I have not done this before and probably will not do it again. However, I love a celebration! Whenever there is a reason to celebrate from Saint Patrick’s Day, which is decidedly not Jewish, to the Chinese New Year, I’m your gal. So it’s probably no surprise to anyone who knows me, that the party that begin last night at by new, interactive bog, titled “Casa de Naomi Reflections” has landed here. Since I am as passionate about what is going on there as I am about this blog and all you who follow it, I have decided to do a dual posting. This week I am posting the Grand Opening Message from the new bog. I hope you read it and decided that another blog is not one to many. If you do, visit http://CasadeNaomi.blogspot.com and join.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Casa de Naomi Reflections~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for meeting Naomi and me here. Pull up a chair and stay a while. While you are getting comfortable let me share that this Interactive Reflections Blog is for YOU!
Though one can garner blessings from visiting this blog without reading Casa de Naomi there are benefits to reading the text as we move through Naomi’s story so I have posted Chapter One – A Safe Haven on my websites home page. If you would like to read the first chapter, please scroll down to my website link posted in the right hand column, hit the icon, and read A Safe Haven. Since I will be sighting sentences from the novel with each posting, you might want to read the chapters as we work through them. Although Casa de Naomi is not available on the .com booksellers yet, you can order the novel from my website and I will send it to you as soon as I have the book.
When we consider why we might follow or join anything, each of us reviews our needs and the benefits accrued through participation. If you chose to form or become involved in a Casa de Naomi Registered Book Club, your group can use the material to further discussion. However, whether you participate in a group or not, you can experience the fullness of this and the other novels that follow by visiting this blog weekly, then reflecting on or writing down your insights.
I will post material every other week, and I am inviting you, dear friend, to email me through this blog, my website, Tweet PaulaWordsmith on Twitter, or email Paula Michelson though FaceBook with your thoughts, observations, and anything else you would like to share. I will post your comments and the feedback I receive every other week so that each of you can have a voice thereby making this an interactive, yet personal experience. Should you like your comments to remain anonymous, please let me know each time you correspond.
Before we begin, let me share that I look forward to getting to know each one of you and look forward to discovering what this blog will become since it is our interaction that will define and move this blog forward. Therefore, I feel that I can state with candor, that we are in this thing together and together, I believe we will create something lovely that each of us will value and share with others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter One - A Safe Haven~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Safety is a fundamental need. Without it, nothing thrives. Since safety is the key issue in chapter one, that is where we begin our sojourn with Naomi. For while you read this Saga and participate in this blog you are choosing to experience Naomi’s life, issues, and her desire as the subtitle ‘The House of Blessing’ indicates, become a blessing and be blessed. My prayer for you is that all you experience here blesses you and prepares you to become a blessing when the time is at hand.
Text: Naomi knew she was in trouble the moment the immigration official had told her, he was taking her to Ellis Island.
• When have you been in trouble?
• Did you create the problem or was it foisted upon you?
• Did someone help you?
• If you received help, did the person expect something in return?
Text: She remembered leaving her family in the middle of the night without an explanation or a good-bye and tears threatened to fall.
• Have you ever left family or friends without telling them why?
• Have you ever felt trapped?
• Did you find yourself wishing for the problem to disappear?
• Were you able to handle the situation as it unfolded?
Text: Naomi gasped. Maybe God is watching out for me after all!
• When troubles come your way, do you engage in wishful thinking?
• Do you believe that behavior is neither good nor bad?
• If you had to face a horrid situation, would someone help you?
• Do you believe that consequences are just or random?
Text: “I used the handcuffs, just as you told me to. Do not worry. She is safe.”
• Are you safe because someone makes you feel or says you are safe?
• What might you have to give up or become to feel safe?
• When you are in danger, can you make yourself believe you are safe?
• Is life more important than the way you live it?
Scripture: Psalm 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge (safety); his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
Did You Know that when Messiah wept over Jerusalem and said he wanted to cover the inhabitants with his wings, he was referring to his the Tzitzit (fringe)on his Tallit(prayer shawl) referred to as wings within the scriptures. Numbers 15:38-40, says, They shall make themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and they shall place on the tzitzit of each corner a thread of techeilet. And it shall be tzitzit for you, and you will see it, and you will remember all the mitzvot (blessings) of the Lord and do them and not follow your heart or your eyes and run after them.
Summary Question: When Tía helped Naomi enter America illegally, was she thinking of herself or the girl?
Thank you for dropping by. Please send me your comments so I can include them in my next blog, and if this weeks posting has proven to be of interest or beneficial, please invite your friends to drop by.
Writing the Casa de Naomi Saga has been a joy, sharing my writers’ journey with you, a pleasure. The culmination of my years of research, writing, and rewriting is being realized with the grand opening of my "Casa de Naomi Reflections Interactive Blog” this evening, the mailing of my galley proof to Tate Publishing on Thursday, and receiving the published book this September.
Since you have been following this blog, I am certain you will enjoy the new one so I will let you know when it is operational. Please drop by, check the blog out, join, and ask your friends to follow so that you and they can experience Naomi’s life choices and explore yours as well.
Since you have been following this blog, I am certain you will enjoy the new one so I will let you know when it is operational. Please drop by, check the blog out, join, and ask your friends to follow so that you and they can experience Naomi’s life choices and explore yours as well.
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I have received innumerable requests to repost “Was President Abraham Lincoln the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew?” Since I am in the midst of editing the publishers’ galley proof for the first book about my Sephardic heroine, Naomi, which birthed the research I have posted in my blog, I have decided to repost the Lincoln piece, which you will find below.
Visit http://PaulaWordsmith.com and discover how research infuses literature.
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The 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a young, poor, illiterate woman from Virginia. She gave birth to him in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. That infant, whom she named Abraham, grew to become a great but tragic national leader.
Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.
The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.
To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.
The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.
At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.
Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.
But back to Lincoln...
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.
Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish
Visit http://PaulaWordsmith.com and discover how research infuses literature.
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The 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a young, poor, illiterate woman from Virginia. She gave birth to him in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. That infant, whom she named Abraham, grew to become a great but tragic national leader.
Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.
The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.
To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.
The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.
At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.
Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.
But back to Lincoln...
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.
Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish
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The statement, “Writing what was given, then discovering it was true,” sounds like fiction. Yet that is exactly what happened to me when I wrote Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing novels. That may sound odd to some of you. However, if the Holy Spirit had not told me to refrain from editing what I was given, my natural inclination would have taken over, and I would have eliminated portions of the text where I wrote about places I had never been to, and others I had not seen, or heard about. An alternative might have been, so as not to seem as if I had disobeyed, to have done some research to make sure that such-and-such place did, in fact, existed. However, having heard that I was to leave my writing alone, I did as I was instructed. I would love to tell you that this was easy to do...becoming a scribe for God. But many nights, I was unable to sleep because I had written about Ellis Island, a neighborhood, or a park that I had never been to, or seen a picture of. Leaving what had been written alone was the most difficult to follow instruction that I had ever been given. Yet leave it alone I did!
A year passed, then another. I was writing book four by the time Ron and I began to worship at Congregation Ben David in Orange, California. To some of our friends changing congregations seemed unwarranted. Nevertheless, since Ron and I wanted to serve Messiah where we worshiped, longed to be involved in outreach, and discovered that the heart of this congregation mirrored ours, we had to go. Still it was hard to leave friends whose weekly hugs and hellos made us feel like family. Though we felt the pangs of loss, we were resolute because we were convinced that this congregation was where the Lord had called us.
A chance conversation while standing in line at the Oneg (potluck) after worship gave me an eyewitness account of the validity of all I had questioned but left alone within the pages of the Casa Saga novels, it affirmed our belief in this being our congregation, and our faith family. For Thomas who had graciously offered to spoon some casserole onto my plate asked me what I did. What followed was an amazing discussion during which he told me that the park in Spanish Harlem does exist, the ferry to Ellis Island has two levels, and that the boat docks at a wharf just as I had written.
By now, Thomas and I were fast friends. Although we had not sat down, I was reaching into my purse to fish out my card hoping that we could meet and continue our conversation. While I did this, I was asking if he were available for lunch during the week. Imagine my surprise when the gentleman standing behind me began to ask me some questions about my writing. I answered each one, followed Thomas and my husband to a table, and set my plate down. I scanned the throng, saw the soft-spoken man, waved, and hurried towards him hoping he did not think me rude. When I reached the table he was seated at, I realized that Melanie, a new friend of mine, was seated by him. She introduced me to her husband, Rod. Rod smiled, asked me several unusual questions about my reason for writing, about the people I was writing about, and what I hoped to achieve. Our discussion ended, I turned to leave, thought a moment, turned back and asked if he was bookish since he was wearing a tie with books all over it, or if he loved to read romantic historic fiction since that is my genre. He smiled at me once more, told me that he was The Dean of the Library at Biola College, and that he wanted the Casa Saga for his library! I could not believe my ears! Boila and Talbot Theological Seminary share the same campus and use the same library! Before I knew what I was doing, I asked him why the library would want historic romantic fiction. Rod explained that the library brought in specific works to build up awareness and support the authors. His answer brought a smile to my lips; still I found it hard to believe that my novels would grace the libraries shelves.
When I signed my contract with Tate Publishing, my rabbi asked me to speak about the novels. I found myself in unfamiliar territory addressing the congregation during worship. I had told Doug that I would be circumspect. He suggested that I not worry but cover everything that I was led to share and he would say a few words once I had finished. At the conclusion of the service people bought books, some purchased several for friends. Rod bought two books, which I hoped would grace the shelves of Biola Library, but when I asked him he shrugged and smiled. Prior to this discussion, I had asked him to consider bringing some of my author friends’ books into the library, and became aware that each book, though fiction, might have to undergo academic scrutiny, and assumed mine would as well. Although I will never know why he bought two volumes of book one before reading the novel, I believe it was because I had been faithful with what I was given, and had shared that with him.
A few weeks ago, I approved the jacket cover for Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing. Last week I discovered that this September or October, the novel would be released, and sent a mockup to the 100 people that had pre-purchased the novel, which include the cover, Sephardic Voice, Historical Notes, and Chapter One – A Safe Haven. When I arrived at the congregation, Rod had finished setting up for the Oneg, which he does once every five weeks. I spoke with him about my desire to speak at the Biola Library about the importance of libraries for writers like me whose fiction requires extensive research into historical facts. He seemed eager to help and mentioned that I might prefer a book signing at the college bookstore. The question I had wanted answered since he had purchased the novel(s), I asked and he affirmed that the books would be in the Biola Library!
Had I done as my head told me and corrected the text, I believe that none of this would have happened! Had I asked Rod before he had time to read what I sent, I believe his response to my library question might have been yes. However, his willingness to help me develop a relationship with the new Dean of the Library of Biola, since Rod will retire in December, and his interest in having a signing for Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing at the college bookstore might have never been. For left to my own devices, I have occasionally run ahead of the Lord. Therefore, my suggestion to you is...Do what God says without adding to or subtracting from...For within that doing is a blessing fashioned just for you.
Visit http://www.PaulaWordsmith.com, to watch a YouTube video, read what Rod did, see the jacket cover, email me from the site, or buy the book.
A year passed, then another. I was writing book four by the time Ron and I began to worship at Congregation Ben David in Orange, California. To some of our friends changing congregations seemed unwarranted. Nevertheless, since Ron and I wanted to serve Messiah where we worshiped, longed to be involved in outreach, and discovered that the heart of this congregation mirrored ours, we had to go. Still it was hard to leave friends whose weekly hugs and hellos made us feel like family. Though we felt the pangs of loss, we were resolute because we were convinced that this congregation was where the Lord had called us.
A chance conversation while standing in line at the Oneg (potluck) after worship gave me an eyewitness account of the validity of all I had questioned but left alone within the pages of the Casa Saga novels, it affirmed our belief in this being our congregation, and our faith family. For Thomas who had graciously offered to spoon some casserole onto my plate asked me what I did. What followed was an amazing discussion during which he told me that the park in Spanish Harlem does exist, the ferry to Ellis Island has two levels, and that the boat docks at a wharf just as I had written.
By now, Thomas and I were fast friends. Although we had not sat down, I was reaching into my purse to fish out my card hoping that we could meet and continue our conversation. While I did this, I was asking if he were available for lunch during the week. Imagine my surprise when the gentleman standing behind me began to ask me some questions about my writing. I answered each one, followed Thomas and my husband to a table, and set my plate down. I scanned the throng, saw the soft-spoken man, waved, and hurried towards him hoping he did not think me rude. When I reached the table he was seated at, I realized that Melanie, a new friend of mine, was seated by him. She introduced me to her husband, Rod. Rod smiled, asked me several unusual questions about my reason for writing, about the people I was writing about, and what I hoped to achieve. Our discussion ended, I turned to leave, thought a moment, turned back and asked if he was bookish since he was wearing a tie with books all over it, or if he loved to read romantic historic fiction since that is my genre. He smiled at me once more, told me that he was The Dean of the Library at Biola College, and that he wanted the Casa Saga for his library! I could not believe my ears! Boila and Talbot Theological Seminary share the same campus and use the same library! Before I knew what I was doing, I asked him why the library would want historic romantic fiction. Rod explained that the library brought in specific works to build up awareness and support the authors. His answer brought a smile to my lips; still I found it hard to believe that my novels would grace the libraries shelves.
When I signed my contract with Tate Publishing, my rabbi asked me to speak about the novels. I found myself in unfamiliar territory addressing the congregation during worship. I had told Doug that I would be circumspect. He suggested that I not worry but cover everything that I was led to share and he would say a few words once I had finished. At the conclusion of the service people bought books, some purchased several for friends. Rod bought two books, which I hoped would grace the shelves of Biola Library, but when I asked him he shrugged and smiled. Prior to this discussion, I had asked him to consider bringing some of my author friends’ books into the library, and became aware that each book, though fiction, might have to undergo academic scrutiny, and assumed mine would as well. Although I will never know why he bought two volumes of book one before reading the novel, I believe it was because I had been faithful with what I was given, and had shared that with him.
A few weeks ago, I approved the jacket cover for Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing. Last week I discovered that this September or October, the novel would be released, and sent a mockup to the 100 people that had pre-purchased the novel, which include the cover, Sephardic Voice, Historical Notes, and Chapter One – A Safe Haven. When I arrived at the congregation, Rod had finished setting up for the Oneg, which he does once every five weeks. I spoke with him about my desire to speak at the Biola Library about the importance of libraries for writers like me whose fiction requires extensive research into historical facts. He seemed eager to help and mentioned that I might prefer a book signing at the college bookstore. The question I had wanted answered since he had purchased the novel(s), I asked and he affirmed that the books would be in the Biola Library!
Had I done as my head told me and corrected the text, I believe that none of this would have happened! Had I asked Rod before he had time to read what I sent, I believe his response to my library question might have been yes. However, his willingness to help me develop a relationship with the new Dean of the Library of Biola, since Rod will retire in December, and his interest in having a signing for Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing at the college bookstore might have never been. For left to my own devices, I have occasionally run ahead of the Lord. Therefore, my suggestion to you is...Do what God says without adding to or subtracting from...For within that doing is a blessing fashioned just for you.
Visit http://www.PaulaWordsmith.com, to watch a YouTube video, read what Rod did, see the jacket cover, email me from the site, or buy the book.
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In Genesis 17:5, we read, “…your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations,” and realize that God valued Abraham and gave him a unique name. When we read Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born…And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” we discover the uniqueness of Messiah long before he was born.
Plays and movies have been named Hamlet or Macbeth. Wars have been fought because of ones desire to obtain the unobtainable like Helen of Troy. For centuries, battles were waged to restore a good name, or advance a country whose name mattered to its inhabitants. So asking, “What’s in a name?” is nothing new. Yet it might be one of the most important question that, you or I will ever grapple with because our name defines us as surely as the name of the people group we come from.
For centuries, the name ‘Jew’ seemed to mean ‘money lender.’ This derogatory term occurred in most cultures where the Catholic Church forbad their followers to deal with money. Long before nasty comments were made as a form of separating groups within what was once a homogeneous population, the hidden Spanish Jews, were being called conversos, a title the church gave them, meaning convert. Once these Spanish Jews were baptized into the faith of the state, the church labeled them New Christians, thus making these peoples every action suspect. Most Jews eventually succumbed to the pressure to practice Catholicism. Some pretended to believe but secretly called themselves Anusim—the forced-ones and continued to ‘Judaize’ those who had become Catholic, calling them back to the faith of their forefathers.
Today these Jews call themselves Sephardic, Ladino, or Crypto-Jews to name just a few of the ways they have tried to voice what happened to their ancestors. As with any population that has struggled to survive, an outsider would rarely question why a group would chose one name above the others. Yet I am doing that in this article for living in California and having spoken to many Spanish Jews or the progeny of the Spanish Jews who fled Spain, I found it painful to hear them refer to themselves most often as ‘Marino’ meaning ‘Pig,’ because God told the Jews they were to have nothing to do with pigs. To understand what I mean read Leviticus 11:7, where is says, “And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.” So to be called ‘pig,’ to be called unclean.”
Researching the history of Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition I found the answer. Today I am sharing that answer with you.
Simply put, when the Spanish crown decided to eradicate their country of the Jewish population, those Jews who could not flee and would not become Catholic paid a tax and left the country. Many Jews fled to Portugal hoping to find that monarchy favorably disposed to their presence. When the King of Spain discovered that his cousin the King of Portugal had not upheld his edict, he sent his cousin a message warning of dire consequences. Whether any of those threats the king made against his cousin would have taken place, we will never know because the king saw the error of his ways and enacted a law by which all people on Portuguese soil were declared Catholic. Free from the stigma of their Jewish blood, Jews returned to Spain. However, as they crossed the boarded the Spanish labeled them ‘Marano’ as a means of identifying them as part of the population targeted by the Inquisition. It was at this point that these Portuguese Jews mingled with other expelled Sephardim, and influenced the Judaeo-Spanish language called Ladino. Although Portuguese Jewry was not expelled, these Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, through a mass baptism decreed by King Manuel I in 1497. However, many Jews in Portugal, like their kinsmen in Spain, continued to observe Judaism in secret. Hard times followed for the Portuguese Jews, with the massacre of 5000 individuals in Lisbon (1506), the forced deportation to São Tomé and Príncipe where there is still a Jewish presence, and the later and even more relevant establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536.
As was true of the Jews in Spain, some Jews in Portugal had occupied prominent places of political and economical life. For example, Isaac Abrabanel was the treasurer of King Afonso V of Portugal. Many also had an active role in the Portuguese culture, and they kept their reputation of diplomats and merchants. By this time, Lisbon and Évora were home to important Jewish communities. The Inquisition held its first Auto da fé in Portugal in 1540 concentrating its efforts on rooting out converts from faiths that did not adhere to the strictures of Catholic orthodoxy; like in Spain, the Portuguese inquisitors mostly targeted the Jewish New Christians, conversos, or maranos. The Portuguese Inquisition eventually included the entire Portuguese Empire, including Brazil, Cape Verde, and Goa. According to Henry Charles Lea between 1540 and 1794 tribunals in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Évora burned 1,175 persons, another 633 were burned in effigy and 29,590 were penanced, but documentation of at least fifteen Autos-da-fé between 1580–1640 – the period of the Iberian Union – disappeared, so the real numbers must be higher. The Portuguese inquisition was extinguished in 1821 by the, “General Extraordinary and Constituent Courts of the Portuguese Nation.”
Thousands of Portuguese Jews eventually moved to Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, France, Morocco, Brazil, Curaçao, and the Antilles. In some of these places their presence can still be witnessed, like the use of the Ladino language by some Jewish communities in Turkey, the Portuguese based dialects of the Antilles, or the multiple Synagogues built by what was to be known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
Every country that ousted its Jewish population seems to have experienced a decline in the scope of its reach and the greatness of its monarchy thus causing this writer to ask, “Why would any country or ruler come against the people God calls ‘the apple of his eye?’”
Plays and movies have been named Hamlet or Macbeth. Wars have been fought because of ones desire to obtain the unobtainable like Helen of Troy. For centuries, battles were waged to restore a good name, or advance a country whose name mattered to its inhabitants. So asking, “What’s in a name?” is nothing new. Yet it might be one of the most important question that, you or I will ever grapple with because our name defines us as surely as the name of the people group we come from.
For centuries, the name ‘Jew’ seemed to mean ‘money lender.’ This derogatory term occurred in most cultures where the Catholic Church forbad their followers to deal with money. Long before nasty comments were made as a form of separating groups within what was once a homogeneous population, the hidden Spanish Jews, were being called conversos, a title the church gave them, meaning convert. Once these Spanish Jews were baptized into the faith of the state, the church labeled them New Christians, thus making these peoples every action suspect. Most Jews eventually succumbed to the pressure to practice Catholicism. Some pretended to believe but secretly called themselves Anusim—the forced-ones and continued to ‘Judaize’ those who had become Catholic, calling them back to the faith of their forefathers.
Today these Jews call themselves Sephardic, Ladino, or Crypto-Jews to name just a few of the ways they have tried to voice what happened to their ancestors. As with any population that has struggled to survive, an outsider would rarely question why a group would chose one name above the others. Yet I am doing that in this article for living in California and having spoken to many Spanish Jews or the progeny of the Spanish Jews who fled Spain, I found it painful to hear them refer to themselves most often as ‘Marino’ meaning ‘Pig,’ because God told the Jews they were to have nothing to do with pigs. To understand what I mean read Leviticus 11:7, where is says, “And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.” So to be called ‘pig,’ to be called unclean.”
Researching the history of Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition I found the answer. Today I am sharing that answer with you.
Simply put, when the Spanish crown decided to eradicate their country of the Jewish population, those Jews who could not flee and would not become Catholic paid a tax and left the country. Many Jews fled to Portugal hoping to find that monarchy favorably disposed to their presence. When the King of Spain discovered that his cousin the King of Portugal had not upheld his edict, he sent his cousin a message warning of dire consequences. Whether any of those threats the king made against his cousin would have taken place, we will never know because the king saw the error of his ways and enacted a law by which all people on Portuguese soil were declared Catholic. Free from the stigma of their Jewish blood, Jews returned to Spain. However, as they crossed the boarded the Spanish labeled them ‘Marano’ as a means of identifying them as part of the population targeted by the Inquisition. It was at this point that these Portuguese Jews mingled with other expelled Sephardim, and influenced the Judaeo-Spanish language called Ladino. Although Portuguese Jewry was not expelled, these Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, through a mass baptism decreed by King Manuel I in 1497. However, many Jews in Portugal, like their kinsmen in Spain, continued to observe Judaism in secret. Hard times followed for the Portuguese Jews, with the massacre of 5000 individuals in Lisbon (1506), the forced deportation to São Tomé and Príncipe where there is still a Jewish presence, and the later and even more relevant establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition in 1536.
As was true of the Jews in Spain, some Jews in Portugal had occupied prominent places of political and economical life. For example, Isaac Abrabanel was the treasurer of King Afonso V of Portugal. Many also had an active role in the Portuguese culture, and they kept their reputation of diplomats and merchants. By this time, Lisbon and Évora were home to important Jewish communities. The Inquisition held its first Auto da fé in Portugal in 1540 concentrating its efforts on rooting out converts from faiths that did not adhere to the strictures of Catholic orthodoxy; like in Spain, the Portuguese inquisitors mostly targeted the Jewish New Christians, conversos, or maranos. The Portuguese Inquisition eventually included the entire Portuguese Empire, including Brazil, Cape Verde, and Goa. According to Henry Charles Lea between 1540 and 1794 tribunals in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Évora burned 1,175 persons, another 633 were burned in effigy and 29,590 were penanced, but documentation of at least fifteen Autos-da-fé between 1580–1640 – the period of the Iberian Union – disappeared, so the real numbers must be higher. The Portuguese inquisition was extinguished in 1821 by the, “General Extraordinary and Constituent Courts of the Portuguese Nation.”
Thousands of Portuguese Jews eventually moved to Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, France, Morocco, Brazil, Curaçao, and the Antilles. In some of these places their presence can still be witnessed, like the use of the Ladino language by some Jewish communities in Turkey, the Portuguese based dialects of the Antilles, or the multiple Synagogues built by what was to be known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
Every country that ousted its Jewish population seems to have experienced a decline in the scope of its reach and the greatness of its monarchy thus causing this writer to ask, “Why would any country or ruler come against the people God calls ‘the apple of his eye?’”
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Tomorrow find out why one group of people are called: Converso, Anusim, New Christians, Judaizers, Sephardic, Ladino, Anusim, Marino, Jrypto-Jew.
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Whether I was perusing the book selection of the drugstore or walking down the isles at a bookstore, my quest was always the same. I wanted to select a novel about people I might want to met, written by a person I might want to know. That was important to me because as I read the books I selected some of the characters became my friends. These characters internal landscape influenced mine. I learned many important things without having to live the lesson because the characters did that for me.
I believe that may be true for you as well so I have written this piece. You will notice a degree of levity, which I seldom use in my writing, so let me being by saying, “I am not pulling any punches. What I have written is true and because of that, the miracle of God calling me to write is truly miraculous indeed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~From “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” to See Paula Write”~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was a new believer I read Ezekiel 11:19. "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh." Little did I know back then all that this verse would mean to me, or how many times God would challenge me beyond what I felt was my breaking point by this Scripture. However, coming to Messiah (Christ) at forty, I had much to learn, and God put me into, and took me out of situations, and relationships to mold me into this. What you might wonder, is the “this,” that I have become? Well, I’ll tell you, it certainly isn’t the “this” that everyone thought I would be. For as far back as my family and I can remember there was never anyone quite like the “me” I became in Christ, for the beloved transformed me!
But, let me tell you who I was, so you’ll be able to track with me. Ah, that’s easier said than done, to paraphrase a tune that was popular when I was younger, leaner, and couldn’t learn. Yep! That’s right. The book on my mother’s bedside table was titled “Why Johnny Can’t Read." I didn’t know that cause I couldn’t…read, that is. In fact, I only discovered the name of the book once I could, you know… read. By now, you’re probably wondering how a kid born into a family of an up and coming Aerospace Engineer who built the fuel cell that got us into space couldn’t read. My parents and the school wondered about that too, but in the fifties, everyone relied on the doctors who visited the school to give them a heads up if there was a problem with any of us kids. Every time I saw the doc, I got a clean bill of health, eye exam and all, which leads me to believe that the guy needed to have his eyes examined!
Now here comes the hyperbole, which if our parents were speaking would be an, “extravagant exaggeration.” If you think I’m kidding, look it up! I did cause as much as I knew that it was the word I wanted to use, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how to spell it and I wanted to make sure it was the right word! See what taking a short cut through the first four years of elementary school will get you…a major need for dictionaries, spellchecking, and the like! However, I digress. Now, if you’re like I was, almost the most nearsighted person ever born, with very little peripheral vision, there’s only one thing that can make your learning experience a worse catastrophe than the cards you were dealt. That’s being born with a last name that begins with a letter which will absolutely put you in the chair furthest away from the blackboard, and as surly as I’m tellin this tail, that’s just what happened to yours truly! That’s why I call this ditty, “From Why Johnny Can’t Read to See Paula Write.” Speaking of little ditty’s, if you’re interested in what I mean, look at the refrain from Roger Miller’s song “Little Green Apples” which goes, ‘God didn’t make little green apples and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.’ Now that’s poetic license if you ask me, and silly to the core! Yet when I look back on the one summer I had to learn everything all my classmates had learned in four years, what’s a little silly between friends?
I’ll tell you what it is, it’s the ability to laugh at our troubles that we hopefully learn to do before we meet the Lord. Because when were facing bad stuff without him, we’d better know how to laugh or we’ll cry ourselves a river. Though if the truth were told, and that’s what I’m sharing with you, I just learned to be silly this year! You’re probably wondering why it took me so long. Well, I’ll tell you since you seem interested. First, I had to learn how to learn, and then I had to accept myself with all my fears, foibles, and failures. By the time I did all that, I was nineteen and ready to get married, so I found a great guy who loved me back, and we walked down the isle, into wedded bliss and baby diapers galore cause back in the day, pampers didn’t exist. Fact is, back then some of us didn’t even have a clothes dryer. Living close to the ocean in the winter meant hanging the didies, as in diapers’ all over the house. Between babies, bottles, didies, and “The Hubb’s,” life went on happily well into my thirties when I intentionally took myself to college. Now I must confess that I had graduated Beauty College, gotten my Cosmetology License, and gone to work so my guy could finish college. And I must have been a pretty good student, cause I was offered an open-ended scholarship to return and study to become an instructor. Honestly, with my learning curve would you have signed up for that? Course not and neither did I!
However, a strange thing happened on my way to maturity, I discovered I would do whatever I could to make certain my kids had a great start. Anything, including the best preschool I could afford. I didn’t want my kids to end up being taken by the scruff of the neck, by the teacher, and led to the one remaining chair as I was, while she whispered in a voice loud enough to wake the dead, “I’m sitting you next to the smart girl. If you need any help, ask her.” What a confidence builder that was! And, I must add, it was a great way to begin the school year cause everyone knows the really cool kids want to hang out with “the class dummy.” So, given my druthers, I’d have rather run away from “The Hubb’s” who was, and still is the love of my life, than send my kids to school unprepared! Well, boy howdy! Guess where the best preschool was? Give up? Well, I’ll confess! It was part of the local JC, as in Junior College, which we have here in California and funny thing, they had room for my sweetie pie! But I had to be enrolled in the College to get her in. So, I kid you not, I’m sittin here today with a four point 0 average, which in my day was the highest GPA you could have, all because of sweetie pie, who is now thirty plus, and has preschoolers of her own.
All of this my friend, brings me to writing, or as we authors used to say, penning my prose. Wow! I only had to try three alternate spellings to get spell-check to figure out what I meant! This is a red-letter moment…time to ring the bell! It may sound a bit trite, but I think it’s a hoot that a gal who graduated third in her JC class, and went on to teach lots of stuff to some smart people is still humbled by the first thing that happened which, taught her, I’m nothing special unless I’m doing something for someone, or answering a higher call. I’ve been doing that all my like, but in a more focused was since March 2007, when God called me to write about the progeny of a small, and relatively unknown group of Jews called Sephardim that were trapped by the Inquisition, forced into Catholicism to survive, but continued to practice their faith at home.
Before I go any further, remember my saying that I only got funny this year. Well I can prove it! Yep! Way back, way before College, both Beauty, and the JC, people saw me as bookish, and they were right! When you can’t read, and finally can, the light goes on! You know what I mean? It’s like trying to figure out the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit, and then getting every nuance once you receive that Divine gift. Boy oh boy, as a Jew, I sure remember when the light went on and I came to know a lot about Messiah! I still remember a lot about not understanding the Scripture before then. However, that’s a topic for another day.
So being obviously bookish, as in there was always one in my hand, or I was telling someone about something I read. And being married to “The Hubb’s” who had gone to College to become a English teacher, and took classes like Zoology for the fun of it, it took people about two minutes to size me up, and say, “You should be a librarian.” Funny, I finally spelled that word right after all these years, but don’t get to excited, I spelled right, wrong. However, the system corrected it! Nice computer…what would I do without you?
Now, back to the library, if there was one thing I did under-sort-of-stand, it was the Dewey Decimal System. Do any of you out there in reader-land remember that? Well, they put numbers, the name of the book, and the authors’ name, on index cards, but backwards as in ‘all literary people know that library filling systems are backwards.’ I kid you not! The numbers where the first thing you saw when you opened the drawer where the cards were filed. Now if you remember my saying, “I don’t do math on the fly,” oh you don’t remember me saying that until now? My Ops! But…let’s continue, what do you think I did? You’re right! I knew I couldn’t begin to figure out that secret, and even if I did, I didn’t know where to look for the book, so I asked the librarian, after all that’s what she was there for. However, given my age, if you’re in the library, and ask the librarian for help it’s probably not the same one I asked. By the way, if you think asking or looking things up isn’t using the old gray-matter to its best, Einstein, as in Albert, said when he was asked how he came up with all his theories, “I never memorize anything that I can look up.” Yessiree bob, as in Bob’s Big Boy, Einstein, and me, we be buds!
But I digress! I had this desire which, if the truth were known, as in I’m telling it to you now, had been fanned for over ten years by a sweet sister in the Lord. I had gifted her one of my framed poems as a wedding present and once she read it she kept asking me, “Are you writing?” Ten years of that sort of gets a girl thinking. So having nothing better to do once my workday was over but to wait for “The Hubbs” to get back from work at ten, and there being nothing on the boob-tube to watch, but repeats, and inane reality shows, smattered with hour long promos for everything I never needed, I sat down at the computer for forty days, and wrote. Oops I forgot, first I said a prayer, asked for prayer, and discovered some of my friends were Sephardic, go figure! See, God was in this all the time! They gave me some literature, I did a ton and a half of research, and then I started to write.
Now if you remember in Genesis 8: 6-7 the Scripture says, "...after forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth." Well, interestingly enough, I was sending my daily draft to this friend, and after forty days, she emailed me back. “You’ve begun to write a book!” I though she was “pullin my preverbal leg,” cause all I was doing was writing a character sketch for the book I thought I was going to write. I had it sort of all fleshed out in my thinker. It was going to be about three women who meet while hiking the Appalachian Trail, and how the believing one shares her faith with them as they walk along. I had no, absolutely no plans, to write a book about this Sephardic girl named Naomi! I was writing sketches about her as a means of getting to know her before I began to write the story. This reminds me of that old maxim, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” Remember that one? If you did, you have a better thinker than I had, cause it never occurred to me that my friend was right! However, once I went back, and read what I’d written, I discovered that Isaiah 55:8 seemed to be written just for me! It says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. So here I was, fully commissioned to a calling I felt ill prepared to fulfill, as in call the other gal…please! Nevertheless, being a Messianic Jew, which means rather stiff-necked, but interested, I began to write and, the oddest thing happened, the characters began to speak to me, and tell me their stories. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Bring in the net! This one’s ready for the loony bin!” But I was, and am as sane as you are. Know why I know? Cause having graduated with honors, I went back to school, yes sir! JC you had me at hello! This time I studied to become of all things, a Chemical Dependency – Lifestyle Disorder Counselor. Which is just a fancy- smanchy way of saying, I found another way to read interesting stuff, meet some really smart people, and help out those that needed a carrying person to listen to them, and hold them accountable, kind of like we do when we’re discipling, and teaching others about Gods Word, and our Christian walk.
So, when the characters began to talk, I listened. After all, that’s what a counselor does, listen, which if you ask my friends they’ll tell you is something I have trouble doing. However, if your anointed and appointed, whether its to listen to someone strung out on drugs, or to the blessing of hearing what I, to this day, believe was a God breathed revelation of what I was to write, its amazing how quiet you become. Why? I’ll tell you why, cause when you’re called, I believe God has already fashioned you to answer the calling. In fact, if we look at good old Moe…Moses to you, we know this for a fact. You don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look. First, when the dude finally owns his roots, he tries to stop a fight and ends up having to hotfoot it out of Egypt in a hurry…which if we know and trust in God, we won’t do! Now the second way is Gods way! Here we see God calling, and appointing Moses, and when God sends him back, good old Moe is equipped, and accomplishes Gods’ purpose.
That’s the way it is with me, and you! "Me?" you ask? Of course you! Why do you think I’m writing this piece? It isn’t cause I have nothing better to do! I still have the last novel of the six to write. You heard me right, six novels in the Casa Saga. Five down and one more to go in this series. Then it’s on to the next assignment, another series, and another blessing yet to be revealed! So ya see, I have plenty to do. I’m writing this for you so that you’ll know that whatever God has called you to do, if you receive his commission wholeheartedly, and move forward trusting he will meet you at the burning bush, or anywhere else you need him! One day you’ll be telling others how God took you, and used you in a way you were never prepared to be used. You’ll be singing his praises, and it won’t matter if anyone asks why you enjoy being a servant of the Servant King, the one who will return to reign in glory. For all the reward people like you, and me will ever need is serving him, as he called us to, even if it means doing the one thing we know we can’t do. After all, we know that everything here will fade away, so why not answer Gods call, and store up in glory what matters for eternity! Ezekiel was right after all, when God puts a “New Spirit” in you, what else can you do but respond joyfully to his!
I believe that may be true for you as well so I have written this piece. You will notice a degree of levity, which I seldom use in my writing, so let me being by saying, “I am not pulling any punches. What I have written is true and because of that, the miracle of God calling me to write is truly miraculous indeed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~From “Why Johnny Can’t Read,” to See Paula Write”~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was a new believer I read Ezekiel 11:19. "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh." Little did I know back then all that this verse would mean to me, or how many times God would challenge me beyond what I felt was my breaking point by this Scripture. However, coming to Messiah (Christ) at forty, I had much to learn, and God put me into, and took me out of situations, and relationships to mold me into this. What you might wonder, is the “this,” that I have become? Well, I’ll tell you, it certainly isn’t the “this” that everyone thought I would be. For as far back as my family and I can remember there was never anyone quite like the “me” I became in Christ, for the beloved transformed me!
But, let me tell you who I was, so you’ll be able to track with me. Ah, that’s easier said than done, to paraphrase a tune that was popular when I was younger, leaner, and couldn’t learn. Yep! That’s right. The book on my mother’s bedside table was titled “Why Johnny Can’t Read." I didn’t know that cause I couldn’t…read, that is. In fact, I only discovered the name of the book once I could, you know… read. By now, you’re probably wondering how a kid born into a family of an up and coming Aerospace Engineer who built the fuel cell that got us into space couldn’t read. My parents and the school wondered about that too, but in the fifties, everyone relied on the doctors who visited the school to give them a heads up if there was a problem with any of us kids. Every time I saw the doc, I got a clean bill of health, eye exam and all, which leads me to believe that the guy needed to have his eyes examined!
Now here comes the hyperbole, which if our parents were speaking would be an, “extravagant exaggeration.” If you think I’m kidding, look it up! I did cause as much as I knew that it was the word I wanted to use, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how to spell it and I wanted to make sure it was the right word! See what taking a short cut through the first four years of elementary school will get you…a major need for dictionaries, spellchecking, and the like! However, I digress. Now, if you’re like I was, almost the most nearsighted person ever born, with very little peripheral vision, there’s only one thing that can make your learning experience a worse catastrophe than the cards you were dealt. That’s being born with a last name that begins with a letter which will absolutely put you in the chair furthest away from the blackboard, and as surly as I’m tellin this tail, that’s just what happened to yours truly! That’s why I call this ditty, “From Why Johnny Can’t Read to See Paula Write.” Speaking of little ditty’s, if you’re interested in what I mean, look at the refrain from Roger Miller’s song “Little Green Apples” which goes, ‘God didn’t make little green apples and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.’ Now that’s poetic license if you ask me, and silly to the core! Yet when I look back on the one summer I had to learn everything all my classmates had learned in four years, what’s a little silly between friends?
I’ll tell you what it is, it’s the ability to laugh at our troubles that we hopefully learn to do before we meet the Lord. Because when were facing bad stuff without him, we’d better know how to laugh or we’ll cry ourselves a river. Though if the truth were told, and that’s what I’m sharing with you, I just learned to be silly this year! You’re probably wondering why it took me so long. Well, I’ll tell you since you seem interested. First, I had to learn how to learn, and then I had to accept myself with all my fears, foibles, and failures. By the time I did all that, I was nineteen and ready to get married, so I found a great guy who loved me back, and we walked down the isle, into wedded bliss and baby diapers galore cause back in the day, pampers didn’t exist. Fact is, back then some of us didn’t even have a clothes dryer. Living close to the ocean in the winter meant hanging the didies, as in diapers’ all over the house. Between babies, bottles, didies, and “The Hubb’s,” life went on happily well into my thirties when I intentionally took myself to college. Now I must confess that I had graduated Beauty College, gotten my Cosmetology License, and gone to work so my guy could finish college. And I must have been a pretty good student, cause I was offered an open-ended scholarship to return and study to become an instructor. Honestly, with my learning curve would you have signed up for that? Course not and neither did I!
However, a strange thing happened on my way to maturity, I discovered I would do whatever I could to make certain my kids had a great start. Anything, including the best preschool I could afford. I didn’t want my kids to end up being taken by the scruff of the neck, by the teacher, and led to the one remaining chair as I was, while she whispered in a voice loud enough to wake the dead, “I’m sitting you next to the smart girl. If you need any help, ask her.” What a confidence builder that was! And, I must add, it was a great way to begin the school year cause everyone knows the really cool kids want to hang out with “the class dummy.” So, given my druthers, I’d have rather run away from “The Hubb’s” who was, and still is the love of my life, than send my kids to school unprepared! Well, boy howdy! Guess where the best preschool was? Give up? Well, I’ll confess! It was part of the local JC, as in Junior College, which we have here in California and funny thing, they had room for my sweetie pie! But I had to be enrolled in the College to get her in. So, I kid you not, I’m sittin here today with a four point 0 average, which in my day was the highest GPA you could have, all because of sweetie pie, who is now thirty plus, and has preschoolers of her own.
All of this my friend, brings me to writing, or as we authors used to say, penning my prose. Wow! I only had to try three alternate spellings to get spell-check to figure out what I meant! This is a red-letter moment…time to ring the bell! It may sound a bit trite, but I think it’s a hoot that a gal who graduated third in her JC class, and went on to teach lots of stuff to some smart people is still humbled by the first thing that happened which, taught her, I’m nothing special unless I’m doing something for someone, or answering a higher call. I’ve been doing that all my like, but in a more focused was since March 2007, when God called me to write about the progeny of a small, and relatively unknown group of Jews called Sephardim that were trapped by the Inquisition, forced into Catholicism to survive, but continued to practice their faith at home.
Before I go any further, remember my saying that I only got funny this year. Well I can prove it! Yep! Way back, way before College, both Beauty, and the JC, people saw me as bookish, and they were right! When you can’t read, and finally can, the light goes on! You know what I mean? It’s like trying to figure out the Scriptures without the Holy Spirit, and then getting every nuance once you receive that Divine gift. Boy oh boy, as a Jew, I sure remember when the light went on and I came to know a lot about Messiah! I still remember a lot about not understanding the Scripture before then. However, that’s a topic for another day.
So being obviously bookish, as in there was always one in my hand, or I was telling someone about something I read. And being married to “The Hubb’s” who had gone to College to become a English teacher, and took classes like Zoology for the fun of it, it took people about two minutes to size me up, and say, “You should be a librarian.” Funny, I finally spelled that word right after all these years, but don’t get to excited, I spelled right, wrong. However, the system corrected it! Nice computer…what would I do without you?
Now, back to the library, if there was one thing I did under-sort-of-stand, it was the Dewey Decimal System. Do any of you out there in reader-land remember that? Well, they put numbers, the name of the book, and the authors’ name, on index cards, but backwards as in ‘all literary people know that library filling systems are backwards.’ I kid you not! The numbers where the first thing you saw when you opened the drawer where the cards were filed. Now if you remember my saying, “I don’t do math on the fly,” oh you don’t remember me saying that until now? My Ops! But…let’s continue, what do you think I did? You’re right! I knew I couldn’t begin to figure out that secret, and even if I did, I didn’t know where to look for the book, so I asked the librarian, after all that’s what she was there for. However, given my age, if you’re in the library, and ask the librarian for help it’s probably not the same one I asked. By the way, if you think asking or looking things up isn’t using the old gray-matter to its best, Einstein, as in Albert, said when he was asked how he came up with all his theories, “I never memorize anything that I can look up.” Yessiree bob, as in Bob’s Big Boy, Einstein, and me, we be buds!
But I digress! I had this desire which, if the truth were known, as in I’m telling it to you now, had been fanned for over ten years by a sweet sister in the Lord. I had gifted her one of my framed poems as a wedding present and once she read it she kept asking me, “Are you writing?” Ten years of that sort of gets a girl thinking. So having nothing better to do once my workday was over but to wait for “The Hubbs” to get back from work at ten, and there being nothing on the boob-tube to watch, but repeats, and inane reality shows, smattered with hour long promos for everything I never needed, I sat down at the computer for forty days, and wrote. Oops I forgot, first I said a prayer, asked for prayer, and discovered some of my friends were Sephardic, go figure! See, God was in this all the time! They gave me some literature, I did a ton and a half of research, and then I started to write.
Now if you remember in Genesis 8: 6-7 the Scripture says, "...after forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth." Well, interestingly enough, I was sending my daily draft to this friend, and after forty days, she emailed me back. “You’ve begun to write a book!” I though she was “pullin my preverbal leg,” cause all I was doing was writing a character sketch for the book I thought I was going to write. I had it sort of all fleshed out in my thinker. It was going to be about three women who meet while hiking the Appalachian Trail, and how the believing one shares her faith with them as they walk along. I had no, absolutely no plans, to write a book about this Sephardic girl named Naomi! I was writing sketches about her as a means of getting to know her before I began to write the story. This reminds me of that old maxim, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” Remember that one? If you did, you have a better thinker than I had, cause it never occurred to me that my friend was right! However, once I went back, and read what I’d written, I discovered that Isaiah 55:8 seemed to be written just for me! It says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. So here I was, fully commissioned to a calling I felt ill prepared to fulfill, as in call the other gal…please! Nevertheless, being a Messianic Jew, which means rather stiff-necked, but interested, I began to write and, the oddest thing happened, the characters began to speak to me, and tell me their stories. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Bring in the net! This one’s ready for the loony bin!” But I was, and am as sane as you are. Know why I know? Cause having graduated with honors, I went back to school, yes sir! JC you had me at hello! This time I studied to become of all things, a Chemical Dependency – Lifestyle Disorder Counselor. Which is just a fancy- smanchy way of saying, I found another way to read interesting stuff, meet some really smart people, and help out those that needed a carrying person to listen to them, and hold them accountable, kind of like we do when we’re discipling, and teaching others about Gods Word, and our Christian walk.
So, when the characters began to talk, I listened. After all, that’s what a counselor does, listen, which if you ask my friends they’ll tell you is something I have trouble doing. However, if your anointed and appointed, whether its to listen to someone strung out on drugs, or to the blessing of hearing what I, to this day, believe was a God breathed revelation of what I was to write, its amazing how quiet you become. Why? I’ll tell you why, cause when you’re called, I believe God has already fashioned you to answer the calling. In fact, if we look at good old Moe…Moses to you, we know this for a fact. You don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look. First, when the dude finally owns his roots, he tries to stop a fight and ends up having to hotfoot it out of Egypt in a hurry…which if we know and trust in God, we won’t do! Now the second way is Gods way! Here we see God calling, and appointing Moses, and when God sends him back, good old Moe is equipped, and accomplishes Gods’ purpose.
That’s the way it is with me, and you! "Me?" you ask? Of course you! Why do you think I’m writing this piece? It isn’t cause I have nothing better to do! I still have the last novel of the six to write. You heard me right, six novels in the Casa Saga. Five down and one more to go in this series. Then it’s on to the next assignment, another series, and another blessing yet to be revealed! So ya see, I have plenty to do. I’m writing this for you so that you’ll know that whatever God has called you to do, if you receive his commission wholeheartedly, and move forward trusting he will meet you at the burning bush, or anywhere else you need him! One day you’ll be telling others how God took you, and used you in a way you were never prepared to be used. You’ll be singing his praises, and it won’t matter if anyone asks why you enjoy being a servant of the Servant King, the one who will return to reign in glory. For all the reward people like you, and me will ever need is serving him, as he called us to, even if it means doing the one thing we know we can’t do. After all, we know that everything here will fade away, so why not answer Gods call, and store up in glory what matters for eternity! Ezekiel was right after all, when God puts a “New Spirit” in you, what else can you do but respond joyfully to his!
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Now that you have read about Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus’ Sephardic heritage, you might wonder how one would know if they were a member of this hidden race. I am using the word race because a DNA Test can determine a persons haplogroup. If you are a Spanish speaker - have a last name associated with those killed by the Inquisition, or your last name was found on the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Spain, you discovered that your last name was changed or a letter dropped, or your family has either artifacts or an oral history, your haplogroup might link you with this Jewish population. This scientific way to determine ones heritage cost about $150.
If you are wondering if oral history is valid, I will cite two instances where that history was validated.
1. Janet Jacobs Liebmans thesis, “Hidden Heritage-The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews,” published by Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, where the author describes her visits to those in the Southwestern United States who shared oral history and brought out artifacts that speak of Sephardic Jewish origins.
2. The Smithsonian Magazine article published in October 2008 called “The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley,” reported that several oncologists who meet a few times a year to discuss unusual cases discovered that there was a valley where early onset breast cancer had been occurring from generation to generation. They studied the DNA, concluded that their patients where Jewish, and brought 200 families together to share this fact. Many believed what the doctors said because of things they had seen and heard. Others did not.
One might ask, “Why should I care?” If you think, you might want to make Aliyah to Israel, by petitioning to become a citizen; you need to prove you are Jewish. Also, if you find yourself speaking Spanish with a different inflection you might be relieved to know that there is a people group that does that by mixing Castellan and Old Spanish together as their ancestors before them did. Most important, at least to me and to those I have interviewed is the reality that until each of us full knows ourselves how can we chose a life, a mate, a faith, or determine what we are to believe or become until we know our history. After all becoming all we are to be builds upon everything that came before. For many Sephardim all we are meant to be is not fully realized until they know their heritage.
Two Friends...
Corrine, Janice, and two friends of mine who shared a common ancestry they never suspected when they meet. Common interest and an odd way of saying Spanish words drew them together. It is unclear to me if either of them knew at that time that they were Sephardim, but I suspect not. Each spoke of living in a Spanish enclave during their childhood, and the Catholic Church being where all things religious occurred. Read their interviews below to learn more. While you do ask yourself, “Could this be me or someone I know and if so what does that mean to them or me?”
Corrine’s Voice
I was born in 1929 and raised in downtown Los Angeles. My religious training was in the Catholic Church, as all in our family had done for years. In 1984, my son David, who had research our history, told me that we are Jewish. I paid no attention to him. In 1974, I found myself drawn to Jewish things. When my grandmother died, my mother showed me her baptismal certificate. I noticed that her godmother’s last name was Gold. I asked my mother about that, as Gold is a very unusual last name for a Spanish person to have because godparents are usually family members. She told me that her cousin had told her when she was a child that they were Jews but not to tell anyone. It was then I remembered my grandfather singing in a strange language out by the chicken coops, and my mother saying, “He sings like a cantor!” The realization that we were not what we seemed to be created within me a hunger to know more. Since then I have invested my time and energy to learn all I can about my Jewish roots. That investigation has made me aware of the charges the Inquisitor made against my family, revealed the possibility that they may have come over with Columbus, and the knowledge that they settled in what is now the southwestern United States. Today, through much work on behalf of my family, I have acquired the documents to prove what I am saying. Were it not for the Decree of Alhambra and the Spanish Inquisition, we would still be in Spain, but due to that decree and its effects upon my family and the Jews still hiding, I am willing to state that what man meant for evil, God used for good!
Janice’s Voice
There was a stirring in my heart to follow my mother’s influence and learn about the Jewish people. I remember my fourth grade class in parochial school, where Sister Demetrius instilled within us the fact that the Jews did not kill Christ, but it was our sins that put him on the cross. Between my schooling and Mom’s love for the Jewish heritage, there was birthed within me a tenderness toward the Jewish people. As I reached what some would call middle age, this stirring intensified until I needed to know more. For years, I told people that I was Basque. However, I never went to the town whose name I bore. Then I met a woman whose son was a missionary in Spain. I asked him if he could take me to Ulibarri and he agreed. In 2008, I made the trip to Spain. We traveled throughout the Navarra region until I finally stepped onto the soil that had been home to my family centuries before. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was a strong Jewish presence in that region. Could my mother have been trying to tell me something all those years ago? I will never know for sure. However, my journey of the heart allowed me to look at my heritage and history with new eyes. When I returned home, I told my children, “We have a Jewish heritage.” They rolled their eyes. Months later, my son called and said, “I was waiting for the metro and was approached by a scholarly man who looked at my badge, which identifies me by my last name. He read ‘Mireles’ and asked me if I knew about my name and my heritage. I was able to give him the information you had shared with us. I was stunned when he gave me additional information, which proved to me that what you had said was correct! I called you, and I told my brothers and sisters that what you had said was true.”
Interested in discovering more...
Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing – October 2011
Response to my blog seems to be growing. Read on...
Ron wrote: "I love the way you build suspence like a mystery writer. Instead of "who done it" you ask "who am I, really?" The surprise ending awaits every reader who is willing to embrace and face their own heritage."
~~~~~
When I posted this blog, Inez Aguilar-Davis commented, “I am a Sephardic Jew and happy that I know who I am.”
I responded, “I know you are a Sephardic Jew and I am thrilled to know you! Because many Spanish or Mexicans do not know but think they might be Jewish, this article was written for them. You might want to read it as well, and if you know someone who is uncertain please direct him or her to the blog.”
This evening Inez Aguilar-Davis I read it, and said, “Very good, I am impressed and I will pass it on.”
~~~~~
I am living an authors dream for each of us that write about real people or in this case, real people and their history, could ask for no praise higher than that posted here!
~~~~~~
Gil Dela Cruz commented, “I can imagine how prolific that book is, perhaps that would pave a way of discovering one self that he has a Jewish decent. In Philippines, there are Jews called Marano, historically, they arrived here in the early 20th century from Spain. The first shoe manufacturer in Marikina City was owned by Jewish and today that place has become more prominence on shoe market.”
If you are wondering if oral history is valid, I will cite two instances where that history was validated.
1. Janet Jacobs Liebmans thesis, “Hidden Heritage-The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews,” published by Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, where the author describes her visits to those in the Southwestern United States who shared oral history and brought out artifacts that speak of Sephardic Jewish origins.
2. The Smithsonian Magazine article published in October 2008 called “The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley,” reported that several oncologists who meet a few times a year to discuss unusual cases discovered that there was a valley where early onset breast cancer had been occurring from generation to generation. They studied the DNA, concluded that their patients where Jewish, and brought 200 families together to share this fact. Many believed what the doctors said because of things they had seen and heard. Others did not.
One might ask, “Why should I care?” If you think, you might want to make Aliyah to Israel, by petitioning to become a citizen; you need to prove you are Jewish. Also, if you find yourself speaking Spanish with a different inflection you might be relieved to know that there is a people group that does that by mixing Castellan and Old Spanish together as their ancestors before them did. Most important, at least to me and to those I have interviewed is the reality that until each of us full knows ourselves how can we chose a life, a mate, a faith, or determine what we are to believe or become until we know our history. After all becoming all we are to be builds upon everything that came before. For many Sephardim all we are meant to be is not fully realized until they know their heritage.
Two Friends...
Corrine, Janice, and two friends of mine who shared a common ancestry they never suspected when they meet. Common interest and an odd way of saying Spanish words drew them together. It is unclear to me if either of them knew at that time that they were Sephardim, but I suspect not. Each spoke of living in a Spanish enclave during their childhood, and the Catholic Church being where all things religious occurred. Read their interviews below to learn more. While you do ask yourself, “Could this be me or someone I know and if so what does that mean to them or me?”
Corrine’s Voice
I was born in 1929 and raised in downtown Los Angeles. My religious training was in the Catholic Church, as all in our family had done for years. In 1984, my son David, who had research our history, told me that we are Jewish. I paid no attention to him. In 1974, I found myself drawn to Jewish things. When my grandmother died, my mother showed me her baptismal certificate. I noticed that her godmother’s last name was Gold. I asked my mother about that, as Gold is a very unusual last name for a Spanish person to have because godparents are usually family members. She told me that her cousin had told her when she was a child that they were Jews but not to tell anyone. It was then I remembered my grandfather singing in a strange language out by the chicken coops, and my mother saying, “He sings like a cantor!” The realization that we were not what we seemed to be created within me a hunger to know more. Since then I have invested my time and energy to learn all I can about my Jewish roots. That investigation has made me aware of the charges the Inquisitor made against my family, revealed the possibility that they may have come over with Columbus, and the knowledge that they settled in what is now the southwestern United States. Today, through much work on behalf of my family, I have acquired the documents to prove what I am saying. Were it not for the Decree of Alhambra and the Spanish Inquisition, we would still be in Spain, but due to that decree and its effects upon my family and the Jews still hiding, I am willing to state that what man meant for evil, God used for good!
Janice’s Voice
There was a stirring in my heart to follow my mother’s influence and learn about the Jewish people. I remember my fourth grade class in parochial school, where Sister Demetrius instilled within us the fact that the Jews did not kill Christ, but it was our sins that put him on the cross. Between my schooling and Mom’s love for the Jewish heritage, there was birthed within me a tenderness toward the Jewish people. As I reached what some would call middle age, this stirring intensified until I needed to know more. For years, I told people that I was Basque. However, I never went to the town whose name I bore. Then I met a woman whose son was a missionary in Spain. I asked him if he could take me to Ulibarri and he agreed. In 2008, I made the trip to Spain. We traveled throughout the Navarra region until I finally stepped onto the soil that had been home to my family centuries before. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there was a strong Jewish presence in that region. Could my mother have been trying to tell me something all those years ago? I will never know for sure. However, my journey of the heart allowed me to look at my heritage and history with new eyes. When I returned home, I told my children, “We have a Jewish heritage.” They rolled their eyes. Months later, my son called and said, “I was waiting for the metro and was approached by a scholarly man who looked at my badge, which identifies me by my last name. He read ‘Mireles’ and asked me if I knew about my name and my heritage. I was able to give him the information you had shared with us. I was stunned when he gave me additional information, which proved to me that what you had said was correct! I called you, and I told my brothers and sisters that what you had said was true.”
Interested in discovering more...
Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing – October 2011
Response to my blog seems to be growing. Read on...
Ron wrote: "I love the way you build suspence like a mystery writer. Instead of "who done it" you ask "who am I, really?" The surprise ending awaits every reader who is willing to embrace and face their own heritage."
~~~~~
When I posted this blog, Inez Aguilar-Davis commented, “I am a Sephardic Jew and happy that I know who I am.”
I responded, “I know you are a Sephardic Jew and I am thrilled to know you! Because many Spanish or Mexicans do not know but think they might be Jewish, this article was written for them. You might want to read it as well, and if you know someone who is uncertain please direct him or her to the blog.”
This evening Inez Aguilar-Davis I read it, and said, “Very good, I am impressed and I will pass it on.”
~~~~~
I am living an authors dream for each of us that write about real people or in this case, real people and their history, could ask for no praise higher than that posted here!
~~~~~~
Gil Dela Cruz commented, “I can imagine how prolific that book is, perhaps that would pave a way of discovering one self that he has a Jewish decent. In Philippines, there are Jews called Marano, historically, they arrived here in the early 20th century from Spain. The first shoe manufacturer in Marikina City was owned by Jewish and today that place has become more prominence on shoe market.”
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Tomorrow...
Now that you have read about Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus’ Sephardic heritage, you might wonder how one would know if they are a member of this hidden race.
Curious? Visit "Year of 5,000 Books" tomorrow and find out...
Now that you have read about Abraham Lincoln and Christopher Columbus’ Sephardic heritage, you might wonder how one would know if they are a member of this hidden race.
Curious? Visit "Year of 5,000 Books" tomorrow and find out...
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The 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a young, poor, illiterate woman from Virginia. She gave birth to him in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. That infant, whom she named Abraham, grew to become a great but tragic national leader.
Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.
The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.
To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.
The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.
At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.
Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.
But back to Lincoln...
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.
Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish
Next week...Did Columbus Edit a Book of Prophesy from the Old Testament
Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.
The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.
To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.
The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.
At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.
Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.
But back to Lincoln...
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.
Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish
Next week...Did Columbus Edit a Book of Prophesy from the Old Testament
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Feedback from “Was President Abraham Lincoln the Descendent of a Sephardic Jew?” by Paula Rose Michelson
The comments keep on pouring in...
Steve L. Nyemba wrote, “Interesting analysis and thought provoking. It opens a whole host of questions related to social contract; socio/religious tolerance; state & religion. Great work!!”
~~~~~
Since WordWolf and several others have asked if I’m writing articles or a historical book about Abraham Lincoln, the Spanish and Mexican Inquisitions, or the Sephardim, I though it wise to post my response to them here.
“I am not a historian, but an author writing historic romantic fiction about a Sephardic girl who flees Spain in 1952 in search of religious freedom. To understand her, I did a lot of research. The first novel, in the Casa Saga, Casa de Naomi - The House of Blessing will be released in October. To build an audience, I have begun posting some of what I learned on my blog. Should you want more information, please invite me to speak and do a reading.”
~~~~~
This afternoon, further praise from WordWulf, "I really enjoyed the opening piece on Lincoln. Are you presenting these separately or as chapters in a total work? Having read everything I can find on Lincoln, I find credibility in your work, certainly a deeper truth about a most magnificent human being and writer."
~~~~~
It was lovely to wake up this morning to rave reviews of yesterdays posting. It’s exciting to post them here. If you have anything to add to this discourse please email me from this blog, post on FB or Tweet me!
Mia Marlowe Emily Bryan, "Fascinating."
Daniel Updegraff, "Very interesting"
Diana Catsoulas, "Very interesting - and VERY plausible - Thank you for this enlightening blog."
More comments...
WordWulf, "Lincoln is my favorite historical person. I read this with interest, find it plausible & worth consideration."
Another visitor to my blog identified themselves as “Mmusingsnprint” commented, “A town named Bostic, in NC claims to be Lincoln's birthplace." My response, although many claim famous people came form their town or suggested other locations, I reviewed Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers Universities extensive research and agree with her conclusion, which stated that Abe Lincoln was Jewish.
If you have not read the blog mention here, it’s directly below this posting...Enjoy!
Steve L. Nyemba wrote, “Interesting analysis and thought provoking. It opens a whole host of questions related to social contract; socio/religious tolerance; state & religion. Great work!!”
~~~~~
Since WordWolf and several others have asked if I’m writing articles or a historical book about Abraham Lincoln, the Spanish and Mexican Inquisitions, or the Sephardim, I though it wise to post my response to them here.
“I am not a historian, but an author writing historic romantic fiction about a Sephardic girl who flees Spain in 1952 in search of religious freedom. To understand her, I did a lot of research. The first novel, in the Casa Saga, Casa de Naomi - The House of Blessing will be released in October. To build an audience, I have begun posting some of what I learned on my blog. Should you want more information, please invite me to speak and do a reading.”
~~~~~
This afternoon, further praise from WordWulf, "I really enjoyed the opening piece on Lincoln. Are you presenting these separately or as chapters in a total work? Having read everything I can find on Lincoln, I find credibility in your work, certainly a deeper truth about a most magnificent human being and writer."
~~~~~
It was lovely to wake up this morning to rave reviews of yesterdays posting. It’s exciting to post them here. If you have anything to add to this discourse please email me from this blog, post on FB or Tweet me!
Mia Marlowe Emily Bryan, "Fascinating."
Daniel Updegraff, "Very interesting"
Diana Catsoulas, "Very interesting - and VERY plausible - Thank you for this enlightening blog."
More comments...
WordWulf, "Lincoln is my favorite historical person. I read this with interest, find it plausible & worth consideration."
Another visitor to my blog identified themselves as “Mmusingsnprint” commented, “A town named Bostic, in NC claims to be Lincoln's birthplace." My response, although many claim famous people came form their town or suggested other locations, I reviewed Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers Universities extensive research and agree with her conclusion, which stated that Abe Lincoln was Jewish.
If you have not read the blog mention here, it’s directly below this posting...Enjoy!
Category:
1 comments
The 16th President of the United States of America was born on February 12, 1809. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was a young, poor, illiterate woman from Virginia. She gave birth to him in a log cabin built along the banks of the south fork of Nolin Creek, near what is now Hodgenville, Kentucky. That infant, whom she named Abraham, grew to become a great but tragic national leader.
Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.
The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.
To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.
The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.
At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.
Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.
But back to Lincoln...
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.
Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish
Next week...Did Columbus Edit a Book of Prophesy from the Old Testament?
Lincoln was a man known for his spiritual convictions. Yet, a fascinatingly instructive fact was that Abraham Lincoln was the only American president who did not declare himself a member of any particular religion or faith. This fact has caused many to speculate that he might have been Jewish. After all, his name was Abraham and his great-grandfather was named Mordechai. Lincoln was the only President that had no formal religious affiliation, he was not raised in, nor did he ever belong to a church.
The town of Lincoln, in eastern England, where his ancestors came from, had a large group of Jewish people who build homes there in 1159. Since Spanish Jews had been dealing with programs hundreds of year prior to their Expulsion from Spain, since it was a short route from Spain to England, and since those who fled usually took the name of the town they settled in for their last name, these Jews were most likely Sephardic Jews fleeing oppression. Over time, these Jews flourished, had many offspring, and became a large part of that community. However, during the Crusades riots were fomented against these Jews. The Sheriff of Lincoln saved them by giving them his official protection. The great Bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, taught those of the Christian faith that they should love the Jews. His death was marked by an official period of mourning among Lincoln's Jews. Jews flourished in this community and many learned scholars claimed Lincoln as their home. However, in 1255, Lincoln's Jews were accused of ritual murder. Ninety-one of them were sent to London for trial, 18 were executed. However, Lincoln’s Jewish community flourished until 1290 when they were forcibly expelled by edict.
To understand why Abraham Lincoln might have known about his heritage and chosen to keep quite, or why his mother may have never told him, one needs to understand what happened when Edward I implemented The Edict of Expulsion that forced all Jews to leave England. To the Jews this was unfathomable because following the Conquest of 1066, Jews were an important part of Norman English society. English Nobles were constantly in need of money, and borrowed heavily from Jewish moneylenders. William the Conqueror had recognized the importance of the Jewish moneylenders to Norman society, and offered them special protection under law. He declared Jews to be his direct subjects, not subjects of their local feudal lord. Because of this, English kings saw the Jewish moneylenders as a convenient source of funds. The king could levy taxes against Jews without needing the prior approval of Parliament.
The Norman invasion caused the medieval world to undergo a gradual shift towards religious emphasis on a single belief epitomized by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which required Jews and Muslims to wear special dress so that they were easily to distinguish from Christians. Jews were required to wear a special badge. Church proclamations gave official approval to attitudes that were already prevalent in medieval society. Persecution became more evident culminating in outbreaks of mob violence aimed at Jews, which were, common in England, for example, in 1190 a mob killed hundreds of Jews in York.
At the same time as attitudes of intolerance became more common - and more acceptable the emergence of the Italian system of merchant banking made the Jewish moneylenders less vital to the nobility. Measures of punitive taxation against the Jews became common, with the result that there were fewer Jewish moneylenders with ready cash to lend. In 1285, the Statute of Jewry banned all usury, even by Jews, and gave Jews 15 years to end their practice. Unfortunately, given prevailing altitudes towards Jews in trade, few avenues of livelihood were open to those affected by the Statute.
Abraham Lincoln might not have claimed his Sephardic Jewish heritage, or his mother may have chosen to keep mute about his families’ history because of England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1492 when writs were sent to the sheriffs of most counties advising that all Jews in their counties had until 1 November to leave the realm. Jews remaining after this date were liable to be executed. Parliament agreed to a special tax on the Jews. Records are inexact for this period, but it seems that about 3000 Jews were forced to leave England due to the Expulsions decree.
But back to Lincoln...
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, entire Jewish communities sat shivah...morning Abrahams death as one would a son. Rabbis throughout the country eulogized the fallen President. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the man who created Reform Judaism in this country, began his eulogy with …”Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”
Lincoln religions beliefs were often questioned. When asked, he sighted a passage from Scripture that summed up his theology. It was the twentieth chapter of the Book of Exodus that he recommended that every American study, learn and follow. In English, it is usually referred to as the Ten Commandments.
Professor Elizabeth Hirschman of Rutgers University did extensive research and concluded that Abe Lincoln was Jewish
Next week...Did Columbus Edit a Book of Prophesy from the Old Testament?
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Tomorrows Blog – Was Abraham Lincoln a Sephardic Jew? “The Book of Prophesies” Columbus edited, were they the Biblical Prophesies found in the Old Testament?
Interested in discovering the answer to these questions and learning other startling things, check back tomorrow evening!
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Columbus is an absolute puzzle. Because some of the stories are so deliberately misleading, one would think that there had been many efforts to obscure his descent and lure investigators away from the truth. Columbus himself may have wanted to keep the world, and to some extent his family in the dark. If so, he succeeded.
Around the age of 25, Columbus turned up in Lisbon and said he was a cartographer, which would imply an extensive knowledge of nautical matters. The question of how he got there has not been settled. However, he said he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Portugal. Since he drew maps and dealt in printed books, some Spanish scholars assert that he must have been born on the island of Majorca for that was the center of cartography and cosmography. Here we see Columbus involved in a science that was practiced by Jews; only on occasion was a Moor or Christian practitioner to be found. Since a lower middle class weavers son (which is how Columbus identified himself at 18) generally did not attend university unless they studied for the priesthood or had a wealth sponsor that paid for private tutors, one wonders how he learned Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Genoese, perhaps Italian, and even Hebrew. Scholars are mystified.
More baffling, at another point, he said that he went to sea at the age of 14 as a cabin boy. A cabin boy received no education in languages or science yet Columbus possessed this knowledge. While in Portugal, Columbus pursued the professions of cartography and calligrapher which were seldom held by anyone other than those who were "Judaized" (Jews that had returned to the Law of Moses as they called the Torah). An even greater mystery surrounds Columbus marriage to a Portuguese noble woman, far above his station in society. Several times in his writings, he mentioned that Castilian was his mother tongue. However, it was said that while on voyages whenever he was dissatisfied with the work of his crew, he reviled the men in Italian. Yet others claim that he spoke Castilian with a Portuguese accent.
The marginal notes in his books make it plain that Columbus was well acquainted with the Old Testament. He cited the Prophets and was privy to information belonging to the intellectual world of Judaism. How did he come by such knowledge? In, "Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum" written by Pope Pius II, his notes reveal that he was familiar with Jewish chronology. He dates a marginal note with the year 1481 and promptly gives the Jewish equivalent, the year 5241. In truth, nobody knows where his learning may have been acquired.
Many scholars have been struck by the way Columbus seems to belabor his religion. In this respect, his behavior was like that of the Converso (Jews who became Catholic to marry or ensure their survival) of that period. They, too, publicly displayed their Christian faith at every possible opportunity. The proof that religious elements played a great part in Columbus's thoughts and actions is evident from all his writings. His concept of sailing west to reach the Indies was less the result of geographical theories than of his faith in certain Biblical texts. He cited two verses from the Book of Isaiah, which he was repudiated to repeat often: "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them," (60:9); and "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17). He felt that his voyages confirmed these prophecies. Isaiah seems to have been his favorite book of the Bible and he was known to quote from the Book of Ezra. In general, he demonstrated a sound knowledge of the Old Testament. This might have been true of any cultivated man of the age. Yet what are we to make of the presence in the Admiral's library of the "Jewish War," the account of the downfall of the ancient Jewish state by Josephus Flavius, or "De Nativitatibus" by the Jewish scholar Abraham ibn Ezra. Then again, his library reveals that he studied a book on the Messiah by a Jewish renegade, the former Rabbi Samuel ibn Abbas of Morocco, from which work he even copied out several chapters, the better to master them. Was Columbus trying just a bit too hard to act, sound, and appear "like a Christian" through studied words and actions?
While the crown debated the voyage that Columbus finally took, he set his eyes on the office of Viceroy, the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and a share in whatever treasures were found. When Granada fell, he intensified his efforts at court. Negotiations stalled because the queen knew that the country could not bear the costs of the expedition. Four men of Jewish descent intervened: Juan Cabrero, Luis de Santangel, Gabriel Sanchez, and Alfonso de la Caballeria offered to put up the money for the expedition. If the crown had not known Santangel, the offer of these Jews would have been rejected and Columbus's voyage would not have taken place. The royal couple needed his help so badly that on May 30, 1497, Ferdinand and Isabella handed Santangel a special charter that protected both him and his descendants for all time from being summoned by the tribunal of the Inquisition. They were accorded a kind of honorary "Aryan" status; their charter was a special "limpieza de sangre" which was so important in Spain at that time.
During this period, the Inquisition was raising and burning Jewish towns and fomenting riots. One would have thought that people of Jewish descent had other matters to attend to rather than aid Columbus, whom they viewed as a foreigner who had come to Castile with some hare-brained notion of touring the Indies. The experts had pronounced his plans risky and unsound. Yet those very Jews and Christianized descendants of Jews, who were reputed to be astute, put themselves behind a man whom the king's scientific advisory council had rejected. Why? This journey involved seafaring and lands about which they knew nothing. Although it was not in their character to give an enormous loan without security, Salvador de Madariaga argued that Columbus was himself a Converso and thus received support from his co-religionists in high places. Since they were descended from Jews, they were threatened just as if they were Jewish themselves. It was only a question of time and men like Luis Santangel knew it. That was why they were ready to throw their weight behind the expedition.
The majority of Spanish Jews did not understand the extent of the hatred that was around them, and denied its existence because it was incompatible with their innate optimism, which for centuries had formed the basis for the survival of Jewry. Turbulent Spain, religious fanaticism culminating in the Inquisition’s victimization of Spain's Sephardic Jews; the forced baptisms; pureblood laws; arbitrary tortures and liquidation; confiscation of property; ended in the final, irreversible decree of expulsion, which coincided precisely with Columbus's momentous voyage of discovery.
All Jews had to leave Spain. They began making their preparations for departure while Columbus prepared to sail. Since the regulations allowed the Jews to take only hand baggage, if they could find a buyer, they sold their property for pennies on the dollar because they needed the funds to pay their way out of Spain. The charge was called an emigration fee. If they did not have the money, they had to stay. If they were on Spanish soil at the stroke of midnight on March 31, 1492, they were killed. With death emanate, while Columbus prepared to sail, Jews were baptized into the Catholic faith. Columbus sailed on August 3, 1492. Before midnight, these hidden Jews secretly board his vessels. Columbus set sail one-half hour before sunrise. The reason for his secrecy was the crown's move years before the Inquisition, which forced Jews who were now being watched by the office of the Inquisition to reside in ghettoes and stay in after nightfall. This might sound like a small matter but to the Jews it meant that if they were discovered to be practicing the Jewish faith, they were dead!
If you are wondering if Columbus were a Jew ask yourself why he mislead people about his country of origin, his personal history, why he made certain that those aboard his ships were Jewish, and why he studied what others did not. Furthermore, considered why he took a Hebrew interpreter with him, which at the time must have seemed decidedly odd since Hebrew was not the language of any country in the known world. The only possible explanation must be that Columbus expected to be reach countries where Jews lived and governed. And why would he be sailing there unless he were a Jewish man trying to aid his disenfranchised people? Although we do not know why he did what he did, we do know that Columbus sent a Jewish interpreter, Luis de Torres, to communicate with the natives. Therefore, we can conclude that after landfall in America the first words addressed to the natives were words of Hebrew.
Columbus did not discover the way to India, although after his landing he was convinced that he had done so and he remained convinced to the end of his life. The natives whom Luis de Torres addressed in Hebrew had not understood the language. The dream of the Jews and Conversos, that Columbus would show them the way to the ten tribes of Israel, was not fulfilled. Yet Columbus was dedicated to exploration and made four trips in all and discovered, America, the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador on his first voyage. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for Spain. Was Columbus a Jew? You decide. However, before you do, consider that the passenger manifests for the three other voyages which reveal as many Sephardic surnames (the last names of Spanish Jews) as the first voyage did.
Bibliography: Wiesenthal, Simon, Sails of Hope, Macmillan
Publishing Co., Inc., 1973
Around the age of 25, Columbus turned up in Lisbon and said he was a cartographer, which would imply an extensive knowledge of nautical matters. The question of how he got there has not been settled. However, he said he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Portugal. Since he drew maps and dealt in printed books, some Spanish scholars assert that he must have been born on the island of Majorca for that was the center of cartography and cosmography. Here we see Columbus involved in a science that was practiced by Jews; only on occasion was a Moor or Christian practitioner to be found. Since a lower middle class weavers son (which is how Columbus identified himself at 18) generally did not attend university unless they studied for the priesthood or had a wealth sponsor that paid for private tutors, one wonders how he learned Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Genoese, perhaps Italian, and even Hebrew. Scholars are mystified.
More baffling, at another point, he said that he went to sea at the age of 14 as a cabin boy. A cabin boy received no education in languages or science yet Columbus possessed this knowledge. While in Portugal, Columbus pursued the professions of cartography and calligrapher which were seldom held by anyone other than those who were "Judaized" (Jews that had returned to the Law of Moses as they called the Torah). An even greater mystery surrounds Columbus marriage to a Portuguese noble woman, far above his station in society. Several times in his writings, he mentioned that Castilian was his mother tongue. However, it was said that while on voyages whenever he was dissatisfied with the work of his crew, he reviled the men in Italian. Yet others claim that he spoke Castilian with a Portuguese accent.
The marginal notes in his books make it plain that Columbus was well acquainted with the Old Testament. He cited the Prophets and was privy to information belonging to the intellectual world of Judaism. How did he come by such knowledge? In, "Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum" written by Pope Pius II, his notes reveal that he was familiar with Jewish chronology. He dates a marginal note with the year 1481 and promptly gives the Jewish equivalent, the year 5241. In truth, nobody knows where his learning may have been acquired.
Many scholars have been struck by the way Columbus seems to belabor his religion. In this respect, his behavior was like that of the Converso (Jews who became Catholic to marry or ensure their survival) of that period. They, too, publicly displayed their Christian faith at every possible opportunity. The proof that religious elements played a great part in Columbus's thoughts and actions is evident from all his writings. His concept of sailing west to reach the Indies was less the result of geographical theories than of his faith in certain Biblical texts. He cited two verses from the Book of Isaiah, which he was repudiated to repeat often: "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them," (60:9); and "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17). He felt that his voyages confirmed these prophecies. Isaiah seems to have been his favorite book of the Bible and he was known to quote from the Book of Ezra. In general, he demonstrated a sound knowledge of the Old Testament. This might have been true of any cultivated man of the age. Yet what are we to make of the presence in the Admiral's library of the "Jewish War," the account of the downfall of the ancient Jewish state by Josephus Flavius, or "De Nativitatibus" by the Jewish scholar Abraham ibn Ezra. Then again, his library reveals that he studied a book on the Messiah by a Jewish renegade, the former Rabbi Samuel ibn Abbas of Morocco, from which work he even copied out several chapters, the better to master them. Was Columbus trying just a bit too hard to act, sound, and appear "like a Christian" through studied words and actions?
While the crown debated the voyage that Columbus finally took, he set his eyes on the office of Viceroy, the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and a share in whatever treasures were found. When Granada fell, he intensified his efforts at court. Negotiations stalled because the queen knew that the country could not bear the costs of the expedition. Four men of Jewish descent intervened: Juan Cabrero, Luis de Santangel, Gabriel Sanchez, and Alfonso de la Caballeria offered to put up the money for the expedition. If the crown had not known Santangel, the offer of these Jews would have been rejected and Columbus's voyage would not have taken place. The royal couple needed his help so badly that on May 30, 1497, Ferdinand and Isabella handed Santangel a special charter that protected both him and his descendants for all time from being summoned by the tribunal of the Inquisition. They were accorded a kind of honorary "Aryan" status; their charter was a special "limpieza de sangre" which was so important in Spain at that time.
During this period, the Inquisition was raising and burning Jewish towns and fomenting riots. One would have thought that people of Jewish descent had other matters to attend to rather than aid Columbus, whom they viewed as a foreigner who had come to Castile with some hare-brained notion of touring the Indies. The experts had pronounced his plans risky and unsound. Yet those very Jews and Christianized descendants of Jews, who were reputed to be astute, put themselves behind a man whom the king's scientific advisory council had rejected. Why? This journey involved seafaring and lands about which they knew nothing. Although it was not in their character to give an enormous loan without security, Salvador de Madariaga argued that Columbus was himself a Converso and thus received support from his co-religionists in high places. Since they were descended from Jews, they were threatened just as if they were Jewish themselves. It was only a question of time and men like Luis Santangel knew it. That was why they were ready to throw their weight behind the expedition.
The majority of Spanish Jews did not understand the extent of the hatred that was around them, and denied its existence because it was incompatible with their innate optimism, which for centuries had formed the basis for the survival of Jewry. Turbulent Spain, religious fanaticism culminating in the Inquisition’s victimization of Spain's Sephardic Jews; the forced baptisms; pureblood laws; arbitrary tortures and liquidation; confiscation of property; ended in the final, irreversible decree of expulsion, which coincided precisely with Columbus's momentous voyage of discovery.
All Jews had to leave Spain. They began making their preparations for departure while Columbus prepared to sail. Since the regulations allowed the Jews to take only hand baggage, if they could find a buyer, they sold their property for pennies on the dollar because they needed the funds to pay their way out of Spain. The charge was called an emigration fee. If they did not have the money, they had to stay. If they were on Spanish soil at the stroke of midnight on March 31, 1492, they were killed. With death emanate, while Columbus prepared to sail, Jews were baptized into the Catholic faith. Columbus sailed on August 3, 1492. Before midnight, these hidden Jews secretly board his vessels. Columbus set sail one-half hour before sunrise. The reason for his secrecy was the crown's move years before the Inquisition, which forced Jews who were now being watched by the office of the Inquisition to reside in ghettoes and stay in after nightfall. This might sound like a small matter but to the Jews it meant that if they were discovered to be practicing the Jewish faith, they were dead!
If you are wondering if Columbus were a Jew ask yourself why he mislead people about his country of origin, his personal history, why he made certain that those aboard his ships were Jewish, and why he studied what others did not. Furthermore, considered why he took a Hebrew interpreter with him, which at the time must have seemed decidedly odd since Hebrew was not the language of any country in the known world. The only possible explanation must be that Columbus expected to be reach countries where Jews lived and governed. And why would he be sailing there unless he were a Jewish man trying to aid his disenfranchised people? Although we do not know why he did what he did, we do know that Columbus sent a Jewish interpreter, Luis de Torres, to communicate with the natives. Therefore, we can conclude that after landfall in America the first words addressed to the natives were words of Hebrew.
Columbus did not discover the way to India, although after his landing he was convinced that he had done so and he remained convinced to the end of his life. The natives whom Luis de Torres addressed in Hebrew had not understood the language. The dream of the Jews and Conversos, that Columbus would show them the way to the ten tribes of Israel, was not fulfilled. Yet Columbus was dedicated to exploration and made four trips in all and discovered, America, the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador on his first voyage. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for Spain. Was Columbus a Jew? You decide. However, before you do, consider that the passenger manifests for the three other voyages which reveal as many Sephardic surnames (the last names of Spanish Jews) as the first voyage did.
Bibliography: Wiesenthal, Simon, Sails of Hope, Macmillan
Publishing Co., Inc., 1973
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1 comments
At this point writing about research or developing a bibliography for a work of romantic historic fiction would seem tantamount to the kiss of death. However, since it is through research that I uncovered hidden truths and unveiled misconceptions it is pertinent that I mention it at this time. Furthermore, through my research I found many of the facts that gave each characters story a historical bases including where each one came from, how they arrived in New York, their practices in Spain, England, and here. At the apex of all I found was information on the Jews who are still hiding in Spain although, the Spanish crown rescinded the Decree of Alhambra more than 19 years ago.
Today I will share a brief portion of my research experience because it will take at least another entry or two to do justice to every book and article I found, or received and the blessing contained within each of them.
Three Books Used in Researching the Casa Saga...
The first book I acquired was Dr. Dell Sanchez tour déforce, "Aliyah! The Exodus Continues." This slim tome gave me more information than any other volume did in scope and breath of research. Within its pages, I found the answers for many who wonder if they had a Sephardic heritage because Dr. Sanchez’s book lists the names of towns raised, people killed, and the flight paths taken by many who fled Spain and New Spain. Thus making what some want to believe a myth a reality.
Dr. Martin A. Cohen’s "The Martyr -The Story of a Secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century," shed light on the first governor of New Spain, a converso - a Jew converted into the Catholic faith during the Inquisition, who practiced his Judaism at home and called others back to that faith. The Inquisition arrested him on the grounds of being a Judaizer. What happened to him and his family served as a historical reference for the conclusion of the Casa Saga.
"Hidden Heritage-The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews," by Jane Jacobs Liebman was the most startling book I received since I had not order that tome. It appeared on my doorstep instead of the book I had ordered. I was going to send it back. However, being a scribe for the Lord, I decided to peruse it first. I was amazed to discover that while the author interviewed residence of the Southwestern United States for her Doctorial Thesis, many showed her Jewish artifacts, and told her their oral history. This led her, an Ashkenazi Jew, to discover her Spanish roots.
Many say that if you scratch a Spaniard you will find a Jew and some know that the liturgy used today within the Jewish faith was written during the Golden Age of Judaism, which flourished in Spain before the Inquisition. Could it be that by studying the diaspora of the Spanish Jews some scholars might quip, “If you scratch a European you will also find a Jew?” Perhaps we will never know. Beside the better question, the one everyone wants to know the answer to is, “Was Christopher Columbus a Jew and did Queen Isabella give him her jewels or her Jews.”
I have the answers to those questions and will share them with you on my next blog post when I tell you more about the research that made writing these books a joy and a blessing.
Today I will share a brief portion of my research experience because it will take at least another entry or two to do justice to every book and article I found, or received and the blessing contained within each of them.
Three Books Used in Researching the Casa Saga...
The first book I acquired was Dr. Dell Sanchez tour déforce, "Aliyah! The Exodus Continues." This slim tome gave me more information than any other volume did in scope and breath of research. Within its pages, I found the answers for many who wonder if they had a Sephardic heritage because Dr. Sanchez’s book lists the names of towns raised, people killed, and the flight paths taken by many who fled Spain and New Spain. Thus making what some want to believe a myth a reality.
Dr. Martin A. Cohen’s "The Martyr -The Story of a Secret Jew and the Mexican Inquisition in the Sixteenth Century," shed light on the first governor of New Spain, a converso - a Jew converted into the Catholic faith during the Inquisition, who practiced his Judaism at home and called others back to that faith. The Inquisition arrested him on the grounds of being a Judaizer. What happened to him and his family served as a historical reference for the conclusion of the Casa Saga.
"Hidden Heritage-The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews," by Jane Jacobs Liebman was the most startling book I received since I had not order that tome. It appeared on my doorstep instead of the book I had ordered. I was going to send it back. However, being a scribe for the Lord, I decided to peruse it first. I was amazed to discover that while the author interviewed residence of the Southwestern United States for her Doctorial Thesis, many showed her Jewish artifacts, and told her their oral history. This led her, an Ashkenazi Jew, to discover her Spanish roots.
Many say that if you scratch a Spaniard you will find a Jew and some know that the liturgy used today within the Jewish faith was written during the Golden Age of Judaism, which flourished in Spain before the Inquisition. Could it be that by studying the diaspora of the Spanish Jews some scholars might quip, “If you scratch a European you will also find a Jew?” Perhaps we will never know. Beside the better question, the one everyone wants to know the answer to is, “Was Christopher Columbus a Jew and did Queen Isabella give him her jewels or her Jews.”
I have the answers to those questions and will share them with you on my next blog post when I tell you more about the research that made writing these books a joy and a blessing.
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And Now Chaz...
As a scribe for God, I planned to write one book about three women, two who meet while walking the Appalachian Trail and a third who joins them. When I discovered that the third character was a Sephardic Jew, I was unable to move forward with the story since I had never known a Spanish Jew. A week later, I attended a Messianic conference. During lunch with seven of my friends, I admitted, “I need help.”
“What do you need help with? Corrine asked.
“I need information about a Sephardic woman I’m supposed to write about.”
“My husband, Hilario, is a Sephardic Jew. I lived in Spain for fifteen years. We have books about the Jews and the Inquisition. I will ask Hilario to select a few for you to read,” Trish offered.
“There’s a great book for sale here!” Corrine exclaimed. “It will give you information on the Inquisition, how the Jews fled as well as their presence in New Spain, which is now Mexico.”
“Then, of course, there are the little known towns in the Basque region of Spain like Ulibarri, where my family lived,” Janice added.
I thought I would write what I wanted to write. However, God equipped me to write what He wanted me to write. First, with the books my Sephardic friends gave me, later with the resources I needed for my extensive research, which breathed life into the six novels of the Casa Saga.
When asked about being an author, I like to say, “Many believe that God calls the equipped. In my case, God equipped me once I responded to His call and because of His calling, my heart which at first was filled with sorrow, rejoiced in Him.”
After writing for three years and completing five of the six novels, God had me put the work aside. If He had not called, directed, and taught me the blessing of being a scribe for Him, I might not have been able to stop. Yet, His words still ringing in my heart the Holy Spirit reminded me of all the times I had thought I misunderstood what I was given and wondered if I should change the text. However, God always insisted that I was not to edit Him so I learned to rest in the Lord. During this time, it was especially important that I had learned this skill because many trials befell Ron and me from my broken hip, to shattered relationships. Furthermore, every time I visited with a writer or author friend of mine they would ask, “How is the writing going?”
I found myself saying, “I am waiting upon the Lord.” I truly believed that there were things God needed to teach or show me. For the first time in my life, I was in no hurry to move forward for the journey thus far had been one of focused though joyful endurance. Yet at the very moment that I should have relaxed, I began to feel like an expectant mother, knowing that a babe was being birthed, knowing the sex, and exact design of every aspect of that precious child, but not knowing when that miracle would happen.
I felt that way until I attended services last Shabbat. I had gotten in the habit of taking a journal with me because our rabbi’s sermons always stirred something within me and being a writer I wanted to write down what he said and what God revealed. However, last Shabbat I received a blessing I did not expect when the worship team sang songs that contained these words;
1. The Fallen Tent of David
2. The Daughter of Zion
3. A Royal Gem in the Hand of God
4. Behold Yeshua Comes
5. The Steps of a Good Man
6. Psalm 125: 1 “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”
Suddenly I understood how Messiah wanted the last book to begin. If you think it odd that, I am now mentioning Yeshua where before I wrote about God let me share that the change is deliberate. Chaz, Naomi’s husband, becomes more than a hero. For in the last book he becomes a foreshadowing of Messiah Ben David – The King Messiah, who returns to claim His bride, and with whom believers will tabernacle with forever.
Next entry, “In the Beginning.
As a scribe for God, I planned to write one book about three women, two who meet while walking the Appalachian Trail and a third who joins them. When I discovered that the third character was a Sephardic Jew, I was unable to move forward with the story since I had never known a Spanish Jew. A week later, I attended a Messianic conference. During lunch with seven of my friends, I admitted, “I need help.”
“What do you need help with? Corrine asked.
“I need information about a Sephardic woman I’m supposed to write about.”
“My husband, Hilario, is a Sephardic Jew. I lived in Spain for fifteen years. We have books about the Jews and the Inquisition. I will ask Hilario to select a few for you to read,” Trish offered.
“There’s a great book for sale here!” Corrine exclaimed. “It will give you information on the Inquisition, how the Jews fled as well as their presence in New Spain, which is now Mexico.”
“Then, of course, there are the little known towns in the Basque region of Spain like Ulibarri, where my family lived,” Janice added.
I thought I would write what I wanted to write. However, God equipped me to write what He wanted me to write. First, with the books my Sephardic friends gave me, later with the resources I needed for my extensive research, which breathed life into the six novels of the Casa Saga.
When asked about being an author, I like to say, “Many believe that God calls the equipped. In my case, God equipped me once I responded to His call and because of His calling, my heart which at first was filled with sorrow, rejoiced in Him.”
After writing for three years and completing five of the six novels, God had me put the work aside. If He had not called, directed, and taught me the blessing of being a scribe for Him, I might not have been able to stop. Yet, His words still ringing in my heart the Holy Spirit reminded me of all the times I had thought I misunderstood what I was given and wondered if I should change the text. However, God always insisted that I was not to edit Him so I learned to rest in the Lord. During this time, it was especially important that I had learned this skill because many trials befell Ron and me from my broken hip, to shattered relationships. Furthermore, every time I visited with a writer or author friend of mine they would ask, “How is the writing going?”
I found myself saying, “I am waiting upon the Lord.” I truly believed that there were things God needed to teach or show me. For the first time in my life, I was in no hurry to move forward for the journey thus far had been one of focused though joyful endurance. Yet at the very moment that I should have relaxed, I began to feel like an expectant mother, knowing that a babe was being birthed, knowing the sex, and exact design of every aspect of that precious child, but not knowing when that miracle would happen.
I felt that way until I attended services last Shabbat. I had gotten in the habit of taking a journal with me because our rabbi’s sermons always stirred something within me and being a writer I wanted to write down what he said and what God revealed. However, last Shabbat I received a blessing I did not expect when the worship team sang songs that contained these words;
1. The Fallen Tent of David
2. The Daughter of Zion
3. A Royal Gem in the Hand of God
4. Behold Yeshua Comes
5. The Steps of a Good Man
6. Psalm 125: 1 “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”
Suddenly I understood how Messiah wanted the last book to begin. If you think it odd that, I am now mentioning Yeshua where before I wrote about God let me share that the change is deliberate. Chaz, Naomi’s husband, becomes more than a hero. For in the last book he becomes a foreshadowing of Messiah Ben David – The King Messiah, who returns to claim His bride, and with whom believers will tabernacle with forever.
Next entry, “In the Beginning.
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Tomorrow I begin writing the sixth and last book to the Casa Saga, posting the story of how God called the books out, and my writing journey. Interested? Don’t miss a moment! Sign up now to follow my blog.
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Dear Followers,
I have never used this space to promote your readership once you joined. However, today blogger notified me that 10 people could get an app and read my “Year of 5,000 Books” from their phone. To bring a person into the system I need you to email me from the blog. If you are new to the blog and wish to receive the app please become a follower and email me through this system.
Since I have more than ten followers space is limited please get back to me as soon as possible!
Yours in Messiah,
Paula Rose Michelson
I have never used this space to promote your readership once you joined. However, today blogger notified me that 10 people could get an app and read my “Year of 5,000 Books” from their phone. To bring a person into the system I need you to email me from the blog. If you are new to the blog and wish to receive the app please become a follower and email me through this system.
Since I have more than ten followers space is limited please get back to me as soon as possible!
Yours in Messiah,
Paula Rose Michelson
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Rarely does one as set in her ways as I am find themselves eager to learn about things that many would chose to side step saying, “I’m to set in my ways and can get along without knowing…” However, if that person is as lucky as I am, they have a friend like Kathy Free to show them all that new technology can do for them and for their work.
Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of personal apps. Nor had I noticed that business apps were taking over the marketplace. All that changed when Kathy, a long time acquaintance of mine, made it her mission to help me achieve my, “Year of 5,000 Books.” I am certain that she did not expect her interest in my work, coupled with my broken hip, to bring her into my life when I needed someone to be home when the hospital released me. Nor, do I imagine that when she offered to assist me that she’d ever thought a writer who seemed to know it all, knew nothing about modern technology. Although I must confess that I had stopped using the old quill I inherited from my grandmother months before I fell.
However, after a few weeks of mending, coming to consider Kathy a real friend who’d go the distance to help me, and editing Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing, which is the first novel in the Casa Saga, I was boarded and ready to listen. It took less than half an hour for me to realize that I was living in the Stone Age. What authors had done before to promote their work was archaic when compared with the tools at our disposal today.
It took a trip to the mall to convince me that I needed to update my phone and join Twitter so that the app she would design for me could not only help me reach out people but also allow me to build a fan base for my work. I was thrilled to find the Android phone on sale and delighted to discover that all the bells and whistles came standard or I could find them by surfing apps that were free.
Today I got my Twitter account and began selected people to follow. Just like my FaceBook experience, suddenly I was able to connect with people all over the world! What a way to live! If you haven’t tried it yet get yourself set up with an Android phone and Tweet. And if you, like me, want the best personal or business app set up for you contact Kathy Free at http://www.msrtech.com/
Be sure to tell her that Paula sent you!
Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of personal apps. Nor had I noticed that business apps were taking over the marketplace. All that changed when Kathy, a long time acquaintance of mine, made it her mission to help me achieve my, “Year of 5,000 Books.” I am certain that she did not expect her interest in my work, coupled with my broken hip, to bring her into my life when I needed someone to be home when the hospital released me. Nor, do I imagine that when she offered to assist me that she’d ever thought a writer who seemed to know it all, knew nothing about modern technology. Although I must confess that I had stopped using the old quill I inherited from my grandmother months before I fell.
However, after a few weeks of mending, coming to consider Kathy a real friend who’d go the distance to help me, and editing Casa de Naomi – The House of Blessing, which is the first novel in the Casa Saga, I was boarded and ready to listen. It took less than half an hour for me to realize that I was living in the Stone Age. What authors had done before to promote their work was archaic when compared with the tools at our disposal today.
It took a trip to the mall to convince me that I needed to update my phone and join Twitter so that the app she would design for me could not only help me reach out people but also allow me to build a fan base for my work. I was thrilled to find the Android phone on sale and delighted to discover that all the bells and whistles came standard or I could find them by surfing apps that were free.
Today I got my Twitter account and began selected people to follow. Just like my FaceBook experience, suddenly I was able to connect with people all over the world! What a way to live! If you haven’t tried it yet get yourself set up with an Android phone and Tweet. And if you, like me, want the best personal or business app set up for you contact Kathy Free at http://www.msrtech.com/
Be sure to tell her that Paula sent you!
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Although I wrote this piece in 1999 as part of an Ere of Shabbat (Friday night) Women’s Retreat lightening presentation, today I am posting it to celebrate our new bundle of joy, baby Eric.
Each child brings a blessing and a challenge. The blessing is the gift of life given from above, especially chosen by God for us. The challenge that grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and parents seek wisdom as we help mold this young life into a person who will chose to do what is right even when others tell him that what he is doing is wrong. A person who knows the Lord, loves Him, and wants to emulate Him - and Him alone.
I am certain that all of us endeavor to fulfill that calling. At times, we all fall short. That is why today the Lord asked me to post this poem as a reminder and a promise from Him. For truly when we are at our wits end, when everything we have tried to teach seems to have fallen upon deaf ears it is important to remember that…
Each of us has a special spark inside,
That needs to be lit and share with pride.
Not pride in who we are or what we do,
But pride in our Messiah who made our life new.
For just as these candles were shaped by a mold,
God has designed us in a way that is wonderful to behold!
It may take a lifetime to learn to yield our will,
So that God can make us a vessel worthy to fill,
With the pure light of His radiance and grace,
As evidenced by Yeshua who chose to take our place.
He came into this world,
The true light for all to see,
and yielded His life upon that fateful tree.
So as we put the match to the candles wick,
Let us each recall,
That we are but a small reflection of the greatest light of all
Each child brings a blessing and a challenge. The blessing is the gift of life given from above, especially chosen by God for us. The challenge that grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and parents seek wisdom as we help mold this young life into a person who will chose to do what is right even when others tell him that what he is doing is wrong. A person who knows the Lord, loves Him, and wants to emulate Him - and Him alone.
I am certain that all of us endeavor to fulfill that calling. At times, we all fall short. That is why today the Lord asked me to post this poem as a reminder and a promise from Him. For truly when we are at our wits end, when everything we have tried to teach seems to have fallen upon deaf ears it is important to remember that…
Each of us has a special spark inside,
That needs to be lit and share with pride.
Not pride in who we are or what we do,
But pride in our Messiah who made our life new.
For just as these candles were shaped by a mold,
God has designed us in a way that is wonderful to behold!
It may take a lifetime to learn to yield our will,
So that God can make us a vessel worthy to fill,
With the pure light of His radiance and grace,
As evidenced by Yeshua who chose to take our place.
He came into this world,
The true light for all to see,
and yielded His life upon that fateful tree.
So as we put the match to the candles wick,
Let us each recall,
That we are but a small reflection of the greatest light of all
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