Like, OMGoddess!

Last night I went to the second meeting of Introduction to the Jewish Experience, a class I'm taking through Berkeley's Lehrhaus Judaica. (I missed the first meeting when I tried to bike the eight or so miles from my house without the use of a topographical map. Damn hills out here!) This is the second series in a three-series class and this time around we're talking about Jewish history and text. (You can check out Rabbi Adar's website dedicated to the class by clicking here.) To supplement my classroom learning, I just started reading A Short History of the Jewish People by Raymond P. Scheindlin.

So what juicy historical tidbits have I learned so far? First of all, history up to 500 or so BCE is CONFUSING! Maybe it's the abundance of varying sources (the Torah, ancient artifacts, squabbling historians, etc.) or maybe it's just difficult to understand thousands of years of history in just a few hours and a couple hundred pages. Either way - yikes! My original plan was to summarize each chapter of the book here, both for my own memory and for others who are likewise overwhelmed. But I'm SO overwhelmed that I've since nixed that idea.

So! Instead I bring you some of my favorite and most surprising facts. If these facts seem off to any of my (two) loyal readers, please feel free to call my bluff in the comments section.

1. When the Israelites (technically Hebrews at this point?) were fleeing Egypt, God parted the "Sea of Reeds" which is usually translated as the "Red Sea," however this is not the Red Sea that we see on a map today. The exact location of the Sea of Reeds/Red Sea is unknown.

2. The first king of the Israelites was Saul. The second king was David - the same David who conquered Goliath in the story of (who knew?) David and Goliath! (Goliath was a Philistine hero.) This is probably common knowledge to most, but I thought this was such a fun fact! Also, David had his eye on Bathsheba, the wife of one of his captains. So he sent that captain to the front lines to fight, where he inevitably died. Then David was able to marry Bathsheba, who gave birth to Solomon (who would be the third king). Sneaky, eh?

3. After King Solomon died, the Israelites split into two camps: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. During this time, the term "Israelites" actually refers to those living in the north, though Jerusalem and the temple that Solomon had built there were still in the south.

4. If you've read this far, you've really earned this next fun fact. . . GOD WAS A WOMAN! I'm joking. BUT, before Josiah came along and enforced very strict monotheism, there is evidence that Israelites (and others) recognized that God had a wife, named Asherah. In both Israel and Judah, artifacts have been recovered inscribed with blessings that reference "Yahweh and his Asherah." Though she certainly wasn't what one could call a goddess (there was always only one God), she was considered the protector of fertility and lady cycles, and also overseer of matters related to the sea. (I've seen translations of her name to "one who strides over the sea," etc.) Isn't that a really fun fact? I knew you'd think so. I've also read sources that say that near stones erected to God one can sometimes also find "asherim," wooden posts that sometimes "embrace" the stone and are said to be in tribute to Asherah. Can anyone confirm seeing such a thing?

Okay, on to chapter two. . . "Judea and the Origins of the Diaspora." Yippee!