Rebecca, Isaac's Wife
- From: "Firnando"<usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:15:55 +0800
Rebecca, Isaac's Wife
Palestine: Whose Land Is It? (4)
A Historical Study Based on Islamic and Biblical Traditions
Assad Nimer Busool, Ph.D.
Islamic and Arabic Studies
Rebecca, Isaac's Wife
Moreover, according to the Old Testament, the wife of Isaac, the mother of
Jacob (Israel), the claimed father of the Jews and the modern Zionists who
called their modern Zionist state after him (Israel) was not Jewish, she was
Aramean.
Here is how the Bible describes the origin of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob:
"These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham was the father
of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the
daughter of Bethu'el the Aramean of Paddanaram, the sister of Laban the
Aramean..."[12]
Therefore, according to the religious Jewish law, Jacob and his sons are
Arameans since their mothers were Arameans. If Jacob and his sons were today
living in the modern state of Israel, they would not be recognized as Jews
by the High Rabbinical Court in the state of Israel.
Isaac did the same thing with his son Jacob, by sending him away to
Paddan-aram to Laban, the son of Bethu'el the Aramean, the brother of
Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother... Laban received Jacob and said to him,
"Surely you are my bone and my flesh!"[13]
Rachel came from the same stock as Rebecca. As a matter of fact Rebecca was
Rachel's aunt. Here is how the Old Testament describes the origin of Rachel
and her sister, the mothers of Jacob's sons.
Rachel, Jacob's Wife
The same is true in regard to Jacob's sons because Jacob married an Aramean
two sisters, one by the name of Rachel, and the other by the name of Leah,
the daughters of his maternal uncle, Laban the Aramean. This Rachel is
considered by the Jewish people as their mother. These days they are
celebrating a grand opening of a new fortified complex encasting Rachel's
tomb in Bethlehem.
The Chicago Tribune reported the news of this celebrations as follows:
"Bethlehm, West Bank -- Nine--year--old 'Ali Jawarish lay very still on a
street Tuesday, blood and brain tissue oozing from a hole in his forehead
where he had been shot at close range by an Israeli soldier firing on
fleeing young stone-throwers... The wounding of the boy, apparently by
a rubbercoated metal bullet, ended a tire-burning protest set off by the
main event up the road--the grand opening of a new fortified complex
encasting Rachel's Tomb, a Jewish shrine in an Israeli-controlled salient
that juts into this Palestinian-ruled town. The festivities, attended by
hundreds of strictly Orthodox Jews, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai and
Israel's two chief Rabbis..."[14]
The question now is, who is this Rachel that the Jews consider as their
mother? The Biblical accounts of her life are unfortunately not at all
complimentary, even though we Muslims do not accept these Biblical accounts
of an honorable woman like Rachel, the wife of a prophet, Jacob and the
mother of a prophet, Joseph[15].
"Rachel is the younger of the daughters of Laban, the wife of Jacob and
mother of Joseph and Benjamin... the story of her life is contained in
Genesis 29-33, 35...
The account of her stealing her father's idols and concealment of her theft
leads one to believe that she was not entirely free from the superstitions
and idolatry which prevailed in the land. (Josh. 24:2, 14)" [16]
The Old Testament reported Rachel's supposed stealing of her father's idols,
as follows: When Jacob ran away from his father-in-law and uncle, Laban, and
Laban caught up with him, among other things he said to Jacob: "Why have you
stolen my household gods? And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I
was afraid. For I said, Lest by force you take your daughters from me. With
whomever you find your household gods, he shall not live here before our
brothers. Search for yourself what is with me, and take it to you. For Jacob
did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of
the slavegirls; and he did not find. And he went out of Leah's tent and came
into Rachel's tent.
And Rachel had taken the household idols and put them into the saddle of the
camel; and she sat on them. And Laban felt around all the tent, but he did
not find.
She said to her father, Let no anger be in the eyes of my Lord, for I am not
able to rise before your face, for the way of women is to me. And he sought
and did not find the household idols."[17]
From the Biblical narrative, we learn that Rachel was an Aramean and not aJewess, worshipping idols, a thief who stole from her father and a liar. Is
this the mother for whom the modern Zionists fight the Palestinian children
and kill them?
For fourteen centuries the Muslim Palestinians have revered Rachel and have
preserved her tomb and called her, "Our mother Rachel".
Once again, I would like to pose the question, if Rachel immigrated to
Israel today with those Biblical credentials would she even be considered a
Jew? And would she even be accepted as a citizen of Israel?[18]
---------------------------------------------
[12] - Genesis 25/19-20. Italics added.
[13] - Genisis 29/13.
[14] - Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, November 12,1997, p. 6.
[15] - From an Islamic point of view, both Jacob and Joseph are prophet who
are described in The Qur'an in most honorable terms.
[16] - The New Smith's Bible Dictionary, p. 317, article, Rachel.
[17] - Genesis 31/30-35.
[18] - See p. of this book.
url:http://myreader.co.uk/gp/1212-1.aspx
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