Mar Zutra Kahana

By Kahana

Another year, hopefully a brighter, happier time but as indicated in my previous articles on Zechariah in Windows of Futures Past, you immediately can see that the year is quickly spiraling down into the chaos that was predicted. Whether it be New York, Paris, Sydney, or London, the populations in all those countries stand at the brink of impending disasters and just as those articles related, most of them cannot even see the black clouds that are gathering on the horizon. So be it, it is the way it was meant to be, and all the screaming into the wind will fall on deaf ears until the howling begins. The ten men to stand up and stop the coming disaster never even passed a shadow across my brow, so what happens is what must occur and I am but a witness to it as it unfolds. It should be no surprise to anyone that we court God's displeasure. We have done so since the beginning of time, flaunting our desires over His will and never relenting in our misbegotten ways. This can be no more evident than in my latest novel to be released, 'ZUTRA', a story of how we were sent a deliverer, a messiah so-to-speak in the truest sense, to change the world, free us from bondage, and bring all the people of this world closer to God, but in the end the people, primarily those closest to him, those that falsely proclaimed themselves as true men of God, plotted and schemed, until they sacrificed his life on an altar of deceit and wantonness. This is his story but it is also our story. It clearly shows that the more we believe we have changed, we have not changed in even the slightest degree when it comes to those values that actually count and are measured by the Almighty. To all those that follow my articles, I hope that you will download Zutra, (available only electronically) from Amazon and Kindle and read it not as entertainment, which it certainly is, but as a moral lesson directed at all of us. Mar Zutra Kahana was not my direct ancestor. Those roles were fulfilled by his father, Mar Huna, and by one of his wives, which in itself should strike you as particularly strange, but as they say, truth is often stranger than fiction. Once again, this is a factual historical recounting of events, biographical in nature, but shocking in all that it will disclose. It will answer once an for all how the animosity between my family and the Rabbanites arose in the first place and why there can never be peace until they admit fully the measure of their sins.

Synopsis

For those of you wishing to have a brief synopsis of the book, I will condense its 500 pages down to a minimum for you. Let me add, that even though this synopsis will give you a brief outline of the story, it provides only a fraction of what story is about and in no way reveals the many twists and turns that are involved. For those you will have to read the novel in its entirety and only then will you come to understand the man known as Zutra.

Born in 479 AD into the family of Exilarchs (Jewish hereditary kings) the story opens with Zutra’s witnessing his father’s execution in the public square of Ctesiphon, the capital city of the Sassanid Empire. The crime for which his father has been punished was the kidnapping and rape of the daughter of Reb Hanina, one of the chief rabbis of Mahoza. Historical documentation passed down by the legal courts known as the Beth Din record it as such. This grievous event was further compounded when Zutra wass forced to accept the man responsible for his father’s death as his legal guardian until he becomes of age to be Exilarch; two years of living in the household with those responsible for destroying his life. All this was further complicated by his continued cravings for his childhood sweetheart whom happened to be that same daughter involved in the accused rape. It would have been impossible for this real-life Oedipal existence not to have influenced the young prince, scarring him emotionally.

On his eighteenth birthday Zutra was declared Exilarch and immediately turned the tables on all those that had benefitted from his father’s death. Summoning the time-honoured 400, his father’s elite guard, he placed all those responsible for the murder of his father under house arrest, taking back his estate and possessions, and forcing Reb Hanina's daughter into another marriage contract much to the horror of many who saw this as sacrilege. Their marital encounters that followed were both heated and tempestuous, as one can imagine.

Meanwhile the Sassanid Empire was under threat from within as the Great Shah Kavad’s nobles plotted insurrection and intrigue, involving Zutra amongst their cabal and together they plan the inevitable coup d’état. While the young Prince stamped his personal imprint on the city of Mahoza, his cousin and Vizier, Mordecai ben Kahana convinced Zutra that with his new status he must seek a wife with far greater influences and alliances than obtainable through a marriage to a Chief Rabbi's daughter. An invitation was sent out to the kings, nobles and barons of the Empire but it went unexpectedly further, reaching the Kingdom of Northern Wei. The Chinese Emperor sent his beautiful daughter, the Princess Ti-Ping west in response to the invitation. To everyone’s surprise, they discovered that her personal escort was a man thought dead for the past 25 years and who wielded enormous influence and power..

Unforeseen, through deception and manipulation, the arrested Reb Hanina escapes and with his fellow conspirators managed to liberate the imprisoned Kavad, putting into motion the plot that will see Zutra torn from his throne. Assuming full control of the combined Sassanid, Mahozan and allied Byzantine forces, the Princess from Northern Wei's protector achieved a string of successes that saw his army crush Kavad’s forces time and time again. For almost seven years, Zutra ruled Mahoza offering freedom to all of his people for the first time in over five centuries.

What happened next can only be described as the greatest betrayal of all time.

Zutra is a story of love, hate, peace and war. It is a true recording of one man's rise to the pinnacle of greatness only to witness his own tragic fall through the betrayal of love. This is the true story which his enemies afterwards felt the necessity to almost completely erase fearing that it would inspire others who desired freedom.

The Next Story: The Glittering Man

For those that believe the promise of Mar Zutra and his descendants ended with his death on Sargon Bridge, in that regard, I will correct your assumption. I believe the actual end to this story is written in a very old and obscure book, difficult to find but still in existence, entitled"The Secret History of the Mongols" the original dating from 1227. That book states that the great Genghis Khan was descended from a mysterious ancestor that had come from a distant land in the west. This ancestor of noble and ancient bloodlines was forced to leave his kingdom without explanation, creating part of the mystique surrounding the Mongol conqueror. Exactly who this man may have been was never disclosed but his existence became the justification for Genghis Khan's claim to have been destined to rule the world. Years later, several more details were provided by the Persian historian Rashid-al-Din, who recorded it in his book simply titled"Chronicles" that this unknown ancestor was a tall, long-bearded,red haired and green eyed individual. What compounded the mystery further was that he referred to him as the Glittering Man; an omnipotent being who impregnated the legendary matriarch of the Mongols, Alan-Ko thereby establishing the several lines of Mongol rulers that came afterwards from this union. Ten generations in fact are recorded from Alan-Ko to the Great Genghis Khan, roughly six hundred years in total.

From a scientific standpoint, there may be some proof of the legend being more of a reality than a myth. With the haplotyping of the likely DNA sequence for Genghis Khan derived from his descendants there were several anomalies that distinguished him from the general Mongolian population. This in particular concerned the number of alleles for DYS markers 391, 392, 426, 455 and 459a. When compared to the Khallach, the predominant Mongolian ethnic population it becomes obvious that the sequences for these genes came from a different ethnic group. Examining 17 different Mongolian populations the allele number for DYS391 was 9 for all of them. Ghenghis Khan’s descendants were 10 as were my family. For DYS 392, only the Japanese were consistently 11 like the Khan’s but we know he was not of Japanese stock. In general Mongolian alleles number 10. My family was also 11 like that of the Khan. DYS428 is known as having the lowest mutational rate at 0.00009, so what it is now was probably what it has always been since the dawn of time and for the Khan that number is 11, again identical to my family. DYS455 has a similar low mutation rate at 0.00016 and again for both the Khan and my family the number of alleles is 11. Then lastly we look at DYS459a, the number of alleles commonly being 9 for Mongolian populations but once again the Khan’s family and mine are in agreement at 8.

Though none of this will actually prove that the Glittering Man was a descendant of the Kahana, it does demonstrate that Genghis Khan did have an ancestor that was outside the general genetic pool of Mongolians and whereas my haplogroup is J2 and his is C, with agreement of five markers that have key qualities, the possibility of the legend being true is given at least some credence. But enough of the scientific dissertations as you’re probably wondering how any of this relates to the subject matter of my manuscript. For the answer to that question you will have to await my next book.

Deliverance: Part One of the Flavius Josephus Journal

Part One of the Trilogy

With the arrival of 2012, the release of my latest book is about to take place. In fact it's early release is on the publisher's website at http://sbpra.com/AllenEGoldenthal/ but the book is also available from Amazon Books and Barnes and Noble. Most people are aware of the history of the Roman Jewish War that ended fatally on the mountain top Masada after seven years of fighting. But history isn't about recorded events as they transpired. Real history is about the people that initiated those events, establiishing the patterns in which they unfolded. It is about the mechanisms behind the world stage, behind the closed and sealed doors, the raw emotions that led to both good and bad decisions. Amongst Jewish teachings, the reputation of Joseph ben Matthias, commonly referred to as Flavius Josephus is one of traitor, liar, and deceiver. Jewish analysts have blamed him for not only the loss of the war but for the end of Jewish civilization as it existed 2000 years ago. Harsh accusations to lay at the feet of a single person, and illogical if one actually studies the history and recognizes that the bitter squabbles, infighting, and selfish motivations of those pursuing control of the Jewish forces were actually to blame. But the rabbis had another motive for casting the blame on Josephus, a far more personal motivation. After all, he was born of a priestly family, his Sadducee inheritance was enough to condemn him in their eyes even though he professed to have Pharisee sympathies. But it was not the Sadducees that caused the downfall of Jewish civilzation. Throughout the war they stood as the peacemakers, desperately trying to find a peaceful solution between East and West. In reality, the people were inflamed by the Pharisees, the early progenitros of the rabbis, to resist any truce, leading them to falsely believe that God would intercede and provide the people with victory. And after these rabble rousing rabbis ultimately drew the blades across the exposed throat of the Jewish nation, they were the first to run from the battle, concerned with only saving their own lives, as evidenced by their illustrious sage, Yohanan ben Zakkai, concealing himself in a coffin to escape the doomed city of Jerusalem, leaving behind the victims of his rebellious incitements to face the final assault by Titus. As he and his students, specifically chosen to be the bearers of his coffin fled from the face of danger and thereby pass through the lines of the Roman army, a city burned and tens of thousands died.
Meanwhile, Josephus desperately tried to use his influence with Titus's father, Emperor Vespasian, to stay the hand of the young general from utterly destroying his people. Without concern for his own safety, he managed to secure the safety of several thousand. Two of those people that he rescued were Martha bat Elioneai, the widow of Jeshua ben Gamaliel and her son Joseph. My ancestors, who then headed east into Parthia where my family established itself for a further eight centuries. One might say I have a debt of gratitude to Flavius Josephus, for whom my family would not have survived and I would not have been born. It was he that insured my family survived, not Yohanan ben Zakkai and his band of cowardly rabbis.
But what kind of man would plead for the lives of thousands of Jews, risking his own safety, fully exposed to the arrows and stones shot down from the parapets and towers of Jerusalem by its Jewish defenders? What kind of man could transition from the greatest tactical general of the Jewish armies to the attempted peacemaker walking between two nations but accepted by neither. Who was this man that four years prior to the start of the war was sent on a secret mission by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem into the heart of the Roman Empire? How did a young man move freely through the palaces of Rome, dine at Nero's table, watch the burning of Rome in August of 64 AD, only to lead an army that became the greatest threat to the survival of an Empire? Deliverance provides a view into those secretive years which ultimately changed the world.

The Prologue

I have attached the prologue to my book. I hope it will wet your appetites and give you a taste of things to come:
There is a stench to all that is Roman. A decaying, gnawing foul odour that eats at your innards until your belly is swollen with gall. For all that is Roman is not to be considered enlightened, or precious, or inspiring, or deserving to be praised and cherished. Instead it is a festering sore, which rots from the center outwards until there is no flesh left to feed upon. If ever there was a crime against humanity, it is their crime of ignorance, their inability to understand neither the world they rule nor the people they have conquered.
Its legions come offering gifts of civilization and Prometheus’ fire but they choose to never comprehend how those they have come to embrace find no solace or comfort in their offerings. This has truly been the sin of Rome’s emperors and senators from their time of conception. Though desired, they can never understand that which they have lusted can never be fulfilled because one man’s passion is another’s hatred. This is Rome’s true gift to the world, hate; a fiery, all consuming, unimaginable hatred that is destined to leave millions dead in its wake.
Remember well the day that wind from the west came to the far eastern shores of our great sea, not as an army to pillage but as a friend, specifically asked to give aid to a battered priest. Our priest-king Hyrcanus, embattled in a war against his own brother in a never ending struggle to wrestle the kingdom and the throne. And remember it well that when the dust had finally settled, there was no longer a kingdom, but a province, ruled not by either of the two brothers, but by a vassal that danced a merry jig to the songs sung by generals and imperators of the most powerful empire that ever ruled. And recall that when these vassals proved weak and inefficient, they were replaced by men of the equestrian order, knights of Rome, that were sent to this far corner of the world so that they could reward themselves with treasures, rape our women and desecrate our most holy of places. Remember them well, for they have reduced us to this pitiful state where we are beggars in our own land.
And none have shown us favor since the first of the procurators was gifted by Tiberius to herald our doom. Neither Caligula, nor Claudius, nor Nero that has followed saw it any differently. We are to be made to suffer by the hands of this breed of men that they have sent to rule over us as their procurators. Cruel and spiteful, bitter as this land of rock and hot sand that they have been rewarded with as their prize for all the years they have served dutifully. This bitterness has turned their hearts black and these men of the aristocracy, these nobles of ancient families have turned their venom against the very people they rule. They line our roads with crosses from one horizon to the other with the corpses of our people hanging until the flesh is eaten by the birds that dot the sky overhead.
Where are our leaders to raise their voices against such atrocities? Our messiahs to bring a strong right arm against such brutality. Too many have fallen beneath the mighty hand that these procurators wield, and too many have been clamped in chains and sent to Rome, to stand before the Emperor to answer for crimes they have committed against this evil and corrupt Empire.
Now is such a time. Now is the time for us to fight for all that we believe in. This is where our war begins. We are at the junction when all that lives under oppression will rise in a single voice to shout that we will not suffer any longer. We will not remain helpless victims of a foreign occupation. It is time for all men to finally look deep within themselves and find that inner strength that long ago separated us from the beasts of the field. There is but one word that whispers over and over in our heads until we cannot hold it inside any longer and have to shout it out loudly for the entire world to hear. We cry out for freedom, and when enough of the people shout that word together in unison, then we will become a force that will settle for nothing less than achieving that dream. There are those of you that say we are not ready. The time has not yet come. The Lord God has not sent us a sign. I say to thee, nay! He has sent us a thousand signs; a thousand upon thousands but we have been blinded by our own ignorance. And even if the Almighty has been deaf to our plight, when he hears the shouts of our voices for freedom, he will be deaf no longer! Let the Empire of Rome tremble in our wake. Let all who bring death and destruction to the seed of Abraham know that in so doing they curse themselves. We are the children of Israel, and we have no master to lord above us but God. And with a mighty hand He will crush our enemies. Hear me my brothers. The breath and spirit of the Lord shall lead you!
Hallelujah!
Jonathan Cayapha

The Kahana Karaites

As you can read from my blog on the Khazar and the historical book on the Polemic entitled Khazari there are different versions of the book in existence even though the one in my library from 1795 may be a little hard to come by. What that leaves it the popular version by Judah HaLevi, the Sephardic poet and scholar being constantly reprinted with all the additions that he made. Unfortunately Judah HaLevi had an intense hatred for Karaites and therefore devoted large sections to his edited version of Khazari to attack Karaite beliefs and argue against Karaite interpretations. Hence what should have been a book on a fascinating piece of history involving the Khazars becomes nothing more than a Rabbanite anti-Karaite polemic. But with every article of anti-Karaite dogma we also glean important information that is useful and provides benefits elsewhere in understanding Karaite beginnings. So though Judah HaLevi might not have realized it, he was actually providing support to the Karaite argument that we were and are the original Judaism in our beliefs.

To back some of his arguments, Judah HaLevi makes use of the earlier book Mishnah Avot, Chapter 1 in which he tries to explain exactly where we Karaim have fallen off the rails. He says, "The next generation was that of the High Priest Simon the Just and his disciples and friends. He was followed by Antigonus of Socho of great fame. his disciples were Sadok and Boethos who were originators of the sects called after them Saddocaeans and Boethosians." He then borrows from another text and says, "He was followed by Joshua ben Perahyah whose history is known. Among his disciples was Jesus the Nazrene, and Nittai of Arbela was his contemporary." This is later followed by his comments, "As regards the Saddocaeans and Boethosians, they are the sectarians who are anathematized in our parayer. The followers of Jesus are the Baptists who adopted the doctrine of baptism, being baptized in the Jordan. The Karaites turned their attention to the fundamental principles, deducing the special laws from them by means of arguments. The damage oten extended to the roots, through their ignorance rather than intention."

From these sentences its difficult to understand exactly which group HaLevi resents or detests most. It is very interesting that his view of Jesus was nothing more than a Jewish sect and that Jesus was a teacher that had been trained by Joshua ben Perahyah. Therefore Christianity was to him an offshoot of one these Jewish sects that he harbored ill feeling towards. As for Karaites, we are the product of the Sadducees and Boethians and as he mentioned even in the Amidah prayer the Rabbanites remind themselves how much of an anathema these two sects were.

It must be appreciated that much of the Karaite approach to the law and nature is based on Aristotle's approach to philosophy; man's place in the universe and how everything within nature interacts. Although Rabbanites will now insist that they have always been great followers of Aristotle and that Maimonides, the Rabbanite scholar unified Jewish beliefs with Aristotelian philososphy, this as I will demonstrate from HaLevi's writing at a similar time period was a tremendous stretch of the truth. Maimonides may have had a strong leaning towards Aristotle but that should not be interpreted as meaning all Jews had a strong leaning towards Maimonides. The fact that Aristotle presented a 'natural philosophy' which today we would interpret as Botany, Biology and Physics, studies which were not intially embraced by a large portion of Rabbanite Judaism and other religions because Aristotle searched for a logical explanation of their existence rather than a creationist approach. Even his comment that the size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then...the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them, would have been heretical to the majority of Rabbanite Judaism that still believed the sun was nothing more than a sphere that went around the earth along with the stars and these were placed in concentric rings around the earth. That is not to say Aristotle didn't use a geocentric model of the universe, but that he had a more practical and logical approach to the study. Similarly, he defined all life as having a soul, whether it be plant or animal and only the degree of the soul changed as one moved up the scale of life. Furthermore, the attributes of animals were defined by need, for example ruminants had four stomachs because they didn't have teeth that could suitably grind their food. This was very different from the early Rabbanite Jewish approach that God created everything like an artist paints a canvas. It didn't have to be logical.

So with the Karaite attitude, as initially stipulated by Anan ben David referring to the Torah, that if we read a book and what it says seems good to us, then we can accept and believe in it, that made it far easier to adopt much of what Aristotle had to teach. Karaites recognized that Aristotle's rational deductive approach could be applied to the laws (halachah) and this sent Judah HaLevi into some of his most beligerant diatrbies against Karaites. He condemned Aristotelian Philosphy as it meant Karaites could justify approaching the study of the Torah and laws using human reason rather than relying on tradition. He even went on to say that the use of human reason, the questioning of why it is written, will lead to heresy. For example he condemns our philosophical approach for leading us into the heresy of denying life after death and failing to believe in resurrection. These are primary beliefs by Rabbanites, and although there are many Karaite communities that have adopted them too, there are still a large number of us that don't share these beliefs, instead following the earlier Karaite understanding of life without reward and punishment after death. Do I consider myself a heretic for not believing in these traditions? The answer is no and I'm certain as my third great grandfather, Jakob Kahana Goldenthal was writing his treatise on Aristotle, he also had no discomfort in the thought that he may have been a heretic according to Rabbanite standards either.

So where Judah HaLevi saw the Mishna Avot as a condemnation of all things Karaite, there is a Karaite version of this text which provides a somewhat different chronology of how the belief in the Torah and the laws were handed down directly to the Karaim. In this chain of events, "Antigonus transmitted it to Joseph ben Yoezer of Zeredah and Joseph ben Yohanan of Jerusalem. They transmitted it to Nittai the Arabelite and Joshua ben Parahiah. Nittai and Joshua transmitted it to Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben Shetah. In their time Simeon ben Shetah sought to ban the true written text. Woe! Judah ben Tabbai who stood in the breach made it clear the true faith, the faith of the Karaites, may the Rock of Ages protect them. He made strong and preserved His truth as it had been since the ancient days supported by clear truths." Here we see the Karaite version in which Simeon ben Shetah is attributed as being the father of Pharisees and hence Rabbanites but is defeated in his quest to replace the Torah with oral traditions. Of course we know this didn't happen and Rabbanites became dominant but we're entitled to our own happy ending to a story as well.

From what I have disclosed thus far, it is evident that prominent Rabbanites like Judah HaLevi were not above peforming extensive editing on ancient texts in order to disseminate their anti-Karaite messages. And in response, I will admit that as Karaites we would equally alter a text to defend our beliefs. With all these changes, the difficulty is in establishing what was the original content of the text and how much has it been distorted. I think my third great grandfather asked himself this question quite a few times. And the more I read his texts and manuscripts, the more I come to the realization that he did find the answer quite often as well. One of the messages he passed down through the family was that we were descended from the house of Phiabi, which I've mentioned in quite a few hubs. Furthermore, as our original family title was Kahana, he made it perfectly clear that we could directly show our line of descendancy from the Yom Tov Kahana seen in http://hubpages.com/hub/Prince-of-the-Jews. Because of Yom Tov's own genealogical records, tracing back another thousand years was quite easy but finding the actual connection between the house of Phiabi and the origin of the title Kahana would be nearly impossible. But to Jakob Goldenthal with his strong belief that the answers would still lie in these ancient texts no matter how much they were distorted by later editors preaching their own personal polemics, it was only a matter of time to find the answer.

Following from the Karaite response to Judah HaLevi's version of the Mishna Avot it continued that, "Judah ben Tabbai transmitted it to Shemaiah; and Shemaiah to Rev Shammai who transmitted it to Rav Kahana the Priest ben Eloni." In his research Jakob Goldenthal confirmed that Eloni being referred to was none other than Elioneiai the son of Caiaphas. Now there are historical documents available by which we can make some connections. It is documented that the children of Elioneiai were his son Jonathias and his daughter Martha. And Martha married Jeshua ben Gamaliel of the House of Phiabi. And as we are aware from my family, Kahana was a title and not a proper name. Therefore the son of Eloni from the Chain of Transmission was being referred to as the Kahana (or the Great High Priest) and this was not his proper name. As the House of Phiabi was referred to as that line of priests with the greatest claim to the high priesthood, then it would stand to reason that the son they were referring to was actually the son-in-law and none other than Jeshua ben Gamaliel. Since we already knew historically that Jeshua had married Caiaphas's granddaughter it would identify this as the moment in history when the family obtained officially the title of Kahana. Jeshua was the first and it was carried forward from then on.

The Karaite Chain of Transmission then lists the sons of the son from Kahana which differs from the genealogical chart attached. As this chart was looking at the lines that formed the ancestry in my family it overlooked brothers and sisters along the way. Some of whom I believe would explain the Chain of Transmissions genealogical record leading to the family of Anan ben David. Although our families were related, intermarrying time and time again through distant cousins it resulted in two distinct Chains of Transmission. What is most striking is that the names used in both lines are practically identical as both families preserved the traditions of naming after dead ancestors.

Considering that Judah HaLevi's entire goal was to disparage the historical accuracy and beliefs of the Karaites of which the historical component was and is critical, he actually provided us with a great service. By forcing a response from Karaite scholars he inadvertantly made us preserve our historical documentation to a much higher standard than the Rabbanites had which made it possible for later scholars such as my third great grandfather in the 19th century to fill in some of the gaps that existed, thus highlighting the fact that as Karaites we have a continuity from ancient times that only confirms that our beliefs are a direct extention of the same Judaic practices from Temple times.

As was detailed in Shadows Of Trinity, these beliefs provided a code by which we lived by and as in the outcome of that book, died by as well.

The Khazar Polemic

In my last blog on the Khazar I discussed the later editing which occurred to the original Khazari document starting in the eleventh century. Whether the original document will ever be uncovered will have to wait to be seen. Until that time we have to contend with the fact that there are four different versions of the Khazar Polemic. The most widely circulated and well known version is the one that I discussed in the earlier blog that has been attributed over the last few hundred years to the Sephardic poet and scholar, Judah ha-Levi. The other three version never made it to the top of the best sellers list. There are some obvious reasons for this which I'll mention.
Because the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism is a well known historical fact, two of the other versions did not particularly make a lot of sense and therefore they never were universally read. One of these is the Muslim version, the other a Christian version. In both of these there is acknowledgement that the Khazars did accept Judaism but only for a time until they found the one true religion which was their own respectively. You can see why these two versions weren’t widely accepted since both Islam and Christianity suffered terribly in their wars against the Khazars and to suddenly claim that they eventually converted to each one after having killed so many Christians and Muslims in tens of thousands just doesn’t mesh with the actual facts.
The remaining two versions were both Jewish but they were as different as night and day. One had an obvious Rabbinic Judaism influence and became the polemic that Judah ha-Levi widely circulated. But the other had definite Karaite overtones and if I may say so was unabashedly a love story. Coincidentally, both the Christian and Muslim versions do touch to a degree on the love story and therefore provide it with support from unexpected sources. I tend to believe what is likely a Karaite version, not only because that is my faith but because women have always had the greatest influence on history whether they were directly responsible or the one standing behind the man that supposedly made it.

The Rabbinical Jewish Version of the Polemic
Since Judah ha-Levi’s version of the Polemic is the one that history has accepted, I might as well discuss it first and then dismiss it first as well. You see, in any version that would have been touted by the Rabbinical colleges, there could be no mention of a woman as the central figure. That would have to be expunged from the story even if it meant reinventing the story from scratch. According to all the Polemics there was a political motivation behind the conversion of the Khazars. They ruled a great empire stretching from west of the Black Sea to east of the Caspian Sea; from the steppes of central Russian to the northern regions of Mesopotamia. They controlled the flow of goods and traffic across the known routes and grew rich in the taxes they charged the caravans for safe passage. Empires need allies and yet, to choose the Byzantine over the Arab empire or vice versa would have meant a possible interruption to the flow of goods and a cessation of trade. A wise king would choose a religion that presented a threat to neither of the two empires. And although Judah ha-Levi would like to convince the reader that decision was based on a careful assessment of religious law and devotion to God by the Khazar king, the reasons were more likely to have to do with political astuteness.
The Khazari as I mentioned previously is divided into five books. It goes on for hundreds of pages and although the debater, attributed as being Rabbi Isaac Sangari in ha-Levi’s version does an excellent job of capturing the essence of Judaism and the spirituality of Jewish beliefs the fact is that the shorter version problem hit closer to home. The short version goes like this; the Khazar king invited scholars from all three of the religions to tell him why he and his people should convert to their respective religion. And after each went on for days explaining the advantages and beauty of their own religion he would ask them a single hypothetical question.
To the Muslim scholar he asked, “If you could no longer follow Islam, which would you choose, Christianity or Judaism?” The Muslim scholar never hesitated stating immediately that he would become a Jew. When asked why by the King he responded as follows:
“Christianity fails to accept that there is one God. Though they try to make themselves believe that the Trinity can be a single manifestation of God the fact is that they pray to all three separately. They think of all three as being separate versions and even have all three communicate with one another as distinct entities. Therefore no matter how much they try to deny it they are pagans and only Muslims and Jews are true followers of the one and only God. The Prophet never denied that the Jews had a place in God’s heart only that they had turned from him and he waits patiently for them to return. Therefore I could be a Jew.”
After the Christian scholar had spoken for days, the King of the Khazars asked him the same question. “If you could no longer follow Christianity, which would you choose, Islam or Judaism?” The Christian scholar never hesitated stating immediately that he would become a Jew. When asked why by the King he responded as follows:
“Islam spread its word by the sword. It is a religion that sees God as wrath and vengeance. They have no tolerance and know not to turn the other cheek. Jesus, our Lord, said that there would come those after him that spread false words and proclaim themselves to be prophets of God. But they are liars for Jesus was the last and stated there were none to follow. But all that proceeded him he declared to be the words of God and even proclaimed that he had not come to change the Laws of Moses but to affirm them. All our apostles were Jewish and Jesus too was born as a Jew. Therefore I could be a Jew.”
After the Jewish scholar of the Rabbinical version of the Polemic had spoken for days, the King asked him the question. “If you could no longer follow Judaism, which would you choose, Islam or Christianity?” The scholar replied simply, “I would be dead.” When asked by the King to explain, he said the following:
“When a Jew is told that he can no longer be a Jew, he is given only two options. Either convert to the religion of the person posing the threat, whether he be Christian or Muslim, or die. If I was to say to the Christian with a sword to my throat, that I agree to be a Christian, then he would follow me all the days afterwards to see if I betray the new faith. And the moment he suspects that I still practice Judaism he will kill me. And if I was to say to the Muslim with a scimitar to my throat, that I agree to be a Muslim, then he too would follow me all the remaining days of my life to see if I betray my new faith. And the moment he too suspects that I still practice Judaism he will kill me. And since both Christianity and Islam have branched off from Judaism there will be at some point in time something I do that I perform in the Jewish way rather than in the manner they have changed it. And when that happens they will kill me. So you see, rather than live all my remaining days in fear of death, I would be better off to choose it immediately and thereby never betray myself or God.”
As the Rabbinical version of the Polemic would have us believe, the King saw the Jewish scholar’s logic as impeccable and made his choice immediately following the explanation. Perhaps it was but what isn’t logical is for a King to choose that he and his people follow a religion that was obviously despised by the two other religions. As the Jewish scholar had made it clear, to choose Judaism would have been the equivalent to putting a noose around your neck. So at first, it would appear to be a foolish and reckless decision made by the king. But the more you examine the choice, even from this simple version you can eventually appreciate the King’s wisdom. It was obvious from all three scholars’ answers that Judaism could survive and be accepted throughout the other Empires. Although it was not looked upon kindly, it was still permitted to exist though highly restricted. Both other religions were willing to trade with Jews and often used Jews as their intermediaries even if they considered them a despised race. But more importantly both the Byzantine and Muslim Empires usually had highly placed Jews in their governments that were responsible for keeping the machinery of government operational. Often these ‘Royal Jews’ would attain the second highest position in both of the Empires. That being the case, being an intermediary Jewish empire made both good political and business sense, making it possible to have both of the other Empires as trading partners and allies.

The Christian Version of the Polemic
It might appear strange that there even would be a Christian version of the story considering that the Khazars became Jews. Even the burial sites at Chelarevo Yugoslavia demonstrate that the Khazars had adopted Judaism. The graves in this cemetery which dates from the 7th to the 11th century have menorahs and other Jewish symbols engraved as well as Hebrew lettering but there is a definite Tartar influence that suggests Khazars. So it should have been obvious to most Christians of the time that the Polemic of the Khazars did not have a Christian ending but nevertheless the story exists. Sources say that the Christian scholar of the polemic was Constantine of Thesalonica (826-869 A.D.) who was the seventh child of Leo the Drungar. According to the story he refuted both the arguments of the Rabbi and of the Dervish representing Islam and won the King over to Christianity.
We are fortunate that the Christian version of the Polemic has some secondary information that does record something about a woman being influential in the matter of the conversion. Unlike the Jewish Rabbinic version, the Christian writers were not afraid to speak of this woman and her breathtaking beauty. They referred to her as Ateh, saying that she lived in the 9th century and was a Khazar Princess. There is a claim that she was a pious woman and that she took on the Jewish scholar in the debate and defeated him when Constantine of Thessalonica was failing. This report was written in Daubmannus and in some respects it is reminiscent of the political advantage I mentioned in regards to the Rabbinic version. Apparently the Rabbi says to the King, “Of the three of us the only one you have no need to fear is me. For neither a Caliph with the green sails over his fleet, or the Byzantine Emperor with the red cross over his armies stands behind the Jews. Behind Constantine of Thessalonica comes spears and cavalry but the only thing that trails behind me is a prayer shawl.” So once again the argument that as Jews they could deal with both Empires freely would appear to have been very convincing. Fearing that the Rabbi had won the debate it is then that Princess Ateh interferes by alluding to the fact that the Jews are abandoned by God and live in misery. That God has punished them and scattered them across the world. The argument is the traditional Christian condemnation of the Jews and nothing new or startling that would have swayed the king. But the story goes that she then adopted Christianity and had the King do so as well with all the remainder of the court. Well, history proved that was false but we do at least learn that in some way there was a princess involved and she was important to the conversion of the Khazars.
There is another story amongst the Christian version that gives us a further insight. It continues on from the previous paragraph in that it says Constantine wins the argument and the King accepts that Christianity was superior but to everyone’s surprise he goes to war against the Byzantines instead of adopting their faith. They say the King explained his controversial actions by saying, “you do not beg for faith, you obtain it by the sword.” After winning the battle the Khazar King then asks for the daughter of the Greek Emperor to take as his wife. The Byzantine Emperor apparently says yes but only on the condition that the Khazar king accepts Christianity. He does so and everyone lives happily ever after. This is our first hint that the Princess of the Polemic actually was from the faith that eventually the Khazars converted to. It would suggest that Ateh was actually a Jewish Princess.


The Muslim Version of the Polemic
Not to be outdone, Islam also has its own version of events at the Khazar Polemic. According to this version the Khazar king or Kaghan had a female relative at the palace who was renowned for her beauty. Her name was Ateh and she had silver colored eyes. She was highly intelligent but could never converse on a single subject for very long always flitting from one thing to another. They wrote that she could not differentiate between important and marginal subjects but when it came to the polemic they say she wrote love poems in reference to it. Similar to the Christian version she came to the rescue of the Islamic representative, Farabi Ibn Kora, out-arguing the Jewish and Christian scholars in his behalf. The King then decided that everyone would convert to Islam, which made the Christian and Jew so irate that they used their magical powers and condemned the princess to the two hells, that of Belial and Satan.
Besides this fantastic version of the Polemic there are other Muslim writings which have a more historical and researched perspective. One of the is by Masudi the Elder and in it he writes that during the reign of Harun al-Rashid (786-809 A.D.) the Jews were being expelled from the Byzantine Empire and from the Caliphate as well. The Jews migrated north to Khazaria where they were welcomed. They came in such numbers that all of Khazaria became Jewish.
Another Arab historian, Ibn Rustah mentions that Khazaria was a two-fold kingdom with those who followed the Kaghan becoming Muslim and those that followed the Khazar King becoming Jewish. It is the first time that there is mention that there were two rulers in Khazaria and that the King and the Kaghan were not the same person. Historically this may have been true with the Kaghan being a governor appointed by the King.
Al-Bakri gives us another very important clue. He writes that the conversion to Judaism occurred in 763 under the Kaghan known as Sabriel-Obadiah which just happen to be Hebrew names. Perhaps these were the names by which the Kaghan called himself after the conversion. He claims that they chose Judaism only because the Islamic representative failed to attend the polemic because he was poisoned on route. He doesn’t even consider Christianity as having been a possibility. Al-Bakri did claim that in the final days of the Khazar kingdom they all converted to Islam. The date mentioned around 760 is the earliest for the polemic but is significant to the final version of the Polemic that I will soon discuss.
Another Islamic story of the Polemic suggested that the Jewish scholar was a Jew that had been associated with the Caliph but expelled from Baghdad. This would indicate that the individual was highly placed politically and had to be an aristocrat to be associated with the Caliph. In this same version it remarks that Princess Ateh had instructed some of her people to carry boundary stones as she intended to set up a new region or province would be marked by these frontier stones once the new faith had been chosen. Though this even would appear completely irrelevant you will see how this correlates with the final version of the Polemic that I will discuss.


The Karaite Jewish Version of the Polemic
Of course I’ve saved the best for last. Even though the Rabbinical Jewish version promulgated by Judah he-Levi has become the standard version there are still hints and traces of an earlier version having more similarities to the Christian and Muslim versions than to that later one. At no time does it specifically mention Karaites but there are enough indicators that there was Karaite involvement and for this reason these earlier traces were expunged by the Rabbinical version.
This older tale does talk of Princess Ateh. The name is meaningless in that it merely translates as “You” in the feminine from the Hebrew, similar to other cultural stories that refer to “She with no name,” or “Her”. Whatever the reason that her name has been obliterated even that has been lost to us. These older tales also say that the Princess was punished for supporting the Jewish scholar. Firstly she was punished by an Islamic demon that made her forget how to speak the Khazar language. A clear indication that the real story was that this princess was not Khazar at all and spoke an entirely different language. These old tales also say that she was a protectoress of the powerful sect of Khazar priests and that her lover was a celebrated member of this sect. He was young and his eyes were still new according to the description of him. The Christian scholar was jealous of this love affair and sought to have the priest and the Princess punished, pleading to the Kaghan that the competition was unfair since the Princess had other motives for her choice. At that point the Jewish representatives (it is now plural indicating a delegation) interceded and the pair was banished but the Kaghan remained firm in his selection of Judaism.
According to this older tale as well, the Kaghan was only given that title after the polemic and it was derived from the Hebrew word “Kohen” or priest. This we know to be inaccurate since reference to Kaghanate exist long before this but it is interesting that there would be reference t the old priesthood which would be contrary to Rabbinical efforts of conversion where they had created their teaching of Judaism without dependency on the priesthood. This tale also claims the name of the Kaghan was Sabriel, his wife was Sara and their daughter was Ateh.
In the year 800 Druthmar of Aquitane refers to the Khazars as a people that are circumcised, living by the laws of Moses and strong warriors. This is confirmed by Cinnamus in the 12th century who claims they live only by the laws of Moses but not the Orthodoxy of the rabbinical Jews.
So what do we have that supports that the conversion that took place was to Karaite Judaism? From the Rabbinic Jewish version we have the complete exclusion of the female component. If ever there was an attempt to obliterate the existence of the Princess from the record of history, this was it. The attempt only confirms that she played a far more vital role than could ever be imagined and the male dominated rabbinate resented this fact. The Christian version tells us that the Princess was not Khazar at all but the daughter of the Emperor of the faith he eventually selected. Since we know the Khazars adopted Judaism, the Christian version may be masking the fact that she was a Jewish princess. The Christian version also gives indication that the conversion may have been both politically and strategically motivated, which also would support that the alliance through marriage was a major component of the polemic.
From the Muslim version we have a date. It’s around the 760’s. We know also from this version that she played a major role which was worthy of condemnation by the other religions. She was punished though the punishment in the Islamic version is in the realm of the fantastical and not the historical. Fortunately the Islamic historians do provide us with enough information to know that the Jews came in numbers or a delegation and that they came from the Caliphate. We also hear that the leader may have been an associate of the Caliph and appears to have been banished. The princess goes with the delegation carrying boundary stones to carve out a new nation or province. And that the King and Kaghan were two entirely different people, the last being a governor reliant on the approval of the King but having almost equal authority.
And lastly we have from older Jewish legends, predating the polemic of the Rabbinate that there was a love affair that resulted in the Princess and her lover being forced to leave the land of the Khazars. That she was in charge of the priests of the religion which possibly indicates that it was she that brought this new religion to the Khazar which just happens to be described as being dependant on the Laws of Moses only; very Karaite. The punishment by the Islamic demon suggests she knew not the Khazar language at all, again a major hint suggesting she was a foreign princess. And finally there is one more mysterious comment that the term Kaghan only arose after the polemic and was directly tied to the new Jewish faith being a reference to the priesthood.
If we put all these together we have the following: A Jewish Princess came with a delegation to the Khazars in the 760’s and not only brought the new religion with her but set up her own kingdom with the Kaghan with whom she fell in love with. That she had to set up this kingdom outside of the King’s region, setting her own boundary stones and the religion she established followed the traditional priestly Judaism and not the more modern rabbinical Judaism of that time. Do we have any indication of such a person? As I have always mentioned in my blogs, I am descended from a very old Karaite family with numerous stories and traditions that have been passed on. One such story concerns the Princess Thaliah, daughter of the Exliarch. But in the later 760’s the Rabbis had created quite a problem. There were suddenly three Exilarchs all trying to rule at the same time. The one with the legitimate claims to the Jewish throne was sitting in the Caliph’s prison. The next in line was even more despised by the Rabbis because he refused to obey their commands, especially those of his father-in-law who was the Chief Rabbi in Baghdad. And finally their cousin, whom was less entitled to the throne but was smart enough to also recognize when he was being used as a tool of the rabbinate.
Thalia, whose actual name was most likely Nataliah meaning a gift from God, has her own story which I will take directly from Blood Royale and print in my next hub. http://legendsofthekahana.webs.com/2onthecharts.htm . It is a tale of love and courage and you won’t want to miss it.

Fighting Windmills

Why should we bother to challenge the accepted historical beliefs if it only means that we in turn become the target of those offended that we 'dared' to confront the established truths? Why is it that in order to protect the established historical beliefs, threats and prejudice are perfectly acceptable? Is it that accepted history is built on so fragile a platform that those dedicated to preserving it know that at any given moment it could crumble to dust?
Those familiar with my writing, blogs and books know that I am classified as an alternative historian. It doesn't mean that my material is any less factual, it only indicates that I'm constantly challenging the norm. And why not? I'm the one in possession of the facts,the dates, the material that demonstrates what they classify as alternative history is in most probability actual history and that which is being taught in many respects is the glorified hype of those that held the reigns of power to make their version the standard. It happens every day. In Japan, you will never hear of the atrocities committed by their army in World War II, though you can read of what occurred on my friend Patrick's blogspot http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=112016879904&h=5F36D&u=70E45&ref=nf to read of some ot these horrible deeds. In Germany one year my friend Hans Hildebrand gave me a completely different version of the holocaust in much of it was laid at the feet of the Poles as their doing, and even now as I speak, the Arab world and Russia are busily rewriting their national histories in order "educate" their populations in the truth. It's common practice. History is a political tool and always has been.
So when I write from a Karaite perspective of events in Jewish history, I expect to feel the backlash. A minority within a minority has no real authority at all. In fact,how little it registers was made perfectly clear in a conversation with an Israeli girl that I had yesterday. She was down here in New Zealand marketing a product and was surprised when I began to speak a little Hebrew to her. It was the limit of my vocabulary so even describing it as a little Hebrew may be too generous It was the first she heard from anyone in this country and wanted to know where I had picked it up. When I explained that I was Karaim, her eyes lit up and she told me how she once dated an Egyptian Jew. In her mind, all Egyptian Jews were Karaites and that was the definition of the word. And then she commented that I didn't look Egyptian.
I could have taken the time to explain that the roots of the Karaim were in Mesopotamia. That the Egyptian population was only one little segment. I could have explaiined the migration history of how we were slowly pushed further and further from centres like Baghdad and Mahoza after Anan ibn David established the tenents of Karaite Judaism in 769 and how in 940 we were attacked and driven from our homes by Saadiah Gaon to the North West to take up residence in the lands around the Black Sea. I even could have spoken of how the Crimean Peninsula became one of the larger population centres of Karaites to be seconded by Bessarabia and Romania. I even could have spoken of how the Rabbinate forbade marriages between rabbinate Jews and Karaite Jews unless the latter abandoned its beliefs and declared them to be false. During World War II, there were recorded findings by the Nazis as they invaded Romania of their enounter with the Karaite population and a request from Berlin to send orders as to whether they should be treated no differently from the rabbinate Jewish populations. You see, the Karaites presented a problem. As the Nazi's were ingrained with their stereotypical version of what Jews should look like, they were not prepared to find a subpopulation that were six feet tall, some with blonde hair and more eastern features. Berlin's final decision was to not include them in it's persecution as it had determined they were actually Tartars and not Jews at all. How ironic that Hitler's final solution would never have been final at all. As Karaites we would have survived.
But, there wasn't the time to try and explain this, and considering that her entire exposure to Karaite history was that she had an Egyptian Jewish boyfriend and that was the only defining point made me realize that even in Israel there is a failure to provide the 'alternative history'. There is no intention to highlight the differences; the goal being that you melt and blend everyone and everything into a singualar pot.
So in answer to my initial questions of why do we do it? Why do we challenge the windmills only to know that we will be beaten back again and again? We do it because it is right or should I say 'write'. Even Don Quixote had his moments of victory.

The Kahana Code

This blog is intended for two purposes; one, to introduce my family to my third great grandfather whom they have not had the opportunity to know since he died in 1867 and secondly to demonstrate to those that have been following the Kahana Chronicles just how the stories are preserved and passed through the generation even though the direct line of communication can at times be broken.
Cryptic paintings, Latin verse, hidden societies, anagrams, and a concealed hereditary bloodline; No, I'm not writing about the Da Vinci Code. Call it the Kahana Code perhaps, but unlike Dan Brown's novel, I'm not writing fiction, or speculation for that matter. The stories revolve around events that actually occurred and what better way to demonstrate that the legends have a basis in historical fact than to cite ancestors that have in their own way tried to preserve the stories through a code. If you think about the Da Vinci Code, and I presume most people have either read the book or seen the movie, then you will recall that the goal was to preserve a hereditary line by ensuring there were enough clues sprinkled through paintings and books to lead a trail to the heir. Well, we have the good fortune of having a pictorial and written record in the family for that purpose as well. The picture below is the coverplates of the Clavis Talmudica and its here that I will begin my tale of mystery and suspense and where you can help in resolving some of the vacuoles that still persist in my attempts to decipher my ancestor's message. Because somewhere, in this world are other families that would have been involved in the transmission of these hidden messages and their ancestors like mine would have been aware of his purpose and intent. It would be very narrow minded of me to think that he had done so only with the sole purpose of hoping one of his descendants would find the riddle, although considering his own personal history it is a possibility. Jakob Goldenthal had to be writing to a known audience, members of a society for which he was preserving the secrets. Just whom those members of his brotherhood may have been is yet to be discovered.



As the story goes, our third-great grandfather Jakob Goldenthal discovered a set of books and papers that had been hidden in his home which subsequently turned his world 180 degrees and set him upon an amazing journey. Why his father or grandfather never bothered to destroy those papers is still unknown but the possibility that they were hidden away by Shalom Shakna Kahana in a place that no one bothered to look into until Jakob two hundred years later is not unreasonable. In all likelihood, Jakob was living in the same home in Brody in whihc his ancestors had lived. In that paperwork he uncovered a story concerning the involvement our ancestor Yakov (Kova) in the 16th century who was involved in resolving the mystery behind the Golem of Prague as described in Shadows of Trinity. He would have learned of his ancestor Yakov's (notice that they bore the same name and the giving of names starting with J or A is very repetative in the family) ability to decipher signs and riddles, a trait that he too possessed. And most of all, he learned of his Karaite heritage and the plea from an ancestor long gone not to abandon that heritage.

Of course detractors would say that it's only a story and that there's no way of proving these events one hundred and forty years after Jakob Goldenthal's death. Well you can probably guess that I wouldn't be writing this article unless I believed there was a way to prove it. Not unlike the Da Vinci Code, there always has been a trail of bread crumbs. And that is where the GLEEM theory(http://hubpages.com/hub/GLEEM) becomes involved or Genetically Linked Enzyme Enhanced Memories. Whether you're willing to admit it or not, ancestors and descendants tend to think alike. As much as you may refuse to beleive it you often start acting very much like your father or mother. We are imprinted with behaviours and that's a fact. Having recognized that, members in the family would create puzzles with the knowledge that others that think in similar patterns would ultimately be able to decipher and resolve the challenge years or generations later. Not unlike the Kabbalah Wheel in Shadows of Trinity where Yakov has to understand how to translate the various languages and symbols, Jacob would have a similar ability. The ability to see signs and images where no one else can see them. Jakob Goldentha would have known that he could find ways to tranfer the stories he had uncovered to the future through the use of hidden clues. The same way that Yakov (Kova) was comfortable in speaking German, Hebrew, understanding Latin, and a smattering of other languages, he knew this knack would be transmitted down the genetic lines. And it was Jakob over two hundred years later also being fluent in a number of languages; German, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Italian, Romanian, Russian, and a smattering of French and English that provided me with the first clue. Because like them, I also am familiar with the same languages and that is too much of a coincidence. It was the first indication that something more was at work.




The coverplate in the figure above is Jakob Goldenthal's. He was an avid researcher a writer and scientist, traits which I obviously inherited as well. Working outside the religious sphere from which he was practically excommunicated and finding safety in the more secular university environment, Jacob would combine languagues into a single book making a smooth transition back and forth. Since most people wouldn't be able to make the transition as easily as he could, it provided him a vehicle in which to conceal his clues.

The Latin side of the coverpage appears to be quite straight forward. The title Clavis Talmudica translates as "Key (as in Index) to the Talmud" by author Rabbi Nissim Ben Jacob Cairovanensi a name that was pretty safe and would not raise any alarm bells. His page announces Rabbi Nissim was both the author and writer. But that is not the message that is recorded on the left side of the cover page written in Hebrew. I don't expect you all to be fluent in either Latin or Hebrew and I'm certainly not so bear with me as I translate for you.

It is important to recognise that Jakob toys with us, inserting and deleting words as he pleases. The Latin side with its title of The Talmud Key indicating an index is different from that of the Hebrew words. There it translates as The Book Of the Key to My Lock on the Talmud. The insertion of MANULI for those reading the Hebrew is interesting for two reasons. One that it doesn't appear in the Latin Verse and secondly because it is possessive and therefore claims it as being His Lock. Since it was supposed to be Rabbi Nissim's book, how or why would Jakob suggest that the interpretations belonged to him? The answer is quite simple. It was obvious that Jakob was intending to include information that was his own creation.

So from the onset Jakob has you questioning whether this is a commentary on Rabbi Nissim's commentary of the Talmud or is this actually going to be a commentary straight from Jakob Goldenthal? The Hebrew coverplate uses a reference to "our colleagues" in the context of a brotherhood when he uses the word SHEHAVARU when alluding to who's Talmud it actually was. A strange use of the word and even more bizarre when he follows with the words MORANU and RAVENU. When used in this context they imply Our Teacher and Our Master. Definitely not the terms one would use prior to Nissim's name who's influence on the Talmud as I mentioned was only as an indexer and therefore hardly worthy of such titles of honour. And honour it was as Jakob purposely uses the word KAVOD saying Nissim was the Son of Honour. This is followed again by the words Our Teacher and Our Master Jacob Zets'l. Now Zets'l is a purposely contracted word and unfortunately I am unable to unlock the contraction as yet but I'm working on it. But most definitely it has nothing to do with Nissim's father who was referred to as Jacob the Gaon. And because my ancestor purposely used the noun for honour he was not implying that he was the son of the honourable Jacob Zets'l it is clear that he's talking about something completely unrealted to these two rabbis. So if not a reference to father and son, then who was Jakob Goldenthal referring to. The reference to Moranu and Ravenu are almost always used when referring to Moses. As the Lawgiver, he had earned these supreme titles. And as Karaites strictly adhering to the laws as handed down by Moses and implemented through his brother Aaron's decendants as high priests, then it is no coincidence that the two men adorning Jakob's coverplate are none other than Moes and Aaron. In this context it is no suprise that the Hebrew words for intercessor and recorder are used whereas on the Latin coverplate Jakob uses author and writer. Had he actually been writing about Rabbi Nissim he would have used the word MEHABAR to identify him as author not the word for intecessor. For as we know, Moses did not author the Old Testament he merely acted as intecessor as God described what to write to him and the council of 70 elders wrote it down under the direction of Aaron.

By why use Rabbi Nissim as the pretext for writing a commentary? The reasoning was actually quite shrewd on Jakob's part. Rabbi Nissim Ben Jacob lived between the years 990-1062, but the fact that he was from Kairouan (in Tunisia) North Africa was normally not part of his title. He was usually referred to as Gaon indicating that he was the head of the religious schools there. To exclude that from his title could be considered a minor insult but Jakob does not appear to have any concern for the absence of his proper title. Nissim is best known today for his Talmudic commentary HaMafteach, which Jakob Goldenthal uses as the main title on the Hebrew coverplate. The book is actually an index to obscure references and to the secondary compilation of oral traditions known as the Tosefta. Not a book that would be at the top of the best seller's list. In fact obscurity was the best way to descibe it and Jakob's decision to highlight it as a book he wanted to comment on makes no sense at all. Being an index, it was hardly the type of book that one would expect someone else to write another index on how to actually use it. That would be similar to someone writing a major univerity paper on how to use an index at the back of a book. Let's give Jakob a little more credit than that! So that in itself is the first clue that Jakob was using this particular Rabbi to point out something completely different. Perhaps it was that Rabbi Nissim also wrote other works, one of which was a polemic in which he made a stinging attack in disputing Karaism which he viewed as controverting religion, philosophy, politics, and scientific matters. Who better than an enemy of the Karaites to use as the delivery boy for your own message. Jakob would have no regrets in using an enemy of his brethren for such a purpose. Nissim also had written a collection of tales, entitled Sefer Ma'asiyyot ha-Hakhamim which contained about sixty tales, based upon the oral traditions. Again, using this medieval story teller as the vehicle to tell your own story has some ironic humour that I can see appealing to my ancestor. So, it is possible that referring to the author as the Kairouan rather than alluding to his title of Gaon as supreme teacher intentional.

One has to remember that it was up to Jakob Goldenthal to decide exactly what wording would be used on these cover plates. The same way he would have instructed the artist as to what to draw and include in the artwork. The same principles as I am involved with today with my publishers for my novels. I have final say on the style and artwork for my books and therefore in that regard, ultimate control. So if I was Jakob and placed on my Latin coverplate standard references to the Vienna library as would be expected of me as a Professor of the University of Vienna, then it would be assumed that I would make similar references on the Hebrew coverplate. But as the one making the ultimate decisions as to what to write, and if I think I've been clever enough to conceal my intentions well enough to pass the light scrutiny my book would receive by those fluent in Latin but perhaps not so well skilled in Hebrew then I might see an opportunity to play out my hand. It was a gamble, and Jakob wrote something totally unexpected which to date has escaped the critics. Instead of the library reference he wrote VEHOSAFTI ELION HAGHOIT KARATIM BESAM BE-AR YAKOV. Roughly translated this reads And The Additional Leaflet on The Holy days of the Karaites There at the Well of Jacob. Rabbi Nissim wrote no such tractate. The mere mention of Karaites on the same front page as mentioning the Talmud would be considered bizarre since they are diametrically opposed. And to further layer this unusual statement by a reference to the well of Jacob is only more mystifying. It is said that Jacob dug the well (Gen 48:12) near Shechem roughly at the base of Mount Gerzim. It is an area with an abundance of springs so the need for a well at all has always been bewildering. But the use of water in the Middle East has always been governed by very strict laws and the digging of a well there may have been one of the conditions Jacob had to meet in order to purchase the land. As there was always a danger of strife between rival herdsmen, the patriarch would have achieved a peace by digging this well and also established his independance from the other chieftains by having his own water supply. Is Jacob Goldenthal alluding to himself that somehow he would attain peace between the rival factions of Karaiate and Rabbinical Jew. By then Karaites were diminished to a point of insignificance. Was he thinking a revival of the sect? Did he have some plans in motion? It's possible because following the reference on the well he writes in Hebrew, ANI JAKOB GOLDENTHAL or I am Jakob Goldenthal as if he and the well were somehow the same. Contrast this to the Latin Coverplate where he refers to himself as the Editor and provider of the introduction then lists all his educational degrees following his name. He does no such thing on the Hebrew coverplate.

So how aware would Jakob have been regarding the events in Shadows of Trinity? Considering the letters from his ancestor Yakov Kahana would have contained some details of the events then he would have known most of the story. As I mentioned, he had full editorial powers over the artwork that would be included in his book. As Shadows of Trinity and Blood Royale were both stories that contained strong references to clandestine events in France, the role of the Kahana family pivotal in both these stories and the fact that the members of the family were far more than academics but warriors that fought to the death for the survival of their people, then it would be hard to believe that Jakob would not find an opportunity to communicate his knowledge of these events. The Kahana as I frequently remind people is from the line of descendants from Aaron via the House of Phiabi. Yakov knew this, Jakob knew this and I know this. On that basis it was obvious that I should look at the portrait of Aaron in the coverplate picture to find any hidden clues if they existed. As I had suspected, my ancestor did not leave me looking too long as there are several.

1. The most obvious indication is the design in the platform beneath Aaron's feet. It would have been normal to include something in reference to Aaron's role as high priest. A menorah, shewbread table, the ark or something from the Temple. If you look closely at the design there are two items. An Arabic styled scimitar or sword and an urn turned on its side. The sword which would be out of context with Aaron but not the Kahana is patently obvious, but the urn I still have to think about. I don't have an answer for that yet.

2. The crescent moon of the mitre on Aaron's head for those not familiar with the high priest's headdress is completely atypical of the conical mitre in white and blue that has been traditionally associated with the biblical description. If you want to see what the actual high priest clothing looked like then I suggest you go to my website at http://www.legendsofthekahana.webs.com and take a look at my son's ascent pictures where he is wearing the priestly garments. For Jakob to approve a diagram so obviously erroneous meant it had to be right for a completely different reason. A reference to the family's origins around the Black Sea possibly where the Muslim crescent would have been the dominant symbol.

3. But then altering the priests wardrobe was something Jakob was blatant about. The biblical description refers to stripes on the ephod that were gold, red and purple. Again see the pictures on my website. Jakob would have known this. If one looks closely at the diagram they will see that he had the robe covered in Fleur de Lis. The French references are pretty obvious. The only time the Fleur de Lis were used as Jewish symbols were by the Hasmonean family. So now we have a double reference. Not only to the French history I alluded to earlier but also the combined entity of Priest-Kings which not only the Hasmoneans were but also the Kahana.

4. But there is another item on the ephod that is a mystery. Just to the right of the incence burner is what appears to be a patch in the shape of a heraldic shield. It is covered with tiny squares. There is no reference to anything like this in the bible. The only pockets on the ephod were underneath the breastplate to hold the ummim and thummim. What is it and what does it mean? Right now your guess is as good as mine. I might suggest that it is Jakob Goldenthal's personal stance. The fact that he had adopted Oswald von Goldenthal's heraldic emblem and that as Kahana he saw himself wearing the garments in a time period almost two thousand years earlier he combined the two. Mere speculation but my best guess at this time.

So in conclusion I will say this. Though my third great grandfather has been gone and buried for almost one hundred and fifty years, it think if we listen and look long enough we can still hear his voice.

Ring of Fire

Science and religion have rarely made the best of bedmates, but when the two worlds are merged into a single entity you find yourself in the presence of greatness. Giordano Bruno was one such man. The mixture of religious doctrine and scientific genius created one of the brightest sparks of mankind. So advanced was his thinking that the Church feared he would bring about their Armegeddon.
Yet, as much as they feared him, they made no immediate attempts to contain his brilliance. One must ask the question, why then after so many years of Giordano Bruno's scientific heresies, philosophizing, womanizing, and contempt for the robes he wore as a Dominican priest, did Pope Clement finally have him burned at the stake. What was it that prevented Clement's predecessor, Sixtus V, a pope notorious for his murdering of close to thirty thousand opponents that he had labelled as brigands from doing so much earlier. And why was it only after Bruno spent two years in Prague, as friend and sometimes confidant of the Emperor Rudolf II, (a man also despised by the Church until they removed him several years after burning Bruno by forcing him to abdicate and naming his brother as Holy Roman Emperor) that the Church finally felt it had to act?
Even then, they could only find the courage to sentence him to death only after eight years of imprisonment. And then the charges by which they convicted him had nothing to do with science but was the result of a new charge, that of denying the Trinity. What exactly did Giordano Bruno confess to that they felt it necessary to extinguish his exceptional brilliance? History is not without its sources that escape the book burnings and bannings in spite of the Church being very thorough in its eradication programs. Many of the clues as to what Giordano Bruno did during those two years in Prague that finally sealed his fate can be read in the book Shadows of Trinity released by Eloquent Books. Bruno was a complex and complicated man, who took a path which led him to his own personal salvation. What he learned about the Trinity in Prague sealed his fate. The two men he befriended while there were feared by the Church as much as he was because they had the capacity to teach Giordano something not even science could provide; the Truth. One was a Karaite Prince, the other the son of the famous seer Nostradamus. United, they were the Trinity. The book is available at the publisher's website http://www.eloquentbooks.com/ShadowsOfTrinity.html or from Amazon Books and Barnes and Noble. Two years in Prague that ultimately changed the world and only then can you appreciate and understand the man, the genius, and the reason the Church feared him most. Once you've read Shadows of Trinity, then the secret that led to his final comment to his inquistors as the flames ringed his body when he stated, “I believe you fear me more than I could ever fear this sentence?”

We Were Warriors

Once upon a time there was a people that despite their small numbers would not hesitate to fight for what they believed in; for what they considered right. It doesn't necessarily follow that they won each time because they didn't, but they knew that for every loss there would be a victory some time, some place in the future. For a thousand years that belief was consistent and unfaltering. We fought the Egyptians, though halfheartedly I must admit when Shishank stormed Jerusalem and lost. But Solomon made up with his father-in-law and the Egyptians withdrew. We fought the Assyrians and lost the northern kingdom but more so through the assimilation that followed. We fought the Babylonians and lost but fortunately they in turn lost to the Persians and we were given back our institution to self govern. We fought the Greeks and actually won, but then gave away that freedom immediately afterwards through alliances with Antiochus, the same ruler we fought against so that we could become a self-governing vassal state. No one said it had to make sense. And then we fought the Romans and lost. Sixty years afterwards we fought them again, and lost again. Three hundred years later we tried it again but we didn't fare any better that time. But by the fourth century AD something had drastically changed in our makeup and our mindset. We no longer saw ourselves as warriors, definitely not as victors, and we certainly lost the aptitude to keep challenging the powers that be.
There were singular moments when individuals did rise to the occassion and for the span of a few years there were even hazy reflections of the ancestral warriors and the sweet taste of victory but then that same insidious change that occurred in the fourth century would pervade our thinking and we would sacrifice all that we had gained. The story of Mar Zutra is such an episode where our freedom had been re-established only to have it sold out from under us.

For anyone that knows my belief system and is familiar with my thinking they may already know what I'm alluding to. Where I feel the blame is to be laid and how I see us once again as a people faltering and failing to embrace that warrior heritage that is the core of our existence.
After the wars against Rome, notice I say wars because most are of the beleif that there was only a singular war which is completely incorrect, we abandoned that which was the essential elements of our existence. Not our stalwart belief in God, but the tools that he handed us to ensure our continued survival through the ages. I'm referring to the Rod and the Sceptre. There came amongst us a group of relgious philosphers (hasidim) that felt the two institutions were archaic and irrelevant. They dismissed them as the flotsom of an outlived aristocracy, no longer essential. They presumed that without a Temple, without a base or kingdom to rule, there was no longer a need for either priests or kings. And in their haste to bury both castes they forgot that it was not their decision to make as God had forbade any man to wrest these from between his knees (this is a biblical expression, not mine). Yes, I blame Rabbinical Judaism for our downfall through the ages.

Now before everyone gets in an uproar and starts proclaiming what the Rabbis have always insisted that if not for them we never would have survived as a distinct people amongst all the other nations, let me say this; 'CRAP'. The Talmud, is the work and interpretation of men and if anything, it has caused more confrontational arguments than agreements. Long after it was written you still had the Rashis and Maiomondes, and the hundreds and thousands of Rabbis that followed still trying enforce their interpretation as the correct one. How ridiculous. Because as any knowledgable Karaite can tell you, Anan ben David had summed up everything that had to be known in a singular revision; "If what you read seems good to you, then it is correct." It was a powerful statement. So powerful in fact that by the tenth century, the Rabbinical sage, Saadiah grew very concerned that the rabbinical Judaism he and his colleagues professed would actully become subordiante to the Karaite beliefs that he made it his life's ambition to destroy all that was Karaite. Though you may find it hard to uncover this edict I'm about to reveal, since an effort has been made to erase it from Jewish History, Saadiah, once enshrined as the Gaon, or chief Rabbi, pronounced, "To Kill a Karaite is no Different Than Killing a Dog." What did this actually mean? It meant that you could kill a Karaite without being charged with murder. And they did; literally in the thousands.
It is inconceivable that we who were once warriors would turn upon our own brethren, simply because one group decided that somehow it became their right to rule the hearts and minds of the people. And that same group would preach whenever as a people we would become oppressed by other nations that we should put our trust in God and that he will deliver us. That it is not up to us to deliver ourselves. How many holocausts have we suffered because of such faulty logic? How many more must we endure before it is finally questioned, who are these people that claim the authority to speak for God?

We are at a crossroads now. As Karaite, I'm only one of thirty thousand remaining in the world. Even most of my family following the death of Yakov Kahana (see Shadows of Trinity) abandoned Karism and adopted what was then mainstream rabbinical Judaism. But in case you have not noticed, there is a tide turning in the world. A tide that suddenly looks at today's Israel with its six million people and says, "How dare you exert your beligerance over 500 million Arabs. How dare you declare yourself a Jewish Homeland but WE acknowledge the right for a Palestinian state to exclude any Jews from living within its borders. How dare you pronouce Judaism as your State religion, even though you let millions of Muslims and Christians live freely within your country to practice their religion, while those of non-Muslim faiths are not allowed to publicly practice their religions in a large number of Muslim countries. How dare you claim an entitlement to the land on which you have been a presence on for three thousand years continuously, have fought and died over for an equal length of time as mentioned at the start of this article, and try to use that to refute OUR claim that you are merely the creation of post world war European guilt." You can hear it now. It's whispered in the streets, it's shouted behind closed doors, it's rising in its tenor and rhetoric from the lips of presidents that are willing to deny the truth. As a Karaite I can see the winds of change. We have seen it many times over our existence. We have not abandoned either the Staff nor the Sceptre. And though our numbers are diminished we still recall that once We Were Warriors.