Today we started class by talking about Israel's possible future as a major energy exporter. In the last decade we've found huge reserves of natural gas in the Mediterranean and shale oil (it's also found in large quantities in North Dakota, where fracking is used to get it out of the ground) in the Elah Valley (where David fought Goliath). As you can imagine these finds have raised quite a few issues. From an environmental standpoint the shale oil might be problematic. Extracting the oil involves a complicated chemical process that involves pumping hot water and chemicals underground (though they're debating using other methods in Israel), and opponents would also argue that it will destroy the beautiful landscape. Proponents of extraction would point out that most of the action happens underground, so the effect on the landscape would be minimal. They'd also insist that there's no evidence that it causes environmental damage. The truth is that it's a very new technology and no one really knows much about what the long terms effects will be. For now Israel is doing tests and research.
Putting the environmental issues aside for a moment, these two finds have enormous economic potential. One of the biggest economic problems in Israel is the high cost of living, and an abundance of cheap energy would certainly go a long way toward alleviating that problem. On the other hand, overly cheap energy would encourage overuse (people probably drove more than they should have when gas was 98 cents a gallon), and when the cheap energy runs out, as it inevitably does eventually, any industry based on cheap energy is in serious trouble. Another option is to export the energy. Assuming we can find a better way to transport natural gas (currently you have to make it REALLY cold to liquify it, and then ship it, which is expensive), there are several problems. The first is known as Dutch disease. If foreigners want to buy our energy, first they'll have to exchange their currency for shekels. If this happens a lot the demand for shekels goes up, which causes the shekel to become more valuable. Basically if lots of people want something it becomes more expensive; this is true for physical goods as well as currencies. If the shekel becomes more valuable (for example, imagine an exchange rate of two shekels to the dollar) it means Israelis can buy foreign goods more cheaply (woo hoo!). The $100 American TV would now cost 200 shekels, rather than the 400 it costs with a four to one exchange rate. However, this means the exact opposite is the case for Israeli exports. Anything made in Israel would cost significantly more, meaning less people would buy from Israel (not so woo hoo).
The other major problem with exporting energy is to decide where to export it. One obvious answer is Europe, which is wealthy and energy-poor. However, much of their current energy comes from Russia, who would not be thrilled to see their market share reduced by an energy-exporting Israel. The other main option is to send it east, to China for example. But this entails getting it from the Mediterranean Sea down to Eilat (Israel's southernmost city), no easy task. After that it would have to pass through the Straits of Tiran, a narrow waterway between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, not exactly Israel's best friends. In fact, there have been multiple instances in our history in which Egypt has blockaded the straits (and it only took one gun!), though, Baruch Hashem, not for many years. As you can see these recently discovered natural resources have great potential, but also create their share of problems. How do you think Israel should handle it?
Jumping back in time 3000 years you'll recall that we'd arrived to the end of the reign of Shlomo HaMelech (King Solmon). Before his death an Israelite named Jerobaum was unhappy with Shlomo's rule, attempted some sort of revolt, and then fled to Egypt. When Shlomo died Jerobaum returned and went to speak with Shlomo's heir, Rehobaum. Jerobaum asked him to lighten the tax burden (if you recall Shlomo required a great deal from the Israelites both to build the Temple and his palace), promising eternal support if Rehobaum would only make things a little bit easier for the people. Rehobaum seeks the advice of the elders, who encourage him to accede to Jerobaum's request. Rehobaum then consults his young friends (I like to think of them as the rich kids who's parents never told them "no") who disagree with the elders, advising Rehobaum to tell Jerobaum "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins. My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions." (1 Kings 12:10-11, JPS translation) Unfortunately, Rehobaum, the new king, who should be trying to consolidate his rule takes the advice of his young friends. Great politician, huh?
Obviously, Jerobaum can't accept this, and the 10 tribes of the north secede (~930 BCE) to form the Kingdom of Israel, leaving Rehobaum in charge of the Kingdom of Yehuda. At this point several prophecies have come true. Shmuel, when the Israelites originally asked for a king, warned them how oppressive a king would be. Hashem, in response to Shlomo's avodah zara (worship of foreign gods) tells him that his descendants will rule over only one tribe. We see here that both of those things have now come true. From now on there will be two Jewish states: Israel in the north and Yehuda in the south. After the split the two kingdoms spend several decades fighting each other before arriving at some sort of peace agreement.
According to the Tanakh the kingdom of Israel quickly deteriorates into avodah zarah (worship of foreign gods). In class, for example we spoke about King Ahab and his Phoenician wife Jezebel, who persecute those who worship Hashem (the story begins toward the end of the first book of Kings, 1 Kings 18 will give you the idea). It is during this period that the later prophets, such as Eliyahu HaNavi (Elijah the prophet), become active. The early prophets, such as Shmuel (Samuel) and Natan (Nathan), were part of the leadership structure. In modern terms they provided a sort of balance of power to the kings Shaul (Saul) and David respectively. The later prophets are decidedly outside the government. Eliyahu, as is typical of the later prophets, is actually pursued by Ahab and (especially) Jezebel, who want to kill him in retribution for killing the prophets of Jezebel's foreign gods. We also looked briefly at the episode after Eliyahu flees, in which he is hiding in a cave and Hashem tells him that there will be no more large demonstrations of power (Hashem had just publicly helped Eliyahu prove that Hashem is the one and only God), but Hashem will now be a "soft murmuring sound" (also translated as "a still, small voice", if you want to see the Hebrew it's 1 Kings 19:12). This seems to answer the often asked question, "Why are there no more miracles like we see in the Tanakh?" Do you think Hashem decided to influence the world in a different way, stop actively influencing it completely, or was this simply added later to explain away the problem?
Putting the environmental issues aside for a moment, these two finds have enormous economic potential. One of the biggest economic problems in Israel is the high cost of living, and an abundance of cheap energy would certainly go a long way toward alleviating that problem. On the other hand, overly cheap energy would encourage overuse (people probably drove more than they should have when gas was 98 cents a gallon), and when the cheap energy runs out, as it inevitably does eventually, any industry based on cheap energy is in serious trouble. Another option is to export the energy. Assuming we can find a better way to transport natural gas (currently you have to make it REALLY cold to liquify it, and then ship it, which is expensive), there are several problems. The first is known as Dutch disease. If foreigners want to buy our energy, first they'll have to exchange their currency for shekels. If this happens a lot the demand for shekels goes up, which causes the shekel to become more valuable. Basically if lots of people want something it becomes more expensive; this is true for physical goods as well as currencies. If the shekel becomes more valuable (for example, imagine an exchange rate of two shekels to the dollar) it means Israelis can buy foreign goods more cheaply (woo hoo!). The $100 American TV would now cost 200 shekels, rather than the 400 it costs with a four to one exchange rate. However, this means the exact opposite is the case for Israeli exports. Anything made in Israel would cost significantly more, meaning less people would buy from Israel (not so woo hoo).
The other major problem with exporting energy is to decide where to export it. One obvious answer is Europe, which is wealthy and energy-poor. However, much of their current energy comes from Russia, who would not be thrilled to see their market share reduced by an energy-exporting Israel. The other main option is to send it east, to China for example. But this entails getting it from the Mediterranean Sea down to Eilat (Israel's southernmost city), no easy task. After that it would have to pass through the Straits of Tiran, a narrow waterway between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, not exactly Israel's best friends. In fact, there have been multiple instances in our history in which Egypt has blockaded the straits (and it only took one gun!), though, Baruch Hashem, not for many years. As you can see these recently discovered natural resources have great potential, but also create their share of problems. How do you think Israel should handle it?
Jumping back in time 3000 years you'll recall that we'd arrived to the end of the reign of Shlomo HaMelech (King Solmon). Before his death an Israelite named Jerobaum was unhappy with Shlomo's rule, attempted some sort of revolt, and then fled to Egypt. When Shlomo died Jerobaum returned and went to speak with Shlomo's heir, Rehobaum. Jerobaum asked him to lighten the tax burden (if you recall Shlomo required a great deal from the Israelites both to build the Temple and his palace), promising eternal support if Rehobaum would only make things a little bit easier for the people. Rehobaum seeks the advice of the elders, who encourage him to accede to Jerobaum's request. Rehobaum then consults his young friends (I like to think of them as the rich kids who's parents never told them "no") who disagree with the elders, advising Rehobaum to tell Jerobaum "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins. My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions." (1 Kings 12:10-11, JPS translation) Unfortunately, Rehobaum, the new king, who should be trying to consolidate his rule takes the advice of his young friends. Great politician, huh?
Obviously, Jerobaum can't accept this, and the 10 tribes of the north secede (~930 BCE) to form the Kingdom of Israel, leaving Rehobaum in charge of the Kingdom of Yehuda. At this point several prophecies have come true. Shmuel, when the Israelites originally asked for a king, warned them how oppressive a king would be. Hashem, in response to Shlomo's avodah zara (worship of foreign gods) tells him that his descendants will rule over only one tribe. We see here that both of those things have now come true. From now on there will be two Jewish states: Israel in the north and Yehuda in the south. After the split the two kingdoms spend several decades fighting each other before arriving at some sort of peace agreement.
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| After Shlomo there are two Jewish states: Israel in the north and Yehuda in the south |
As we would expect the Kingdom of Israel, who is doing avodah zarah, is eventually punished. The mechanism for their punishment in this case is the Assyrians, a Mesopotamia-based empire who have a resurgence around 800 BCE.
In 722 BCE the Assyrians conquer Israel. Many of the citizens of Israel were deported, in line with Assyrian imperial policy. This destruction and subsequent deportation led to what is known as the 10 lost tribes. As with any area in which there's a war there would certainly have been many people who chose to flee, some of them (if not most) to their southern neighbor, the Kingdom of Judah. As further proof for this phenomenon there is archaeological and historical evidence that the King of Judah at the time, Hezekiah, enlarged the walls of Yerushalayim considerably (the large square-ish part in the picture below), likely in part to accommodate the refugees.
20 years later Hezekiah decided to take advantage of unrest in Mesopotamia (the Assyrian homeland) to throw off the Assyrian yoke and declare independence. Among his preparations he improved the water tunnel to the Gihon spring, which you can see in the picture above. The Assyrians, after dealing with the unrest, arrived to Yehuda and devastated the entire country (such as we see in Lachish, for example). Having destroyed the rest of the country they arrive in 701 BCE to Yerushalayim, which they put to siege (I've recommended to the students several times to read about what it's like to be under siege, for example the relatively recent Siege of Leningrad, to get a sense of how scary and terrible it is). According to the Tanakh Hashem killed thousands of Assyrian soldiers, causing them to lift the siege and flee back to Mesopotamia. Other sources claim a plague ravaged the Assyrian ranks. Yet others say they left to, once again, deal with unrest in the homeland. All the sources agree Yerushalayim was saved. You can imagine the euphoria in the city as the Assyrians left.
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| The original city of David (right) and Hezekiah's Wall (left) |
One consequence of the "miraculous" departure of the Assyrian army is that the Yehudans came to believe that Hashem would never allow Yerushalayim, the holy city, to be conquered. Just over a hundred years later the Babylonians (also based in Mesopotamia) were the major power in the region. The King of Yehuda at this time decided to ally with the Egyptians against the Babylonians. It turns out he bet wrong. The ascendant Babylonians arrived to Yehuda and began a siege of Yerushalayim. Despite the prophet Jeremiah's cries to repent and warnings that Yerushalayim would be handed over to the Babylonian army, the King of Yehuda held firm, buoyed by the promises of false prophets (according to the Tanakh, I don't expect I could tell whether a prophet is true or false) and no doubt the memory of the miracle that saved Yerushalayim from the Assyrians. On the ninth of Av (a Hebrew month) the Babylonians destroyed Beit HaMikdash (the Temple); since then this has been a day of mourning for Am Yisrael (Tisha b'Av, the ninth of Av). The elites of Yehuda are sent in exile to Babylon, and after ~600 years living in our homeland in Eretz Yisrael we are sent into Galut Bavel (the Babylonian Exile).
Do you think Am Yisrael deserved this punishment? Is it divine? Is it simply the whim of history? If you heard this about another people, would you expect them to still be around thousands of years later?
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