A Politician a Rabbi and a Hindu holy man, had car trouble in the countryside and asked to spend the night with a farmer.
The farmer said “There might be a problem; you see, I only have room for two to sleep, so one of you must sleep in the barn.”
“No problem,” chimed the Rabbi, “My people wandered in the desert for forty years, I am humble enough to sleep in the barn for an evening. With that he departed to the barn and the others bedded down for the night.
Moments later a knock was heard at the door; the farmer opened the door, there stood the Rabbi from the barn. “What’s wrong?” asked the farmer. The Rabbi replied, “I am grateful to you, but I can’t sleep in the barn. There is a pig in the barn and my faith believes that this is an unclean animal.”
His Hindu friend agrees to swap places with him. But a few minutes late the same scene reoccurs. There is a knock on the door, “What’s wrong, now?” the farmer asks. The Hindu holy man replies, “I too am grateful for your helping us out but there is a cow in the barn and in my country cows are considered sacred. I can’t sleep on holy ground!”
Well, that leaves only the Politician to make the change. He grumbled and complained, but went out to the barn. Yep, you guessed it! Moments later there was another knock on the farmers door. Frustrated and tired, the farmer opens the door, and there stood the pig and the cow.
4000 YEAR IN 4 MINUTES Israel and the Jews have an amazing long-standing history of over 4,000 years. This history of the state of Israel video has just the right mix of historical facts and Jewish humor to make 4000 years of Judaic history fly by in an entertaining fashion.
13 things about the state of Israel you may find interesting:
Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel in the Middle East.
Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the promised land of Israel for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
Arabs have only had control of Israel twice – from 634 until the Crusader invasion in June 1099, and from 1292 until the year 1517 when they were dispelled by the Turks in their conquest.
For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital of Israel. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
Jerusalem, Israel is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. There are vague references to Jerusalem in the Hadiths – stories about Mohammed – that he stopped his night journey (which the Koran explains took place in a dream!) at the “farther mosque” (or “distant place”). Muslims explain that this means “at the edge of the Temple mount”, although no direct reference to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount is made.
King David established the city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.
Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Some Muslims (i.e. those between Israel and Saudi Arabia) pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. They lost much more in possessions than the Arabs who fled from Israel.
The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples’ lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
The PLO’s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons.
Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites in Israel were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
Faisal’s ambitions were opposed by his elder brother, Abdullah, who strove to transform the emirate of Transjordan (latterly Jordan), which he ruled since 1921, into a springboard for the creation of a vast empire comprising Syria, Palestine, and possibly Iraq and Saudi Arabia; and it was this ambition, rather than the desire to win independence for the Palestinian Arabs, that was the main catalyst of the pan-Arab invasion of the nascent state of Israel in mid-May 1948.
Abdullah, who led the invasion, sought to incorporate mandatory Palestine, or substantial parts of it, into his coveted empire.
Egypt wanted to prevent that eventuality by laying its hands on southern Palestine. Syria and Lebanon sought to annex the Galilee.
Iraq viewed the invasion as a stepping stone to bringing the entire Fertile Crescent under its rule.
Had Israel lost the 1948 war, its territory would have been divided among the invading Arab forces. The name Palestine would have vanished into the dustbin of history. By surviving the pan-Arab assault, Israel has paradoxically saved the Palestinian national movement from complete oblivion.
During the decades following the war, the Arab states manipulated the Palestinian national cause to their own ends:
Several centuries ago, the Pope decided that all the Jews had to leave the Vatican. Naturally there was a big uproar from the Jewish community. So the Pope made a deal. He would have a religious debate with a member of the Jewish community. If the Jew won, the Jews could stay. If the Pope won, the Jews would leave. The Jews realized that they had no choice. So they picked an elderly aged man named Moishe to represent them. Rabbi Moishe’s Latin wasn’t very good – in fact, he knew very little–but he was a man of great faith and well respected in the Jewish community. The pope agreed. What could be easier than a silent debate?
The day of the great debate came. Moishe and the Pope sat opposite each other for a full minute before the Pope raised his hand and showed three fingers. Moishe looked back at him and raised one finger. The Pope waved his fingers in a circle around his head. Moishe pointed to the ground where he sat. The Pope pulled out a wafer and a glass of wine. Moishe pulled out an apple. The Pope stood up and said, “I give up. This man is too good. The Jews can stay.”
An hour later, the cardinals were all around the Pope asking him what happened. The Pope said: “First I held up three fingers to represent the Trinity. He responded by holding up one finger to remind me that there was still one God common to both our religions. Then I waved my finger around me to show him that God was all around us. He responded by pointing to the ground and showing that God was also right here with us. I pulled out the wine and the wafer to show that God absolves us from our sins. He pulled out an apple to remind me of original sin. He had an answer for everything. What could I do?”
Meanwhile, the Jewish community had crowded around Moishe. “What happened?” they asked. “Well,” said Moishe, “First he said to me that the Jews had three days to get out of here. I told him that not one of us was leaving. Then he told me that this whole city would be cleared of Jews. I let him know that we were staying right here.” “And then?” asked a woman. “I don’t know,” said Moishe. “He took out his lunch and I took out mine.”
Walking through San Francisco’s Chinatown, a tourist from the Midwest was enjoying the artistry of all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and banners when he turned a corner and saw a building with the sign “Moishe Plotnik’s Laundry.”
“Moishe Plotnik?” he wondered.
How does that belong in Chinatown ?
He walked into the shop and saw a fairly standard looking dry cleaner, although he could see that the proprietors were clearly aware of the uniqueness of the store name as there were baseball hats, T-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the logo Moishe Plotnik’s Chinese Laundry. The tourist selected a coffee cup as a conversation piece to take back to his office. Behind the counter was a smiling old Chinese gentleman who thanked him for his purchase.
The tourist asked, “Can you explain how this place got a name like Moishe Plotnik’s Laundry?”
The old man answered, “Ah..evleebody ask me dat. It name of owner.”
Looking around, the tourist asked, “Is he here now?”
“It me. Me him!” replied the old man.
“Really? You’re Chinese. How did you ever get a Jewish name like Moishe Plotnik?”
“It simple” said the old man. “Many, many year ago I come to this country. I standing in line at Documentation Center of Immigration. Man in front of me was Jewish man from Poland.”
Lady at counter look at him and say to him “What your name?”
A Politician a Rabbi and a Hindu holy man, had car trouble in the countryside and asked to spend the night with a farmer.