Marching Through History To The Geula

During these Three Weeks and Nine Days it is a good time to read over our national History as we continue our march toward the Geula soon accompanied by Mashiach.

Tisha B’Av will be in 15 days – On that day we relive the tragedy that occurred to both of our Holy Temples, and the dispersion of our people. In Sefer Eicha by Yirmiyahu, our Prophet describes what lead up to, what occurred during, and what befell our people after losing our Holy Temple and being thrust out of our Homeland. We Jews have much to be regretful. But moreso we have much to learn for our future.

We Jews living in Eretz Yisrael have survived more than 4 Golus Warlord Nations. Following is a list of nations/peoples that have tried to conquer us and our Homeland. No People have been successful. Our Homeland lay in desolation until the children of Hashem could repent and return to fulfill prophecy.

HISTORY OF THE JEWS AND JUDAISM IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL A depiction by  wikipedia

ANCIENT TIMES

Early Israelites

The name Israel first appears in the stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah c. 1209 BC, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not."[7] This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by the Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organized state.

Israel and Judah

The archaeological record indicates that the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged [. . .] at the same time and in the same circumstances as the neighbouring states of Edom, Moab, Aram, and the Philistinian and Phoenician city-states.

Exile under Babylon (586–538 BCE)

Kingdom of Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (586 BCE). The Assyrian Empire was overthrown in 612 BCE by the Medes and the Neo-Babylonian Empire. In 586 BCE King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Judah.

CLASSICAL ERA (538 BCE–636 CE)

Persian rule (538–332 BCE)

In 538 BCE, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and took over its empire. Judah remained a province of the Persian empire until 332 BCE

Hellenistic and Hasmonean era (332–64 BCE)

332 BCE the Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great conquered Israel. In 332 BCE the Persians were defeated by Alexander the Great. After his death in 322 BCE, his generals divided the empire between them and Judea became the frontier between the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt, but in 198 Judea was incorporated into the Seleucid Kingdom.

Roman era (64 BCE – 324 CE) 64 BCE

In 63 BCE the Roman general Pompey sacked Jerusalem and made the Jewish kingdom a client of Rome. [. . .] From 37 BCE to 6 CE, the Herodian dynasty, Jewish-Roman client kings, ruled Judea. In 20 BCE, Herod began a refurbishment and expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. His son, Herod Antipas, founded the Jewish city of Tiberias in the Galilee. (much more intrigue in this era)

Byzantine period (324–638)

Early in the 4th century, Roman Empire split and Constantinople became the capital of the East Roman Empire known as the Byzantine Empire. Under the Byzantines, Christianity, dominated by the (Greek) Orthodox Church, was adopted as the official religion. Jerusalem became a Christian city and Jews were still banned from living there.

MIDDLE AGES (636–1517)

Under Islamic rule (638–1099)

In 638 CE, the Byzantine Empire lost the Levant to the Arab Islamic Empire (also during this period much intrigue)

Under Crusader rule (1099–1291)

According to Martin Gilbert, from 1099 to 1291 the Christian Crusaders "mercilessly persecuted and slaughtered the Jews of Palestine."[89] In 1099, the Jews were among the rest of the population who tried in vain to defend Jerusalem against the Crusaders. When the city fell, a massacre of 6,000 Jews occurred when the synagogue they were seeking refuge in was set alight. Almost all perished.[90] In Haifa, the Jews and Muslims held out for a whole month, (June–July 1099).[91]

Gradual revival with increased immigration (1211–1517)

The Crusader rule over Palestine had taken its toll on the Jews. Relief came in 1187 when Ayyubid Sultan Saladin defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin, taking Jerusalem and most of Palestine.

MODERN HISTORY (1517–present)

Growth and stability under Ottoman rule (1517–1917)

• Palestine was conquered by Turkish Sultan Selim II in 1516–17, and became part of the province of Syria for the next four centuries.

• One of the earliest photographs of Jews at the Western Wall of Herod’s Temple 1870. The Scroll of Ahimaaz (1050 CE) mentions the location as a Jewish prayer site.[123] In around 1560, Suleiman the Magnificent gave official recognition of the right of Jews to pray there. The Ari Synagogue of Safed, founded in 1570s (was rebuilt in 1857 after an earthquake).

• In 1534, Spanish refugee Jacob Berab settled in Safed. He believed the time was ripe to reintroduce the old "semikah" (ordination) which would create for Jews worldwide a recognised central authority.[124] In 1538, an assembly of Safed twenty-five rabbis ordained Berab, a step which they hoped would instigate the formation of a new Sanhedrin. But the plan faltered upon a strong and concerted protest by the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Levi ben Jacob ibn Habib. Safed was also a centre of Jewish mysticism, notable kabbalists included Moses Cordovero and the German-born Naphtali Hertz ben Jacob Elhanan. A new method of understanding the kabbalah was developed by Palestinian mystic Isaac Luria, and espoused by his student Chaim Vital. (This is a rich period for the history of Safed)

British Mandate (1917–1948)

In 1917, towards the end of World War I, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was occupied by British forces. The United Kingdom was granted control of the area west of the River Jordan now comprising the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Mandatory Palestine), and on the east bank of what later became Jordan (as a separate mandate) by the Versailles Peace Conference which established the League of Nations in 1919. Herbert Samuel, a former Postmaster General in the British cabinet, who was instrumental in drafting the Balfour Declaration was appointed the first High Commissioner of Mandatory Palestine, generally simply known as Palestine.

State of Israel (1948–present)

MUCH TO THE ASTONISHMENT AND REGRET OF THE ARABS:

• In 1947, following increasing levels of violence, the British government expressed a wish to withdraw from Palestine. The proposed plan of partition would have split Palestine into two states, an Arab state and a Jewish state, and the City of Jerusalem, giving slightly more than half the land area to the proposed Jewish state. Immediately following the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the Partition Plan (Resolution 181(II) ), and the subsequent declaration of statehood by the Jewish National Council, civil war broke out between the Arab community and the Jewish community, as armies of the Arab League, which rejected the Partition Plan which Israel accepted, sought to squelch the new Jewish state.[147]

• On 14 May 1948, one day before the end of the British Mandate, the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine led by the future prime minister David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.

• The armies of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq marched into the territory of what had just ceased to be the British Mandate, thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

So much to read and take into our heads, but so important to realize as we march forward to the Geula.

THE INGATHERING TO THE PRESENT DAY

List of Jewish Communities by former countries
Born Abroad 1,610,900
Born in Israel 4,124,400
Total 5,753,300
More about Jewish Communities

Asia
Turkey
Yemen
ran/Afghanistan
India/Pakistan
Syria/Lebanon
Morocco
Algeria/Tunisia
Libya
Egypt
Ethiopia

Soviet Union
Poland
Romania
Bulgaria/Greece
Germany/Austria
Czech Republic/Slovakia/Hungary
France
UK
Argentina
Latin America