Re: appendix

In a message dated 1/7/2005 11:00:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, Jan de Koning <jan@dekoning.ca> writes:

>When I said Jews are generally not farmers I should have added " when living outside Palestine."  I know that in Palestine there are Jewish farmers.  One of my cousins spent some time on a Jewish farm in Palestine.

Jan has an excellent point. Because Jan and Don have been forcing me to defend my position, I've learned that in Israel/Palestine more Jews are willing to engage in agriculture, but that also seems to have been the case when they settled in Eastern Europe. However, I found a paper that says Eastern European Jewish religious leaders themselves began to discourage their people from farming because those who engaged in agriculture often converted to the religion of the indigeneous people.
I have study in a pdf file if anyone wants it.
In Genesis, the patriarchs are purely nomadic and prefer it that way to hunting or farming. They stress learning and subsequently do well in urban environments where they can move up the social hierarchies as a result of their education which you don't get out in the fields. Consider Joseph who moves from the bottom of the well to the pharoah's counsel. Note also the starving Egyptian farmers in Joseph's story and how Joseph appropriates their land for the pharoah because he has stockpiled grain for the eventual famine.

rich
Received on Fri Jan 7 12:30:05 2005