Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: May 19, 2019 08:33PM
Jordan Wrote:
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> Jews and Hindus have shared a few things in
> common, such as a clerical class which has
> successfully taken over almost every aspect of
> personal life.
I am assuming that you are using the word "clerical" as from "cleric," and not "clerk."
Other than right-of-center Jews (who have historically, and most certainly for the past few centuries have been, right-of-center observant, especially the Haredi), I disagree with what you are saying here. Most Jews are not "Orthodox"-type observant, even when they identify as "Orthodox."
There are estimated to be about 15 million Jews in the world. Of this number, about two million Jews are actually, Haredi-type, "ultra"-observant, with about two million others who identify as far-right, but aren't actually all that observant compared to that segment of the Jewish spectrum (many Sephardim are in this group).
Other than the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), however, what do you mean? Most Jews everywhere on the planet are kind of mainstream, within whatever are the local population groups.
> I'm not completely taken with your
> etymologies but I do find BRHM a atriking
> similarity.
These are certainly not MY etymologies--I copied them from the article I read, onto a Post-It, and put that Post-It into my own Genesis, Chapter 25. The authors of that article are (presumably) the ones who did the etymologies.
> Part of me wonders if the Jews started as some
> nomadic caste which got loose of India as the
> Romany (Gypsies) did.
There was obviously some roaming around that Jews (and pre-Jews) did in ancient times, but Genesis 25 refers to a specific "assignment," given by Abraham to his sons born by his wife Keturah.
Mostly, in those times, I have always assumed that Jews were of mostly Canaanite stock. (I can't remember what I was taught during my conversion-to-Judaism classes. I know this was covered, but that was a long time ago.) By the time the Common Era had begun, though, Jews were familiar over great swaths of the world. (Still are. Whole communities, at their request, have been in the past, and are in the process of being right now, brought to Israel to reestablish their place among the Jewish people. The current list from Kulanu, a New York-based organization whose goal is reuniting "lost" Jewish communities with the whole of the Jewish people, is astounding--at least, it certainly was to me, when (very recently) I became aware of this organization and what it is doing.
https://kulanu.org/> But the other part of me
> just sees a lot of interconnection. India, Persia
> and Europe were conquered by people speaking
> related languages - even today their peoples speak
> these... Given that the Middle East was sandwiched
> between Indo-European speakers, you would expsct
> some influences. I believe the Hittites were IE
> speakers, and the Persian rulers of Israel would
> have been too.
Also true.
> How far do we want to take this though? Vedic
> names appear in the Book of Mormon. Rama is all
> over the place - Cumorah, also known as the Hill
> of Ramah or RMH. Note also MoRMon. RaMeumpton -
> presumably the stand dedicated to Rama.
Remember that Joseph Smith (I think! It was SOMEONE like Joseph Smith in Mormonism!) studied ancient Hebrew with a rabbi. Smith would have known ALL ABOUT three-letter-roots! He was paying a rabbi for instruction in them!
> Going the other way, Hanuman the monkey god, has a
> name which could be straight out of the BoM.
> Hanuman, Helaman...
Good observation, and one that would never have occurred to me. Kudos! :)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2019 10:58PM by Tevai.