Interview With Mikhayah ben DavidConducted by Hadar ha'Aryeh

Hadar: Shalom Ahki,

Mikhayah: `Alaykhem Shalom

Hadar: Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about Judaism in both the classical and modern sense. You are doing amazing more in showing the facts about historical Judaism and the interrelated nature of all Abrahamic traditions to one another. I believe you are doing a great work my brother and this is why I have asked you with your expertise in this field of study to share your knowledge and a bit about yourself. Could you please share a bit about yourself, your education, background, earlier projects you have been a part of prior to the one currently?

Mikhayah: In a sense, I am a part of many worlds. I was raised in a Christian household. We went to church every Sunday and had Bible study every Wednesday. I was always told that Jesus was a Jew, and many aspects of Judaism in his teachings were highlighted to me; more so than what was the case with Christian friends. When I reached adolescence I found out that this was because my maternal grandparents were “Jews for Jesus.” I had seen a magnet on their refrigerator that said this. I never thought anything of it, or of the Menorah in their house, the large pictures of Israel or the like.

This didn’t jump out at me as strange, because at the Church I went to there were no other children. The church I went to was entirely non-black. Paul Griffin, in his Seeds of Racism talks about the connection of the Church to racism in America and the origins of chattel slavery here. He notes that churches are the single most segregated institution in the United States. This reflects what I observed as well. The church I went to was all “white”. The neighborhood which I grew up in was nearly all “black.” Everyone I knew went to a different church than me. No one really could tell me why we went to different churches. In any event, however, this made Jewish elements around my grandparents’ home seem no stranger than a picture of a black Jesus in a friend’s house.

When I reached adolescence, I found out that my family background is, was, Jewish. The way that people often say that they have been “Gyped” and do not think about the bigotry such a statement shows towards the “Gypsy” Roma community, I had heard, for the first time, a friend say that someone had “Jewed” them. I mentioned this to my family, coincidentally it would seem, at my grandparents’ house. My aunt was the first to speak up, outraged! “you are Jewish!” I wasn’t sure what she meant. Did she mean that Christianity was a continuation of Judaism, and thus, I was Jewish too? That was my first thought, as this was the sort of theological process that occurs to Jews for Jesus, or today “Messianic Jews.”

My aunt, now along with my mother, explained that our family had converted to Christianity but were “Jewish”. They did not say “Jewish in an ethnic sense” but that is what they essentially meant. Jews for Jesus, I should point out – at least back then – really were just Christians who wanted to play up their Jewish heritage for the purposes of evangelism. We didn’t keep Kosher, didn’t keep Shabbat, didn’t celebrate Pesach or Chanukah even. I knew what those things meant. I knew that the real Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday, but we didn’t keep it on either.

This revelation was a shock to me. I had known a couple of Jewish kids at different private schools which my parents had sent me to, in between going back to the neighborhood public school when funds ran out. I didn’t know these kids that well and I never heard them talk about their religion except for one kid who talked about Passover once. Now that I have children of my own, I know how this must have been to grow up in a minority religious practice. My sons have had kids tell them that Jews are going to Hell. Even in Kindergarten they have heard this. What sort of hate do kids like that have to hear at home to be so well versed in it that they say this at the age of 5 or 6? I can see why the Jewish kids I had met as a youth kept quiet about it.

These two Jewish kids were, strangely, who I thought of almost immediately as I started to process my aunt’s words. I could only see myself with those two kids. I had never hung out with either of them, they didn’t know each other, we never went to anyone’s birthday parties or had sleepovers. But suddenly, I saw myself in my mind’s eye, in the same category as them. It was a strange feeling.

This understanding of myself – full of misconceptions – drastically altered how I viewed Christianity, history, theology, and the Bible throughout my teenage years.
My parents sent me to another private school, this time a Christian school, half way through middle school and through much of high school. In addition to church and Bible study (which I was able to gradually wean my parents from making me attend), we had weekly chapel services and Christian history classes. That is to say that we had social studies and we had “religion” classes which were actually Christian history classes.

Even though I did not yet openly identify myself as Jewish, I was beginning to theologically relate to Judaism more and more. “Jesus was a Jew”; I would hear it all the time. But what did this mean? Did this mean he was “racially” a Jew? What was the “Jewish race?” I read everything I could get my hands on, from books on Jewish history, Israel, Qumran, Second Temple era Jewish sects to Mein Kampf and Neo-Nazism.

Most importantly, I began paying attention to the Bible.

When we read the “Old Testament”, the Tanakh, in church or in school, I began seeing it as a Jewish document, rather than as foreshadowing prophecies of Jesus. When we read the Gospel accounts of the “New Testament”, the Christian Testament, I began seeing the Tanakh in the words of Jesus. I began paying attention.

When we read the Epistles or letters of Paul, I saw Christianity. I read the words that the pastors and preachers quoted so often, based their sermons off of and padded selected sayings of Jesus with. It started occurring to me that Jesus may have been a Jew, but whatever that meant, he was a Jew theologically. And it began to be clearer and clearer that whatever Paul was, it was not a Jew. Paul was the founder of Christianity, and it was Paul – after all – who put me to sleep in church.

When I was thirteen, I – privately – decided to stop eating pork as my own “Bar Mitzvah.” I began regarding Saturday as the Sabbath and did not accept the notion of Jesus as God, a God-man, a son-of-God, or in any way divine. I began seeing Jesus as a Jew, theologically. I began paying attention.

In high school, this internal discussion came to a head when a pastor, a Christian History teacher mocked “the Law”. In this tenth grade class he commented on the Levitical prohibition of sex with a menstruating woman. The idea disgusted me. He seemed to think the idea of niddah was humorous. To put it bluntly, this pissed me off.

I challenged him on the idea. A lot of the things I had noticed and stored up in my memory began pouring out. I asked him why he believed this was acceptable. He told me that it was because “Jesus had come to free us from the Law.”

I asked him where Jesus was recorded as saying that. He quoted me Paul and then some more Paul.

I pointed out that that was Paul. He told me Paul was appointed by Jesus as an Apostle.

I challenged this and noted that the Book of Revelation says there are “twelve apostles, and no more”. His face began to get red.

I quoted him Jesus saying that he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, the Torah and the Nevi’im. He quoted me more Paul. I began to get wise to the game.
At some point the discussion turned ugly. I believe I said he was “nasty” or something to that effect. He got in my face as if we were going to have a fist fight in the classroom of this Christian school; this teenage student and the pastor, slugging it out. Obviously that didn’t happen. I made some sarcastic comment about how strange it was; him being in my face. I was sent to the principal’s office. This was one of many occasions when I would be sent there.

After graduation, I was involved in various activist and quasi-revolutionary groups. One of those groups attracted me because of their stance on religious pluralism. The group was very small, a flash in the pan really. But it was significant for me in that it created a context for me to embrace my Jewishness while still being fascinated by the historical – rather than theological – Jesus; as well as exploring many other religions which I had been privately studying since my late middle school years.

Hadar: I see. Speaking of prior projects that you have embarked on and been apart of, could you share a bit more about your current projects, goals and aspirations in the world of Judaism and overall?

Mikhayah: I am involved in a few projects which are all interrelated. Specifically, I am involved a non-hierarchical project which we are simply calling “Hashlamah.” I am involved in something of a revivalist movement of the Medieval Jewish sect known as the `Issuniyyah, in Judeo-Arabic, or the `Isawiyah, in `Arabic. There are different, completely unrelated groups which have used this latter name. These should not be confused with the Jewish `Isawiyah, which is a well documented Jewish movement, which endured for somewhere between three and ten centuries. Regarding myself as a Judeo-Sufi, in the tradition of Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Paqudah, Rabbi Natanyel ibn al-Fayyumi, the leader of the Jews of Yemen, and the son of the Rambam (Maimonides), Avraham ben Rambam, and his sons David and `Ovadyah (amongst others), I am also involved in a Sufi, sister-project of Hashlamah, known as the Jama`at al-Fitrah.

My aspiration for Judaism is for more Jews to begin seeing Judaism as a practice and not as a race. All the way back to Josephus, we see that Judaism is understood as a phyle a nation, a people – Am Yisrael – but not a race; which there is no clear word for in Greek, nor a genos (intermarrying and reproducing group). We know this because Judaism was widely known for proselytizing; so much so that this word, proselyte, comes from Second Temple Era Judaism. It is essentially a Greek parallel to “Hebrew” meaning “One who crossed over.” A proselyte is a Greek Hebrew. Just like we say “Hebrew” in English, when the term is `Evri, we do not suggest that these are different terms.

Persecution, under the Church and under the Caliphate, forced Jews from this practice of actively being a “light unto the nations”, an aur l’goyyim. Through Jews thus primarily – almost exclusively – marrying only those born to Jews, Jewry began to look very much like a “race”, as this notion itself began to crystallize in the dark recesses of European consciousness. The irony is that many Jews who do not know history, or even know what Jewish primary sources actually say, have come to believe this about Jewishness. This is why the big controversy today is “Who is a Jew?” Why is this a controversy? Because Jewry has forgotten what being a Jew even means.

Hadar: Ahki there is alot controversy on whom and where the Ancient Hebrews of antiquity came from. In your expert opinion, where do you believe, based on facts, that the Hebrews of antiquity began as a people, and at what time did 'Judaism' become a living factor as we know it?
Mikhayah: From the perspective of Judaism and as much as we can tell from the earliest Mesopotamian and Egyptian sources, what we can tell is this:

Sumeria was named for the patriarch Shem ben Noach.

`Eber was the first “Hebrew” in that he preceded the activity of Abraham and “left Babylon” which was Sumeria; crossing over both the boundaries of Babylon culture and the actual rivers of Babylon themselves; returning to the land of Canaan.

Abraham was called a “Hebrew” in the Torah because he did likewise, along with his wife, nephew, their families and a total of 30 companions which were “Hebrews” as well. This was based upon their activity not their “race.”

The earliest sources describe this group as multi-ethnic, nomadic, and adding people to their numbers wherever they went. The group was called Haberu in Mesopotamia and Apiru in Egypt. Where they settled in the Hijaz region, they were known as Urabu. These words are the sources of “Hebrew” and “Arab,” which are the same words, with only the last two of three letters inverted (in Hebrew and Arabic).

In Hebrew Arab is spelled ערב while Hebrew or Eber is עבר or Evri (meaning of Eber) is עברי.

In Arabic it is the same: Hebrew is عبري from Eber عبر and Arab is عرب.

Jew is the name of a practice. It does not derive from the name of the Davidic Kingdom of Judea or Yehudah, nor from the name of the patriarch Yehudah ben Ya`qov. Yehudah who was named for the practice of worship, Yahadut (Praising Yah). This is the word for what people call “Judaism” in English, Yahadut, and this is all that it means.

The “Israelites” too, or collectively Yisrael in Hebrew, were similarly composed not only of descendants from Ya`qov or Jacob, who was called Israel, but also a “mixed multitude” from Egypt, according to the Torah. Now what does the Torah call this “mixed multitude” who left Egypt and, like Caleb, became “Jewish” in both religion and affiliation with the Tribe of Judah? It calls them and `erev rav (ערב רב). Now anyone can see that this is the same spelling of Arab in Hebrew. Those who left were called `erev – why? – because they migrated to the East. We see then that the Arabs where the Urbu who migrated southeast of Babylon and the Hebrews or Haberu were those who migrated to the West, to the land of Canaan. Thus the order of the last two root letters – Beyt and Resh, or Ba and Ra – shift only according to which direction the one who crossed over (which is what Hebrew means) had migrated to.

I only know this because I paid attention. It is time that we start paying attention to the Torah. Those long lists of names and places in Hebrew are not there to bore us to sleep. They are important. They are historical clues.

Hadar: Now there is something I would like for you to clarify for the readers: Was Israel ever made up of single people or was it a multi-ethnic nation of various hues and types? And is there any basis for this scripturally and historically?
Mikhayah: Yisrael was always a multi-ethnic people. To classify someone as an ethno-type, we must consider them to be marrying within a certain culture,usually with restricted geographical or political borders. The twelve tribes were tribes, they intermarried only within their tribes. They were tribalists. They were lost.

When Moshe rabbeinu came, he united these splintered tribes and informed them of their history. The entire first book of the Torah is dedicated to this. He told them that they were all from the same ancestor and that even though they were many tribes, enslaved by the ancient bourgeois, they should think of themselves as one nation, in Hebrew, am or in Josephus’ words, a phyle.

Now when they were wandering in the desert, they were lost. They were not just lost physically, the physical wandering was a reflection of their spiritual state. They were so lost that they followed one who convinced them to worship the calf of Sumeria. The Egyptians were not cow worshippers. This was not a return to an old mode of worship, but a turning towards a new, foreign one, an `avodah zarah.

They were told that until they settled in the Land of Israel, they should not intermarry. Why? Because they had already been allotted land. They were a bickering group of tribes who had refused to intermarry all of these years. There had already been so much infighting. They were told that until they settled, they should not marry between tribes. This was only to last for that very short period of wandering in a spiritual and physical lost state.

Now this tells us two things: First, it tells us that though they had not been intermarrying over all these years in slavery, they now wanted to. They now started seeing themselves as one nation, so they naturally wanted to transcend this tribalism, and embrace Nationhood. Secondly, it tells us that once they settled, they did begin to do this. That is why the Levites were given no portion of land, no region, because the Levites were those trained in the priesthood. People trained in trades that they learned from their parents. Thus, in ancient times, a priest would learn priesthood from their father. So it was important that these not be centralized, but disseminated throughout the tribes; the tribes which were intermarrying once they settled in the Land of Israel.

The tribalism still continued, to a lesser degree, for many generations. However, it was beginning to dissolve and intermarriage between tribes ceased to be the issue. Instead, we see a split between the Northern Israelite tribes who ceased to practice Yahadut, and began following after strange gods, and the Southern Davidic Kingdom of Judah, or Judea, Yehudah, which continued to follow Yahadut. We see nationhood now being defined solely by the path or derekh that one is on.

Hadar: So does this mean anyone could become a Jew (Yehudi)? And that essentially being Jewish was gift to humanity that all could embrace, with no people having exclusive rights to it? Is there any historical basis and such for this?

Mikhayah: Anyone can become a Jew. In fact, the Talmud teaches us that no one is born a Jew, but they become a Jew. Thus we thank Ha’Shem that we were made a Jew, not that we were born a Jew. So if we are thinking that being Jewish is something we are born as, then we are missing the point. This is how things like Jews for Jesus and Messianic Judaism are able to be born; because of false notions of Yahadut, which are not born from the Tanakh or Talmud.

Hadar: So do you mean that from the very beginning of Israel and 'Judaism' that there were Black Hebrew Israelites or better put, Hebrews of dark complexions?

Mikhayah: There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the earliest Hebrews were of darker complexion than most Jews today. There is no doubt whatsoever that humankind in general was of darker complexion than most Jews today. Why is this?

You and I both know that geneticists are people who have studied for many, many years to specialize in the study of the human genome. They do not go online to websites to get their ideas about genetics. They did not get their ideas from a man who stands on a street corner and tells them this or that. They do not learn about the human genome from a pamphlet or storefront. They go to school for a very long time. All they breathe, eat, sleep, drink and dream is the human genome.

These scientists who specialize in the study of the human genome have told us, for instance through the famous Human Genome Project, that all human beings, 100% of every human being alive today, is descended from Africa; from a small number of original humans who were black Africans. This means that all other so-called “races” are descended from Africa, from black people. We are wrong to think of “race.” Race is a racist idea, invented by racists with a small amount of melanin, to subjugate people with more melanin; who had stayed in the ancestral home of Africa and who held tightly to the original shamanistic, primordial religion. Because they never embraced Babylon in the first place, because they were never a part of that system of exploitation, the Babylon culture hated them throughout history. When we speak of race, we are speaking the language of the oppressor.

We see that by the time of the proto-Christian Book of Revelation, the non-Pauline Jewish author links Rome with the Ancient “Whore” of Babylon. There is a continuum of power that traces from the people in power today, to ancient Rome, back to Babylon. That is why the problems today are the same as they have been for thousands of year; because the problems are created by people and those same people have been in power all along.

The earliest human beings were black. As people spread out all over the world, we see that in colder regions melanin began to decrease. This is the simplest explanation. There were other factors, to be sure, but on the most obvious level, as black people – the only people at the time – migrated in colder regions they stopped producing as much melanin as people in other areas. Melanin is brown. All people who do not have albinism, have melanin to some degree. That is why “white” people are not actually white. This melanin does not simply “tan” when exposed to regular sunlight, it actually increases. We are all the same color. Originally, that color was more concentrated in all people. Naturally, all ancient peoples were thus very dark, what would be considered “black” in the United States today.

Hadar: This would change so much if such knowledge was public, may I ask what writing projects you are undertaking to bring this to the masses, and what works and titles have you completed, or seek to do in the future, that will deal with this and many other aspects of Judaism?

Mikhayah: Right now we are in a preliminary phase of this projects. A builder who has the blueprints knows what must be rebuilt but has only a handful of workers. While he advertises the project to try to get more workers, he will get his hands dirty himself and work side by side those already there. In truth he is just a worker like those who have taken on the task of pushing the project forward. They will do what they can with the numbers they have, knowing that as their work reaches the next phase, they will have gained the appropriate number of workers for that; and then as it reaches the next stage, potential workers will see the building coming into fruition and will be more eager to contribute their efforts. In the mean time the work consists of digging out dirt, plotting the dimensions, laying the rebar to soon pour the cement, and also in advertising the open positions - for more workers - that need filled!

Hadar: How would one go about purchasing your works to get more information?

Mikhayah: Anyone can read more on the websites Hashlamah.org and Fitriyyah.org. There are a number of works that I have written in eBook form. These are for sale because they involve a considerable amount of time and research, as well as a massive debt incurred from years studying at the University level. I plan to continue my studies to the PhD level and perhaps pursuing rabbinic semikhah at some point im yirtzeh ha'Shem. This is for the purposes of authoritatively expressing such ideas to a wider audience, and for the sake of learning more through the process. All of this costs a lot of money. I say this only to explain to someone who might be wondering why I don’t simply post everything online for free, like those articles which I have posted on the aforementioned websites.

Now with that said, there is an irony that people do not tend to read what they get for free. It is strange but think of how many times someone hands you a book to borrow and says “you have to read this.” Usually you put it off, and sometimes may not read it at all! When you spend money on something you are telling not only the person you are buying it from, but also yourself, that you value the knowledge in that material, and that you will seriously examine it. If you don’t value knowledge as much as a CD or DVD then you really don’t value knowledge. With that said, selling these things would not even compensate for the cost of one semester in school, if I added them all up. In other words, money is not the issue, nor the object. Lastly, I should note that if one is genuinely below the poverty line, then they can contact me and we will find a way for them to obtain a copy. If one lives in a country where the exchange rate is much lower, then we can discuss local charities which they can donate to in lieu of payment.

Hadar: One question that often comes up that I get inboxed on from time to time, is the "provable fact" that all human beings genetically (amongst other biological factors, etc.) trace back to Black Africans on the African continent as we now know it, is this contrary to scripture and does it undermine its integrity and value from a scriptural perspective?
Mikhayah: This is a scientific fact. Both the Human Genome Project and the Neanderthal Genome Project have proven that this is the case. The Neanderthal Genome Project has demonstrated that one group which left Africa entered Europe and wiped out the Neanderthal species entirely. There is not one descendant of the Neanderthals left today. This is astonishing, both because it shows us that the emergence of light skin is a more recent phenomenon, and in that it shows that one primary tribal group which left Africa, settling in Europe and in Northern Mesopotamia were, from the beginning, genocidal.

Hadar: Thank you ahki, sometimes race becomes such an important social reality that we forget we are all family (weather we like it or not, sorry folks, lol), your movement I believe is going to change the fact of the Abrahamic religious communities who truly seek to learn, can you tell everyone how they can support your movement? And how they can become members?

Mikhayah: In Kislev 2011 we intend to release the Hashlamah Manifesto: Blueprints of the Messianic Era. This will explain how people can get involved, open a chapter in their area, hold Shabbat services as a Chavurah in their area, and eventually start Synagogues once they have a minyan. Our plans are long term. We are not rushing this. We are interested in people who are in this for the long haul, not people who are going through a phase.

Hadar: Is there anything else you would like to add that perhaps I didn’t get around to?

Mikhayah: Whatever you have been led to ask is what should be asked here. In the future, other things might occur to be asked, and in that time, those will be the appropriate things to be asked. Ha’Shem is in control.

Hadar: Thank you so much again for your time, I know you are very busy man with furthering your studies, family life and such, so this is greatly appreciated, also are others welcome to donate to your cause?

Mikhayah: The notion of charity or Tzadaqah is part of the derekh ha’Yahadut. Once we have set up Synagogues these should be funded through regular donations based on the Torah and Talmudic injunctions related thereto. These should naturally be funded by those who support them and attend them. The Chavurah itself can be supported in such a way, but membership will not be contingent upon people donating a particular dollar amount. If someone wishes to pay tithing (ma`aser kesafim) or fulfill the Talmudic chomesh, we approach this in the way of the historical `Issuniyim Jews: one fifth donation of income beyond their necessities. For some this might be $20, for some it might be $2, for some it might be none at all. Either way, money is not the way we are asking people to get involved. We are asking people to get involved through action.

Furthermore, it should be stressed that in day to day life, we should all be giving tzadaqah to those who are poorer than us. Even if we think we are poor, if we see a person with less than us who asks us for help then we should give something to them, even a dollar. We should always keep at least one dollar on us that is reserved for anyone who asks for it. We should not judge them or ask ourselves whether they will use it on alcohol or drugs. We should trust in Ha’Shem that they have been brought to our path for a reason and we must rise to the occasion.

With regards to me personally, people can show their support through purchasing ebooks and through booking me to teach Internal Martial Arts seminars in their area. I can be contacted directly for more information.

Hadar: Great. It has been a pleasure my brother, please keep up the good work!

Mikhayah: The pleasure is mine achi. Take care and stay safe. As it is almost Erev Shabbat, I leave you with the greeting and blessing of Shabbat Shalom uMevorakh!