Judaism, Judea-people-ism, is the ethno-religion of the Canaan Jewish people of the land of Israel (Judea-Samaria). Judaism is not a “faith” religion, like Colonial Christianity and Colonial Islam. A correct understanding of our Canaanite Hebrew language, our words and ancestral stories, and the history of our SWANA Indigenous people really does matter, folks! This is why we seek to share and to teach our Torah with others. We do this in the form of d’var Torah Indigenous stories on our Indigenous Judean ways. Here is our most recent d’var, “words” “teaching”, from last week’s parashah, followed by a very brief history lesson for non-Jews and, then, a link to many more Jewish Indigenous stories on a separate page. Enjoy!
What does the story of Moses teach us about the mashiach, the “messiah”? A question for Jews and non-Jews. Anyone ready for a d’var Torah, a word of Torah, a teaching?
There is no concept of “original sin” in the ethno-religion of the Jews, and there is no specific theology beyond that of showing “love” for the G-d of Israel through wrestling with our Indigenous Judean people’s halachot/mitzvot, our Jewish laws/obligations. Jews do not need a single savior figure for our people, and non-Jews often misunderstand what the role of the mashiach, a messiah, is in Jewish ethno-religious culture.
Without the yetzer ha’ra, the inclination to do bad/evil in this world, there would be no way for humans to know how to embrace the yetzer ha’tov, the inclination to do good in this world. We humans would be just like all other nefesh chayim, living breathing-creatures, upon this planet Earth – indistinguishable from other species in our individual and social behaviors as a primate species.
This is what the Torah teaches the Jewish people of the land of Israel. The role of the mashiach, the “messiah”, for the Jews is: to lead us into harnessing the yetzer ha’ra and using it to bring upon this planet Earth the yetzer ha’tov amongst humans. There is a time for war and there is a time for peace. There is time to wipe out the name of Amalek from our lips and the lips of others, and there is a time to teach about Amalek so that human history no longer repeats itself.
This last Shabbat, we Jews listened to the chanting of Parashat Shemot, the matter (or affair) of names, in our Canaanite Hebrew language. Within this set of stories, we Jews remembered a child born to a Levite woman, who rode in a basket down the Nile, was raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, who killed an Egyptian slavemaster and became a shepherd in Midian, and married a Midianite woman who was the daughter of a Midianite priest. Oh, yes, he was also afflicted with a strong studder!
One who is thinking about Moses would hardly imagine that this story is a story about a mashiach. The first mashiach, a messiah, to lead the Jews and Egyptians through their yetzer ha’ra and into their yetzer ha’tov, an age of peace between powerful Egypt and enslaved Canaan. But, with the help of his Israelite brother Aaron and sister Miriam – all three together established the leadership for the Jewish people’s salvation – Moses was able to harness his yetzer ha’ra for the sake of yetzer ha’tov amongst multiple peoples.
It doesn’t matter who you are in this life, Y-HWH respects every “good deed” – mitzvah / “sacred obligation” – that you fulfill. You can be filled with a born hate for life and you can be born with the inability to love and sympathize with others. But, if you are willing to listen to that voice – in this story talking from a flaming bush – and are willing to fulfill mitzvot – sacred laws on ethical living that perpetuates piku’ach nefesh, “saving of a life” (especially victimized human life, but all breathing creatures’ life, the literal meaning of “nefesh” in Torah!) – then, regardless your personal state of “sin” in this life, Y-HWH sees you! And, has only asked you to do this much in life.
Now,… If you “love” the Creator of life, even if you cannot identify personally with the emotion “love”, then you will fulfill the mitzvot – the mitzvot that saves lives victimized by oppressors who care not about Torah. Even Trump did a “good deed” – fulfilled a mitzvah unknowingly – when he moved the USA embassy to Jerusalem, the capital city of the Indigenous Israelis – Jews, Druze, Bedouin, and Israeli Arab citizens of Israel!
BUT, don’t vote for him in 2024, PLEASE, USA citizens! He is an evil self-centered Adolf Hitler type of man, and he will lead you into World War 3. He is not a mashiach for any people and – please, may ha’Shem forbid(!) – is the harbinger for the 2nd multi-continent Shoah (Holocaust) for Jews.
Snapshot above: Yetzer ha’tov and yetzer ha’ra – humans, like the Creator of life, are both good and bad – and this is good!
Zionism is the most successful Indigenous peoples’ land back movement, so far, in modern human history! One of the following versions of the Exodus story explains why this is so!
If you want to understand Jews, then you must properly understand our Indigenous stories. For example,… How many ‘Exodus from Egypt’ stories are there in our Canaanite Hebrew language Jewish Torah? Do you know the answer? If you said “one”, then you are very wrong about this! Remember, Torah is a battle between two gods for the minds of Jews. But, interestingly, in this part of our Torah, there are three Exodus stories. Each story has its own purpose and teaching, and all stories blended together spans a thousand years of Indigenous Jewish thought.
What do we Jews mean by this? Well, let’s get to studying the present parashot that Jews are engaged in at this time of year – the story of the exodus from Egypt. Remember, every year, we Jews recite or listen to the recitation of our Canaan-originating Jewish stories in the original Canaanite Hebrew language of our people of Israel. So, let’s start listening here!
Part 1 of 3 D’varim (Stories)
The oldest version of our Exodus story tells a tale of the Judean land god, the storm god Y-HWH, doing battle with the Egyptians to impress upon them his superior might, so that the Egyptians will know the god of the Jews. This story is short and to the point about how Y-HWH overcomes the Egyptians in battle, after the people of Israel sneak away from Egypt and the Pharaoh’s army is closely following from behind to bring them back to Egypt.
In this story, Pharaoh has made the royal decree that every son born shall be thrown into the Nile and every daughter kept alive. This is where Pharoah’s daughter finds Moshe (Moses) and raises him as her own, he eventually kills an Egyptian as an adult, flees for his life, and becomes the adopted son of a Midianite priest, having married Ziporah. From here, a cherub of Y-HWH appears to Moshe in a flaming bush, and Y-HWH warns Moshe that he is on sacred ground. Moshe takes off his shoes, and Y-HWH informs Moshe that he is seeing the suffering of the people of Israel in Egypt.
Y-HWH admits that he already knows that the Pharoah of Egypt will not allow the people of Israel to go, so he will put out his personal hand, strike Egypt with his power, and they will let the Jews go. Then, a little bit later, Y-HWH realizes that Moshe is uncircumcised and seeks to kill Moshe for this. Ziporah becomes the unheard mashiach (messiah) of this story, for she had the wherewithal to save Moshe’s life by circumcising their son. After this, Moshe and Aharon demanded, in the name of Y-HWH, that Pharoah let Moshe’s people of Israel go to celebrate an Indigenous Judean festival in the wilderness. Pharoah asks, “who is Y-HWH, that I should listen to his voice? No!” This was the end of all discussion.
So, the people of Israel fled from Egypt. And, Y-HWH, riding upon a cherub that is surrounded by a densely thick cloud, guides the Jews by day towards their home, and by night with a pillar of fire, because the Egyptians are pursuing them. When the time was right, Y-HWH navigated his cloud from before the people of Israel to behind the people, clouding the path of the Egyptians. This is when Y-HWH brings a powerful Eastern wind to separate the Sea of Reeds to create a dry land escape path for the people of Israel to run across.
The Egyptian army fought through the darkness and columns of fire that Y-HWH had thrown at them, but was now fatally vulnerable within the dry ground of the sea of reeds, between the wind separated columns of water. The Egyptians declared, “Y-HWH is fighting for the Jews against us, we need to flee!” They turned around and fled. But, too late! Y-HWH covered the Egyptians with the waters of the sea of reeds, and the people of Israel saw Egypt dead on the seashore. They celebrated their survival with an Indigenous foundational song!
Part 2 of 3 D’varim (Stories)
The youngest version of our Exodus story tells a tale of the Judean high god, Elohim, exerting absolute control over all transpiring events, allowing absolutely zero “free will” of choice for both the Egyptians and the people of Israel. In all Jewish Elohim stories, the high god is a dictator – in both the verbal instructions and the decision making sense.
In this story, the children of Israel have been very fruitful in their birth rates, thus Egypt oppressed them with the hard labors that were within Egyptian society. The children of Israel groaned under their labors, and Elohim heard them and remembered the covenant with his people. So Elohim spoke to Moshe (Moses), revealing that he is Y-HWH who appeared as El Shaddai to Avraham, Yitzhak (Isaac), and Yaakov (Jacob).
Elohim instructs Moshe to tell the children of Israel that he will bring them out from under Egypt’s oppression and bring them to their Canaan Judean people’s land. Moshe instructs the people as commanded, but the people do not listen under their physical and emotional stress. So, Elohim tells Moshe to speak to Pharoah directly, and tell him to let the children of Israel go from his land. But, now, Moshe objects, because he badly studders and does not believe that Pharaoh will listen to him.
Elohim declares to Moshe that he has made Pharoah see Moshe as a god and Aharon (Aaron) as Moshe’s prophet. This is where Elohim reveals his plan: Moshe will speak what Elohim commands, Aharon will speak to Pharoah, and Elohim will harden Pharoah’s heart to multiply Elohim’s signs and wonders to all of Egypt. From here begins the making of magic and charms between Moshe’s Aharon and Pharoah’s magicians. And the more they traded signs and wonders, the more Elohim hardened Pharoah’s heart.
Eventually, Aharon’s magic was more powerful than that of Pharoah’s magicians, and Elohim hardened Pharoah’s heart even more. At this point in our Exodus story is where Elohim has Moshe and Aharon command the children of Israel to pack up, as if fleeing, and make a festival meal with a mark on their front door post. The children of Israel did so, and Elohim came through Egypt with the maschit – a demon that slaughters – to slay all firstborn throughout Egypt. Only homes with the mark on them will be spared, for Elohim will guide the maschit away from them.
Elohim commands the children of Israel to leave Egypt, and they do so. Elohim now strengthens Pharoah’s already hardened heart, so that Pharoah pursues Israel out of Egypt and towards the sea with Egypt’s entire army – all for Elohim’s glory against Pharoah before all of Egypt, so that they will know the name Y-HWH. At the sea, Elohim divides the waters, creating a dry path for the children of Israel to cross. Then, Egypt’s army pursues onto the dry seabed and is swallowed by the divided waters. Every member of Egypt’s army perished by drowning, and Egypt now knows Y-HWH.
Part 3 of 3 D’varim (Stories)
The longest version of our Exodus story (and it is very very long!) tells a tale of the Judean land god, the Elohim Y-HWH, being surprised by the Egyptian Pharaoh and the Egyptian citizens’ responses to his demands that the people of Israel be allowed to return home to their Canaan land of Judea and Samaria. And, unlike the two previous versions of G-d that control the action by physical might or by dictating words, this version of G-d prefers to work through others, behind the scenes, to perform his glorious works.
In this story, a new Pharoah has taken rule upon Egypt, one who did not know Joseph. He noticed just how many there are in the numbers the children of Israel that are upon the land of Egypt. Fearing that we Jews would side against Egypt in a time of war, the Pharoah had his CEOs, his “commanders of the work-companies”, deplete the number of Jewish workers with numerous labor projects. Note, manual labor of the Egyptian kind can easily lead to deaths when workers are overworked.
To the dismay of the Pharoah, though, the more he worked the children of Israel, the more the Jews multiplied in their numbers of birth to meet the construction needs of the Pharoah’s work companies. Inciting his own Egyptian people towards hatred for the children Israel, the king of Egypt (the actual term for Pharoah that is used in this version of the story) instructed all the midwives delivering Jewish children to kill any male newborn, thus allowing only the female children to live.
The midwives refused to obey the Pharoah’s command. When summoned to explain, they justified themselves by calling the people of Israel an “animal” species thus, by the time the midwives arrived to deliver babies, the Jewish women had already given birth. The Pharoah accepted the excuse, and the midwives were significantly blessed by Elohim for sparing Jewish lives. Thus, the children of Israel grew very powerful in numbers in Egypt.
This is where the story shifts radically to an introduction of Moshe (Moses), who is shepparding the flock of his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. As Moshe drove the flock to the far side of the wilderness, he arrives upon Horeb, which is the Mountain of G-d (Sinai is another name for this mountain). Moshe hears Elohim call to him from inside a burning bush. Elohim says that he is the god of Moshe’s father and the god of the patriarchs, and Moshe hides his face in fear.
Elohim instructs Moshe to go face the Pharoah, for Elohim sees the Jews’ suffering, while knowing that Elohim is beside him when facing the king of Egypt. Note, in this version of the Exodus story, Elohim Y-HWH has no physical form, and appears within very specific animated objects. Elohim instructs Moshe to bring the children of Israel to Horeb, after Pharoah has let the people go. Moshe asks how he should introduce Elohim to the children of Israel. Elohim instructs him, tell them “I am who I am” who has sent you, Moshe, to the Jews.
Moshe doubts the voice of G-d coming from the burning bush. So, Elohim tells Moshe to drop his staff. And, before Moshe’s eyes, the staff turns into a snake (a significant Southwest Asia to North Africa divinity symbol)! Moshe fled from it in fear. Elohim tells Moshe to grab its tail and, when Moshe does this, snake becomes a staff. The proof of miraculous acts continue, until Moshe is convinced of his divine Indigenous calling in life. Moshe, now convinced, pleads that he is heavy of mouth and tongue and would not make a good spokesperson for the children of Israel.
Elohim Y-HWH’s anger flares at this point, over Moshe’s insolence, for Elohim already knew Moshe’s impediment. He explains to Moshe that Aharon, the Levite, who will speak for him, is already on the path toward Moshe, who is the Cohen. When the two unite, they went to the people of Israel and showed Elohim Y-HWH’s signs and wonders before the people. And the Jews believed in these signs and wonders, asking to go on a trip outside of Egypt to make sacrifice to Y-HWH, lest he strike against them rather than Egypt.
The Pharoah summons Moshe and Aharon and asks why they have released the children of Israel from their labors to the king of Egypt. In anger, the Pharoah commanded his taskmasters to increase the burden upon the Jews to prevent them any time for festivals. And Elohim Y-HWH now reveals his plan to stress the Pharoah, until he releases the children of Israel and allows them to leave Egypt. With every visit to the Pharoah, Moshe and Aharon, demand that Pharoah let the Jews go from Egypt to serve Y-HWH.
With every plea that Moshe and Aharon makes on behalf of the children of Israel, Elohim Y-HWH increases the burdens upon the Pharoah and his Egyptian people. Plagues of all sorts! Elohim Y-HWH is determined to win this battle of the wills. The Pharoah is beginning to make concessions for relief,… – (unfortunately, in this ancient Indigenous story, it’s not a few “hostages”, but just false promises of release!) – …but Pharoah still refuses to relinquish his occupation upon the Jews. – (This sounds a lot like present Arab Palestinian HAMAS terrorists, now, doesn’t it?! Hello?!)
Elohim Y-HWH becomes backed into a corner over the Pharoah’s obstinance and refusal to let the Jews go. So, he brings the maschit – the demon that slaughters – to Egypt (to occupied Gaza!) to end this standoff between evil (Colonizer, oppressor) and good (Indigenous peoples). Moshe and Aharon warn the people what to do for our survival from this divine wrath over the oppression of Indigenous peoples.
And the Jews of Israel listened, avoiding more slaughters of our people, as Elohim Y-HWH slaughters the children of the Egyptians – to our forever Indigenous dismay that life has to actually unfold this way upon this planet Earth for Indigenous peoples’ survival! For this Indigenous people victory over a regional Colonizer, Elohim Y-HWH instructs the children of Israel, the Jews, to consecrate every firstborn to the service of Elohim Y-HWH.
For 3,800 years now, no empire, no Colonizer (Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Arab Muslim, European Christian, Turkish, Iranian, etc!) has been able to successfully fully uproot the Jewish people of Canaan Israel from our Indigenous land and our Indigenous ways. IT IS TIME to end modern history Arab-European settler Colonialism upon this planet Earth, for Colonial Allah, Christ, and Marx dominionism upon Indigenous peoples’ lands worldwide!
Can you see for yourself the three versions of the Exodus from Egypt story in our Jewish Torah? They are expertly redacted together into one complicated, even contradictory, singular Exodus narrative about a complicated, even contradictory, Judean land god and his people of Israel. … This is why we Jews love our stories. Go study!
We Indigenous peoples worldwide demand #LandBack ! Allow us to peacefully decolonize amongst your Arab-European Colonial nations! This means no longer being an Arab-European occupied “puppet state” upon our decolonized ancestral lands! We Jews, Kurds, Balochs, Assyrians, Sámi, Pueblos, Cherokee, Lakota, Navajo, Anishinaabe, Wampanoag, Taino, Cree, Māori , Kanaka o’ Hawai’i (Hawaiians), etc(!) appreciate your “kokua” (respectful assistance, help) for our Indigenous peoples’ ways and land rights!
Zionism is the most successful land back movement, so far, in modern human history!
D’var Torah Indigenous stories are for teaching real life history, too, not just mythic history. For example:
“We’ve known that pagans worshiped at their [Roman] temples in the 4th century” – the temples erected to worship Roman Emperor Constantine’s divine ancestors, the Flavian family – “but those findings have all been small and inconsequential. And we’ve known that Christians supported the imperial [Roman] cult.”
“It shows the continuities between the classical pagan world and early Christian Roman world that often get blurred out or written out of the sweeping historical narratives,” Douglas Boin, Spello excavations researcher, said in a press release.
As we Southwest Asian peoples keep saying, Christianity was invented in the Aegean north in the 4th century CE by way of appropriation of an Indigenous Judean people’s ancestral and modern (for their time!) apocalyptic literatures! The 1st century CE proto-rabbi Jesus of Nazareth that lived in Judea was, by the Gospels of Mark and Matthew (written in Koine Greek in Judea, unlike Aegean Christian books), a devout follower of Torah law (as he interpreted it) and an anti-Colonial Zionist seeking the overthrow of “the Beast”, the Roman occupiers of Israel.
“There was no separation between religion and state in the Roman world, and Romans’ proud sense of patriotism informed all of their public activities, including their worship,” Boin told Newsweek. “In an empire where people spoke multiple languages, lived across three continents, and held on to their own local traditions, the imperial cult brought people together around common ideals.”
https://www.newsweek.com/pagan-temple-challenges-history-roman-christianity-1858210
Archaeologists’ Pagan Temple Find Challenges History of Roman Christianity
Jan 05, 2024
Again, D’var Torah Indigenous stories are for teaching real life history, too, not just mythic history. For another example:
Monotheism was invented during this CE period of human history. For Jews, before Maimonides, we were henotheists – monolatrous to only one “God”, while still recognizing the very real existence of other “Gods”. Further, a Jew (yehudi) is a descendant of the people of Judah (yehudah, Judea). Jew is not a Roman pagan term, as some non-Jews apparently believe! Further, the people of Israel became a distinct people in Moab, then moved north and west to establish our own kingdoms, so says our Judean ancestral writings known as Torah. Correct understanding of our Canaanite Hebrew language, our words and origin stories, and the history of our SWANA Indigenous people really does matter, folks!
We Jews are a SWANA Indigenous people, who have always been defined by our halachot/mitzvot (our people’s laws) regardless of our various and ever changing beliefs. Conversion is a Colonial Christian word forced upon Indigenous peoples, and to “convert” into the Jewish people does not mean the same thing as in Colonial Christianity and Colonial Islam. To successfully “convert” into an Indigenous people, in this case the Jewish people, you must face a community that is willing to teach you our Indigenous Judean people’s ways, you must be willing to study for years and, then, if a beit din (an Indigenous people’s court of law) rules that you are now Indigenous, in this case a Jew, then now you are an Indigenous person – a member of the people.
Le’avdah ul’shamrah, to work and to guard the land, and to be wary of tza’ar ba’alei chayim, the suffering of animals – this is what it means to be Indigenously Jewish! These d’varim, Torah words, of our people, it’s not a choice, but a divine obligation upon all human beings. The rainbow was set in the skies above after our exile from gan eyden, YHWH’s garden. Why then? To break the curse of drought with a flood, with the waters needed for life upon the land. If we don’t sustain the Earth and her ecosystems, we will be driven from paradise. Worse, we will bring an extinction of the species….
http://www.takemeon.org/dir/indigenous-stories-and-indigenous-ways/
META Description : D’var Torah Indigenous Stories for a correct understanding of our SWANA Jewish Canaanite Hebrew language, ancestral stories, and history!
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Link to the book directly below. Touch the cover!
Read this book and you won’t disparage the Jewish people nor Israel ever again! This book exposes the Colonial lie of false equivalency between Jews (Indigenous Judeans of the land of Israel) and Christians and Muslims (world colonizing European and Arab religions), that have been assimilating Indigenous lands worldwide for 1,600 years in the names of Jewish ancestors. Zionism is the Jewish people’s “land back” movement. Israel’s successful full decolonization is every Indigenous People’s/Nation’s hope!
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