not to get attached after what happened in Tyre. I seem to be not capable in getting a woman pregnant and thus have no offspring. I have many temporary friends, or should I say, conversation partners. I became rather useful during epidemics, as the illness does not touch me, I can provide and treat the patients; supplying them with food and water.
But never the less I am very lonely, long back to the days of my youth, working in our vineyard, doing my turn in the Temple, being surrounded by my own family.
The eternal or wandering Jew
The eternal or wandering Jew.
Introduction:
This are ancient legends, some claim early Christian, others much older, with the common theme of an immortal Jew, a lonely person who was doomed to live for eternity, as punishment for skimping Jesus on his way to his crucifixion, or symbolizing the home less Jew, remaining without a homeland, and searching for ever, to find his own corner.
Even though, these legends are at least 1.500 years old, it is still used by various authors to express their distaste, but also frightened admiration for the Jews, whom will not integrate in the surroundings, but manages to stay apart in history.
This was the theme for a Nazi film, presenting the Jew as a pest and dangerous factor in the society, but others used this same theme to portray the mystery and romance of the lonely Jew, unable to find conclusions to his life. In my opinion, this idea of the wandering eternal Jew figure represents the strength and continuation of the Jewish race, their (our) need for an homeland and the reclamation of the Jewish people in the family of nations (a progress which is still going on, which does not go very smooth, but slowly but surely, our Jew will eventually succeed).
In the legends, this Jew got named Ahga-shveros like the King in the Purim legend of Queens Esther, others named him Jud, but like Shakespeare, who named him Shylock, wrote “what is in a name”, as indeed the name is not important, the symbolic figure of an older Jew plays the outsider, on the edge of history who observes everything, but is never participates in the story of those days, with the same role of European Jews since the Roman empire.
I am not an historian, nor an author, only an elder Jew with an idea to present the history of the Jews in the eyes of this eternal wanderer, feeling himself belonging to the Jewish people, living in the Diaspora, and eventually returning home after 2.000 years, in order to learn that his homecoming will not be peaceful or painless and will requires enormous sacrifices.
At this stage, I need to remind you that history is a gathering of stories of somebody other relating the scene, as history is always repeating history, in my case most sources are taken from Google, and too numerous to note the name of original writer (who, when talking about history, is neither the original writer but a part of the chain of story tellers, an ancient habit by civilized people, in order to learn from the past).
I have an additional request; please do not take everything too serious, I am not intending to write a new bible, only an additional vision on history, and this time from out the eyes of the underdog.
My hero writes for himself the following conclusion, which might explain to you the attitude of the Jew to life and religion, his personal beliefs and ideals.
I have now lived on this earth for more than 2000 years and most probably will be around during the next decennial. I still am a very devote Jew, but do not accept the rites and traditions of the current Jewry, who in their intent to preserve Jewish life adapted very strange customs that in my opinion are not related to real Jewish life, thus I decided to make up my own rules on religion. Today, I travel from place to place, by changing my papers, name and identity. In the last few hundred years I gathered for myself a fortune, that is used for philanthropic purposes, mostly without involving myself.
I have returned and visited my ancestor's homestead in Israel near the town of Modiin in the area of the tribe of Benjamin (to day a very modern town in the state of Israel), but my family's wine yard has disappeared. I still love my country and am extremely proud of their achievements in such a short period of time. I will do everything in my power to help rebuilding the state, and so to make an end to provide a suitable answer to our apparent defenselessness and Antisemitism we had to suffer in the diaspora.
I must say that my homesickness for this place has never weakened, and when I finally die like an ordinary mortal, I would like to be buried in my home ground.
If you are looking for me, you won't be able to recognize me; I look like a practicing Jew in his 40th, healthy for his age, and remaining never long enough at one place to be found out.
I related to my friend Verveer a few of my happenings, especially over the life of my people in the shadow of history, in my opinion we were never the cause of disasters which the Gentiles endured, even though they often blamed us for it, starting with the crucifixion of Joshua, followed by the accusations of the early Christians in Smyrna, etc., etc.
August, 2010
Kfar Saba, Israel
Introduction:
This are ancient legends, some claim early Christian, others much older, with the common theme of an immortal Jew, a lonely person who was doomed to live for eternity, as punishment for skimping Jesus on his way to his crucifixion, or symbolizing the home less Jew, remaining without a homeland, and searching for ever, to find his own corner.
Even though, these legends are at least 1.500 years old, it is still used by various authors to express their distaste, but also frightened admiration for the Jews, whom will not integrate in the surroundings, but manages to stay apart in history.
This was the theme for a Nazi film, presenting the Jew as a pest and dangerous factor in the society, but others used this same theme to portray the mystery and romance of the lonely Jew, unable to find conclusions to his life. In my opinion, this idea of the wandering eternal Jew figure represents the strength and continuation of the Jewish race, their (our) need for an homeland and the reclamation of the Jewish people in the family of nations (a progress which is still going on, which does not go very smooth, but slowly but surely, our Jew will eventually succeed).
In the legends, this Jew got named Ahga-shveros like the King in the Purim legend of Queens Esther, others named him Jud, but like Shakespeare, who named him Shylock, wrote “what is in a name”, as indeed the name is not important, the symbolic figure of an older Jew plays the outsider, on the edge of history who observes everything, but is never participates in the story of those days, with the same role of European Jews since the Roman empire.
I am not an historian, nor an author, only an elder Jew with an idea to present the history of the Jews in the eyes of this eternal wanderer, feeling himself belonging to the Jewish people, living in the Diaspora, and eventually returning home after 2.000 years, in order to learn that his homecoming will not be peaceful or painless and will requires enormous sacrifices.
At this stage, I need to remind you that history is a gathering of stories of somebody other relating the scene, as history is always repeating history, in my case most sources are taken from Google, and too numerous to note the name of original writer (who, when talking about history, is neither the original writer but a part of the chain of story tellers, an ancient habit by civilized people, in order to learn from the past).
I have an additional request; please do not take everything too serious, I am not intending to write a new bible, only an additional vision on history, and this time from out the eyes of the underdog.
My hero writes for himself the following conclusion, which might explain to you the attitude of the Jew to life and religion, his personal beliefs and ideals.
I have now lived on this earth for more than 2000 years and most probably will be around during the next decennial. I still am a very devote Jew, but do not accept the rites and traditions of the current Jewry, who in their intent to preserve Jewish life adapted very strange customs that in my opinion are not related to real Jewish life, thus I decided to make up my own rules on religion. Today, I travel from place to place, by changing my papers, name and identity. In the last few hundred years I gathered for myself a fortune, that is used for philanthropic purposes, mostly without involving myself.
I have returned and visited my ancestor's homestead in Israel near the town of Modiin in the area of the tribe of Benjamin (to day a very modern town in the state of Israel), but my family's wine yard has disappeared. I still love my country and am extremely proud of their achievements in such a short period of time. I will do everything in my power to help rebuilding the state, and so to make an end to provide a suitable answer to our apparent defenselessness and Antisemitism we had to suffer in the diaspora.
I must say that my homesickness for this place has never weakened, and when I finally die like an ordinary mortal, I would like to be buried in my home ground.
If you are looking for me, you won't be able to recognize me; I look like a practicing Jew in his 40th, healthy for his age, and remaining never long enough at one place to be found out.
I related to my friend Verveer a few of my happenings, especially over the life of my people in the shadow of history, in my opinion we were never the cause of disasters which the Gentiles endured, even though they often blamed us for it, starting with the crucifixion of Joshua, followed by the accusations of the early Christians in Smyrna, etc., etc.
August, 2010
Kfar Saba, Israel
Saturday, January 8, 2011
We zijn weer terug!
Na een jaar afwezigheid, kom ik weer terug naar mijn eigen blog. Jaren schreef ik op mijn blog in de Volkskrant, en mijn blog, maar dacht dat met een lezer aantal van meer dan 5600 lezers in de volkskrant, ik geen eigen blog nodig had, maar helaas, de Volkskrant werd aan de Belgen verkocht, en die stoppen er mee, na 1st van Maart geen VK blog meer.
Het leuke en interresante van het VK blog was het grote publiek, de aantal van verschillenden opinies, reacties, sommige stom, sommige leuk en vele kwatsch, maar natuurlijk veel meer attentie dan mijn eigen blogje www.dverveer.blogspot.com.
Dus nu ben ik terug, en zullen we proberen het lezers aantal op te bouwen, want het heeft weinig zin om alleen op mij zelf te bloggen, ik heb net als iedereen een audience nodig.
Dus toevallige lezer, tot ziens
David Verveer
Het leuke en interresante van het VK blog was het grote publiek, de aantal van verschillenden opinies, reacties, sommige stom, sommige leuk en vele kwatsch, maar natuurlijk veel meer attentie dan mijn eigen blogje www.dverveer.blogspot.com.
Dus nu ben ik terug, en zullen we proberen het lezers aantal op te bouwen, want het heeft weinig zin om alleen op mij zelf te bloggen, ik heb net als iedereen een audience nodig.
Dus toevallige lezer, tot ziens
David Verveer
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