This page is about the firstborn son of Moses. For the son of Levi, see Gershon.

According to the Bible, Gershom (Hebrew: גֵּרְשֹׁם, Modern Gershom Tiberian Gēršōm ; "a sojourner there"; Latin: Gersam) was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah.^[1] The name appears to mean a sojourner there (גר שם ger sham), which the text argues was a reference to Moses' flight from Egypt; biblical scholars regard the name as being essentially the same as Gershon,^[2] and it is Gershom rather than Gershon who is sometimes listed by the Book of Chronicles, as a founder of one of the principal Levite factions.^[3] Textual scholars attribute the description of Gershom to a different source text to the genealogy involving Gershon.^[4]

The passage in Exodus concerning Moses and Zipporah reaching an inn, contain four of the most ambiguous and awkward sentences in Biblical text; the text appears to suggest that something, possibly God or an angel, attacks either Gershom or Moses, until a circumcision is carried out by Zipporah on whichever of the two men it was that was being attacked.^[5]

The later Books of Chronicles identify Shebuel as being one of Gershom's "son"s,^[6] though this is anachronistic for a literal interpretation of the bible, since Shebuel is described as living in the time of King David. The Hebrew word son, can also mean a descendant, for example even remote descendants of King David are in many instances called "Sons of David" in the original Hebrew.

Priestly connections[link]

This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. Please help clarify the article; suggestions may be found on the talk page. (February 2009)

Although certain passages of the Bible, which textual scholars ascribe to the Priestly Source, assert that it is only the Aaronim who were legitimate priests, biblical scholars believe that the priesthood was originally open to members of any tribe,^[7] and that the restriction to Aaronim was purely an Aaronim invention, opposed by authors such as the Deuteronomist.^[8] Aaronim claimed descent from Aaron - Moses' brother, and hence any immediate descendant of Moses would not be an Aaronim.

The possibility that the story of Micah's Idol refers to immediate descendants of Moses being priests is taken by biblical scholars as a demonstration that the Aaronim-only restriction was originally not present in the Israelite priesthood. One of the accounts of Micah's idol refers to a priest as being a sojourner there (גר שם),^[9] which could alternatively be taken as stating that the priest was indeed Gershom (גרשם). The accounts of Micah's idol also include reference to a Jonathan son of Gershom as being a priest,^[10] and although the masoretic text seems to avoid the implication that non-Aaronim could be priests by describing this particular Gershom as a son of Manasseh (מנשה), this appears to have been distorted; the letter nun (נ) appears here in superscript, suggesting that the text originally described this Gershom as the one that was a son of Moses ^[11] (משה).

References[link]

For the Canadian football player of the same name see Terry Baker (Canadian football).

Terry Wayne Baker (born May 5, 1941) is a former quarterback for the Oregon State University football team. He played for them through the 1960-1962 seasons. He is most notable for winning the 1962 Heisman Trophy and playing the Final Four in the NCAA Basketball Tournament in the same school year. To date, he is the only person to have both won a Heisman Trophy and played in the Final Four.^[1]

Baker was born May 5, 1941 in Pine River, Minnesota. He attended Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon and was a standout three-sport athlete for the Democrats.

Baker was a three-year letterwinner in basketball, and led the Democrats to the Portland Interscholastic League city championship his senior year.

Baker was also a great baseball player. He earned a letter all four years of high school in baseball and led his team to the 1959 Oregon School Activities Association state championship.

Football, however, was Baker's most dominant sport. Baker played quarterback and tailback for the Democrats. In his junior and senior seasons, the Democrats were 23-0 and won two Oregon State Athletic Association state championships. As a senior, he threw for 1,261 yards and ran for 438 yards.

Baker played as a point guard on the Oregon State basketball team. Baker also chose to play football after coming to Oregon State. He played football for Oregon State from 1960 through 1962. During that season, he threw for 3,476 yards and 23 touchdowns. He also ran for 1503 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Baker earned a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering at OSU in 1963.

Heisman Trophy[link]

On November 27, 1962, it was announced that Baker was the winner of the Heisman Trophy for his achievements during the 1962 season. He was the first person to win the Heisman Trophy west of Texas and the only player ever to win from the Pacific Northwest. In addition to winning the Heisman in 1962, he also won the Maxwell Award and the W.J. Voit Memorial Trophy, was a consensus first team All-American, was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, was a Helms Foundation Award recipient, and was the winner of 14 player of the year awards, including the AP, UPI, and The Sporting News. He was also part of the All-Star team in the 1963 College All-Star Game, the last time the All-Star team would ever defeat the reigning NFL champions.

Professional career[link]

After graduation, Baker entered the 1963 NFL Draft and was the first overall pick, by the Los Angeles Rams.^[2][3] Baker played with the Rams for 3 seasons, and later played for the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL while earning a J.D. at the University of Southern California Law School.

Legacy[link]

Baker was inducted into the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1980, the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and the Oregon State University Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. Oregon State has retired his #11 football jersey.

Baker's 99-yard run against Villanova in the Liberty Bowl remains an NCAA record, and because the ball can never start from the goal line, the record can never be broken, only tied. He is currently a retired lawyer living in Portland, Oregon.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Terry Baker at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Terry Baker at the Heisman Trophy

Yonassan Gershom
Born	Berkeley, California
Residence	Sandstone, Minnesota
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Minnesota State University, Mankato
Occupation	Rabbi and writer
Known for	Reincarnation research
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Caryl Gershom

Yonassan Gershom is a Rabbi and writer who was ordained in the Jewish Renewal movement during the 1980s and is now a follower of Breslov Hasidism. He was associated with the early days of the B'nai Or movement, a forerunner of Jewish Renewal, in which he was ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 1986,^[1] although he is not in agreement with the direction that the movement has taken in more recent years ^[2]

Gershom lives on a farm in rural Minnesota, where he writes and conducts his ministry as a "cyber-rabbi" on the Internet.^[3] In 1997 he made a pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine, a trip that has strongly influenced his later writings. Until this point, "he wasn't aware how much the rural experience shaped Hasidism. It gave him a deeper understanding of Hasidic stories and the Torah."^[4] He serves on the Advisory Board of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) and is active in the vegetarian and animal welfare movements.^[5]

Gershom is best known for having written several books on the topic of the Holocaust and reincarnation. Beyond the Ashes and From Ashes to Healing recount stories of people who claim to have died in the Holocaust and are now reincarnated,^[6] while Jewish Tales of Reincarnation deals with Jewish accounts of reincarnation, including a few from the Holocaust but mostly others from classical Jewish texts and oral tradition.

In his books on reincarnation, he discusses theories concerning whether Jews who died in the Holocaust did so as punishment for their sins in their previous lives. He argues that in the Jewish conception of evil and reincarnation (as opposed to the conception found in some other religions), suffering in this life is not necessarily punishment for wrong-doing in a previous life. Rather, he argues, undeserved suffering in this life can be purely due to the wrong-doing of the perpetrators and not some punishment for the victims.^[7] He does, however, argue that, according to the Jewish concept, wickedness can be accumulated over a succession of reincarnations. Thus, he argues, it is possible that the Nazis committed the Holocaust due to the evil they had accumulated through many lifetimes of persecuting and killing Jews throughout the preceding centuries. He speculates that Adolf Hitler might have been a reincarnation of the biblical Amalek.^[8]

Gershom has appeared on several TV programs in connection with his reincarnation work, including Sightings^[9] and Unexplained Mysteries. The Duluth, Minnesota PBS station, WDSE, also featured him on their Venture North news magazine show in connection with his philosophy on gardening and Jewish spirituality.^[10] He appears in the 2007 documentary film, A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal the World, directed by Lionel Friedberg for the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA).

Although he is best known for his books on reincarnation, Gershom is also a lifelong pacifist and peace activist, who has written many articles on Judaism and nonviolence, later collected into an anthology entitled Eight Candles of Consciousness. He was active in the peace movement in Minneapolis during the 1980s, and publicly protested against the policies of Meir Kahane.^[11] He is also a supporter of gay rights. ^[12] He graduated from Mankato State University in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in German language and Native American Studies.

Publications[link]

On reincarnation:

• Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust, A.R.E. Press, 1992. (ISBN 0876042930)
• From Ashes to Healing: Mystical Encounters with the Holocaust, A.R.E. Press, 1996. (ISBN 0876043406)
• Jewish Tales of Reincarnation, Jason Aronson, Inc., 2000. (ISBN 0765760835)
• Are Holocaust Victims Returning?" ebook anthology of articles on reincarnation reprinted from various periodicals, 2007.

On other topics

• 49 Gates of Light: Kabbalistic Meditations for Counting the Omer, Crown Point Enterprises, Minneapolis, 1987, reprinted as 49 Gates of Light: a course in kabbalah, Lulu Press, Inc. 2010.
• "Shamanism in the Jewish Tradition," included in Nicholson, Shirley (ed.), Shamanism: An Expanded View of Reality, Quest Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1996.
• "The Peace Stone" included in Seeing the Light: Personal Encounters with the Middle East and Islam, Curtis, Richard H. and McMahon, Janet (eds.), American Educational Trust, Washington DC, 1997.
• Eight Candles of Consciousness: Essays on Jewish Nonviolence, Lulu Press, Inc. Raleigh, NC, 2009. (ISBN 978-0-557-04922-6)
• Jewish Themes in Star Trek, Lulu Press, Inc. Raleigh, NC, 2009. (ISBN 978-0-557-04800-7)
• Two dialogues with him on animal rights issues in Judaism ("Raising Holy Sparks: Hasidic Thought and Vegetarianism" and "A Dialogue on Nature Deficit Disorder") are included in Who Stole My Religion?: Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet by Richard H. Schwartz, Lulu Press, Inc. Raleigh, NC, 2011. (ISBN 978-1-105-33646-1)
• Work-in-progress: Notes from a Jewish Naturalist

External links[link]

• His FAQ on Reincarnation and the Holocaust
• Multicultural Aspects of Reincarnation Studies by Yonassan Gershom. Text of a presentation at the National Institute for Discovery Science in 1997.
• What B'nai Or was like in the Old Days: A Memoir by Yonassan Gershom -- Personal account of his participation in Rabbi Zalman Schachter's B'nai Or movement in the 1970s and 80s, and his later disenchantment.
• A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Heal the World, homepage for this documentary film, which includes interview footage with Yonassan Gershom. You can also view the entire film on YouTube.
• Journey to Uman - his account of his pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov with the Breslov Research Institute in 1997.
• Antisemitic Stereotypes in Alice Bailey's Writings, online essay about anti-Semitism in the philosophy of Alice Bailey, retrieved 8-22-07.
• "The Soul of Every Living Thing," a 5-minute video from the Shamayim v'Aretz Institute, featuring Yonassan Gershom speaking on nature and animals, viewable on YouTube

references[link]