JEWISH ROOTS

Jews are one of the most ancient peoples in the world. There are more facts about Jewish history than  any other nation. The Jewish people originated in the land of Israel, and have maintained physical, cultural, and religious ties to it ever since.

Even though Israel is a tiny country it is always in the global news.  This news often reports on the unending conflicts between Israeli Jews and their neighbours, and the search for peace.  Even if there is no actual warfare there is continuous tension.  How did this start?  Many people look back only as far back as the birth of Israel in 1948 - but if we are to understand the situation we need to look back much further.

As related in the Bible, it all began over 4,000 years ago with Abraham, who went on a camping trip in this part of the Middle East. The Bible is the oldest source of Jewish history, although religious Jews consider it  as far more than an historical document.  

Jewish history is not only recorded in the Bible but there are many corroborating facts outside of the Bible.  There exist archives from the times of  the Assyrians, the Persians, Egyptians  with descriptions of the wars fought with ancient Israel. These were mostly diaries of the kings describing victories of the wars written on papyrus, or written memorials carved on stone. One of particular interest is a 27 metres wide stone tablet which was carved on the wall in a palace of an Assyrian king depicting scenes of the war fought against Zedekiah.

Another very substantial source which verifies biblical narrative is archeology. Always a magnet for archeologists, Israel has seen its rich historical layers sifted through and catalogued exhaustively over the past 70 years of statehood. 30 excavations supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority take place every day and, according to the head of the IAA, they can continue for many more years.

Perhaps the most significant discovery made in the last century is the ancient city of king David. In 2007 another site was uncovered which also goes back to the days of King David and Solomon. This was an ancient fortress called Khirbet Qeiyafa, near the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, 30 km. from Jerusalem. The date was verified, both scientifically (by means of an organic substance known as carbon 14), and from a replica of the holy Temple found on the site. On the same site many Jewish ritual artifacts were also found.

Jewish culture, language, tradition was built up only after the Jewish people left Egypt as slaves and wandered in the desert for 40 years. The seminal event which finally molded the Jews into a cohesive People was the revelation on Mount Sinai.

On Friday this week, Jews all over the world (religious and secular) will be celebrating this event on the first night of the eight day’s Festival of Pesach (Passover). In the enactment of the Pesach  story, each participant must feel as if he/she personally had come out of slavery in Egypt, and experienced the redemption at the shores of the Red Sea. 

Every nation needs identity in order to survive. Identity needs memory. In order to preserve the memory we are told to tell the Pesach story especially to our children.

In the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “Pesach is the oldest and most transformative story of hope ever told. It tells of how an otherwise undistinguished group of slaves found their way to freedom from the greatest and longest-lived empire of their time, indeed of any time. It tells the revolutionary story of how the Supreme Power intervened in history to liberate the supremely powerless. It defines what it is to be a Jew: a living symbol of hope”.