Shabbat Shalom!
In Parshat Behar, G-d teaches Moses on Mount Sinai the laws of selling houses, farms, and even people, to others, be they Jewish or not. In the portion of Behar which we read today, G-d tells Moses that every 7th year, Jewish farmers should stop working in their fields and just “take the year off.” This is known as shemita.
After 7 cycles of this pattern, the people have a giant celebration year (known as yovel or Jubilee) where all land bought in the last 49 years is given back to its original owner from the start of the period.. Gd’s point here is to tell us that the land ultimately belongs to G-d. There is no true human owner of the land.
But there may be some exceptions.
In April of 2013, I was in Boston with my mom on her work trip. During a tour of the city, our guide pointed out that half of Boston used to be a marsh, and the other part was hills. In 1631, just a year after the founding and the naming of Boston, Bostonians began filling the marsh with soil and rocks dug up from the hills. By 1890, they were finished, and the Bostonian terrain is like this to this day.
In this situation, a claim could be made that the original creators of the land were the people of Boston.
This may mean the Bostonians are exempt from the rules of Yovel, since the land is given back to the original owner of the land. Nobody owned the land before them. They created it and subsequently claimed it. The land is therefore theirs. However, as you might have guessed, Yovel is not observed today, and was only observed in the land of Israel.
If we did observe Yovel today, here in America, what would happen? Would a small restaurant claim they owned the land that a big building, say, the Sears Tower, currently lies on?
Just from...
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...s by Amy J. Kramer, suggests that the first Yom Kippur happened while Moses was pleading for the Israelites on Mount Sinai, asking for forgiveness from G-d.
The fact that the first Yom Kippur, the primary Jewish holiday, happened out of schedule, on the 19th of Elul and not on the 10th of Tishrei, is a sign that we all can have our own little personal “Yom Kippurs”. In fact, Yom Kippur is so important that what is taught then should be put into practice every day.
According to Hebcal.com, the first Yom Kippur happened approximately on September 3rd, 1141 BCE. This came before the end of the first Yovel, on September 14, 1134 BCE, although none would guess that the gap between the creation of the most sacred holiday in the Jewish world and the creation of law only observed nine times is a mere seven years.
Seven years. Which brings us back to shemita.
Shabbat Shalom.
The land of the Native Indians had been encroached upon by American settlers. By the
There are two Hornerities in the novel which are Inner and Outer. The Inner Hornerites lost their land where they lived in. The Outer Hornerite still has their land as well as they also have a Short-Term Residency place. In the Short-Term residency that is where the Inner Horner’s stayed and the Outer Hornerites taxed them in order for them to live there. In his book, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, George Saunders maintains that “Then one day Inner Horner got smaller. It happened without warning; there was a loud scraping rock-on-rock sound and suddenly three-quarters of Elmer, the Inner Hornerite then in residence, was not in Inner Horner at all” (Saunders 3). In other words, Saunders believes that out of nowhere the Inner Horner land just shrunk and only three-quarters of Elmer was left and they were no longer in their Inner horner residence. Whereas, in real life, Undocumented Immigrants are losing their homes not only their
Winthrop’s Boston: A Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630 - 1649 by Darret B. Rutman seemed to be a long and excruciating read. The book had a great deal of information that the reader could learn from it, but most was lost when trying to stay awake to read it. On the other hand, Rutman had the concept down. The importance should be put on the idea behind the book because if you are interested in the idea you will gain knowledge. Nonetheless this book shows you the circumstances that Winthrop faced, what the founder of Boston fought through to create “The City on the Water”.
The Jewish religious tradition of Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birthday of the world and a time of divine judgment. It is then followed by another holiday, called Yom Kippur ten days later. These two traditions are called the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah encapsulates four major and interconnected themes, which are: The Jewish New Year, The Day of Shofar Blowing, The Day of Remembrance, and The Day of Judgment (Layton, 2014). This is the most significant time in the Jewish year, as it marks the chance for repentance and forgiveness in the eyes of God. During the High Holidays, Jews cleanse their soul and get the chance to start fresh with an unburdened conscience and the intention of doing better in the coming year (Layton, 2014).
John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, lead 900 migrant to the new world because he stated how England was “overburdened with people.” Winthrop and his associates governed this colony by transforming their joint-stock corporation into a political system. The Puritans visualized a reformed Christian society in New England. The Massachusetts Bay established Puritanism as its main religion. The leaders of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut gave land to proprietors, and then gave out land to male settlers. The Massachusetts Bay allowed most men whether or not they were rich or poor, to have a vote in town meetings. The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay looked to imitate the simplicity of the first Christians by believing in predestination. As a result, about 10,000 people migrated to this colony over the next
As the regions began to expand and develop, their motivations for settlement helped to mold their societies. New England was a place where men sought refuge from religious persecution and was established as a haven for religious refugees. Despite this reason for settling, the New Englanders still attempted to spread their own beliefs of religion. As illustrated by John Winthrop in his Model of a Christian Charity, he preached to his fellow colonists that “we shall be a city upon a hill” (Doc A) exemplifying the Puritans’ aspirations of a Holy Utopia. He and countless other New Englanders practiced the belief that they must all work together. They were determined to “mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work.” The Articles of Agreement plainly laid out the basis for the New England region. These articles made New England a cosmopolitan mix of rich and poor families, all being in possession of land and resolute in doing God’s work (Doc D). However, while the New Englanders settled to create a Holy Utopia, the people of the Chesapeake were concerned not only with their religious freedom, but also ...
“Is there a single trait of resemblance between those few towns and a great and growing people spread over a vast quarter of the globe, separated by a mighty ocean?” This question posed by Edmund Burke was in the hearts of nearly every colonist before the colonies gained their independence from Britain. The colonists’ heritage was largely British, as was their outlook on a great array of subjects; however, the position and prejudices they held concerning their independence were comprised entirely from American ingenuity. This identity crisis of these “British Americans” played an enormous role in the colonists’ battle for independence, and paved the road to revolution.
When the Virginia Co., chartered by King James I, arrived in Virginia in 1607, the Virginia Co. gave land freely to men who payed their own voyage to Virginia. For every servant or family member who accompanied whose voyage was also payed for, 50 acres of land was given. In Massachusetts, land was allocated to wealthy individuals who were well connected with higher-ups or royal officials. Both settlements seeing that they have a right to just take and claim their land proved to be a big issue. The colonists figured that since the Native Americans did not have visible claims on land, that said land was free for the taking. Also, from the Native American point of view, they assumed that they would be sharing land with the colonists, not being robbed of it. Moreover, the Puritans even punished the Native Americans for not using the land to its maximum potential. The disagreements and different religious outlooks between the settlements and the Native Americans resulted in wars such as the Pequot War (1636) and the King Philips War (1675). This is significant because over the next hundreds of years, Native Americans would continue to get pushed out from their own homeland, and, set a precedent that we, Americans, can take virtually anything we
...op in the amount of land owned by the Palestinians (Kochavi). They are still trying to be recognized as a country by the United Nations, but without America’s support they have not been officiated to become a country.
Often when looking at American history, people tend to lump all the characters and actors involved as similar. This is especially the case in regards to Early American Colonial history. Because the Puritan communities that grew rapidly after John Winthrop’s arrival in 1630 often overshadow the earlier colony at Plymouth, many are lead to assume that all settlers acted in similar ways with regard to land use, religion, and law. By analyzing the writings of William Bradford and John Winthrop, one begins to see differing pictures of colonization in New England.
The majority of the population living in this distinct place, who settled on today’s Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, lived off of the Puritan authoritative laws. New people were always arriving at the ports of these peculiar settlement areas because of their surplus of natural resources (plants, fish, etc...
...m the identity of the exile, but a transformation of the exile identity (Zerubavel 1995: 21). National redemption was linked to the idea of redeeming the land, and accordingly Zionist settlers believed they would find personal and collective redemption in the process of settling in and working the land (Zerubavel 1995: 28). Rebuilding the nation through settlements became a sacred act, a work of creation; As I will show in my examination of Gordon’s ideology Zionist settlers replaced God as the creator of life (Zerubavel 1995: 29).
The building and naming of Fenway Park goes back to 1912 with the help of John Taylor. Fenway Park was built by a wealthy man named John Taylor. He was the owner of the Boston Braves at the time and needed a ballpark to play in while the Boston Braves' was under construction. He found a small piece of land called "The Fens" at the time and decided it would be perfect, "The new ballpark was constructed for the 1912 season and was named by then Red Sox owner John I. Taylor. He said, 'It's in t...
The beginnings of Judaism came about in the mid-13th century. The Hebrew Scriptures also known as the Christian Old Testament dates back between the times of 700 and 400 BCE. One of the main instructions that was given to the Hebrew people was to be monotheistic and only serve one God, however for the Hebrews this was a struggle for them to follow this guideline.
Passover and Easter have many hidden representational art and iconography that are reflected in the historical stories behind Judaism and Christianity. For Jewish people, the Exodus story narrated the Israelite’s liberation from slavery in Egypt which dates back to the 13th century BC. The story begins with a Shepard named Moses who hears God calling his name in the form of a burning bush. God tells Moses to return to Egypt and demand Pharaoh to let his people go. Many Jews believed that the burning bush represented the Israelite people in bondage, and the fire symbolized the forces of persecution that the Egyptians exercised on their Jewish ancestors (Holiday Celebrations). Just like the bush being burnt, but not consumed, the Israelites were being tormented but refused to perish from Egyptian’s oppression. Due to the Pharaoh’s unwillingness to free the Israelites, God delivered upon the Egyptians ten plagues; water turning into blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locust, darkness, and death of the first born (Exod. 7-14) . In a sense, these plagues represented God’s almighty power