The three levels of human evolution over the millenniums have their parallels in the differences between nations and in every individual human development. Some nations are more dominantly primitive, while some others are more educated and still others are more dedicated to the search of truth and utopia. Those differing tendencies can be identified among Noah's three sons, Cham, Yefet and Shem to whom the Torah refers the renewal of the whole of humanity. Every individual goes through such stages from babyhood and childhood to adolescence at around the age of thirteen when social awareness starts to take place and then until the third stage of idealistic adulthood which comes on from about the age of twenty.
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 01/02/2007 11:13:25
נשלח ב-1/2/2007 00:36
1. MillenniumAdam-Noah[Post-Ideal] Total Corruption
In the first millennium, pre-historical Creation is described in six evolutional periodic parts called "days". At the end of creation, chronicled history starts with the appearance of chronicled man. Man is shortly described in an ideal state in which he is fully compatible with Being/Creation, but he is soon tempted through his relationship to animal and spouse to give in to limited gratification which distances him from Being. That distance grows to a point in which he needs to name Being in order to relate to reality and to a further point in which he first deifies Being as his god, then goes on to deifying symbolic bodies and objects and totally forgets Being. Man as such falls into total corruption and is doomed to destruction in the flood. Only one family of the righteous Noah with the animals he took along on his arch, are saved for the sake of the continuation of life.
The humanity of the first millennium is divided in ten father/son generations, which run from Adam to Noah through: Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalael, Jered, Chanoch, Methushelach and Lemech.
נשלח ב-1/2/2007 00:37
2. MillenniumNoah-AbrahamMediocrity
In the second Millennium, the flood and the renewal of life on earth occur. This renewal, however, does not bring back the dream of ideal man, but human mediocrity is stabilized. Man receives a heavenly promise that his corruption which was the cause of his destruction will now be a reason for toleration towards him so that no such destruction will occur anymore. Also, he is permitted not only to rule over the animal kingdom, but also to nurture himself from its flesh, provided that he respects its life aspect. From the descendants Noah's three sons, Shem, Cham and Jefet, who are categorized in three levels, come seventy nations which first attempt to unify as a single power. This attempt is thwarted by Being who destines them to be scattered into nations with separate countries and different languages.
The humanity of the second millennium is divided in ten father/son generations, which run from Shem to Avram through: Arpachshad, Shelach, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nachor and Terach.
נשלח ב-1/2/2007 00:38
3. MillenniumAbraham-Moses-SalomonTemple over Torah
The third Millennium starts with Abraham who abandons his past culture and starts the Hebrew culture based upon the acceptance of a monotheistic divine authority and righteousness. Abraham achieved acceptance of divine authority through rituals like the offering of animal sacrifice. He achieved righteousness through learning to discern right from wrong. Abraham calls Being's name anew, this time after it was forgotten, unlike in Enosh's time when it was called in the process of being replaced by symbols. His dedication to Being, his god, reaches the point of his readiness to sacrifice his most precious, his son Yitzchak. God makes a covenant with Abraham and blesses him to father a nation that will be formed in being taken out of slavery to a foreign nation and will inherit the land Abraham went to – Knaan. That blessing is transmitted to his son Yitzchak and not to his brother Ishmael and then in turn to Yitzchak's son Jacob and not to his brother Esau. Jacob, who is also named Israel, begets twelve sons who later become the tribes of the Israelite nation. Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, became the viceroy of Egypt. He nourished the people during the famine which hit Knaan and Jacob's family too. Upon this, Jacob's family immigrates to Egypt.
In the middle of the millennium appears Moses who is sent by the god of Abraham to take the Jewish nation out of Egypt, to transmit the Torah to them, to build a symbolic residence for god among the nation and to lead them to the Promised Land. The Torah consists of the Ten Commandments tablets brought by Moses from Mount Sinai, the written Torah and the oral Torah. On the tablets were written the primary commandments of the two Judaic bases, acceptance of divine authority and ethical righteousness. The written Torah is the text of beliefs and commandments given by Moses to the Jewish people and the oral Torah is its expansion of interpretations, commentaries and developments which have to be found or anchored in the written text.
The nation was lead by Joshua, Moses' disciple, into Knaan. The people were then ruled by a sequence of Judges. The last Judge was Prophet Samuel who anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. The next king was Salomon the son of David who built the permanent Temple in Jerusalem. His time was considered the best period for the Jewish nation, a time at which Michah's prophecy that 'every man shall live under his own vine and under his own fig tree' was fulfilled.
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 28/01/2008 12:04:55
נשלח ב-1/2/2007 00:39
4. MillenniumKings-Ezra-RebbiTorah over Temple
Upon Salomon's death, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under the rule of the Davidic lineage starting with Salomon's son, Rechavam. The other ten tribes were under the reign of Jeroboam who tried a rebellion against Salomon in his lifetime. The split in the Jewish sovereignty over the land was later followed by the sovereignty of foreign powers.
About a hundred years before the destruction of the first temple, the king of Assyria [Ashur] invaded Israel and led the ten tribes out of the country to his kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, destructed the Temple and took the kingdom of Judah into the Babylonian exile.
At that time there is very little reference to Torah learning in the Jewish nation, but a lot of emphasis on worship either in god's Temple or within the alternate idol worship. Later on however, during the reign of the last kings before the Temple's destruction especially under King Hezekiah, Torah observance and learning is more frequently mentioned.
After that the Persian Empire took over the rule of the land of Israel, its king Cores gave the Jews permission to build the second Temple. The Purim episode in Persia was at that time. Ezra was the Jewish leader who brought about the rebuilding and who propagated Torah learning and keeping. During the second Temple, the Greeks took over the rule over the land and the Chanukah story was at that time. Later on, the Romans took over the rule and later destroyed the second Temple. Not long after that, Rabbi Judah Hanassi, called Rebbi because of the magnitude of his leadership, edited the Mishna which is based upon his compilation of a great part of the oral Torah which was transmitted, learned and privately noted, up to his time.
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 28/01/2008 10:54:37
נשלח ב-1/2/2007 00:40
5. MillenniumRebbi-Rav Ashi-RambamDogma versus Dogma
The fifth millennium started with the period of the Amoraim who were those who discussed the Mishna. Those discussions were reported in the Talmud, first in the one compiled in Jerusalem by Rabbi Yochanan and then in the one compiled in Babylonia by Rav Ashi. Once the oral Torah was written it reached a status of canonization. This not only prevented the continuation of its open and non binding discussions, but it stopped the process of anchoring the learners' views into the written Torah. Gradually, only that which could be anchored onto the Oral Torah texts, would be tolerated.
One hundred and fifty years before the end of their rule, the Romans committed themselves to the Christian religion. About one hundred and fifty years later, Muhammad created the Islamic religion and shortly thereafter, the Moslems conquered Jerusalem.
At that time started the period of the Geonim [the geniuses], who were the leaders of the religious Babylonian Jewry. Later on was the period of the Rishonim [the first or former ones], who wrote many commentaries on the oral and as well on the written Torah. They gave to the oral Torah its form as we have it today. Prominent among them was the Rambam, who like Rebbi wrote a sort of Mishna [Mishne Torah] based upon the Talmudic conclusions. At the transition to the next millennium, the Talmud was burned in the main square of Paris.
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 28/01/2008 10:56:10
נשלח ב-1/2/2007 00:42
6. MillenniumRambam-Karo-New AgeDogma to Universalism
From the start of this millennium, Judaism in its original Torah oriented form is constantly persecuted and weakened. The Jews were either murdered in or expelled from various European countries (Poland, France, Spain, England). They sought alternative forms of Judaism, in mysticism, nationalism and secularism.
The Torah was further dogmatized by a new book of Jewish law which took into account also the Rishonim's commentaries and responsas, called the Shulchan Aruch authored by Rabbi Karo of Safed with annotations from Rabbi Isserles of Cracow. However, since this book is basically of encyclopedic nature, it has not entirely suffocated the intellectual dynamism of Torah interpretation.
In the middle of the millennium before the American Revolution, the first Jews settled in America. At that time, the false Messiah Shabtai Zvi died and the Chassidic movement which tolerated lesser Torah study was founded. At that time while in the western world, democracy and emancipation flourished, the persecution of Jews in the east intensified and caused mass Jewish immigration from east to west. In the second half of the millennium, liberal Judaism was founded and after the Dreifuss affair, the first Zionist Congress took place.
After the First World War, the British conquered the land of Israel – Palestine and instated the Balfour declaration over the Jews' right to Israel. After the Second World War and its' terrible holocaust, the state of Israel was founded and still today is in the process of establishing its basic security for a peaceful existence.
Although in the remaining Torah Judaism, the oral Torah still suffers very much from dogmatism, an awakening to its necessary intellectual and social evolution is taking place and coming from various directions.
From the intellectual perspective, analytical thinking was introduced in Torah learning especially by Rabbis in Germany and Lithuania.Later on, contradictions between Torah interpretations and real life have been tackled. They first have been dealt with by attempts to mold reality perception to fit the traditional understanding of the Torah. Then attempts were made to mold Torah interpretations to reality within boundaries acceptable to the ongoing traditions. Lately, there are voices from the Torah camp demanding total intellectual honesty and openness. They require that traditional values be totally compatible with the eternal principles of Being formulated in the Torah.
Those calls and the responses thereupon are in the "New Age" spirit of recognizing that only the primacy of reality and "Being as it is" is the legitimacy to any religion or ideology.
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 28/01/2008 10:57:51
נשלח ב-2/2/2007 02:51
Dates and Events relevant to the Overview
Years fromYears ofEvents
CreationCommon Era
1. MillenniumAdam-Noah[Post-Ideal] Total Corruption
Day 1- 3760Creation of Adam (Sixth "Day of Creation")
235- 3525Birth of Enosh (Naming of Being)
930- 2830Death of Adam
2. MillenniumNoah-AbrahamMediocrity
1056- 2704Birth of Noah
1656- 2104The Flood (Meat-eating)
1948- 1812Birth of Abraham (re-naming of Being)
1996- 1764Tower of Babel – Dispersion of Mankind
2006- 1754Death of Noah
3. MillenniumAbraham-Moses-Salomon Temple/Torah
2018- 1742Covenant between God and Abraham
2048- 1712Birth of Yitzchak
2085- 1675Abraham puts Yitzchak on the Altar
2108- 1652Birth of Jacob
2216- 1544Joseph sold by his brothers and taken to Egypt
2238- 1522Jacob and his family move to Egypt
2368- 1392Birth of Moshe
2448- 1312Exodus-Egypt, Giving Torah, Building Tabernacle
2488- 1272Joshua leads the Nation into Israel
2881-879Prophet Samuel anoints King Saul
2883-877Prophet Samuel anoints King David
2924-836King Salomon begins his rule
2935-825First Temple completed
2964-796Split Kingdom between Rechavam and Jeroboam
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 28/01/2008 11:00:04
נשלח ב-2/2/2007 02:56
4. MillenniumKIngs-Ezra-RebbiTorah over Temple
3205-555Exile of the ten Tribes to Assyria
3338-422Destruction of first Temple – Babylonian exile
3390-370Cyrus of Persia permits return of Jews to Israel
3405-355Purim victory
3408-352Construction of second Temple
3413-347Ezra and the "Great Men" return to Israel
3448-312Era of Prophets ends; Era of Tanaim starts
3515-245Septuagint – Translation of the Torah into Greek
3622-138Miracle of Chanukah – Hasmonean Kingdom
3728-32Leadership of Hillel Hanassi begins
3750-10Reconstruction of second Temple by Herod
37600Beginning of Common Era
382868Destruction of second Temple – full Roman rule
3979219Mishna compiled by Rebbi – Period of Amoraim
5. MillenniumRebbi-R' Ashi-RambamDogma vs.Dogma
4066306Christianity becomes Religion of Roman Empire
4128368Jerusalem Talmud compiled by Rabbi Yochanan
4236476Fall of Rome – Byzantine rule of Israel
4260500Babylonian Talmud compiled by Rav Ashi
4349589Period of Gaonim begins
4382622Mohammad founds Islam
4398638Islamic conquest of Jerusalem
48001040Period of Rishonim begins (Birth of Rashi)
48561096First Crusade
48911131Birth of the Rambam
49041144First Blood Libel against Jews (England)
49701210French and English Rabbis immigrate to Israel
497512154th Lateran council (Badge of shame) / Magna
תוקן על ידי שכליאל ב- 16/12/2007 12:51:58
נשלח ב-2/2/2007 03:02
6. MillenniumRambam-Karo-New AgeDogma to Universalism
50021242Burning of the Talmud in Paris
50271267Ramban immigrates to Israel
5030 1270 Discovery of Zohar
50501290Expulsion of Jews from England
51551395Expulsion of Jews from France
52401480Inquisition established in Spain
52521492Expulsion of Jews from Spain – Columbus
52751515Period of Acharonim (Post-Rishonim) begins
52761516Ottoman Turks conquer Palestine
5302 1542 Kabballah begins to gain popularity (Ramak/Ari)
53241564Shulchan Aruch published by Rabbi Karo 54081648Chmelnitzky massacres Jews in Poland
54141654First Jewish settlement in North America (NYC)
54361676Death of Shabbatai Zvi (Unsuccessful Messiah)
55201760Death of Baal Shem Tov (Founder of Chassidut)
55361776American Revolution
55511791French Revolution–Fr. grants Jews full rights
55631803Foundation of Yeshivot; Volozhin and Pressburg
56421882Pogroms/Laws against Russian Jews-Immigration
56451885Pittsburgh Platform–Tenets of Classical Reform
56541894Dreyfus Trial
56571897First Zionist Congress
56771917British conquer Jerusalem in first WW – Balfour
56991939Holocaust – Second World War
57081948Declaration of the modern State of Israel
57391979Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty
57551995Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty
57622002Foundation of AtzorKan Choshvim
Sources: Toldot Am Olam, Encyclopedia Judaica, Seder Hadorot
in the Quran: a passage that discusses sex between husband and wife.
The passage reads: "Your wives are as a tilth [land or soil to be cultivated] unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will; but do some good act for your souls beforehand; and fear Allah."
