HOW ODD OF GOD TO CHOOSE THE JEWS - HASHEM’S PLAN FOR ISRAEL AND FOR HUMANITY

 

HOW ODD OF GOD TO CHOOSE THE JEWS

HASHEM’S PLAN FOR ISRAEL AND FOR HUMANITY 

Many of us believe that there is a God.

And if so, what does He do?

Moreover does He have a Plan for humanity?

And if so what is that Plan?

In this essay I am trying to figure out just what that Plan is.

It is an impossible task. I can only scratch the surface and offer some findings to you.

Let’s start at the conclusion, and then go to the beginning.

All I know are four things:

1. As part of His Plan, eons ago HaShem, the Creator, formed humankind in His image wanting humankind to be like Him.

2. Whatever the Plan may happen to be its fulfillment has taken a long time and most likely will continue to take a long time.

3. There has been and will be false starts in implementing the Plan.

Where there have been false starts, there are resultant delays in carrying out the Plan.

4. Jews play a central role in fulfilling His Plan.

Starting with Abraham and Sarah, the first Jews or if you like, Proto-Jews, we’ve been around for about 4,000 years.

This raises a question: What characteristics did Abraham and Sarah display that they were chosen by HaShem to help implement His Plan?

WHAT WERE THEIR CHARACTERISTICS?

When making His selection, HaShem focused on people who were intelligent, innovative, had pioneering spirit, and most of all excelled in Abstract Reasoning.

To believe in a god that you can not see you must be open to Abstract Reasoning.

To have pioneering spirit you need to be courageous and absolutely committed.

People who have made Aliyah are courageous and committed.

Abraham and Sarah showed these characteristics, and more:

They were destined to reach out beyond their family to others, whether Canaanite, Egyptian or Philistine and bring them into the fold.

Perhaps the most important of all was Hashem telling Abraham to listen to his wife.

WHAT WAS THE ORIGIN OF ABRAHAM AND SARAH?

Abraham and Sarah came from a place originally called Sumer. They lived in a city called Ur. Sumer is located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the region called the Fertile Crescent.

Sumer emerged as a civilization about 6000 years ago during the Age of Copper. We know Sumer from the Book of Genesis where it is called Shinar. Shinar is the location of the Tower of Babylon.

Sumer at the time of Abraham and Sarah Sumer became known as Akkad and much later on Babylonia. It is now Iraq.

Sumer is famous for many things, such as the invention of the plough and agricultural tools.  We attribute Noach for these inventions.  The oldest surviving stringed musical instrument is the Lyre of Ur. They were incredible artists, using clay, metals and gemstones.

They were good at measuring things and in doing so invented arithmetic, geometry and algebra. They were the first to find the area of a triangle and the volume of a cube. The Sumerians, similar to Abraham and Sarah, their descendants were people who were intelligent, innovative and most of all excelled in Abstract Reasoning.

Think again about the Tower of Babylon.  Whereas other peoples used sun-dried mud bricks for construction, The Sumerians baked their bricks in Kilns, making them very strong and allowing to reach upwards to the heavens..

There is a Sumerian invention that is very important for us, the People of the Book, Sumerians invented writing. This has to be a cornerstone of HaShem’s plan for us, the Jews and for the world.

This writing is called cuneiform. It means “wedge-shaped,” because the Sumerians wrote it using a reed stylus cut to make a wedge-shaped mark on a soft clay tablet or cylinder. This was then baked making it permanent.

I think that I was a Sumerian, and not because of the innovations and examples of Abstract Thinking: The Sumerians were one of the first known beer-drinking societies. Way back when in a previous incarnation I must have been a Sumerians. I am a beer aficionado.

This essay began with Abraham and Sarah about 4,000 years ago.

Then we dropped back to 6,000 years ago with the Sumerians.

The thrust all along has been to speculate on what has been HaShem’s plan for us, and the significance of Abstract Reasoning.

HUMAN ORIGINS OF ABSTRACT REASONING

Modern human beings belong to the genus Homo sapaien. There are several extinct species of this genus that are classified as either ancestral to or closely related to modern humans.  Among them are Homo erectus (upright man) and Homo neanderthalensis.

Adjust your time frame. We have moved beyond the thousands of Abraham and Sarah and the Sumerians and we’re now into the millions. The genus Homo first appeared about two million years ago with Homo erectus. Members of this genus showed a predisposition for Abstract Reasoning.

To examples of early Abstract Reasoning in genus Homo are hunting and the use of fire. All of these pursuits took time to be grasped and nurtured by our fellow human ancestors.

Hunting began about one million, seven hundred thousand years ago (1,700,000).

Before this time we humans were scavengers and not real hunters. Early on we had no weapon like a spear or an axe. Some exceptionally bright innovative fellow, a true genius, put together a concept that you could take a stone and throw it at a bird that nests on the ground. With a little luck and good hand-eye coordination you could get some lunch. Connecting the throwing of a stone at a bird is an example of Abstract Reasoning.

Because of his prowess with a rock this genius was called by his contemporaries by the name “One Rock”. This name has been carried down through the millennia: In their language (variety of Paleo-Yiddish) “One” was expressed as “Ein”. “Rock” was called “(Stein). His genius is reflected in his modern day counterpart, Einstein, another true genius with a propensity for Abstract Reasoning and incidentally a Jew.

One Rock’s discovery resulted in a bonus: As more and more meat became part of the human diet the volume of our brain increased and we became smarter. HaShem wanted humans to be smart. This is part of His Plan.

Another milestone that occurred at about the same time as hunting was the use of fire. It also began one million, seven hundred thousand (1,700,000) years ago. At that time we did not know how to make fire, but we figured out how to use fire.

There were plenty of wild fires started by lightning (from heaven) that struck a tree or grass. Maybe the same ingenious hunter figured out how to carry the fire into his camp in order to provide, light, heat and to ward off wild animals. The addition of more light allowed us to work into the night.

There was another bonus: It did not happen right away, maybe 700,000 years later: We began to prepare food with heat or fire  This activity is unique to humans. Maybe the ingenious hunter figured out that by dropping his catch into a flame it tasted better and also cooked meat did not spoil so quickly as raw meat.

There is evidence that we humans started cooking with fire about a million years ago (1,000,000). In Israel there is a location near where the Galilee merges into the Golan that show the use of fire seven hundred and fifty thousand years ago (750,000).

Abstract thought is a defining characteristic of human beings.  It is also the characteristic that defines Abraham and Sarah’s family. family.

THE LAND OF CANAAN

Abraham and Sarah were commanded to go the land of Canaan.

What’s so special about the land of Canaan?

Why did Terach unsuccessfully try to reach Canaan? And shortly later why were Abraham and Sarah commanded to settle there?

Canaan was divided among small city-states, Canaan may as well be called Phoenicia for all intents and purposes. Phoenicia is famous for two things:

the manufacture of purple dye that it traded worldwide, and most importantly a 22 letter alphabet. If you are destined to be the People of the Book, cuneiform will only slow you down. Relatively easy reading and writing has to be a lynchpin in HaShem’s plan for us, the Jews.

CONCLUSION

In order for human beings to be perfected and participate in the Creation process, HaShem required a small group of intelligent, abstract thinking people who would by using His Torah, teach and guide humankind worldwide.

This is our job, the job of Jews. It is part of the Plan.

In addition, He brought you and me back to Israel our Land and gave us the courage, commitment, and intelligence to defend ourselves against enemies who want to exterminate us. It too, is part of the Plan. Israel is a staging ground from which the Torah will go to the entire world. We are in the right place at the right time,