Why Jews Often Disagree: The Twins, Esau and Jacob, Complete Opposites

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

Esau and Jacob, twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca

A very special man named Abraham lived about 4,000 years ago in the 2nd millennium BCE.  He and his wife, Sarah, had a son named Isaac.  The land was full as strange people at that time in the Middle East.  People usually found mates among their own family.

Isaac at the age of 40 and Rebecca had twin sons, Esau and Jacob.  Jacob was a very important person in our Jewish history as he was the father of 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel.  And who  was Israel?  It was actually Jacob, who had a name change as his mind and soul  had developed.

Terah, father of Abraham

I wondered about their grandparents being I'm a grandmother now.  How did they contribute to the minds of both twins?  What genes did they bring to the table?  Their paternal grandfather was Abraham and grandmother was Sarah, the niece of Abraham.  So this set of grandparents had come from the same genetic family.  Abraham's father was Terah.  They had lived in the city of Ur, which is in today's Iraq;   Ur of the Chaldees, Sumeria, Mesopotamia- Iraq.  Abraham's line goes back to Noah.  Sarah's grandfather was Terah.  That's how they had been related.  Abraham and Sarah are buried in Hebron, Israel, now taken over by the Palestinian Arabs.    Abraham had been one of three sons of Terah.  His other 2 brothers were Haran and Nahor II.
                                                                               

Abram- Abraham

Abraham's son, Isaac, born in the Negev,  had married Rebekah who was his 1st cousin once removed.  Again, they were all  from the same family and were laying down the roots of their descendants becoming an endogamous society.  Rebekah's father was Bethuel,  the Aramean from Paddan-aram, and she was the sister of Laban, also an Aramean.   Bethuel's  father was Nahor II and mother was Milcah who would have been the other set of grandparents.  .  Milkah was the daughter of Haran. She had married her uncle, Nahor II.   Nahor II's father was Terah.  Luckily, brother and sister never had married in this family like what had gone on in the Egyptian culture.

The tribes of Aram, called Arameans,  were a group of Semitic tribes who invaded the Fertile Crescent at the time of Abraham and roamed between the Persian gulf and Amanus Mountains.  Aram and Israel had a common ancestry and the Israelite patriarchs were of Aramaic origin and maintained ties of marriage with the tribes of Aram.  They were found living in Syria and Mesopotamia.  The states in Syria were overthrown and turned into Assyrian dependencies.  When they were rebellious, they were punished by deportation to distant countries.  This is how the Aramaic language spread.  The Aramean deity in Syria was Hadad, god of wind, rain, thunder and lightning.  Today it's an important surname.

When Rebecca was pregnant, she could feel much movement, like an agitation, and she ask G-d about it and was told this: " That she had 2 nations in her womb, 2 regimes that shall be separated.  The might shall pass from one regime to the other, and the elder shall serve the younger."  This actually came about.

When Esau was born,  he was red, entirely like a hairy mantle.  This is why he was named "Esau."  After that Jacob was born with his hand holding onto the heel of Esau, so he was named "Jacob".  Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.

Esau and Jacob were fraternal twins.  They were complete opposites.  Esau was born first.  This meant he was to receive his father's birthright.  Jacob tricked him into selling it to him, as he felt he really deserved it more.  This made Esau so angry when he realized what he had done that he intended to kill Jacob, so Jacob fled to the land of Haran. and only returned to the family after 20 years.  While there he married his uncle Laban's 2 daughters, Rachel and Leah.    Esau received him warmly when he returned home.  .  Esau is later identified with Edom and Jacob had a growth in spirit and his name was changed to Israel.  It was later when he had sons by his wives' handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah.  Leah also had given him a daughter.

When grown, they had different interests.  Esau became known for hunting, a man of the field.  Jacob was known as a wholesome man, abiding in the tents.  Isaac loved Esau the most and was proud of his hunting skills.  Rebecca loved Jacob.  Jacob would cook the game that Esau caught.

When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite.  Isaac and Rebecca were not happy about this at all.  These wives were a source of spiritual rebellion to them.  The Hittites were enemies.  From the 15th century BCE on, their power extended south to Syria.  Their main kingdom had fallen in 1200 and all they had left was in northern Syria and the area around the Euphrates River.  These places were then run over by the Armenians and Assyrians.  The Hittites in the Bible were connected with the Canaanites.  Abraham had bought the cave at Machpelah from a Hittite.  They had been one of the 7 peoples the Israelites had to fight to conquer Canaan.  Later on, King David had Hittite warriors, and King Solomon himself took Hittite wives.  This should mean that some of us  carry some Hittite genes.

These twins and their story symbolizes the relationship between 2 nations, developing to the point of hostility.  In the Talmud, Esau was synonymous with villainy and violence.  The word, Esau in late Hebrew literature implies a coarse materialist.
                                                                       

Ishmaelites buying Joseph from his older brothers

 Very little has changed.  The Arab nation is said to have come from Ishmael, son of Abraham by Hagar, the Egyptian princess who was Sarah's maid. She had been a servant for 10 years before Abraham felt the need to have a son through her.  This was because Sarah had been barren and he was living under the injunction to have many children.  It was at this time that Abram's name was changed to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.   Esau had joined Ishmael's new family when he left his father's house. Ishmael had gone to live earlier in Paran, which was the desert in the Negev.  It was land that the Israelites have marched through after they had left Mt. Sinai.  It lies south of Kadesh, going to the shores of the Gulf of Elath and the Arabah.   Ishmael  had joined Isaac in burying Abraham when he died.  His daughter married Esau.

Whatever happened to Abraham's brother Haran?  He was the father of Lot, Abraham's nephew.  Haran lived and died in Ur of the Chaldees.  It had been a trading town of NW Mesopotamia and was the center of a moon cult.  Assyrian inscriptions from this period mention a Habiru (Hebrew?) settlement in the vicinity which some scholars link with Terah's residence there.  In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela found a small Jewish community in Haran.

We do have the story of Lot's problem.  Lot had 2 daughters.  Lot and his daughters had been living in Zoar and settled on the mountain in a cave.  The girls had no males around to marry, so they decided to sleep with their father.  They got him drunk on wine one night, and the older one laid with him.  She bore a son and named him Moab.  He became the ancestor of all the Moab tribe.  The younger daughter had also laid with her father and she had born a son she called Ben-Ammi, the ancestor of the children of Ammon.

Moab is a country in southern Transjordan bounded by the river Hesehbon in the north, and the river Zered in the south.  The Jordan and Dead Sea is to the west and the Syrian Desert is on the east.  We see the Moabites were related to the Israelites from Lot.  Their language was akin to biblical Hebrew.  During Abraham's day they had settled in their land which had been captured from the Rephaim or Emim.  During the Exodus Period, part of this land had come under the rule of the Amorite monarch, Sihon, but after he had been defeated by the Israelites, it was occupied by the Amorites and became an object of contention between Israel, Moab and Ammon.  The Moabites were originally divided into small tribes but also united into a single kingdom, and it was the 2nd ruler, Balak, who called up Balaam to curse the Israelites.  The Moabites had extended their kingdom to Jericho.  King David had conquered the Moabites .  It finally fell to the Assyrians and became a province of theirs.  During the Persian Period, Arabs entered and assimilated with the people.  Moabites were conquered by the Hasmoneans and was later incorporated by the Romans into Arabia.

When the Pentateuch was completed, we see it forbids intermarriage with a Moabite.  The Talmud took this to mean only males and then the prohibition was finally abolished in the Mishnaic Period.  Ruth was a Moabite!  She was the ancestor of King David!  She had married Boaz, Naomi's cousin.  David's father was Jesse and his mother was Ithra's daughter.  His grandfather was Oved and his great grandfather was Boaz.  Boaz was the son of Judah of the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel..    David, the youngest son,  became king of Israel in about 1000 BCE to 960 BCE.  Today,  many of us find through DNA that we have King David as a distant ancestor.

And so Jews often disagree.  We are split in religious understandings between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform with many names in between each today.  We range from left to right in political ideals.  Much of this is connected to our religious understanding.  Each one of us thinks we are right.  The old joke has been that if 2 Jews were stranded on an island, they would build 3 synagogues; one for each and the third the one neither would enter.                                                                            

I have dual citizenship: USA and IsraelNadene Goldfoot, age 15 

 We have almost 6 million Jews in the USA making up about 2% of the population though we are only 0.02% of the world population.  6 million Jews populate Israel along with 1.7 million Arabs.  I see that we have our differences.  A big % of American Jews are Democrats and voted for Obama.  Israeli Jews have switched from left leanings with Labor to right politics with Likud for security's sake.  Where Jews in the USA have had it pretty good since WWII's end in 1945, Jews in Israel have been struggling to keep afloat since their inception in 1948.  Each has developed some different outlooks on life.  Israel lives with orthodoxy while 1.5 million American Jews are of the Reform Jewish movement and many are on the left side.  Many have also intermarried with non-Jewish partners.  It's all in the article, "Have Reform Jews given up on Israel? by Elliot Jager in The Jerusalem Report Magazine, Dec. 14, 2015 issue.  But yes, this is a crucial time in our history, and here we share very different ideals, J Street with many Reform American Jews and Israeli Jews defending Israel through the IDF service until age 55 in Israel who have gone over to the right side with Netanyahu.  .
                                                                       

You don't want to argue with my father, the boxer in his youth.
His haplogroup is Q1b1a or Q-L245.  

Though it must have been the haplotype of J1 that Aaron, brother of Moses, a Levite,  carried as the chosen Priest by Moses, and almost half of the Jews of today carry this DNA marker, we are carrying other haplotypes as well  as Jews.  My father carried Q1b1a; others carry E, G, R, I, in the male line, most likely picked up from our out of family-from the neighborhood  connections.  I guess we were never meant to all be agreeable with each other.  Differences of opinion keeps us thinking and on our toes.  There are no sheep here in our outgrown clan.  We do have a nation once again.   I have to give Netanyahu a double hand.  Anyone who can manage a people like us is just amazing.  I know what it was like to teach in a Jewish school and keep all my parents happy, both in the USA and in Israel!

I can't complain about us.  We are a creative people.  That's what we do:   debate, become lawyers, teachers, performers, businessmen and women and doctors.  But don't be surprised if we do not always agree with each other.  What we do and must keep on doing is respecting each other's opinion.  Like my husband used to say, " Moshe has a point and Sam has a point, but their hair hides it nicely.  Now my point is......"   To L'Chaim, life.  The important thing to us is preserving life.  This must come first in our decisions.

Yes, Jewish people count Abraham and Sarah as their ancestors.  It doesn't matter if we are Mizrahi, Sephardi or Ashkenazis, we had to leave Jerusalem in 70 CE and we scattered.  Now many are back.  We carry the same DNA as our ancestors.  It's like a label found in clothing telling where it was made.  Only if an ancestor converted would they not have some common haplogroups found in Jews.

Resource: The Jerusalem Report Magazine, Dec. 14, 2015, page 26-31; Have Reform Jews given up on Israel?  by Elliot Jager; though the movement is on the political and theological left, members remain mostly committed to the Zionist enterprise.  
 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanach, The Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series.
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/jewish-genes-what-haplogroup-could-they.html

If You're Confused About Dates in History, Here's the Explanation

                                                                   

Jewish calendar with sun as used in it, synchronizing with solar calendar

                                                                         

The Jewish Calendar uses the Moon to mark time.  It is a lunar calendar.

Nadene Goldfoot
2000 BCE  1500 BCE 1391 BCE 1271 BCE 1000 BCE, 500 BCE  0 100 CE 500 CE 1000   2015
_____________________________________________________*______________________
BCE means Before the Common Era.  That is referring to the time of Jesus of the Christian religion.
BCE is used by Jews because BC refers to Before Christ, and Christ is somebody we do not accept in our faith.  Therefore, Gentiles use only BC and AD.  AD refers to the Roman phrase, Anno Domini, or After Christ.
Jews use CE, meaning:  The Common Era.

Notice in the BCE era the numbers grow smaller until they reach 0.  Then they grow larger.
54321  0  12345
                                                                     

The Biblical era for Jews started with Abraham who was born in the 2nd millennium BCE.  We figure it was in the year 1948 BCE.  So the history of our religion is about 4,000 years old.  We consider Abraham the father of Judaism.  He was the first monotheist, believing in one unseen G-d.  It was a shocking revelation for other people had to have something they could see, like idols and statues, rocks, anything.

It's hard to understand, but there have been people just like us for the past 25,000 years or longer.  The biblical era is fairly new.  We humans are homo-sapiens.  There were also Neanderthals in Europe at the time when homo sapiens existed.  "Genetic studies now suggest that the functional DNA of modern humans and Neanderthals diverged 500,000 years ago.  So we can say that we have existed as far back in human form as 500,000 years ago.  The forces of natural selection have continued to operate on human populations, with evidence that certain regions of the genome display directional selection in the past 15,000 years."  

Take the line from Moses and his brother, Aaron.  They would have had the Y haplogroup of J1, which is called the Cohen gene, named for the assignment Moses gave to Aaron as high priest or Cohen.  It was a line handed down from father to son.  Thus, we find  Cohens of today also with J1 haplogroup.  "This haplogroup is found to have arisen 10,000 to 15,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, and Abraham was born only about 4,000 years ago."  
                                                                                                                

A Jewish year and its holidays in its 12 months

The Jewish calendar follows the movements of the moon.  Today's date in international dating is 2015.  On the Jewish calendar it is the year 5776.  It started back in the BCE dating period.  It also is made up of 12 months but calculated according to the moon.  The difference between the lunar years of 354 days and the solar (sun) year of 365.25 days is made up by adding a full month after the month of Adar in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th and 17th and 19th year of each 19-year cycle .  The year 5749 began such a cycle.  The month so added is called Adar Sheni or the 2nd Adar, and the year becomes a leap year.  

The calendar that is used internationally is a solar calendar.  It is called a Gregorian calendar.  "The first calendar reform of the early modern era was the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 based on the observation of a long-term shift between the Julian calendar and the solar year.  
                                                                 

The Kabba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia where it is say by Islamists a place that dates back to Abraham.  

 "The Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in most of the Muslim countries (concurrently with the Gregorian calendar), and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic holy days and festivals. Its epoch is the Hijra (corresponding to year 622 of the Dionysian era). With an annual drift of 11 or 12 days, the seasonal relation is repeated approximately each 33 Islamic years."

The Islamic calendar "The Islamic calendar is based on the prohibition of intercalation (nasi') by Muhammad, in Islamic tradition dated to a sermon held on 9 Dhu al-Hijjah AH 10 (Julian date: 6 March 632). This resulted in an observationally based lunar calendar shifting relative to the seasons of the solar year.  Notice it started after 632 when Muhammad died, so it is a very recent calendar. "Years are counted since the Hijra, that is, Mohammed's emigration to Medina in AD 622. On 16 July (Julian calendar) of that year, AH 1 started (AH = Anno Hegirae = year of the Hijra). In the year AD 2003 Muslims  have witnessed the start of Islamic year AH 1424.

2015=5776=1424.  This year.  

Reference:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/jewish-genes-what-haplogroup-could-they.html
http://www.stevemorse.org/hebrewcalendar/hebrewcalendar.htm
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-islamic.html

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

Where Religion and Politics Are Interwoven; What's the Difference?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                

The goal of this 4,000 year old religion of Judaism has  been used  to control a population's behavior by laying down standards that improve their morality.  Yet we do not use any policing.  It's up to the individual.   We have the story of Abraham's nephew, Lot, who lived in Sodom, inhabited by people who had no morals at all. If they had a religion, it had nothing to do with their morals.   A mob outside his home  wanted to sodomize the strangers in Lot's house.

We also feel that all will be good when we die and trust in what G-d has in store for us if we have tried to follow the Torah and 10 Commandments.  The orthodox believe in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.  Judaism places its emphasis on practical religion instead of dogma.  The essence of this religion is the Golden Rule, do not do to others what you do not want done to you.  We do not think about being saved by anyone or thing except by our own actions.  NO one can do that for us.  So when people accuse us of some horrid act that we would not want done to us, we cringe at the idea of people thinking we could do such things.  Leftist thinking has been led by Jews committed to saving the world from itself, and in doing good deeds (mitzvot).  This has happened so often that Jews themselves forget that they also have rights, only recently received-mainly since immigrating to the USA and in Israel.

One can say that G-d will protect us, the people who took the responsibility of all 10 Commandments, but G-d also helps those who help themselves, so we must use our brains and work very hard to stay alive in a hostile world; especially in our neighborhood.  We have the whole world judging our every move while they ignore the serious deadly acts of others.

   The morality of the people is part of the service and worship of G-d or the supernatural, a higher power.  It's a commitment or devotion to their religious faith or observance system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.  Religion is a cause, a principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.  A religion's morality should be an improvement of behavior designed to bring about peace; something good for the people as well as the planet.  Morality evolves with different groups of people.  Human sacrifice has been part of many religious people over the centuries.  Isaac, Abraham's son, was asked by G-d to sacrifice his son, Jacob, but was stopped and thus brought about human sacrifice to an end.  The Incas sacrificed people at a much later date.  Cannibalism has been found in Africa, less than 100 years ago.

USA 1933-1945 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , where religion and politics are not to mix being the country is made up of many religions and standards.

                                                                           

King Solomon of Israel (961-920 BCE)  The government
must follow the laws of Judaism.

The goal of politics is the art or science of governing.  It is concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy.  Those involved are concerned with winning and holding control over a government..  It includes the political actions and policies and business.  There is competition between competing interest groups or individuals for power and leadership in a government.  Political activities  are characterized by artful and often dishonest practices.  It includes the total complex of relations between men in society.  Saddam Hussein ruled with an iron hand.  So did the Romans.  Any infringement whatsoever and the Judeans were crucified, left hanging with rotting bodies as a lesson to the people to be subordinate.  .
                                                                           

Hammurabi, an Amorite, King of Babylon 1725-1686 BCE and the sun god, Shamash-god of justice.  Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code, which constitute one of the earliest surviving codes of law in recorded history
Moses came along later in 1391-1271 BCE from tribe of Levi and received the 10 Commandments

Hammurabi stele

The Law Code of King Hammurabi found on a stele is quite similar to the 10 Commandments of Moses.  This stele was found in Shusan, capital of Persia (Iran).  "Shushan, which lies 200 miles east of Babylon, was the capital of ancient Elam (Susiana), and later the winter palace of the Persian kings. It was the scene of many biblical events in the time of Daniel, Nehemiah, Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus (Xerxes).  It's what the king used to govern.  Judaism made improvements on these laws, found to be somewhat similar. 

 "Both state that stealing would not be tolerated and was looked down upon. Murder was also looked down upon and adultery was a grave offense. These are where the likeness stops."  "Both the Ten Commandments and Hammurabi’s Code served as the bases for criminal justice system in the Hebrew and Babylonian people and set the base line for people to strive to be truthful and do no harm to one another.  "

It looks like many fail to even live up to the Hammurabi Code today let alone the Mosaic Law.  
                                                                             

Abraham of 2nd millennium BCE

As I wrote before, religion created the state of Israel in the beginning.  Judaism was depending on its population to be living in a particular area, which was  Canaan.  The Israelites were a group who had already become monotheistic through their originator and father, Abraham, who is also father of the Arabs through his first son,  Ishmael.  Before his revelations of a oneness of G-d, his people had been idol worshippers and his father, Terah,  was an idol maker.  Moses, a child of Israelites, had been brought up as an Egyptian Prince, but was tapped by G-d at age 80 to lead the Israelite slaves out of Egypt and into Canaan to be the future priests of the concepts he was to receive.
                                                                         

1917 French soldiers in Syria when Ottoman Empire and Germany lost the war against the West 

All throughout history, countries have been coveting others' land and have killed for it, 2 things listed on the 10 Commandments of what not to do.  So they have thought very little of these 10 Commandments brought by Moses for the world.  The list of  10 are even kept out of public places in the USA as something walking over other religion's rights.  They are not evidently seen as something for all.  Think what the world could have been like if everyone was able to follow all 10 laws.  The first 5 are about man's duties to G-d.  The second 5 are about man responsibilities to his fellow-man.
                                                                         

2015 and bloody ISIS slayers acting like Medieval killers cutting off heads The shock and awe of this group is that they actually attract like people and many join up with them from other countries.  Evidently there are a lot of meshugenas in the world who have no moral conduct.  

ISIS is doing it again, coveting Syria and Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.  They want the Levant and then plan on more.  They are acting out their religious beliefs as Salafists are the extreme group of Islamists.

 What is Putin acting out of besides coveting more land of Ukraine and Crimea and taking it?  His religion and politics come from atheism which disavows the existence of any higher power to govern our lives. Atheism is the disbelief in the existence of a deity.  It's ungodliness.  They will not even believe in one unseen G-d as we do.  For them there is no higher power.  Things just happen, evidently. They do not question how the universe got here, or rely strictly on scientific interpretation, which leaves some holes in their theory, like the power behind it all that got it started.  They do not need a code or set of laws to know what is right and what is wrong.  For them they go by their instincts.  We hope most people would know instinctively what is right and what is wrong, but then ask the police why they have so many in jails and prisons?  Evidently there are those who either don't know or don't care. A little guidance helps. Children need to be taught.    
                                                                                   

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, -head of government- puppet of Ayatollah who rules the realm. 

Neda Agha Soltan, Iranian student killed in Arab Spring Demonstration, a girl just watching.  

Ayatollah Khamenei b: July 16, 1939, Supreme Religious leader of Iran-Head of State

"The 1979 Constitution designated the Supreme Leader of Iran as the head of state and the President and Prime Minister as the heads of government. The post of Prime Minister was abolished in 1989."

The Shi'ite religion of the Ayatollah threatens Israel verbally with extinction.  Now their government has finagled methods of which to get their hands on atomic power and threaten that in a few years, Israel will be no more.  They call themselves a people of religion.  What kind of religion is this whose chief motivation in the world it to destroy Israel?  Coveting, killing are but 2 of the 10 commandments they break in this. 
                                                                           
 In the beginning of the Arab Spring a movement heading towards democratic power, the Iranian government mowed down anyone acting out in the crowd and punished them quickly.  It was like being doused with cold water.  It ended.  They rule with a strong and deadly hand. They do not worry about political correctness in the way Americans do. 

                                                                       

1. Many states are Islamic states.  Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia-which is threatening Kenya and Mauritania belong to this group. Palestine, if and when created, will be one.  They have stated that no Jews will be able to live in their state.  

2. Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Malaysia, Tunisia, Tajikistan, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Comoros, Qatar, Brunei and Maldives. 

3. Announcing NO religion is Indonesia, Sudan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and  Albania.  These are states who are Muslim majority in population. This means the government does not get involved in the religion of the people.

4. Some states are secular such as:  Nigeria, Turkey, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Niger, Burkina, Mali,  Senegal, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Kosovo, The Gambia, Djibouti, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.  All these are of Muslim majority states as well.  Secular means: indifference, or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious consideration.  These governments are saying they do not mix in with religion or use religion in their governmental decisions. Turkey has become more religious with their present president.  A lot depends on what beliefs the leaders have as to how much seeps into the governmental decisions.  

The USA is a secular state.  There  is Separation of church and state.  

The state religion of Israel is Judaism. It is the ONLY Jewish state in the world.   When Israel was more secular under the last king, King Solomon, and was more involved with other states and such, it divided when Solomon died so that they could follow their own way of governing and the southern part became Judah.  Being a small state to begin with compared to empires, they became vulnerable to the attacking Assyrians and then later the Babylonians.  Today, Jews have become  almost extinct through the Holocaust, down to only 14 million people worldwide-6 million only in Israel, a very tiny country.  The religion, in order to survive, is again thriving in their  Jewish state run with Jewish values and must remain this way.  Don't worry.  Judaism may be 4,000 years old, but it updates constantly and keeps up with the times.  It is not a medieval religion.  

                                                                      

 It cannot become  another Lebanon where Christians who were the government were overpowered by their Muslim majority population. Today, Israel is 75-80% Jewish and 20-25 % Muslim.  

Resource:  Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/10/khazarians-karaites-tatars-and-jews-of.html
https://www.gci.org/bible/torah/steal10
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Hammurabi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Iran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim-majority_countries
http://notsoscholarly.notsogeeky.info/compare-and-contrasting-hammurabis-code-and-ten-commandments/