Jewish Life Digital Edition January 2014 | Page 12

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEVER KNEW

TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS
ANTI-SEMITISM
“Of all the bigotries that savage the human temper, there is none so stupid as the antiSemitic. In the sight of these fanatics, Jews of today can do nothing right. If they are rich,
they are birds of prey. If they are poor, they are vermin. If they are in favour of a war, that
is because they want to exploit the bloody feuds of gentiles to their own profit. If they
are anxious for peace, they are either instinctive cowards or traitors. If he lives in a
strange land, he must be persecuted and pogrommed out of it. If he wants to go back to
his own, he must be prevented.”
David Lloyd George, 1863-1945, Liberal Party Statesman and Prime Minister of the UK

WHEN ONLY A JEWISH
DOCTOR WILL DO
In 1290, King Edward IV of England expelled all
Jews from the land. However, this didn’t mean that
Jewish skills weren’t missed. In 1409, the mayor
of London, a certain Richard Whittington, had a
Jewish physician, Samson of Mirabeau, brought
over from France to treat his wife. A year later, King
Henry IV was in need of a new doctor, and sent for
the renowned Jewish doctor Elijah ben Sabbetai
Beer, who had attended two popes and served as
King Edward IV of England
court physician to the duke of Ferrara. What made
Dr Beer’s appointment all the more fascinating is that he was allowed to bring
with him another nine Jewish men in order that he could pray in a minyan.

THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD
There is a saying from Midrash Tanchuma, Kedoshim which reads:
“As the navel is set in the centre of the human body, so is the land of Israel the
navel of the world… situated in the centre of the world, and Jerusalem in the
centre of the land of Israel, and the sanctuary in the centre of Jerusalem, and the
holy place in the centre of the sanctuary, and the ark in the centre of the holy
place, and the foundation stone before the holy place, because from it the world
was founded.”
Medieval maps of the world often placed Jerusalem at the centre, and modern
reconstructions of Pangaea, the original supercontinent which included all
land masses on
earth before they
separated, locates
the site of Jerusalem
at its centre.
Jerusalem is the
centre of the three
great monotheistic
religions. It is
also, perhaps, the
largest focal point
in world politics.

8 JEWISH LIFE

ISSUE 69

THE GERMAN “ENLIGHTENMENT”
During the early 1800s, for many Jews living in
Germany, conversion to Christianity became a
perceived passport to acceptance by society at
large, a ‘diploma’ announcing its holder the
status of one who embraced the precepts of
the new intellectual ‘enlightenment’. Baptism
by Jews continued apace until 1810, when the
government passed a law forbidding baptism
of Jews by Christian pastors without the
permission of the local police. Ironically, in their
eagerness to become an essential part of
gentile society, these ‘enlightened’ Jews
appear to have been oblivious to the fact that
this new stumbling block was put in place with
the sole intention of discouraging these
conversions. Apparently, the ruling classes
were not entirely happy about Jews converting
to Christianity after all. Despite this obvious
warning shot, many Jews forged ahead. In the
capital Berlin alone, of the 3 610 Jews living
there in 1819, a staggering one-third converted
in the course of just four years.

MYSTICAL NUMBERS 6 000
As Jews, we are told that the number 6 000
represents the maximum number of years
that humans will exist in the universe. We
are currently at year 5774 – leaving at most,
a mere 226 years until finality.
The Talmud divides these 6 000 years
of world history into three distinct eras.
The first 2 000 years were years of chaos
and stretched from the time of Adam until
the rise of Avraham. The second epoch
included the time of the Jewish forefathers
and the acknowledgement by the Jewish
people of the Torah at Sinai. The final
phase will see the ingathering of the exiled
Jews and their return to the Holy Land
during arrival of the Messianic Age.
There is an alternative view, which
divides the 6 000 years of world history
into two. The first epoch ends and the
second begins at the life of King David
(the ancestor of the future Moshiach),
who appeared on the world stage at
the midpoint mark of 3 000 years from
Creation. According to this view, the
first epoch concentrated on the world’s
origins and the second is concentrating
on its inevitable conclusion, where the
last man, Adam HaAcharon, will mark the
point where mankind finally reaches the
supreme level of perfection.

TEXT: LIZ SAMUELS; PHOTOGRAPHS: WIKIPEDIA.PRG, ALLFREEDOWNLOAD.COM

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