please enjoy this video clip as much as I have it was refreshing to hear the profound wisdom of the then young Hebrew leaders organize and discuss our plight as a people, but sadly 50 years later we have been deceived into Gang violence, Dirty Rap, homosexuality, and a prolific drug addicted culture. Now where are our young up and coming leaders? Oh...I know they are being killed by our city police officers! Well just as in Egypt long ago The Most High promised a deliverer! Enjoy the message and free your mind!
Showing posts with label torah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label torah. Show all posts
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
The Work in Kenya with our Brother Pastor Martin
This is the work that bro. Martin Odiambo is doing in Kenya, as the work continues to grow, they are building and adding to thier congregation and the Most high is adding daily such as should be saved. Since this congregaton discovered thay they are Hebrews and have been learning how to obey the Torah more diligently, they have been blessed to receive land, chickens, cows and orphans are coming for help and support. Our Congregation Beth Shalom Meshiac supports this work! YOU can partner with us, by clicking the DONATE BUTTON on our blog to your right!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
The Erev Shabbat 06/01 by batyah26 | Blog Talk Radio
The Erev Shabbat 06/01 by batyah26 | Blog Talk Radio
http://sites.google.com/site/todaysrealestatetrends/
http://sites.google.com/site/todaysrealestatetrends/
Thursday, November 10, 2011
HEBREWS, PLEASE KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS Of YAHUWAH
Mal. 3:6 tells us that YAHUWAH does not change.
Heb. 13:8 tells us the same thing about Yahushuah.
Isa. 8:20 tells us that if people do not speak in accordance with the law and the testimony then there is no light in them, Also see John 7:16.
Hosea 4:6 tells us that if you reject His knowledge, YAHUWAH will reject you. And if you forget His laws, He will forget your children.
Prov. 28:9 tells us that he who refuses to listen to YAHUWAH’s laws, even his prayers is an abomination.
Ps 119:118 tells us that those who stray from YAHUWAH’s statutes, YAHUWAH rejects.
Deut. 18:18, 19 is a prophecy about the coming of Yahushuah, a Prophet like unto Moses, and that YAHUWAH shall cause Him to speak His words-His laws and His testimony (Isa.8:20). See also John 7:16-19, Isa. 48:16-19, Matt 7:21, Luke 22:42, John 6:38, Rom. 12:2, Heb. 13:20, 21. What is Yahushuah love? It was doing the will of His Father. See also Ex 25:16, 21, 31:18, II Chron. 23:11, John 3:32-34.
Acts 13:42, 43 tells us that the Gentiles also kept the Seventh-day Sabbath, even though they were “under grace.” And take note that no one “corrected them on this, for it was in keeping with all the testimonies of Yahushuah and the Apostles.
Luke 16:17 tells us it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to pass, or fail, or for that matter to be annulled or rescinded.
Matt. 5:17-19 and Rom. 13:8-10 tells us that YAHUWAH’s laws and commandments are the same thing.
I John 34 tells us that sin and lawlessness are the same thing. Rom. 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death.
James 2:10, 11 tells us that if you transgress in just one point of the law then you are guilty of breaking the whole law. This is Satan’s greatest trick-to get us to believe that if we break just a minor one, we will be ok. This also is the deception of replacing YAHUWAH’s chosen day of worship, and the malignancy behind it.
I John 5:2, 3 tells us that this is how we know we love YAHUWAH, that we keep His commandments.
I Peter 2:21 tells us that The Meshiac is our example, and we should follow Him, Also see john 15:10.
Matt. 5 17-20 tell us that Yahushuah did not come to end, destroy or abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it.
Rom. 8:1-4 tells us that if you are in The Meshiac, then you also will fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Verses 5-9 tell us that the carnally minded cannot keep the laws of YAHUWAH. Now, while Rom. 8:3 and 3:20 tell us that we are not saved by the works of the law.
Rom. 4:1-4 tells us, particularly in verse 4, that we do not do such works to be saved, but rather out of debt, because we have been saved.
Matt 7:21-23 tells us that Yahushuah will reject those who practice lawlessness, on judgment day.
Matt. 24:20 tells us that The Meshiac still expected people to be keeping the seventh-day Sabbath even in the future, so this passage speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem, which didn’t happen until 70 A.D.
Rom 3:31 tells us that the law is not made void by faith or grace.
Rom. 3:19-22 tells us that we are saved by faith, not by the works of the law, but this does not make void the law, or in other words, it does not mean that the law doesn’t not apply-verse 31.
Rev. 12:17, 14:12 and 22:14 tell us that those who overcome the Devil will be those who keep the commandments of YAHUWAH and have the testimony or faith of Yahushuah.
Luke 18:18-23 tells us that Yahushuah did teach the law and indeed that it was the way to eternal life, when coupled with love. I hope you can see that the doctrine which teaches that grace makes void the law is a false one.
Ezek. 13:9 tells us that prophets or teachers who envision futile ways and speak lies shall not be in YAHUWAH’s everlasting assembly. See Isa 1:19-20, 5:20 and Jer. 5:20-25, 30, and 31.
Ex 31:13-18 tells us that YAHUWAH made the Sabbath to serve as a sign for us that we may know that it is YAHUWAH who sanctifies us, as opposed to the other heathen peoples, and also that it is a perpetual covenant in itself. To those who say that it applies only to Israel, Gal 3:29 tells us that if we are The Meshiac’s, then we are Abraham’s seed. So that one may know that it is the children of faith, not the children of blood, who are spiritual Israel, or the spiritual inheritors of the Abrahmic blessings.
Isa. 24:4-6 tells us that it is the changing of YAHUWAH’s statutes, or the transgression of it that destroy the earth, and cause it to languish. That to transgress His laws is to defile the earth.
Rev. 11:18 tells us that He will destroy those who do this.
Dan 7:25 tells us that one would come who would seek to, or actually the key word here is “think to change times and laws” the only law that is also a time is the Sabbath commandment. Emperor Constantine of Rome is the one who changed the Sabbath to Sunday. You will have to read about this elsewhere. I am going to note a few starting places to read about it.
A book called The Didache-the last paragraph on 291-292. There is a very important reason why the Sabbath commandment is the only commandment that begins with, REMEMBER Ex 20:8. This YAHUWAH said because He knew that men would forget. The Sabbath commandment is the only one of the Ten that makes no worldly sense. He knew it would be the easiest one for Satan to deceive people over, for that very reason. By the wisdom and reasoning of the world, what does it matter which day we worship on? Well, it matters to YAHUWAH. I John 3:4 and James 2:10, 11 The new Covenant was actually foretold in the old testament. And you might be surprised by what it says. See Isa. 54:10, Jer. 31:33, Ez. 36:26, 27 and Mark 14:24 If all Scripture is given by the inspiration of the Ruach Ha Kodesh 2 Tim. 3:16, then the Ruach Ha Kodesh is the actual author of all Scripture. Now if YAHUWAH and The Meshiac never change Mal. 3:6 and Heb. 13:8, then the testimony of the Ruach Ha Kodesh must remain consistent throughout the Scriptures, both Old and New Covenants, which is what I am presenting to you in this Bible study. Indeed, this is also what Yahushuah tells us in Matt. 5:17-20. This also should tell you that those who teach that grace makes void the law are not in keeping with what the Scriptures themselves, and instead are teaching license for iniquity, which is another word for lawlessness, I John 3:4. Just as Yahushuah did not come to save us IN our sins, but to save us FROM our sins, He also did not come to set us free from His Laws, but rather to expound upon them and to write them upon the tables of our hearts, that we might not transgress against Him Ps. 119:11, 33-40, 97-120, 137-144, and 169-176. So those who teach that the law no longer applies because of grace are in fact teaching you to sin.
Matt. 5:19, 7:21-23, I John 3:4 tells us that sin is the transgression of the law. II Thes. 2:3-12 tells us about the coming of the mystery of iniquity (or lawlessness). The mystery is how do you get to heaven without Keeping YAHUWAH’s laws? There are those who would state that Yahushuah only laws are to love YAHUWAH before all, and to love thy neighbor as thyself Matt. 22:35-40. But then I ask you, can you love YAHUWAH in disobedience? Could you love your neighbor if you kill him, or steal from him, or sleep with his wife?
I john 5:2,3 In John 14:15,23,24 The Meshiac tells us that if we love Him we will keep His commandments, and that His word is the word of the Father as well (in other words He speaks His Father’s words), and that those who do not keep His commandments do not love Him, Indeed we are told that His commandments are love Matt. 22:35-40. So you cannot love if you are breaking the commandments. Note: As you can see, YAHUWAH’s law is a transcript, if you will, of His character. It can no more change or end than can the eternal YAHUWAH,
This content was put together by: biblyen.com the the Hebrew name was translated to reflect the Hebrew name of the Most High Yah.
Heb. 13:8 tells us the same thing about Yahushuah.
Isa. 8:20 tells us that if people do not speak in accordance with the law and the testimony then there is no light in them, Also see John 7:16.
Hosea 4:6 tells us that if you reject His knowledge, YAHUWAH will reject you. And if you forget His laws, He will forget your children.
Prov. 28:9 tells us that he who refuses to listen to YAHUWAH’s laws, even his prayers is an abomination.
Ps 119:118 tells us that those who stray from YAHUWAH’s statutes, YAHUWAH rejects.
Deut. 18:18, 19 is a prophecy about the coming of Yahushuah, a Prophet like unto Moses, and that YAHUWAH shall cause Him to speak His words-His laws and His testimony (Isa.8:20). See also John 7:16-19, Isa. 48:16-19, Matt 7:21, Luke 22:42, John 6:38, Rom. 12:2, Heb. 13:20, 21. What is Yahushuah love? It was doing the will of His Father. See also Ex 25:16, 21, 31:18, II Chron. 23:11, John 3:32-34.
Acts 13:42, 43 tells us that the Gentiles also kept the Seventh-day Sabbath, even though they were “under grace.” And take note that no one “corrected them on this, for it was in keeping with all the testimonies of Yahushuah and the Apostles.
Luke 16:17 tells us it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to pass, or fail, or for that matter to be annulled or rescinded.
Matt. 5:17-19 and Rom. 13:8-10 tells us that YAHUWAH’s laws and commandments are the same thing.
I John 34 tells us that sin and lawlessness are the same thing. Rom. 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death.
James 2:10, 11 tells us that if you transgress in just one point of the law then you are guilty of breaking the whole law. This is Satan’s greatest trick-to get us to believe that if we break just a minor one, we will be ok. This also is the deception of replacing YAHUWAH’s chosen day of worship, and the malignancy behind it.
I John 5:2, 3 tells us that this is how we know we love YAHUWAH, that we keep His commandments.
I Peter 2:21 tells us that The Meshiac is our example, and we should follow Him, Also see john 15:10.
Matt. 5 17-20 tell us that Yahushuah did not come to end, destroy or abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it.
Rom. 8:1-4 tells us that if you are in The Meshiac, then you also will fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Verses 5-9 tell us that the carnally minded cannot keep the laws of YAHUWAH. Now, while Rom. 8:3 and 3:20 tell us that we are not saved by the works of the law.
Rom. 4:1-4 tells us, particularly in verse 4, that we do not do such works to be saved, but rather out of debt, because we have been saved.
Matt 7:21-23 tells us that Yahushuah will reject those who practice lawlessness, on judgment day.
Matt. 24:20 tells us that The Meshiac still expected people to be keeping the seventh-day Sabbath even in the future, so this passage speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem, which didn’t happen until 70 A.D.
Rom 3:31 tells us that the law is not made void by faith or grace.
Rom. 3:19-22 tells us that we are saved by faith, not by the works of the law, but this does not make void the law, or in other words, it does not mean that the law doesn’t not apply-verse 31.
Rev. 12:17, 14:12 and 22:14 tell us that those who overcome the Devil will be those who keep the commandments of YAHUWAH and have the testimony or faith of Yahushuah.
Luke 18:18-23 tells us that Yahushuah did teach the law and indeed that it was the way to eternal life, when coupled with love. I hope you can see that the doctrine which teaches that grace makes void the law is a false one.
Ezek. 13:9 tells us that prophets or teachers who envision futile ways and speak lies shall not be in YAHUWAH’s everlasting assembly. See Isa 1:19-20, 5:20 and Jer. 5:20-25, 30, and 31.
Ex 31:13-18 tells us that YAHUWAH made the Sabbath to serve as a sign for us that we may know that it is YAHUWAH who sanctifies us, as opposed to the other heathen peoples, and also that it is a perpetual covenant in itself. To those who say that it applies only to Israel, Gal 3:29 tells us that if we are The Meshiac’s, then we are Abraham’s seed. So that one may know that it is the children of faith, not the children of blood, who are spiritual Israel, or the spiritual inheritors of the Abrahmic blessings.
Isa. 24:4-6 tells us that it is the changing of YAHUWAH’s statutes, or the transgression of it that destroy the earth, and cause it to languish. That to transgress His laws is to defile the earth.
Rev. 11:18 tells us that He will destroy those who do this.
Dan 7:25 tells us that one would come who would seek to, or actually the key word here is “think to change times and laws” the only law that is also a time is the Sabbath commandment. Emperor Constantine of Rome is the one who changed the Sabbath to Sunday. You will have to read about this elsewhere. I am going to note a few starting places to read about it.
A book called The Didache-the last paragraph on 291-292. There is a very important reason why the Sabbath commandment is the only commandment that begins with, REMEMBER Ex 20:8. This YAHUWAH said because He knew that men would forget. The Sabbath commandment is the only one of the Ten that makes no worldly sense. He knew it would be the easiest one for Satan to deceive people over, for that very reason. By the wisdom and reasoning of the world, what does it matter which day we worship on? Well, it matters to YAHUWAH. I John 3:4 and James 2:10, 11 The new Covenant was actually foretold in the old testament. And you might be surprised by what it says. See Isa. 54:10, Jer. 31:33, Ez. 36:26, 27 and Mark 14:24 If all Scripture is given by the inspiration of the Ruach Ha Kodesh 2 Tim. 3:16, then the Ruach Ha Kodesh is the actual author of all Scripture. Now if YAHUWAH and The Meshiac never change Mal. 3:6 and Heb. 13:8, then the testimony of the Ruach Ha Kodesh must remain consistent throughout the Scriptures, both Old and New Covenants, which is what I am presenting to you in this Bible study. Indeed, this is also what Yahushuah tells us in Matt. 5:17-20. This also should tell you that those who teach that grace makes void the law are not in keeping with what the Scriptures themselves, and instead are teaching license for iniquity, which is another word for lawlessness, I John 3:4. Just as Yahushuah did not come to save us IN our sins, but to save us FROM our sins, He also did not come to set us free from His Laws, but rather to expound upon them and to write them upon the tables of our hearts, that we might not transgress against Him Ps. 119:11, 33-40, 97-120, 137-144, and 169-176. So those who teach that the law no longer applies because of grace are in fact teaching you to sin.
Matt. 5:19, 7:21-23, I John 3:4 tells us that sin is the transgression of the law. II Thes. 2:3-12 tells us about the coming of the mystery of iniquity (or lawlessness). The mystery is how do you get to heaven without Keeping YAHUWAH’s laws? There are those who would state that Yahushuah only laws are to love YAHUWAH before all, and to love thy neighbor as thyself Matt. 22:35-40. But then I ask you, can you love YAHUWAH in disobedience? Could you love your neighbor if you kill him, or steal from him, or sleep with his wife?
I john 5:2,3 In John 14:15,23,24 The Meshiac tells us that if we love Him we will keep His commandments, and that His word is the word of the Father as well (in other words He speaks His Father’s words), and that those who do not keep His commandments do not love Him, Indeed we are told that His commandments are love Matt. 22:35-40. So you cannot love if you are breaking the commandments. Note: As you can see, YAHUWAH’s law is a transcript, if you will, of His character. It can no more change or end than can the eternal YAHUWAH,
This content was put together by: biblyen.com the the Hebrew name was translated to reflect the Hebrew name of the Most High Yah.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
THE SEED OF THE SERPANT
Have you ever wondered about that scripture that addresses the conversation to the Serpant that his seed shall bruise the heal of the seed of the woman and the woman's seed shall bruise the head of the "seed of the serpant"?. Please review this article to get more understanding: ENJOY!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
"Cochin Jews" India's Oldest Black Jews since 587 B.C.
It is so interesting to that in this day and time so much information is surfacing about the origin and color of the original Hebrews and the scripture is so clear that The Father would scatter his children to the four corners of the earth. Please enjoy you can also find this on Wikapedia.
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews (Malabar Yehudan), are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots dating to the time of King Solomon.[2] Historically, they lived in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India,[3] now part of the state of Kerala. Several rounds of immigration of the Jewish diaspora into Kerala led to an ethnic, but not a linguistic, diversity: the community was divided into White Jews and Black Jews, both of which spoke Judeo-Malayalam, a form of the Malayalam tongue native to the state.[4] The vast majority of the Cochin Jews emigrated to Israel; the number remaining in Kerala itself is minuscule, and the community faces extinction there.
Biblical Account
The Bible contains the first mention of Jews in connection with India.[citation needed] The Book of Esther, which dates from the second century B.C, cites decrees enacted by Ahasuerus relating to the Jews dispersed throughout the provinces of his empire from Hodu to Kush. Hodu is Hebrew for India[6][7]; Kush is Ethiopia[8]. Talmudic and Midrashic literature also mention spices, perfumes, plants, animals, textiles, gems and crockery which either bear names of Indian origin or are indigenous to the country.[9][10]
Traders in King Solomon's time carried out regular sea voyages to the South Indian coast, bartering for ivory, apes, and silver, and the first Cochin Jews may have been the children of Israelite sailors and local women.[11] Following the destruction of the First Temple in the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), some Jewish exiles came to India.[12] But it was after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE that the first wave of large numbers of settlers came to Cranganore, an ancient port near Cochin.[13] Cranganore, now transliterated as Kodungallur, but also known under other names, is a city of legendary importance to this community. Fernandes goes so far as to call it "a substitute Jerusalem in India"[14] and Katz and Goldberg note the "symbolic intertwining" of the two cities.[15]
St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, is supposed to have visited India, and many of the Jews who converted to Christianity at that time became Nasrani or Saint Thomas Christians.[16]
Central to the history of the Cochin Jews is their close relationship with Indian rulers, and this was eventually codified on a set of copper plates granting the community special privileges. The date of these plates, known as "Sâsanam",[17] is contentious, with local tradition setting it as long ago as 379 CE, although paleographic evidence suggests the mid-eighth century. Whatever the date, the Jewish leader Joseph Rabban was granted the rank of prince over the Jews of Cochin, given the rulership and tax revenue of a pocket principality in Anjuvannam, near Cranganore, and rights to seventy-two "free houses".[18] The Hindu king gave permission in perpetuity (or, in the more poetic expression of those days, "as long as the world and moon exist") for Jews to live freely, build synagogues, and own property "without conditions attached".[19][20] A link back to Rabban, "the king of Shingly" (another name for Cranganore), was a sign of both purity and prestige. Rabban's descendants maintained this distinct community until a chieftainship dispute broke out between two brothers, one of them named Joseph Azar, in the sixteenth century.
The oldest gravestone of a Cochin Jew is written in Hebrew and dates to 1269 CE. It is near the Chendamangalam Synogogue, now a museum[21]
In 1341 a disastrous flood silted up the port of Cranganore, and trade shifted to a smaller port at Cochin (Kochi). Many of the Jews moved quickly, and within four years the first synagogue had been completed.[22] The Portuguese Empire established a trading beachhead in 1500, and until 1663 remained the dominant power. They were not kind to the Jews.
European Jews arrive
The Paradesi Jews, also called "White Jews," settled in the region at about this time. In the sixteenth century, Jews in many parts of Europe faced religious persecution under the Inquisition, and were exiled from countries where they had been living for centuries, such as Holland and Spain. They brought with them the Ladino language and their Sephardic customs. They found the Black Malabari Jewish community quite different, and tensions between the two communities existed from early on, according to Mandelbaum[23] The European Jews had good trade links with their countries of origin, and useful languages to conduct international trade, which helped their position both financially and politically.
In 1524, the Muslims, backed by the ruler of Calicut (today called Kozhikode and not to be confused with Calcutta), attacked these wealthy Jews of Cranganore on the pretext that they had an advantage with the pepper trade. The Jews fled south to the Kingdom of Cochin, seeking the protection of the Cochin Royal Family (Perumpadapu Swaroopam). The Hindu Raja of Cochin, Bhaskara Ravi Varman II (979— 1021) gave them asylum. Moreover, he exempted Jews from taxation but bestowed on them all privileges enjoyed by the tax-payers.[24]
Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese occupied the Kingdom of Cochin and suppressed the Jews until the Dutch displaced them in 1660. The new Protestant rulers were more tolerant of the Jews than the Catholics had been. (See the Goa Inquisition for the situation in nearby Goa.)
Traditions and way of life
The 12th century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela wrote about the Malabari coast of Kerala: "The inhabitants are all black, and the Jews also. The latter are good and benevolent. They know the law of Moses and the prophets, and to a small extent the Talmud and Halacha."[31] Maimonides (1135–1204), the preeminent Jewish philosopher of his day, wrote, "Only lately some well-to-do men came forward and purchased three copies of my code [the Mishneh Torah] which they distributed through messengers...Thus the horizon of these Jews was widened and the religious life in all communities as far as India revived."[32] (The Baghdadi Jews came to India in the 18th century, and it was only then that the Bene Israel Jews of India were "discovered" and taught mainstream Judaism by the Cochinis and Baghdadis,[33] so Maimonides must be referring to the Cochini Jews.)
Further support for the Mishneh Torah circulating in India comes in the form of a letter sent from Safed, Israel to Italy in 1535. In it David del Rossi claimed that a Jewish merchant from Tripoli had told him the India town of Shingly (Cranganore) had a large Jewish population who dabbled in yearly pepper trade with the Portuguese. As far as their religious life, he wrote they: "only recognize the Code of Maimonides and possessed no other authority or Traditional law."[34] According to Katz, Rabbi Nissim of Gerona (the Ran) visited the Cochini Jews, and they preserve in their song books the poem he wrote about them.[35] In the Kadavumbagham synagogue, there was a yeshiva (school) for both "children's education and adult study of Torah and Mishnah."[36]
The early twentieth century Jewish Encyclopedia states, "Though they neither eat nor drink together, nor intermarry, the Black and the White Jews of Cochin have almost the same social and religious customs. They hold the same doctrines, use the same ritual (Sephardic), observe the same feasts and fasts, dress alike, and have adopted the same language Malayalam. ... The two classes are equally strict in religious observances,"[37] and prominently featured is a black Cochin Jew with his entire head shaved, save for his very prominent peyot. According to Chemana, the Jews of Cochin "coalesced around the religious fundamentals: devotion and strict obedience to Biblical Judaism and to the Jewish customs and traditions ... Hebrew, taught through the Torah texts by rabbis and teachers who came especially from Yemen...".
It is notable that the Jews of Cochin did not adhere to the Talmudic prohibition against public singing by women (kol isha), and therefore have always had a rich tradition of Jewish prayers and narrative songs performed by women in Judeo-Malayalam.[38][39][40] (However, this Talmudic prohibition is not absolute; there are in fact traditional Orthodox interpretations which sanction certain kinds of singing performances by women before men, and other historical Jewish communities besides the Cochini one relied on this lenient interpretation.[41])
Benedicta Pereira, a Paradesi Jew, writes, "Mostly the older people prohibited the use of milk and meat the same day in the house[;] and to scare the young Jew's[,] [sic] so as not to be inspired by the culture[,] there were stories of bad Omens for those who dare[d] to think even of milk and meat together
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews (Malabar Yehudan), are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots dating to the time of King Solomon.[2] Historically, they lived in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India,[3] now part of the state of Kerala. Several rounds of immigration of the Jewish diaspora into Kerala led to an ethnic, but not a linguistic, diversity: the community was divided into White Jews and Black Jews, both of which spoke Judeo-Malayalam, a form of the Malayalam tongue native to the state.[4] The vast majority of the Cochin Jews emigrated to Israel; the number remaining in Kerala itself is minuscule, and the community faces extinction there.
Biblical Account
The Bible contains the first mention of Jews in connection with India.[citation needed] The Book of Esther, which dates from the second century B.C, cites decrees enacted by Ahasuerus relating to the Jews dispersed throughout the provinces of his empire from Hodu to Kush. Hodu is Hebrew for India[6][7]; Kush is Ethiopia[8]. Talmudic and Midrashic literature also mention spices, perfumes, plants, animals, textiles, gems and crockery which either bear names of Indian origin or are indigenous to the country.[9][10]
Traders in King Solomon's time carried out regular sea voyages to the South Indian coast, bartering for ivory, apes, and silver, and the first Cochin Jews may have been the children of Israelite sailors and local women.[11] Following the destruction of the First Temple in the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), some Jewish exiles came to India.[12] But it was after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE that the first wave of large numbers of settlers came to Cranganore, an ancient port near Cochin.[13] Cranganore, now transliterated as Kodungallur, but also known under other names, is a city of legendary importance to this community. Fernandes goes so far as to call it "a substitute Jerusalem in India"[14] and Katz and Goldberg note the "symbolic intertwining" of the two cities.[15]
St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, is supposed to have visited India, and many of the Jews who converted to Christianity at that time became Nasrani or Saint Thomas Christians.[16]
Central to the history of the Cochin Jews is their close relationship with Indian rulers, and this was eventually codified on a set of copper plates granting the community special privileges. The date of these plates, known as "Sâsanam",[17] is contentious, with local tradition setting it as long ago as 379 CE, although paleographic evidence suggests the mid-eighth century. Whatever the date, the Jewish leader Joseph Rabban was granted the rank of prince over the Jews of Cochin, given the rulership and tax revenue of a pocket principality in Anjuvannam, near Cranganore, and rights to seventy-two "free houses".[18] The Hindu king gave permission in perpetuity (or, in the more poetic expression of those days, "as long as the world and moon exist") for Jews to live freely, build synagogues, and own property "without conditions attached".[19][20] A link back to Rabban, "the king of Shingly" (another name for Cranganore), was a sign of both purity and prestige. Rabban's descendants maintained this distinct community until a chieftainship dispute broke out between two brothers, one of them named Joseph Azar, in the sixteenth century.
The oldest gravestone of a Cochin Jew is written in Hebrew and dates to 1269 CE. It is near the Chendamangalam Synogogue, now a museum[21]
In 1341 a disastrous flood silted up the port of Cranganore, and trade shifted to a smaller port at Cochin (Kochi). Many of the Jews moved quickly, and within four years the first synagogue had been completed.[22] The Portuguese Empire established a trading beachhead in 1500, and until 1663 remained the dominant power. They were not kind to the Jews.
European Jews arrive
Black jew of cochin with Payot
In 1524, the Muslims, backed by the ruler of Calicut (today called Kozhikode and not to be confused with Calcutta), attacked these wealthy Jews of Cranganore on the pretext that they had an advantage with the pepper trade. The Jews fled south to the Kingdom of Cochin, seeking the protection of the Cochin Royal Family (Perumpadapu Swaroopam). The Hindu Raja of Cochin, Bhaskara Ravi Varman II (979— 1021) gave them asylum. Moreover, he exempted Jews from taxation but bestowed on them all privileges enjoyed by the tax-payers.[24]
Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese occupied the Kingdom of Cochin and suppressed the Jews until the Dutch displaced them in 1660. The new Protestant rulers were more tolerant of the Jews than the Catholics had been. (See the Goa Inquisition for the situation in nearby Goa.)
Traditions and way of life
The 12th century Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela wrote about the Malabari coast of Kerala: "The inhabitants are all black, and the Jews also. The latter are good and benevolent. They know the law of Moses and the prophets, and to a small extent the Talmud and Halacha."[31] Maimonides (1135–1204), the preeminent Jewish philosopher of his day, wrote, "Only lately some well-to-do men came forward and purchased three copies of my code [the Mishneh Torah] which they distributed through messengers...Thus the horizon of these Jews was widened and the religious life in all communities as far as India revived."[32] (The Baghdadi Jews came to India in the 18th century, and it was only then that the Bene Israel Jews of India were "discovered" and taught mainstream Judaism by the Cochinis and Baghdadis,[33] so Maimonides must be referring to the Cochini Jews.)
Further support for the Mishneh Torah circulating in India comes in the form of a letter sent from Safed, Israel to Italy in 1535. In it David del Rossi claimed that a Jewish merchant from Tripoli had told him the India town of Shingly (Cranganore) had a large Jewish population who dabbled in yearly pepper trade with the Portuguese. As far as their religious life, he wrote they: "only recognize the Code of Maimonides and possessed no other authority or Traditional law."[34] According to Katz, Rabbi Nissim of Gerona (the Ran) visited the Cochini Jews, and they preserve in their song books the poem he wrote about them.[35] In the Kadavumbagham synagogue, there was a yeshiva (school) for both "children's education and adult study of Torah and Mishnah."[36]
The early twentieth century Jewish Encyclopedia states, "Though they neither eat nor drink together, nor intermarry, the Black and the White Jews of Cochin have almost the same social and religious customs. They hold the same doctrines, use the same ritual (Sephardic), observe the same feasts and fasts, dress alike, and have adopted the same language Malayalam. ... The two classes are equally strict in religious observances,"[37] and prominently featured is a black Cochin Jew with his entire head shaved, save for his very prominent peyot. According to Chemana, the Jews of Cochin "coalesced around the religious fundamentals: devotion and strict obedience to Biblical Judaism and to the Jewish customs and traditions ... Hebrew, taught through the Torah texts by rabbis and teachers who came especially from Yemen...".
It is notable that the Jews of Cochin did not adhere to the Talmudic prohibition against public singing by women (kol isha), and therefore have always had a rich tradition of Jewish prayers and narrative songs performed by women in Judeo-Malayalam.[38][39][40] (However, this Talmudic prohibition is not absolute; there are in fact traditional Orthodox interpretations which sanction certain kinds of singing performances by women before men, and other historical Jewish communities besides the Cochini one relied on this lenient interpretation.[41])
Benedicta Pereira, a Paradesi Jew, writes, "Mostly the older people prohibited the use of milk and meat the same day in the house[;] and to scare the young Jew's[,] [sic] so as not to be inspired by the culture[,] there were stories of bad Omens for those who dare[d] to think even of milk and meat together
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