The question was asked..''Is there a possibility that the Kali or Arnis of the philippines originated or influence even in Part,by the Hebrew Martial arts? Is the a time in the past where the habannis did some trading on the philippine shore also?'' Taken from a thread just below. See the Aluph Abir's answer:
Kali means instrument or tool or weapon in Hebrew and this game is mentioned in the Mishna (kelim 24/a) in the commentary of Rabi Ovadia of Bartanura. What was originally a death-match with a short sword and a small round shield was practiced with a stick and later the shield was replaced by a second stick due to the availability of sticks as opposed to the shields which were more difficult to fashion. Stick fighting was the preferred weapon of self defense on the Sabbath in ancient Israel as most Israelite fighters were confident that they could defend themselves with a stick against sword or spear and frowned on killing an attacker such as a robber on the Sabbath. Stick fighting prowess among the Hebrew people was developed while in Egypt when the Egyptian generation that no longer knew Yosef began to fear their own bodyguards who were traditionally Hebrews and made possession of a sword a punishable offense. The Hebrews then began to train to retain their fencing skills with bamboo reeds called kneysuf. The game mentioned in the Mishna was called kUNFUN which became the root for the word campaign which was a military term as the Greeks and Romans came and observed these techniques when they came to Israel. The stick fighting techniques of Israel did not come from Habban to the Philippines but rather migrated to the Jewish community of Spain when Rabbi Shmuel Hanagigd became the Spanish warlord to the king and introduced Jewish stick fighting to their school of military science. The practice of such stick fighting mixed with wresting techniques called havkuth w L'hakoth (meaning to wrestle and thrash) , like the ''Egyptian'' version called Hakuta'' was brought to the Philippines. I once heard a Kali guru say that his family tradition was exactly that this art was brought to Spain by the Jews and that Jews among the Spanish who arrived in the Philippines introduced this art to the locals. Aluph Abir-Qesheth Hebrew Warrior Arts
