#Real Hebrews

[reasoningdaily]

Barack Mandela, in the United States Army holding an Israeli flag, at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. (Personal Collection)

I am an African American who converted to Judaism in 1995, then I became a citizen of Israel in 1996. I served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the United States Air Force, and the United States Army. I am a member of the American Legion veterans’ organization.

While living in Israel, I studied at Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in Jerusalem for 5 months and Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem for 8 months. I studied with Rabbi Noach Weinberg at Aish and Rabbi Dov Begon at Machon.

Inspired by the Jewish faith and the land of Israel, I have written this prayer called “Dear God” for African American and black communities:

Dear God,

May the peace of black families always stay

And may the racist voice in our heads go away

Dear God,

Please bless the father who is thinking of leaving

As the mother and kids remain poor and grieving

Dear God,

Empower the jobless and the houseless

Bring hope to those black women who are spouseless

Dear God,

Please protect all the black children down on our Southern border

Who are the victims of crushing law and order

Dear God,

Please help the parents of black sons

Who live in a society surrounded by guns

Dear God,

Touch the soul of the black child who is hidin’

Let our communities be helped by President Joe Biden

Dear God,

Please protect our kids in school being bullied

Restore the black family completely and fully

Dear God,

Bless our hearts that are hurt and annoyed

Let no one die like our martyr George Floyd

Dear God,

You are our father and mother

Bless every black sister and brother

Dear God,

You are the holy one of Israel

Make our hurt hearts instantly heal

Dear God,

Bring peace to our friends who are angry

Nurture all those abandoned by their family

Dear God,

Let black communities raise their hands in victory

Our community may live in serenity

Dear God,

We pray to be healed by your divine plan

Together, as a people, we will stand

Dear God,

Our black community is faithful and brave

We pray that our souls you will save

Dear God,

Bring together the pieces that were scattered

Teach everyone that black lives matter

The End

The purpose of this prayer is to uplift, empower, and heal African American and black communities worldwide. Please read this prayer in your houses of worship including synagogues, mosques, churches, and temples.

[harasharaved]

The fact that Judaism is trending because of both the wave of bomb threats on synagogues and Bradley Cooper's Antisemitism Adventure (his huge fake prosthetic nose, and him basically stealing the story from a Jewish man) is so infuriating and so exhaustingly typical.

The fact that I see Judaism trending on Tumblr and immediately think "oh no. Something Bad is happening to us." We're never trending cause it's fucking good. I never get to be excited, it's just cold dread.

The fact that Antisemitism is getting worse everyday and the only ones who ever talk about it are other Jews. The fact that no one else fucking cares. The only ones who support us are other Jews. Even when gentiles talk about Nazis or white supremacists they don't want to help us. We're just their prop, the canary in the coal mine and the perfect victim.

The fact that everyone's uncomfortable with Jews still being here. Reminding them of things they'd rather forget.

The fact that it'd be easier for them if we were all dead. Then they could tell stories about our people, dressed in offensive caricatures, without us making a fuss.

[pat-lechem]

נתנאל אזולאי

[meregrin]

The Etymology of Käärijä & His Crew

JERE MIKAEL PÖYHÖNEN

JERE /ˈje.re/

Derived from the Hebrew name Yirmeyahu, meaning "Yahweh will exalt”.

MIKAEL /ˈmi.kɑ.el/

Derived from the Hebrew name Mikha’el, meaning ”who is like God?”.

PÖYHÖNEN /ˈpøy̯.hø.nen/

Possibly derived from the Finnish word pöyheä, meaning ”fluffy” or ”airy”.

ALEKSI NURMI

ALEKSI /ˈɑ.lek.si/

Derived from the Greek name Alexis, meaning "helper" or ”defender”.

NURMI /ˈnur.mi/

A Finnish word meaning ”grass” or "lawn".

JUKKA SORSA

JUKKA /ˈjuk.kɑ/

Derived from the Hebrew name Yoḥanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious”.

SORSA /ˈsor.sɑ/

A Finnish word meaning ”duck”.

JAAKKO JOKELA

JAAKKO /ˈjɑːk.ko/

Derived from the Hebrew name Yaʿaqov, possibly meaning ”supplanter” or ”may God protect”.

JOKELA /ˈjo.ke.lɑ/

A topographic Finnish surname derived from the Finnish word joki, meaning ”river”.

JESSE VOSS

JESSE /ˈjes.se/

Derived from the Hebrew name Yishai, possibly meaning ”gift” or ”existence”.

VOSS /ˈʋos/

A German surname derived from the Low German word vos, meaning ”fox”.

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Frame switching when you're speaking other languages is such a thing because:

English (native): Swears like a sailor (actually, a sailor is more cleaned up). Dry, sarcastic, sardonic humor

Spanish (second language): 🤓🤓🤓

Hebrew (third language): What is a swear word? What is sarcasm? I have become nice jewish boy.

Italian (fourth language): My Italian ancestors have possessed me. Mambo Italiano is the energy of the night

[jewishicequeen]

Okay so the whole FOP resurgence made me go back to my childhood dub

So first of all-

WHY is it so hard to find the official hebrew dub?? It used to be up on nick's site, what happened??

Second, i am in danger and if i keep this up Wanda WILL be calling Peri "chomed" in the fic i'm writing-

Third, HOLY SHIT THE INTRO WAS SUCH A BANGER IN HEBREW

[bloom-with-grace-and-faith]

I got really chucked up after I read why he wrote this song

[outfoxt]

Would love to hear about potential parallel stories/lore in judaism 👁👁👁👁💞

i realized that i actually havent thought very in depth about parallels and themes in the bible in a LONG time but let me think...

one that jumped to the forefront of my mind is something that idk if its a theme/parallel or not, but it has to do with moses. in the torah (really in the talmud i think which is a bunch of rabbi's headcanons about the torah that were then accepted as canon later on), when moses was taken in by pharaoh a test was performed to see whether moses would overthrow him, and by extension whether he was safe to keep and raise. that test was to show baby moses two pots: one of gold and riches and one of hot coals, and whichever he grabbed would be indicative as to what kind of son he'd be. so obviously, being a baby, moses starts to go for the shiny stuff. but (so the story goes) since moses has plot armor an angel (of death [?]) reached out and moved his hand to the hot coals. this is important because not only did it secure his safety to grow up under pharaoh's watch, but it burned his hand, which he then put in his mouth which permanantly burned his tongue and gave him a lisp. now the lisp isnt really talked about much more until later on, and its kind of minor so i get why its often left out, but it changes the whole feeling of the story! because of the lisp, moses gets nervous to speak in front of pharaoh's mages, and so it's aaron who does the talking when they turn their staffs into snakes. it's aaron (iirc) who speaks to the hebrews and tells them the word of god. moses is the one who speaks directly to god and does his bidding in the stories, but aaron is the one who conveys the information. and AND i just remembered this continues!! it continues to be true that moses doesnt always tell his own story!! in the scientific world it is generally accepted that there are a few different authors/compilers of the torah, but in judaism there is one main accepted truth of how it was written with two endings: moses wrote the whole thing up until the last chapter when he was on mount sinai, writing down word for word what god told him to. the ending, though, changes because at the end of the bible moses dies there is a debate over whether moses wrote his own death before it happened (since god is omnipresent blah blah blah) or whether joshua took over for him after he died. if the latter is true, that would be the second time someone tells moses' story for him!! first aaron tells the mages and the hebrews who moses is and why he was sent to save them, and then joshua tells the story of his death and his exile from the holy land! there are THEMES and MOTIFS i can SEE THEM

i have no idea if this is what you were asking for but thank you for inviting me to infodump XD <3

[faggotry-enjoyer]

U of M sounds like a nightmare rn. I’m an MSU graduate who wants do my PhD in geophysics and I’ve considered U of M bc they do have a good geology department but I think I’m just gonna uhhh Not Go There. I haven’t really heard what’s up with MSU but I know we had an SJP chapter 🥴 So I suspect it’s not quiet. But U of M’s antisemitism makes HEADLINES, stay safe

It's really more of a mixed bag. The antisemitism here is very real and very scary, you'll never catch me denying that. But it's not the whole story.

On October 7th this year, there may have been an SJP protest at Rackham. But the Diag was like a mini Hostages Square all day long, and there were hundreds of people at the memorial in the evening. Hundreds of people saying a prayer for the state of Israel and mourner's kaddish, hundreds of people singing acheinu and hatikvah. A week or so prior, 500 people gathered on the diag in support of Jewish students and our right to be here. And I can't speak to the latter, as I wasn't there, but on the 7th campus security was by us all day to make sure nothing happened.

If I recall correctly, about 15% of the student body here is Jewish. We have a very active Hillel, as well as a Jewish Resource Center and a Chabad. Even when campus is scary, we've got each other and we've got a lot of each other. There is fear, but there's hope too.

[reasoningdaily]

Most religious groups claim to be the chosen one.

Dear Editor,

Historically, many battles have been fought to settle once and for all the question: Who are the chosen people?

The claimants of this special title are as numerous as are the ethnicities that have evolved spiritual systems that have captured the imagination of large swathes of the human family. The chosen people status was reflected in the Jews dividing the world into Jews and goyim or gentiles. In ancient Greece, you were a Greek or you were considered a Barbarian. The Brahmin in India considered themselves to be a special class set aside to rule all the other castes.

Notwithstanding the breaking down of the middle wall concept advanced by the first Christian apologist Paul of Tarsus, Christians ran with the concept of being the new chosen people and fought many wars to prove the veracity of this claim. Once Europeans embraced Christianity and applied the chosen people concept to European civilisation, the world was made to tremble under Christian Europe.

Not to be outdone, the religion introduced by Muhammad asserted that both Jews and Christians had deviated from the straight path and Muslims were the honest to goodness chosen ones of Allah. It was this competing claim, made by all three of the Abrahamic faiths, that led to rivers of blood in the Middle East, Europe, and wherever these three faiths encountered each other.

In recent times a number of black communities of faith have been flirting with the concept that some people of African ancestry are the real chosen people. Groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites, the Nation of Islam, and a number of independent ministries have all embraced some variant of the chosen people concept in relation to people of African ancestry.

I am currently exploring the thinking of the late Stephen Darby on the subject of Negroes as the true heirs of the biblical heritage. According to Darby, when the Jewish nation was scattered by the Romans in the early centuries, many Jews settled in West Africa in a place called Negroland located in today's Nigeria. Darby makes a distinction between these Jewish migrants who settled in Negroland and the surrounding African ethnic groups. As a matter of fact, Darby contends that it was the Jews of Negroland who were sold as slaves to the Europeans.

Darby's views dovetails with the theology of the Black Hebrew Israelites who identify the Israel of the Bible with black and indigenous people in the Caribbean and the Americas. Black Americans are the tribe of Judah. West Indians are the tribe of Benjamin. Haitians, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans are, respectively, the tribes of Levi, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. In the theological smorgasbord of Black Hebrew Israelites and others of this ilk, non-melanated Jews are pseudo-Israelites.

As a firm believer in religious freedom I respect the right of every man and woman to embrace whatever religion they think works for them. I also support the right of individuals not to embrace any religion at all. However, as an Afrocentric freethinker I sometimes wonder why people of African ancestry have so little confidence in their own religious traditions. I further wonder why we so easily imbibe the scorn and disdain displayed by others for our own spiritual traditions.

If the historians, scientists, and geneticists are correct about Africa being the birthplace of the enterprise we call humanity, then it stands to reason that the first religious systems embraced by humanity were created by Africans. It also stands to reason that the first deities and spirit entities would also have been fashioned in the image of Africans. Ancient African spirituality, therefore, ought to be a fruitful field of study for people of African ancestry today.

African people embracing religious systems that elevate the history, ancestors, and divinities of other ethnic communities hardly seems like a recipe for the successful re-emergence of black civilisation in the contemporary context. As the originators of the human enterprise, people of African ancestry have a unique spiritual contribution to make in the marketplace of religious ideologies. African divinities and semi-divinities antedate those of all other cultures.

A majority of African people have forsaken their divinities, their ancestors, and the myths that were foundational in the building of the great African civilisations of antiquity. The religions of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others have displaced traditional African spirituality among people of African ancestry.

Regrettably none of these new religions are reversing our economic plight or our standing in the international arena. At least Jews, Christians, and Muslims can see what their claim of being the chosen people is doing for them. The numerous and perplexing problems facing the global black collective seem to be suggesting, however, that people of African ancestry are the least chosen of all the races.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka

Founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center

rodneynimrod2@gmail.com

[akonoadham]

But this is not considered anti-Semitic?

[namazunomegami]

Lord of the Flies, Gluttonous Queen, Prince of Filth, Prince of Decay, Goddess of Ekron, Lord of Slander, Queen of Pestilence and Famine, The Rotting One

I Solomon said unto him: “Beelzeboul what is thy employment?” And (s)he answered me: “I destroy kings. I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants of God, priests, and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and desire for murder, and for wars, and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world.” - The Testament of Solomon

[tired-fandom-ndn]

I don't usually give a crap about grammar but I DO think it's important to try to show the bare minimum of thoughtfulness and respect when using words from languages that are from marginalized ethnic groups or often appropriated from in your own culture, especially when those words are often misused in harmful ways.

[stupidjewishwhiteboy]

So I was gonna wait until the video would be released on Youtube, but I think it might be a Nebula exclusive, so y'all will just have to trust me.

There's this Youtuber/Nebula guy named RealLifeLore who does geopolitical analysis stuff. I had already stopped watching a lot of his stuff purely for the petty reason that he often puts emphasis on words and phrases in a weird way, but I had noticed he had done some videos analyzing and summarizing what's been going on in Israel/Gaza/Lebanon/etc. so I started rewatching. And his analysis is actually relatively fair, often stating the claims of both sides and then whether or not those claims hold up. Sometimes this means he'll bring up crank ideas that I feel are implausible from what I know (there's a bit in the video I'm about to talk about where he talks about the Hannibal Directive aka whether or not the IDF intentionally tried to kill hostages being kidnapped so they couldn't be taken hostage, which from what I've heard isn't actually supported by anything but seems to be believed by a lot of people who think Israelis are ontologically evil).

Anyways, he did a video entitled "The October 7th Attacks" which is a comprehensive analysis of, well, the October 7th attacks, which I thought was pretty good (aside from giving the Hannibal Directive credibility). However, it brought to a head an issue that's been boiling up for a while for me, that being that RealLifeLore's pronunciation of Hebrew words is so bad it is legitimately offensive.

"Simchat Torah" as "Sim CHAT Torah" (this one is actually inexcusable, if you've done so much research you should know how Hebrew speakers pronounced a "ch" RealLifeLore)

"Sukkot" as "Su-cot" (ok that one isn't that bad)

"Yom Kippur" as "Yom Ki-purr" (that one also isn't terrible)

"Zikim" as "Zik'em" (oddly enough, I think he pronounced it correctly the first and third times and only did it weird on his second mention)

"Yiftach" as "Yif-tatch"

"Re'im" as "Ray-im"

"Odaya" as "Odie-a"

"Kibbutzim and Moshavim" as "Kibbutzem and Moshavem" (OK I might be overly pedantic here)

"Be'eri" as "Be'rry" (this was a problem of cadence not pronunciation per se)

Anyways, that's from the first 16 minutes, I may do more later

[shalom-iamcominghome]

I'm having dreams now where I talk to the rabbi to lecture him about wanting to be more serious about my studies and how Intensely I feel about this because in my waking hours, I feel like I'm doing nothing. I just think it's funny that in my dreams, I walk up to him like, "we need to talk 😐" and he sits there as I discuss the fact that I would rather die tomorrow as a jew than live to a hundred a non-jew, where he sit there like ?????

[hasdrubal-gisco]

jvp is not sending their best