AboutEli Hadar Expertise If you are a Jewish person who has been approached by missionaries and who is considering leaving the Jewish faith, please let me know and I will help you see how beautiful and moreover how right the Jewish religion is. Don't leave the truth of your fathers before you resolve the facts for yourself, and I can help you on that journey.
Experience I have been involved in counter-missionary activity for several years, counseling many Jews who have left or have considered leaving Judaism having been attracted by other religions. I have been able to show the truth to these people through the correct reading of the texts (vs. deliberately wrong translations used by missionaries), through showing how missionaries manipulate the Jewish scriptures to achieve their goals, and through helping you rediscover the beauty and truth of authentic Judaism.
Organizations Chabad synagogue in Atlanta
Education/Credentials Largely self-taught, I still am and will be learning for a long, long time. I have educated myself through a wealth of resources, including Nachmanides' Disputation, Hyam Maccoby's writings on Christianity and Judaism, as well as such vast resources as Outreach Judaism, Torah Atlanta, and a great number of others.
Question Was Solomon Cushitic. In Songs Of Solomon (chptr 1) He says that he was Black and that the sun hath touched him.(tanned)
Answer Cush was a son of Ham, Shem's brother, as his lineage is given to us clearly in Genesis 10:6:
6. And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.
Solomon was the son of David and his lineage traces to Shem - therefore not to Cush - in Genesis chapter 11 as follows: Shem begot Arpachshad, who begot Shelah, who begot Eber, who begot Peleg, who begot Reu, who begot Serug (verse 21) who begot Nahor (verse 22) who begot Terah (verse 24) who begot Abram verse 26). Abram later becomes Abraham and is a progenitor of the entire Jewish nation.
The genealogy from Abraham to David is also entirely traceable: Abraham - Isaak - Jacob - Judah - Perez - Hezron - Aram - Amminadab - Nahshon - Salmon - Boaz - Obed - Jesse - David.
Solomon was a son of David and therefore was not descended from Cush.
Even if you take the Song of Songs literally (which is a mistake of 100% of non-Jewish people who read it), the narrator appears to be female:
1. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.
2. "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.
3. Because of the fragrance of your goodly oils, your name is 'oil poured forth.' Therefore, the maidens loved you.
4. Draw me, we will run after you; the king brought me to his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you. We will recall your love more fragrant than wine; they have loved you sincerely.
5. I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem! Like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
6. Do not look upon me [disdainfully] because I am swarthy, for the sun has gazed upon me; my mother's sons were incensed against me; they made me a keeper of the vineyards; my own vineyard I did not keep.
The "I am black" passage is not speaking of the inherent skin color; as the next verse suggests, "the sun has gazed upon me" - meaning the outer influence made the skin dark, and by staying in the shade it will lighten.
Rashi comments:
The allegory is that the congregation of Israel says to the nations: I am black in my deeds, but I am comely in the deeds of my ancestors, and even some of my deeds are comely. If I am guilty of the iniquity of the [Golden] Calf, I can counter it with the merit of the acceptance of the Torah (Song Rabbah). He calls the nations the daughters of Jerusalem because she [Jerusalem] is destined to become the metropolis for them all, as Ezekiel prophesied (16:61): “and I shall give them to you for daughters.”
So again - tanned isn't Black, and Solomon was not Cushitic, and Solomon wrote the Song of Songs but the person (or entity) to whom the words are attributed are not his, similar to when Shakespeare writes the words of King Lear, he is having King Lear speak the words and not himself.
