| Talkback | |
|
Title: | #9 Richard | |||
| |||||
| Name: | Shoshannah | | |||
| |||||
| City: | Jerusalem | State: | Israel | | |
| Richard - the answer is this, very briefly: The Israelites were the descendants of Jacob (renamed Israel when he "wrestled with G-d"). The Hebrews were the same people - probably a nomadic tribe (actually, a family, headed by Abraham) that moved from the East (Mesopotamia) to Canaan (a province of Egypt). When things got rough (famine) in Canaan, Abraham took his large family and moved to Egypt where things were better... at least for a time (basically because one member of his family, Yosef, had gotten there earlier, albeit not in a good way, and had risen through the ranks to become PM of Egypt). When they returned to Canaan under the leadership of Moshe & Aharon, they were actually 12 tribes of Hebrew/Israelite ancestry. One of those tribes was Yudah (Judah), from which we get the word "Jew". The word "Jew" has come to mean ANYONE descended from Jacob (Israel), even if from another of the 12 tribes. If interested, there`s a great book written all about this! |
| |  |
|
 |
|
 |
