Tired Girl

Lying here in bed, it's really quiet except for the whirr of the computer, and Lola snoring. The Picture above is of my Cousins..my first cousins...who I love with all of my heart! It's Sunday morning. Today we are going shopping once again and then wrapping up some gifts later I would presume. Then after Christmas..and Hanukkah is January and my cousins Wedding. The wedding shower, is in a couple of weeks. I think about my family, and I love everyone.

I am Jewish. I married a Catholic. My children are Catholic by baptism, but Jewish by blood, it goes by the mother. Well my Aunt...my mother's sister married a Muslim.
So we have Jewish, Catholic and Islam all within our family. I think that is amazing. My first cousins are practicing Islam, the religion of Muslims. In the Jewish faith, the blood line is passed down from the mother, in the Muslim faith it is the father. So my beautiful first cousins are Muslim.

I am so intrigued with the faith, with all faiths actually. The common thread is God, Allah, Adonai, or many other names that Judaism may refer to as "God".

I listen to the stories my Uncle tells within the Qur'an. The Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam. He told me about how God took the earth from all over the world and created man. How, from that different colored earth man was made, which would help us to understand why we come in so many colors, and there are many differences in how we look. He told me of the many prophets within, Noah, Jesus, Mohammad. Muslims believe in only one God, which translated from Arabic is Allah. They believe in only one God, and Mohammad is his messenger. The Qur'an describes many Biblical prophets and messengers as Muslim: Adam, Noah (Arabic: Nuh), Moses (Arabic: Mūsā) and Jesus (Arabic: ˤĪsā) and his apostles. The Qur'ān states that these men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached his message and upheld his values. Thus, in Surah 3:52 of the Qur'ān, Jesus’ disciples tell Jesus, "We believe in God; and you be our witness that we submit and obey (wa ashahadu bil-muslimūna)."

I talk with him in great detail about Judaism. Judaism presents itself as the covenential relationship between the Children of Israel (later, the Jewish nation) and God. As such, many consider it the first monotheistic religion although many aspects of Judaism correspond to Western concepts of ethics and civil law. Judaism is among the oldest religious traditions still being practised today, and many of its texts and traditions are central to other Abrahamic religions. As such, Jewish history and the principles and ethics of Judaism have influenced various other religions, including Christianity and Islam.

Followers of Judaism are called Jews, and while Judaism is open to converts, the Jewish collective is regarded as an ethno-religious group, for reasons derived from the sacred texts that define them as a nation, rather than followers of a faith. In 2007, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13.2 million people, 41% of whom lived in Israel.

In modern Judaism, central authority is not vested in any single person or body, but in sacred texts, religious law, and learned Rabbis who interpret those texts and laws. According to Jewish tradition, Judaism begins with the Covenant between God and Abraham (ca. 2000 BCE), the patriarch and progenitor of the Jewish nation. Throughout the ages, Judaism has adhered to a number of religious principles, the most important of which is the belief in a single, omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent, transcendent God, who created the universe and continues to govern it. According to Jewish tradition, the God who created the world established a covenant with the Israelites and their descendants, and revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. Judaism has traditionally valued Torah study and the observance of the commandments recorded in the Torah and as expounded in the Talmud.

So one of the differences between the Religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity is that the Jews believe that they have been regarded as an ethno-religious group. This defines followers of Judaism as nation, not a follower of faith. In Islam, the prophet Mohammad was the interpreter of the word of God. In Christianity it is Christ, who spoke the word of God. Historically, Judaism has considered belief in the divine revelation and acceptance of the Written and Oral Torah as its fundamental core belief, but Judaism does not have a centralized authority dictating religious dogma.

Christianity (from the word Xριστός "Christ") is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. Its followers, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God and the Messiah (Christ) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (the part of scripture common to Christianity and Judaism). To Christians, Jesus Christ is a teacher, the model of a virtuous life, the revealer of God, as well as an incarnation of God, and most importantly the savior of humanity who suffered, died, and was resurrected to bring about salvation from sin. Christians maintain that Jesus ascended into heaven, and most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, granting everlasting life to his followers. Christians call the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel ("good news") and hence label the written accounts of his ministry as gospels.

Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion. Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the eastern Mediterranean, quickly grew in size and influence over a few decades, and by the 4th century had become the dominant religion within the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, most of the remainder of Europe was christianized, with Christians also being a (sometimes large) religious minority in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of India. Following the Age of Discovery, through missionary work and colonization, Christianity spread to the Americas and the rest of the world.

Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization at least since the 4th century. As of the early 21st century, Christianity has between 1.5 billion and 2.1 billion adherents, representing about a quarter to a third of the world's population.

So what does this have to do with Breast Cancer? Well, I am Jewish by blood. I do not know if my ancestors were Ashkenazi Jews. Ashkenazi Jews have a higher breast cancer rate. They are genetically different. Their DNA is different...Both the extent and location of the maternal ancestral deme from which the Ashkenazi Jewry arose remain obscure. Using complete sequences of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, it shows that close to one-half of Ashkenazi Jews, estimated at 8,000,000 people, can be traced back to only four women carrying distinct mtDNAs that are virtually absent in other populations, with the important exception of low frequencies among non-Ashkenazi Jews. We conclude that four founding mtDNAs, likely of Near Eastern ancestry, underwent major expansion(s) in Europe within the past millennium.

Although in the 11th century they comprised only 3% of the world's Jewish population, Ashkenazi Jews accounted for (at their highest) 92% of the world's Jews in 1931 and today make up approximately 80% of Jews worldwide. Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. The majority of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Ashkenazim, Eastern Ashkenazim in particular. This is especially true in the United States, where 6 out of the 7 million American Jewish population — the largest Jewish population in the world when consistent statistical parameters are used— is Ashkenazi, representing the world's single largest concentration of Ashkenazim.

That was one of the first questions my oncologist asked me? Are you Ashkenazi? I didn't know the answer. I may never know the answer. I know my family was from Germany....German Jews...before that...I don't know..

Specific abnormalities in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are more commonly found in Ashkenazi Jewish women. Ashkenazi Jews have ancestors from Central or Eastern Europe.

About 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews — with or without breast cancer — has a genetic mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2. In one study of more than 5,300 Ashkenazi Jewish men and women (New England Journal of Medicine, May 15, 1997), 120 people (2.3%) had one of the three specific abnormalities in BRCA1 and BRCA2 known to be associated with a higher risk of breast cancer.

A more recent study (Journal of the American Medical Association, December 26, 2007) of more than 3,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer looked at the risk of abnormal BRCA1 genes in different ethnicities. The results showed:

8.3% of Ashkenazi Jewish women had an abnormal BRCA1 gene.

So I could be of Ashkenazi decent, and I probably am. I probably won't get the genetic testing for the BRCA1. Then my insurance company can be sticky with me...

So in my life, my faith, my family....I have so much. So much to be thankful for...so much to be amazed by..and so much religion surrounding me..that all leads to just one source.... GOD...

LTA,

Stacy