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... the second time I'm registering on these forums after some time of searching the net trying to find some interesting forums related to Judaism and Jewish People. I would like to know where are you from? I want to know because I have some doubts about the history of Hebrew People according to the things explained in the Tanaj and the Jumash (two of the books ihave read to try to understand the Jewish point of view.) According with the Tanaj I have (edition of 2018) God punished Israel nation with a 70 year exile in Babylon because they didn't respect the Shemita mitzvot, in other words, the land of Israel must rest in the seventh year. All the rabbis of Israel know that now. And my question is if all the Jews living in the Modern State of Israel respect the laws of God referring to the Shemita and the Yobel years? Thank you very much for your attention.
Best regards from Spain,
Carlos P.D.
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Shalom, Carlos.
It's yovel (not yobel) or simply jubilee, and Israeli farmers do observe shmitah.
When something really bad happens, hindsight allows people to look back on it and create theories about its causes. The fall of the Temple and the loss of the war with Rome was a game changer for the Jewish people, and those who wanted to explain it came up with several things to blame. It was "sin'at chinam" because the Jewish people had become so sectarian. It was because they were not observing the shmitah cycle. It was because the religious leaders had killed Yaakov haTsadik (James the Just), who was greatly respected among the people. There were lots of claims made. It's like Pat Robertson claiming that Hurricane Katrina came through and wiped out New Orleans because the United States had become lax regarding the prohibition of homosexuality.
Why did Israel lose the war against Rome? Because Rome was a power house! No one in their right mind would attempt an uprising against Rome and expect to win. The Temple was destroyed because the people had begun to allow for zealots and rebels to pop up right and left, because they had stirred up messianic fervor and thought that God was going to bring about the end of the Roman occupancy. It had nothing to do with sin'at chinam or with shmitah. It had to do with insurrectionists pissing off the powers that be to the point that they sent in an army to smash them. That's what happened, and blaming it on other things is just an attempt at excessive piety and scapegoating.
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Thank you very much for your answer, Mr. Jason.
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Welcome to the forum Carlos.
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07-20-2020, 02:47 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-20-2020, 03:48 AM by Carlos P.D..)
Do you know something I believe in, Jason? I think that the ancestors of the Hebrews weren't ready to fulfil the duties of the covenant with God. Israel, in times of kings Shaul, David and Schlomo, was the kingdom of God in Earth but it was a pity that hebrews didn't observe the Torah because then the Roman Empire maybe wouldn't have invaded the land of Israel and the history of mankind would have been different.
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Yes, RabbiO, I assume the Torah is eternal, it always existed, even before the Creation began.
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07-20-2020, 03:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-20-2020, 03:37 PM by Carlos P.D..)
I replied in bold lettering by mistake.
Edit: And yes, I believe that Hashem spoke to the Hebrews at Mount Sinai and dictated the Torah, letter by letter, to Moses, who wrote it for all the congregation.
