Brit-Am Historical Reports
(16 August, 2018, 5 Elul, 5778)
Contents:
1. Mrs SHREIBER: Chasidim and their Rebbes and the Inquisition
2. Amnon Goldberg: After the Tower of Babylon and Early Inhabitants of the Americas.
3. King Henry 8. Rabbis and his Divorce
4. New evidence pertaining to expansion of the kingdom of David and Solomon uncovered
5. Why Did the German Army Fight to the End?
6. Asterix is Jewish: who knew?
7. The Name BALFOUR
8. Classical Aramaic Translations (Paraphrases) of the Bible Translated into English - Online
9. Mark Twain: Jews are Honest!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1. Mrs SHREIBER: Chasidim and their Rebbes and the Inquisition
We just finished commemorating the yartzeit [Day of Remembrance] of the Sekulener Rebbe whose yartzeit is the 29th of Menachem Av.
He was a revered rebbe in the Chasidic world in NY. Rabbi Eliezer Zusia Portugal ob'm was succeeded by his son Rabbi Yisroel
Avrohom Portugal shlita whose word is very important in Chasidic circles in NY. As the last name indicates, they are "Golie" Portugal, having escaped Portugal to Russia,
eventually settling in Romania (at the behest of the Sadigure Rebbe). In the 1960's with the intervention of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Eliezer Silver and UN secretary
general Dag Hammarskjold he was freed to come to the States.
It is interesting to note how some of Ashkenazi Jewry have ancestors from Spain and Portugal.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2. Amnon Goldberg: After the Tower of Babylon and Early Inhabitants of the Americas.
For those who may want a source as to how we know that the descendants of Yoktan went to the New World, we have the following verses from Chapter 10 of Bereishit:
 , : , , , . 25 And unto Eber were born two sons; the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Yoktan.
 , - - , - , - . 26 And Yoktan begot Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah;
 - - , - . 27 and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah;
 - - , - . 28 and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba;
 - - , - ; - , . 29 and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Yoktan.
Some commentators refer to "the earth was divided" statement as referring to the Dispersion of the nations at the Tower of Bavel. The problem with that interpretation is that all 70 nations were dispersed, not just Peleg and Yoktan. So the verse must refer to something else, something that G-d knew and that our sages may have not known about because of the generation in which they lived. The fact is that HaShem created a vast ocean between EurAsia/ Africa and the Americas. The ancients knew that this expanse existed. Apparently, the sons of Eber who were Peleg and Yoktan decided to split the world between them. The descendants of Peleg stayed in EurAsia/ Africa while the descendants of Yoktan eventually went to the Americas. I heard this in the name of Rav Matityahu Glazierson Shlit"a. I will have to find his discussion on this another time. There is another implication from all this. Notice that Yoktan had a son whose name was also Chavilah, just like Kush had a son with the identical name. We learn from the 2nd chapter of Bereishit that the River Pishon flows around the Land of Chavilah, but the Torah does not tell us WHICH Chavilah. If it is the Chavilah, the son of Kush, the reference would be to the Nile River as being the River Pishon, but if it is the Chavilah in the New World, then PiShoN might be the MiSSiSSiPPi. Notice that Pishon is the name Mississippi backwards using Grimm's Laws of etymology where Ns and Ms are linguistically interchangeable. So while Ophir stayed and built his Civilization around the Yucatan Peninsula, Chavilah migrated north to another Pre-Columbian Civilization in the Mid- Mississippi River Valley.Â
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3. King Henry 8 - Rabbis and his Divorce
http://strangeside.com/king-henry-8-rabbis-and-his-divorce/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4. New evidence pertaining to expansion of the kingdom of David and Solomon uncovered
May 1, 2018, Bar-Ilan University
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-evidence-pertaining-expansion-kingdom-david.html#jCp
Extracts:
Over the past decade Prof. Avi Faust, of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, excavated a large residence of the type, known as a "four-room house", which was destroyed in massive conflagration in the 8th century BCE, during one of the Assyrian campaigns. The residence is located at Tel 'Eton in the Shephelah (20 km. southeast of the city of Qiryat Gat). This large building had at least two stories and its ground floors extended over some 225 sq. m. Large, high quality ashlar stones were placed in the building's corners and entrances. The structure was built on the highest part of the mound, on top of deep foundations, using high quality building materials and according to a meticulous plan. Hundreds of vessels and additional finds were discovered within the conflagration.
.... The mere fact that the residence was built as a classical four-room house, a style that was very dominant in Israelite sites and missing or rare at Canaanite and Philistine sites, seems to send a clear message regarding the identity of the builders - the emerging Israelite polity in the highlands.... The finds are indicative of impressive public construction underway already in the 10th century BCE, and even on the use of ashlar stones in the region of Judah at this early stage. When the finds from Tel 'Eton are combined with those at other sites in the region, the process in which the highland polity took over the Shephelah, and gradually colonized it, can be reconstructed.
Faust and Sapir stress that "the association with David is not based on direct archaeological evidence, but solely on circumstantial grounds". The source of the changes at Tel 'Eton (i.e,. the erection of the four-room residency and the growth in size of the site) appears to be in the highlands, and since these changes took place at the time when David was supposed to have existed in the highland, the link is plausible." They add that "if someone thinks that there was no king by the name of David, we should find another name to call the highland king in whose time the region was incorporated into the highland kingdom".
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
5. Why Did the German Army Fight to the End?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI72BLrwqR0
Speaker: Dr. Robert Citino
Reasons Given:
Officers especially adamant not to give in but soldiers also felt the same.
Fear of Russian Reprisals
Allied demand fro unconditional Surrender
Cash Payments to senior officers from Hitler etc and booty from the war.
Memory of Surrender in World War-1 and feeling that Germany had been betrayed and had not needed to surrender in 1918.
None said they were afraid. Relatively few generals were executed all through the War. Tended to command from the front.
Battle-lust. The officers and generals wanted to keep on fighting as long as possible for its own sake.
Ideological Nazification
100s of Germans hanged for cowardice or malingering.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
6. Asterix is Jewish: who knew?
Rene Goscinny wrote the comic books that conquered the world. A new exhibition at the Jewish Museum London celebrates his genius
https://www.thejc.com/culture/features/asterix-s-creator-rene-goscinny-exhibition-at-london-jewish-museum-1.464306
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
7. The Name BALFOUR
Balfour
http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names/name/balfour
Gaelic Meaning:
The name Balfour is a Gaelic baby name. In Gaelic the meaning of the name Balfour is:From the grazing land
The Scottish Surname Balfour
http://www.scottishboysnames.co.uk/balfour/
The Scottish name Balfour was taken from the barony of the same name and is first found in recorded history in 1304. The spelling of the name has undergone some changes through the centuries, a common occurrence with many names from this time period. Alternate spellings include Balfure and Balfoure as well as a dozen others which have been recorded over time.
Meaning of Balfour
The name has several meanings, typically broken down to mean 'village', 'pasture' or 'field'. The motto of the Balfour clan is Fordward, or forward, and the family crest is of an arm holding a baton. The clan is autonomous with no clan chief at this time.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
8. Classical Aramaic Translations (Paraphrases) of the Bible Translated into English - Online
Pentateuchal Targumim
The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel
On the Pentateuch With The Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum From the Chaldee
by J. W. Etheridge, M.A.
First Published 1862
http://targum.info/targumic-texts/pentateuchal-targumim/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
9. Mark Twain: Jews are Honest!
"The basis of successful business is honesty; a business cannot thrive where the parties to it cannot trust each other. In the matter of numbers of the Jew counts for little in the overwhelming population of New York; but that his honesty counts for much is guaranteed by the fact that the immense wholesale business houses of Broadway, from the Battery to Union Square, is substantially in his hands. I suppose that the most picturesque example in history of a trader's trust in his fellow-trader was one where it was not Christian trusting Christian, but Christian trusting Jew."Â Mark Twain
Source:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1898twain-jews.asp
Modern History Sourcebook:
Mark Twain: Concerning The Jews, Harper's Magazine, March, 1898