A 21st Century 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

A 12-Year Project Completed
It is not often that one completes a 12-year project.  This month, I have had the chance to do just that by  publishing a groundbreaking new book.  It is called, Self-Action Leadership: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.  

The result is the much anticipated release of a 21st Century analogue to Stephen R. Covey's famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

This Generation Next "Personal Leadership Handbook" is as different from the original 7 Habits as it is similar.  While it's tone, format, length, and anecdotally rich content strikingly diverges from Covey's 1990s work, its commitment to teaching, modeling, and championing correct principles that promote "Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" is just as effervescent and vibrant.

I first read Covey's timeless classic in 2001 to fulfill a requirement in a college leadership course.  Simply stated, the book changed my life.  To this day, with the exception of sacred religious texts that are near and dear to my heart, it has influenced my life more than any other book.  By 2003, I had a pretty clear vision of my life's professional purpose -- to write an analogue to the 7 Habits and start a company that might serve a new generation as ably as Stephen R. Covey and Hyrum W. Smith's contributions and companies served the last.

My son, Tucker, with
my well-worn copy
of the 7 Habits
The difficulty of this ambitious and audacious undertaking has been perennially perplexing and persistently painful, yet inexplicably rewarding and profoundly fulfilling.  Fraught with seemingly endless challenges, rejections, and failure over the course of the past decade, the journey also brought countless moments of satisfaction, success, and even elation.  More importantly, it bore much fruit in my own life, and is now beginning to bear fruit in the lives of others.

I can say without any reservations that the principles Covey and Smith taught in their masterful books over the years are as veracious as they are beneficial.  I know because I have thoroughly tested them in the laboratory of my own life.  Moreover, my careful study and application of them helped pave the way to the production of Self-Action Leadership, which I earnestly desire will help those in the 21st Century as ably as Covey's 7 Habits and Smith's 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time & Life Management assisted those in the 20th Century and beyond.  As I mention in my "Special Tribute" to both FranklinCovey Co-Founders in my book, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (Isaac Newton).

Click HERE to read my personal tributes to Hyrum W. SmithStephen R. Covey, & Charles C. Manz, whose work proved foundational to my own.

Self-Action Leadership presents an original THEORY and MODEL of self-leadership.  This new scholarship has been diligently hewn out of the ore of my own life's crucibles. It is further rooted in doctoral level action research and carefully corroborated by a cornucopia of wisdom literature spanning several millennia.

This insightful guide to freedom, success, and most importantly--personal change--signals a new era in self-help literature and the science of personal development.  It also aims to usher in a whole new cultural era in the Occident, namely, an AGE of AUTHENTICISM -- marked by character, integrity, hard work, and personal reliance -- which is destined to replace the perilous, perjurious, prurient, and pernicious era of POSTMODERNISM that has increasingly dominated Western Culture in the last 50 years.

Click HERE to learn more about the Self-Action Leadership THEORY

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Self-Action Leadership MODEL

Ranging far beyond the home, classroom, schoolhouse, or corporation, SAL aims to lead a resurgence of American Greatness and Leadership on the World Stage by influencing a renaissance of character and integrity by providing an education in True Principles based on Universal Laws of Natural Acquisition.

I love my Country.  I am proud to be an American, and have been saddened to observe the salient decline of our great nation.  Despite the perplexing problems that presently persist throughout our 50 States and other territories, I remain optimistic about her future.  I wrote Self-Action Leadership -- a non-partisan, secular, educational based personal development manual for my Country.  It is my way of saying THANK YOU to this great land, as well as all those who have made it the greatest nation in the world and the "Last best hope of Earth." (Lincoln)

I am who I am, and have accomplished what I have in large part because of the liberty, hope, opportunity, and inspiration I have derived from living in this blessed and magnanimous land of promise.

It is PAYBACK time!


By capitalizing on the tremendous liberty my Country has afforded me, I have been able to pursue and achieve personal freedom in a wonderfully remarkable manner.  It is my earnest hope that this manual will serve my Country in coming years by helping to preserve our liberty and expand the freedoms of others to ensure that our best day's are ahead of us -- not behind us.

Click HERE to watch Dr. Jensen's vision of restoring American Greatness through Education

Self-Action Leadership is written on the premise that organizational, national, and even international change is predicated on personal change; it all starts with the individual.  As individual units of an entity develop character, capacity, and competence, organizational conglomerates improve by a factor of those individual changes, and the accompanying synergistic infusion of efficiency, effectiveness, and prosperity can be staggering.

All lasting SUCCESS begins with EDUCATION
Talk to just about anyone and they'll offer up plenty of blame and point a plethora of fingers at other people and entities as they didactically diagnose the panoply of problems we presently face.  What is unfortunately rare is to find someone willing to look in the mirror, admit the presence of one's own bag full of blemishes, and then begin the process of fixing the only thing any of us has any real control over -- our own thoughts, speech, actions, attitudes, biases, and beliefs.

Our goal at Freedom Focused, and the aim of Self-Action Leadership, is to reverse this depressing trend, and return power to the people as one-by-one, individuals embrace a lifelong commitment to personal change and excellence.

Whatever your political persuasion, sexual orientation, race, culture, gender, or personality, I believe we can all unite in a pursuit of personal purification through self-awareness, personal discipline, and an accession of Universal Laws that govern both the physical world and the metaphysical results we garner by virtue of our thoughts, speech, and actions.

We invite you to join us in this movement aimed at restoring American Greatness and promoting World Peace through a dedication to individual excellence and integrity.  There can be no greater contemporary, national quest.  The impending perils of the future demand that we prepare now to tackle the trials we inevitably face down the road.  Let us prepare now lest we be swallowed up when the fiery heat of the refining fires of the future blast forth to test our mettle and see what we are really made of.

You can begin this preparatory stage now, by reading this new groundbreaking book.

CLICK on one of the links below to buy your own copy of SELF-ACTION LEADERSHIP: The Key to Personal, Professional, & Global Freedom.

Buy a HARD COPY version of Self-Action Leadership

Buy an e-Copy version of Self-Action Leadership

Buy an e-version of SAL at AMAZON.COM

* Best Deal * Buy hard-copy and e-version copies of SAL at BARNES & NOBLE.COM  * Best Deal *

Click HERE to read what the EXPERTS are saying about Dr. Jordan R. Jensen and Self-Action Leadership

Click HERE to read about the AGE of AUTHENTICISM that Freedom Focused is Championing in an effort to prod POSTMODERNISM into the pages of history

Click HERE to read the Book's Foreword, written by Christopher P. Neck, Ph.D., University Master Teacher, Arizona State University; and the Book's Afterword, written by David G. Anthony, Ed.D., CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas

Click HERE to read the Author's Preface

Click HERE to watch Dr. Jensen's Full Speech on Restoring American Greatness through Education

Click HERE to watch Dr. Jensen's Introductory Seminar on Self-Action Leadership


The REAL Problem Facing America


Tonight is the third Republican Presidential Debate. It will be broadcasted live from the University of Colorado at Boulder.


The Liberty to Vote is a Great Blessing of a Democracy
Freedom Focused is NOT a political entity, nor does it endorse political parties or candidates. We do, however, encourage everyone to attend to their civic duty to get informed and participate in the political process -- one of the greatest gifts and liberties we possess as citizens of a democratic republic.

Our Country currently faces grave troubles. One of the avenues of addressing societal challenges is politics. As such, it behooves every American to stay informed, support candidates you believe in, and then let your voice be heard at the voting booth.

So far, I have had a chance to watch both Republican debates as well as the first Democratic debate. I enjoyed watching both party debates, and learned a great deal in doing so. The day after one of the debates, a Focus Group was queried as to their thoughts on how a particular debate played out.

With relation to one candidate whose personal and professional character was being scrutinized by the questioner, a member of the Focus Group said (to cheers from his comrades): "we need to move past little personal infractions because our Country has much bigger issues to deal with."

When I heard this man's comment, I thought about the work we are undertaking at Freedom Focused. As a corporation, we believe that the "Quality of the Individual is Supreme" -- a principle taught over a century ago by President Theodore Roosevelt. As such, we are dedicated to developing principle-centered leaders who possess sterling individual character.

All politics aside, the man in the Focus Group man could not have articulated a more eloquent inverse of what the REAL problem is in our country. Little did he -- and his colleagues know -- how backwards his formula for problem solving really is, yet sadly, much of the Country agrees with him, and has for several decades now. It seems almost no one wants to take personal responsibility for their individual, or our collective, problems. Likewise, nearly everyone is eager to blame others while making excuses for, and covering up any evidence of, their own character deficiencies.

It ALL begins with the Individual
You cannot solve macro problems by allowing micro problems to go unchecked. Nor can you save the outside of something by permitting its inside to rot. The only way to sanitize and fix the outer vessel of a person, couple, family, neighborhood, school, organization, state, or nation, is to cleanse and sanctify its inner vessel.

Cleaning the inner vessel through character development is where our focus lies at Freedom Focused. As an organization, we are dedicated to the "Quality of the Individual."

 If you'd like to learn more, please peruse some of the archived articles on this blog, sign up to receive future blog posts by adding your e-mail address in the white box on the right hand side of this page that says, "Follow by E-mail," and check out our website at www.freedomfocused.com

And don't forget to do your civic due diligence to stay informed, including watching ALL of the Presidential Debates as you seek to cast well-informed votes this coming November, as well as in next year's Presidential and other elections.

East Jerusalem and the Arab's Complaints

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          
Jerusalem being fought over

"In July 1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law as part of the country's Basic Law. The law declared Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel."

The question has been raised and an Arab spokesman has stated some different reasons why there has been rioting by the Arabs in Jerusalem in the last few weeks.  He stated that since Israel had closed off Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in 1994, the city had served as the hub of Palestinians life.  It served their religious role as well.  All of the major Palestinian economic, social, cultural, educational, medical and service institutions were located in Jerusalem.  He said that for decades, Israel had been strangling East Jerusalem denying its Palestinian inhabitants freedom, opportunity, dignity and hope with devastating impact.

First, Israel's army had to close off Gaza and Judea-Samaria on February 27, 1994 from the rest of Israel because of a massacre of Muslim worshipers in Hebron that left scores dead.  The closure of Judea-Samaria began Sunday at 3:am for an indefinite period.  Entry of Arab residents to work in Israel was not to be permitted.  The closure on Gaza was imposed after the mosque massacre on Friday and would remain in force.

The day before this army announcement, 3 more Arabs died in disturbances. The IDF actions during and after the shooting were being questioned.  It looks like the closure was to protect Muslims.

This mosque was at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where both Jews and Arabs visit since it is where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac are buried. The shooting was done by one man, "American-Israeli Baruch Goldstein."  

It happened "during the overlapping religious holidays of both Jewish Purim and Muslim Ramadan.  The attack left 29 people dead and 125 wounded.  Goldstein was only stopped after he was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors."   This happened 21 years ago.


Certainly people have had time to realize such things can never again happen, but no, Arabs have overstepped their bounds by recently going into a synagogue on November 18, 2014, a Tuesday in Jerusalem (not east but in the Har Nof area of West Jerusalem), and shot and killed those worshiping there including my distant shirttail relative and genealogy pal, Rabbi Abraham Goldberg of Jerusalem, 59 years old..  Also killed were 3 other Rabbis.  They were all doing their morning prayers.  2 Arabs did the attack with a gun and butcher knives.

"The terror attack -- the deadliest in Jerusalem since a man with an automatic weapon killed eight seminary students in March 2008 -- came at a particularly tense time in that city and the region at large. It follows a series of recent deadly stabbings and vehicle incidents that, while not the large-scale suicide bombings that defined last decade's second intifada or the rocket attacks from Gaza earlier this year, have left Jerusalem on edge." A police officer was also killed; 8 deaths total.  

Now, the UN has just decided that since the tomb lies in  Samaria, it shall be under Arab control.  This is something the PA asked for and got Arab nations to sponsor.  Up to now, all religions could visit the site, but now, I question what will happen.

Since 1998, "By 2012, almost every neighborhood in East Jerusalem had health clinics that included advanced medical equipment, specialized ER units, X-ray diagnostic centers and dental clinics. Israel's system of healthcare entitles all Israeli citizens and East Jerusalem residents to receive free healthcare service funded by the Israeli government. In some cases, East Jerusalem residents can get free transportation to clinics, free subscriptions to health clubs or free dental care, to ensure they do not switch to a rival health care HMO provider." 
                                                                           
East Jerusalem, Judea-Samaria barrier

Zobay is saying that Jerusalem, and he makes no distinction in his blog that he means East Jerusalem where the Arab population mainly lives, was Palestine's heart, and the flow of people in and out was its lifeblood.  He knows that until 1967 it was under Jordanian control, but by siding with the other Arab nations in the onslaught upon Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, lost the land that was Judea, Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem.  
                                                                              
Jews at night at the Western Wall, 2nd holy site for Jews.  1st is the site of our destroyed 2nd Temple which lies under the mosque that Jews are not allowed to be near.  

Jerusalem, the city mentioned in the bible 614 times,  became unified again under Israel in  1980. It is Israel's capital and never has been the capital of any other government.     .  Does Zobay realize that "Jews were ethnically cleansed from eastern Jerusalem when they were attacked by 5 Arab armies in 1948?  Israel has not done that to the Arabs.    Does he understand the Jewish history and it's connection to Jerusalem in that it had been the capital of Israel for 1,700 years before the Arab conquest after 632?  Does he understand that the name, Jerusalem, is never mentioned in the Koran?  The importance of Jerusalem to  Muslims is the Temple Mount which is in East Jerusalem, which is the Old City, the site of our Jewish 2nd Temple which lays under their mosque and just happens to be our most holy site.
                                                                              
Arab firebombing in Jerusalem

Now, if I were a Muslim and were living in East Jerusalem and wanted to keep the conditions as they stand with Jordan presiding over the Temple Mount because of the good nature of Moshe Dayan at the end of the war of 1967, the Israeli General who allowed this to happen, I would do my darndest to get along with the Israeli society.  

Look at what Hamas as done along with Fatah; 2 Intifadas and now their murdering and stabbings may be starting a 3rd.  Even a few Arab doctors were stabbing Jewish patients.  

Israel has included Arabs to serve in the Knesset.  For every complaint they have, I can prove that they brought on adverse conditions upon themselves because of their acts.  "Without Israeli security control that exists today, Jerusalem would descend into chaos, with rival militias battling each other like in the Gaza Strip. "  Hamas and Fatah fight each other more than they make plans for their people.  They fight for power.  

When an Arab kills a Jew, the PA names a street or park after them.  Children are taught in school that the land belongs to Arabs, not the Jews with maps to reflect this lie.  Nothing they do helps to unify or bring about peace between the 2 peoples.  Their results are the riots they want.  After all, when an Arab man dies, his reward in battle such as this is 72 virgins.  Jews have no such thing in their religion.  Peace is to their advantage.  To save even one life is what they strive for since they feel it saves the world.  No, a Jew is not looking to be a martyr, but to do good deeds that save lives, not takes them.  

Zobgy tells people that Israel confiscated 1/3 of Palestinian-owned land around Jerusalem to build Jewish only  colonies and highways connecting them to Israel.  

The rules of the end of 1967 showed areas A, B, and C.  "Since Judea and Samaria were never officially annexed by the Israeli government, the IDF Civil Administration has jurisdiction over the districts today. "" The communities that Israel built in Gaza and Judea and Samaria were in undeveloped, uninhabited areas and are entirely legal.  Palestinians have legitimate claims to sovereignty over some of the land..  Many are longtime inhabitants who feel they have been deprived of political rights and self-determination.  Israel disputes their territorial claims and Israel also has strong claims to the land."  


"Since 1993, the regions have been divided into areas A, B, and C.  
Area A was assigned to the Palestinian Authority where most of the Arab residents live. According to many estimates, 1.5 million Arabs live in the region.  Accurate statistics have been difficult to obtain with claims that Arab demographics have been artificially inflated.   Area B is under joint control and has large tracts of barren land.  Israel has full control of Area C where most of the over 340,000 Jewish residents live. "

"In 1948 the Latrun section of the highway was taken over by Jordan" until  the end of the 1967 war.  "In 1978 a new section opened, connecting former Road 10 (the Tel Aviv – Ben Gurion Airport road) with Sha'ar HaGai. The new section formed the third freeway in the country, after Highways 2 and 4." 

My summary of all of Zobgy's complaints and blame is that he sees only Palestinian vicimization, and the deeper story that he doesn't know about, being he resides in the USA, is how these young people have been raised to be what they are, ready to stab Jews at the first instigation from Abbas or others, and that's just what has happened.  Since Abbas cannot make peace with Israel without being in trouble with Hamas, because he had unified with them and their goal is the same, and he hasn't coaxed Israel into a blanket acceptance of a Palestinian state without controls, he instigates.  He's 80 years old, but doesn't really care about the lives of his people, only his reputation and standing. From one side of his mouth he instigates attacks while with the other side of his mouth he says, oh, stop, how terrible!  The fact of the matter is that Zobgy and other Palestinians have not been given the real facts, but a made up version that the Palestinians want their people to abide to.  We're not all on the same page.

"The international community should strongly condemn Abbas’ incitement and call on the PA president to cease this encouragement of violence and terrorism. The inflammatory language and actions must cease so that calm can return to Jerusalem and its Temple Mount in particular. - See more at: below under references.  

The international community remains deaf and dumb to whatever Abbas does and says.  

" Abbas added fuel to the flames by proclaiming: “The Muslim and Christian world will never accept Israeli claims that Jerusalem is theirs. Jerusalem is our capital and we will never give this up; Jerusalem that was occupied in 1967 is our Jerusalem. We will safeguard and protect our holy places.”  He doesn't give into the facts of life.  The Arabs still think that the land is all Palestine and under the Ottoman Empire.   His attitude did win over UNESCO, though, who gave him the Cave of the Patriarchs to police.  Evidently it was easier to give into his screaming instead of rationally weighing evidence.  


Resource: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/strangling-jerusalem_b_8367818.html, author of Arab Voices, President of Arab Americans
 http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-02-27/news/1994058004_1_hebron-west-bank-israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Jerusalem
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/05/17/12-reasons-why-jerusalem-must-remain-under-israeli-control/
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs_massacre
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Rabbi+Goldberg%2C+others+in+Jerusalem+synagogue%2C+attacked+and+murdered
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Jerusalem_synagogue_attack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_1_(Israel)
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/05/all-about-israels-administered-areas.html
http://unitedwithisrael.org/jerusalem-will-be-palestinian-pa-chair-abbas-vows/
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/269902/behind-the-headlines-the-situation-in-jerusalem.html
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/269902/behind-the-headlines-the-situation-in-jerusalem.html#sthash.X5hOMrik.dpuf "   

Steps Leading to Creation of Jews and Their Multiple Male DNA haplotypes

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                            

Know that Abraham, the first monotheist, father of Ishmael, traditionally the ancestor of the Arab peoples  and Isaac, father of Jacob-Israel,  was born in c1948 BCE.  Until the boy king Tut's father, Akhenaten (c1350 BCE) , had his revelation of worshipping only one G-d, the Sun, primitive people had been worshipping a multitude of gods, and enjoyed doing so.  Akhenaten was an anomaly, and his worship and plans of changing the religion of his people were not successful.  Young King Tut went back to the old ways of their religion.  This part of Egyptian history goes back to their 18th Dynasty from 1569-1350 BCE.  His place in history comes after Moses who was born about 50 years before him in 1391-1393 BCE  and died in 1271-1273 BCE  before this Pharaoh.    A pharaoh was looked upon as a god.  Egyptians became polytheistic again with Tut. It suited their lifestyle, their economic structure of keeping people working.
                                                                             
Terah, an idol maker and merchant of them and Abraham's father who died in 2083 BCE at age 205.
He and his sons were Ivri (from the other side.)  .  He had 3 sons;  Abram, born 1948 BCE in the 2nd millennium, Nahor and Haran.   His grandson, Isaac, was 35 years old then. Their haplogroup had to have been J1.   They had settled in Haran.
Along came Abram,  the Ivri,  who also had a revelation of there being only one G-d that was far more abstract than the later  Akhenaten's concept whose belief centered on the sun, something tangible one could see and imagine interaction with.
                                                                       
Abram was visited by G-d, an unseen god, from his voice that he was hearing,  and was given a preview of the future of his family.  He was told that he would become the father of many nations at a time of his old age, which was hard for even him to believe.  We understand that Abram's haplotype was J1 from the fact that present day Jewish Cohens carry this haplotype.  So do many Arabs, such as the king of Jordan; Abdullah II with a slight deviation from the Jewish line.
                                                                               
Abram, at age 75,  and his wife, Sarai,  had left his home in Haran in Ur-kasdim (today in Iraq)  because of G-d's dictum and traveled with his nephew, Lot, his brother's son (J1) to the land of Canaan.  They traveled with all their possessions, including what he had amassed in wealth, and their offspring.  It was only after reaching Canaan,and till they came to the site of Shechem and then the Plain of Moreh that they spotted some inhabitants of Canaan.  Abram kept going onward till he came to the mountain east of Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east and put down his tent. There he built an altar to G-d.  Being curious, he then proceeded to travel toward the south.
                                                                                   
Israelites entering Canaan led by Joshua since Moses died just before
Now, Canaan was the name for Syria back in the 15th to 13th centuries.  It also applied to the coast of Eretz Yisral which was called Palestine after 135 CE by the Romans who had burned down Jerusalem and its Temple.  The Israelites, led by Moses and before entering, by Joshua from Egypt, had conquered the land, in English called The Land of Israel, and the northern part was called Aram/Syria.  Traditionally, the Canaanites descended from Canaan, son of Ham that had turned into 11 different peoples who lived between the Nile and the Euphrates.  Canaanites at this period of time were a mixture of the Horites, Hittites (who were always attacking the Egyptians) and Hebrews and dated back to the 17th century of the Hyksos period.  When the Israelites reclaimed the land, the Canaanites were almost entirely obliterated or assimilated, not only by the invading Israelites but also by the Philistines along the coast, Arameanas in the north, and the remnants were subjected by kings David and Solomon and subsequently absorbed.  They as a people no longer existed.
                                                                           
Abram and Sarai were nomadic people on the verge of settling down.  When there was a famine in the land, he and Sarah went into Egypt, begging her to call him a brother and not a husband, for she was beautiful-though old, and he was afraid of being killed in order to steal her away by the Egyptians.  Living through that escapade, they returned to Eretz Yisrael/Canaan with much livestock, silver and gold.  He traveled towards Beth-el where his first tent had been pitched where he had also built an altar.
                                                                             
Lot pointing in the direction he'll move to in order to keep peace between their herdsmen. Abraham will remain where he is.   
Lot, his nephew also had gained livestock of flocks and cattle and tents.  His herdsman fought with Abram's herdsmen.  Canaanites and Perizzites lived in this land as well and it's possible that the  herdsmen came from these people.  Abram tells Lot to go his way and he'll go the opposite way.

Lot chose the whole plain of the Jordan River to reside.  Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, being nomadic by pitching his tents as far as the city of Sodom, a city full of wicked and sinful people.  Also quite nomadic, Abram moved his tent and lived in the plains of Mamre in Hebron, and built an altar there, too.
                                                                             
There were people with kings in this land.  Canaan was made up of little cities with kings.  These 4 kings made war on another group of kings.
1. Amraphel, king of Shinar
2. Arioch, king of Ellasar
3. Chedorlaomer, king of Elam
4. Tidal, king of Goilim

They made war on the following:
1. Bera, king of Sodom
2. Birsha, king of Gomorrh
3. Shinab, king of Admah
4. Shemeber, king of Zeboiim
5. Zoar, king of Bela

At one time they all had been united at the Valley of Siddim (Salt Sea) under Chedorlaomer for 12 years, but then rebelled for 13 years.  The next year Chedorlaomer and the 3 kings who stayed with him attacked
1. the Rephaim at Ashteroth-karnaim
2. the Zuzim in Ham
3. the Emim at Shaveh-kiriathaim
4. the Horites at Seir mountains

They had expanded as far as the Plain of Paran by the desert, turned back and came to En-mishpat (Kadesh).  Then they struck all the land of the Amalekites and  the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

The king of Sodom and his 4 other partners fought the kings Amraphel and his 3 partners in the Valley of Siddim.  The Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen (an asphalt of Asia Minor used in ancient times as a cement and mortar, like tar) wells and Sodom's king and pals fled and fell into them.  Others fled to the mountain and took all of Sodom and Gomorrah's wealth and food and left.  It was then that they kidnapped Lot and all his possessions.  Of course Abram was told about it and his allies were Mamre, the Amorite,  brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner.  He had his workers, born during his life in his house, 318 of them,  and they chased the kidnappers as far as Dan.  They struck them at night, and chased them to Hobah which was north of Damascus and rescued them all including Lot, women and the rest of the men.
                                                                   
When Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and his group in the Valley of Shaveh (king's valley), the king of Sodom met him there. He escorted Abram to the king of Salem, Malchizedek, who brought out bread and wine.  He was also a priest of G-d, the Most High, identified as Shem, son of Noah.  This is the interpretation from Ramban, biblical commentator.   Evidently Malchizedek was different from other priests of the day who served angels.  Malchizedek had also evidently had the revelation of there being only one G-d.
The priest gave Abram a 10th of all the possessions he brought back.  The king of Sodom wanted all the people and gave the possessions to Abram. Abram nixed the offers and only accepted  for his allies, their share and food they had eaten and nothing for himself.  He didn't want to be beholding to this king of such an evil city.

The descendants of Abram were to be given the land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates; with the Kennite, Kenizzite, Kadmonite, Hittite, Perizzite, Rephaim, Amorite, Canaanite, Girgashite and Jebusite.  One can see that there were many groups of people living in the land.  Not all were of one people.  They were fighters, used to forming gangs and beating up on each other.
                                                                           
Sarai bringing Hagar to Abraham
After 10 years of living in Canaan, Abram still  had no children up to this point with his wife and niece, Sarai, so took Hagar, her handmaid who was actually an Egyptian princess.  Sarai planned on adopting a child of Hagar.  When expecting a child, Hagar held this  fact over Sarai, angering her by remarking about Sarai's age.  Thus, the 2 women did not get along anymore because Hagar no longer acted the part of a servant to Sarai.  Hagar bore Ishmael (J1haplogroup)  Abram was already 86 years old at the time.

When Abram was 99, he learned through G-d that his name was now to be Abraham and he and Sarai-changed to Sarah, would have a son, Isaac.  Sarah would bear the ancestor of kings.  Sarah would be 90 years old giving birth for the 1st time to Isaac.
                                                                           
Circumcision was  practiced in Egypt, as found on the walls of tombs there.  It was practiced by many Semites, and with Jews called "the covenant of Abraham as it was used as the sign of his covenant with G-d.   
      Abraham was to perform circumcisions; and those circumcised were Ishmael, all the servants born in his household and all those he had bought which was all the men in his house including himself at age 99. Being he had bought men, they would have been his slaves.   Ishmael was 13.  These people could have intermarried and had remained with the family while moving to Egypt and remained with them during the 400 years of living in Egypt. Being there were these males other than relatives of Abraham, it could be the reason why Jews are not all J1s.
                                                                     
This no doubt is the group that went into Egypt during the next famine 30 years after the prophesy from G-d to Abraham starting with the birth of Isaac.  They were in Egypt for a total of 400 years:

  20 years Jacob was with Laban in Haran
200 years of literal exile in Egypt
                                                                                   
Slaves making bricks in Egypt. Israelite slaves built a storage city in Egypt, not the pyramids.  2650 BCE is when the 1st pyramid was built, way before Moses was born.   
116 years of Egyptian servitude of which last 86 years time of harsh oppression when Pharaoh intensified the suffering of the Ivrim, Abraham's descendants from Jacob.
                                                                               
Moses, who was Abraham's great, great, great grandson, led the Exodus from Egypt (1393-1273 BCE) The Exodus has been also figured to have happened from 1518 BCE  by an astronomer.  
Parting of the sea for crossing
   After these 400 years came the freeing by Moses called the Exodus and Abraham's offspring took back possession of his original land, Canaan.  All the slaves held by the Egyptians went with the 12 tribes who also became the future Jewish people.  This accounts for the haplotypes that differ from J1.  There is found today among the Jews, J2 as well, and E, G, I, R1a, R1b and Q for males.
                                                                           
Jewish haplogroups other than J1 therefore came from people who were attached to Abraham and stayed with the family, even in going into Egypt and out during the Exodus, or they could have been slaves taken by Egypt who also had become part of the Exodus of Jacob's descendants.  It has been found through DNA that "the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East, refuting the belief that Ashkenazis are not real Jews and the political idea of some that they do not belong back there in the creation of Israel again in 1948 CE. 

Also, "Jews (Ashkenazi and Sephardi)  are more genetically similar to groups in northern Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks and Armenians) than to Arabs. The common genetic Middle Eastern background (of Jewish populations ) predates the ethnogenesis in the region and concludes that the Y chromosome pool of Jews is an integral part of the genetic landscape of Middle East."  

    1. E originated 50,000 years ago with groups from Middle East, those near Mediterranean, represent ancient genetic influence from Middle East to Europe. E1b1b (formerly E3b) is 2nd highest among Jews after J1. " It is found in moderate amounts in all Jewish populations, from Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Kurdish, Yemen, Samaritan and even among Djerba Jewish groups." 
   2. G originated about 30,000 years ago  along eastern edge of Middle East; 7% of Ashkenazi Jews 1/3 of Moroccan Jews have this.  Also, NE Europe has Jews with this.  
   3. I  originated, traces in Middle East
   4. J, J2, J1 originated 10,000-15,000 years ago in Middle East Fertile Crescent including Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Kurds, and in Iran and Iraq; J2 in Mediterranean, India, Cohen Modal is J1. Cohens were descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses who was designated high priest in the Temple with responsibilities, a few still carried out today. 21 haplogroups have been found in Cohens evidently besides J1  "Five of them  comprise 79.5% of all haplogroups of Cohen."   In a summary by geneticists, they said of Cohens:   " Our estimates of the coalescence time also lend support to the hypothesis that the extended CMH represents a unique founding lineage of the ancient Hebrews that has been paternally inherited along with the Jewish priesthood."
  5. Q, Q1b1a, originated 15,000-20,000 years ago, migrated through northern Eurasia into area of Ur. 5% of today's Jews have this.
  6. R, R1, R2  originated 30,000-35,000 years ago; T, common in Europe, Western Eurasia, R2 in India, Iran, central Asia.  R1a perhaps with Khazarian Jews.  domesticated horses, Levites found with this haplogroup, R1b is the most common in Europe from 10,000-12,000 years ago (Atlantic Modal Haplotype).  Egyptian King Tut thought to be R1, and R1b are in 10% of Ashkenazi Jews.

Resource:  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mystery-surrounding-king-tuts-dad-solved/
Tanakh (Jewish Bible) Genesis 13: 1-17:23.The Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series, Mesorah Heritage Foundation
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/jewishe3bproject/about/background  E haplogroup information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_with_Haplogroup_G
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/06/demographics-of-jews-in-israel-and.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_of_Jewish_origins
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/abraham.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/73398/jewish/Moses.htm
http://www.astarte.com.au/html/the_pyramids_of_egypt.html

Timely Advice about Social Media Use from the Father of Time Management

What does the FATHER OF TIME MANAGEMENT have to say about social media use and human productivity?

Hyrum W. Smith

"Much of the time we spend on Social Media is incredibly destructive to human productivity."


- Hyrum W. Smith


Hyrum W. Smith, Co-Founder of FranklinCovey, is sometimes referred to as The Father of Time Management.  As an originator of the world famous Franklin Day Planning system, Smith has trained hundreds of thousands of business professionals all over the world to become more productive and effective in an effort to generate professional success, strengthen relationships, and obtain inner peace.

While a LOT has changed about our world in the past 32 years, one thing remains the same, and that is the existence of Natural Laws in our world and Universe.  Some Natural Laws are physical in nature and govern naturally occurring forces (e.g., gravity, torque, entropy, etc.).  Other Natural Laws are metaphysical in nature and govern consequences related to human thoughts and behavior.

Over two decades ago, Hyrum W. Smith published a best-selling book called The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time & Life Management.  The book sold over one million copies and helped countless individuals (including me -- I read the book back in 1998) become more productive and effective human beings and business professionals.

In a recent interview with Hyrum for an academic project I am working on, I asked Hyrum if there was anything he would change about that book based on his experiences and lessons learned over the past 21 years.  His answer: Not really.  Why?  Because according to Hyrum, nothing has changed over the last 6,000 years about metaphysical natural laws of human productivity and effectiveness.

What has changed?  According to Hyrum, the tools with which we plan our day have changed and will continue to do so with increasing speed, but the principles of effective time management and life leadership have not, nor will they ever change.

As such, he has some timely advice for all of us -- and especially the Millennial Generation -- about how we can be more productive and effective at work and at home, and his advice deals with our use of SOCIAL MEDIA.  According to Hyrum:

"I think social media is probably one of the biggest deterrents to human productivity on the Planet right now.  This is not to say it is all bad.  Clearly it is a two-edged sword.  For example, because of the Internet we can get things done faster and communicate better.  The problem lies with the enticement--the seductive nature of social media which pulls us into avenues of activity that have nothing to do with being productive workers, loving family members, or effective human beings.  Because people allow themselves to get pulled into counterproductive activities on social media, they collectively waste billions of hours every single day all over the Planet.  Posting too often on facebook and instagram, et cetera, can be a horrible waste of time.  If I could get Millennials to do one thing, I would reduce the amount of time they fool around with social medial to less than 30 minutes a day.  Right now they spend hours a day and it’s unbelievably destructive to human productivity." 
So there you have it folks...  While social media can be a wonderful enhancer to relationships and productivity (after all, I am utilizing social medial to proliferate this message about productivity), it can also be a great destroyer of the same.  I invite you to join Hyrum and me in carefully evaluating how much time you spend each day on social media, and then determine whether your social media activities are contributing to, or diminishing, your personal and professional productivity.  

To learn more about Hyrum's latest thinking on TIME MANAGEMENT, I encourage you to check out his new book: The 3 Gaps.  In this new book, Hyrum spells out the three gaps we often find in our lives: 1). The Belief Gap  2). The Time Gap  3). The Value Gap.  The reward for closing these three gaps in your life is the priceless treasure of Inner Peace.  Check out this book to learn what you can do beginning today to close the gaps in your own life to achieve Inner Peace

Click HERE to buy The 3 Gaps  

Click HERE to learn about 3 Gaps Training    

Holiness To Jews In Hebron Taken By UNESCO

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          
Housing Cave holding Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron, Judea.

The most holy site in Jerusalem to Jews is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where the 1st and then the 2nd Temple had been built.  The 2nd most holy site is the Cave of Machpelah-the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which UNESCO took from Israeli protection and gave to the rioting Palestinians.  Why?  Well, it happens to be situated in Hebron, now a Palestinian town.  The Palestinians call it "Sanctuary of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque (Arabicالحرم الإبراهيمي‎, "  This was a legal transaction and is cited in the Torah.  


UNESCO Declares Tomb of Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb Muslim Sites
The vote in Paris was 26 in favor, six against and 15 abstentions. The US, Germany, United Kingdom, Estonia and Netherlands, Czech Republic voted against the resolution while a number of other European countries such as Albania, Austria, Ethiopia, Angola, France, Spain, and Italy were among those that abstained.
This means they will be in the hands of the Jordanians.  What religious leader could there be from the Palestinians?  
                                                                             
View of Cave of Patriarchs and the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron
Hebron, also called in Hebrew, Kiriath-Arba, is a very ancient city in Judah, 18 miles south of Jerusalem.  Before Abraham's time, it was controlled by the Hittites.
                                                                           
Abraham, the father of Ishmael and Isaac, had bought the plot of land 3,700 years ago with this cave from from a Hittite when he needed a plot to bury his wife and niece, Sarah. Ishmael's mother was Hagar, the handmaiden of Sarah and daughter of the Pharaoh.  The Bible connects the Hittites with the Canaanites being some lived in Eretz Yisrael at an early period.  They were one of the 7 different people from whom the Israelites conquered Canaan.  Later, they joined up with King David and were warriors in his army. King  Solomon, David's son,  married some Hittite women.

  Today, a mosque stands on this very site.  This became the family burial place and holds not only Sarah but also Abraham, son Isaac, grandson Jacob and his mother,  Rebecca and her sister, Leah.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca and Leah are our Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs.  Rachel, Jacob's wife, is buried near Bethlehem where she died in childbirth with Benjamin.
                                                                                 
Grandson of Abraham is Jacob and his family, standing with Rachel and baby Joseph, Leah with  6 children, and their handmaidens, Zilpah and Bilhah and their children by Jacob
Both the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb have just been handed over to the Palestinians who have no connection to Rachel and only to Abraham by UNESCO, an arm of the United Nations.  They have given in to demands of the Palestinians because they are now living in Hebron and Bethlehem and hate Jews, showing it and their decision not to be peaceful by rioting and knifing  Jews in Jerusalem at this very time of this decision.

Abraham (2nd millenniuim BCE)  had bought a double cave.  A massive building covers it in which many artifacts from the Early Israelite Period of the past 30 centuries have been uncovered from the days of Herod.  It has been a place for gatherings and Jews come to pray at the graves of their Patriarchs.

Moses (1391- 1271 BCE)  had died outside of Canaan and Joshua took over as leader of the Exodus from Egypt.  He assigned this very piece of land to be Hebron to Caleb, one of the leaders of the tribe of Judah and a member of the Kenizzite family,  and it became a levitical city and a city of refuge.  David reigned there for 7 1/2 years before making his capital in Jerusalem.                  
 (
                                                                               
Jews lived in Hebron during the Byzantine Period and under Arab rule.  The modern city of today is somewhat to the east of the historical location and was one of the 4 sacred towns to Jews; Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed.  Jews lived in Hebron throughout recent centuries and in 1890 had a population of 1,500 with a yeshivot and other religious schools.  The great Lithuanian yeshivah of Slobodka was transferred there in 1925.

In  1929, while the USA suffered from the worst stockmarket crash of all time, the Arabs massacred 67 Jews in Hebron, instigated and encouraged by the hateful Haj Amain al-Husseini, the Sherif of Jerusalem.  At that time, 700 Jews were living in Hebron.  Survivors fled from Hebron in order to continue living.  About 30 Jewish families returned 2 years later in 1931.  The Arabs rioted again in 1936, chasing any Jews living there away.

We know that May 14, 1948 was the birth of modern-day Israel, verified and legalized through both the League of Nations and the United Nations, a birth that was voted on and accepted by the majority of the world's nations. Hebron's population in 1967 was 38,310.  After the Six-Day War of 1967, a number of Jews had returned to Hebron and established the Kiryat Arba quarter east of the city.  This section held 3,700 Jews in 1988. 
                                                                              
 It was then that the Chief Rabbi of Israel's Defense Forces, Major-General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, was the 1st Jew to enter the Cave of Machpelah.  "Many restrictions are imposed on Jewish prayers and customs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs" because it was still controlled "by the Muslim Waqf (Religious Trust) that took control during the Arab conquest." 
                                                                                     

 Moshe Dayan had allowed this Jordanian control over the Temple Mount as well because of the Dome of the Rock mosque there, too.   It was his step towards having peaceful relations with the Jordanians. He was Israel's Minister of Defense during Six Day War. Before that, he was in the army and was chief of general staff of the Israeli army from 1953 to 58.  He joined the Knesset in 1959.  Today 700 Jews are living in Hebron and 250,000 Arabs.  

Throughout history, Jews have seen foreign conquerors and invaders come and use the site for their own purposes depending on their religion.  The Byzantines and Crusaders turned the spot into a church.  Muslims built a mosque here when they conquered Hebron 700 years ago.  They then forbid Jews entry to the Tomb.  They were not even allowed past the 7th step on the staircase outside the building.

With Jerusalem's liberation in 1967, 300,000 people have come yearly to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs.  It is divided into 3 rooms:  Ohel (tent) Avraham, Ohel Yitzhak (Isaac), and Ohel Ya'akov (Jacob).  Jews have not been given access to Ohel Yitzhak, the largest room, with the exception of 10 days a year.  Why this room is a mystery to me.
                                                                                     
Abbas, Chairman of Palestine Authority
Now, with this ruling, will Jews be allowed to visit their holy sites?  We know that Palestinians have already said that they will not allow any Jews to live in their Palestine, once they have it.  Under Israeli law, all religions have been free to visit their holy sites.  There is no comparison between the 2 people.  When under Muslim ruling, this is how they treated Jewish sites.

"Upon its capture by the Arab Legion, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City was destroyed and its residents expelled. Fifty-eight synagogues—some hundreds of years old—were destroyed, their contents looted and desecrated. Some Jewish religious sites were turned into chicken coops or animal stalls. The Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews had been burying their dead for over 2500 years, was ransacked; graves were desecrated; thousands of tombstones were smashed and used as building material, paving stones or for latrines in Arab Legion army camps. The Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the cemetery and graves were demolished to make way for a highway to the hotel. The Western Wall became a slum area."  

Resource: http://honestreporting.com/idns-10212015-unesco-israel/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email
 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/machpelah.html
"http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/28970/israeli-president-holds-hebrons-jewish-roots-close-heart-judea-and-samaria/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_print=1&x_context=7&x_issue=4&x_article=1355
Victor Sharpe, writer
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17745
Update: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/10/unrwa-admits-that-employees-post.html#.Vim6htKrRkg