Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: July 29, 2019 12:54AM
mikemitchell Wrote:
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> Tevai, can you give me some info from the Jewish
> side on this?
>
> So when Lehi left and came to America, he took
> seeds from Jerusalem with him and planted them in
> America.
I don't know if Lehi was supposed to be a Jew or not, but if a Jew did leave the land [of present day Israel] in the time of King Zedekiah (Albright says: circa 598 BCE), he definitely would have taken with him barley to plant. It was an essential in the Hebrew diet of that time--along with: wheat, grapes/wine, figs, pomegranates, olives/olive oil, and dates and/or honey.
> Mormons try to say that the American wild "little
> barley" satisfies the anachronism of barley in the
> Book of Mormon
A different American species would be unlikely to satisfy the requirements of religious observance (such as Counting the Omer). It might well be used as an additional food source, but it wouldn't substitute for what Jews of that period would consider the "real thing." What the Book of Mormon says doesn't seem to be likely (absent something like losing all of the original seeds, agricultural catastrophe, etc.).
> ....but what about the Omer?
Was Lehi a Jew? Did he "count the Omer"? I have no idea.
> What about the seven species of agricultural products?
From a Hebrew/Israelite standpoint in that time, the seven species (barley, wheat, grapes/wine, figs, pomegranates, olives/olive oil, dates/honey) WERE the essentials of "food." Meat was more or less "optional" to the fundamentals above.
> Would an ancient Hebrew from the time of Solomon's
> temple bring seeds from Jerusalem but leave the
> seed of barley behind and use a different wild
> barley in another land?
Absolutely not. For one very big consideration: How would a person from that time know that God approved of the new American species--let alone the hypothetical prospect of allowing a complete substitution of the new species in place of "real" ("God approved," the traditional, grown in Israel, kind) barley?
I learned a great deal from this question, mike (including, at last, me beginning to understand the process of Counting the Omer!). I looked for videos on YouTube and found a couple of Jewish-produced videos which helped me to understand, but the majority of the YouTube videos available on this subject are produced by Christian sources, for their own Christian needs and purposes, so if the Jewish perspective is important, it is necessary to pick through the many videos seemingly available.
Thank you for today's adventure!
This was fun.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2019 12:59AM by Tevai.