The Ten "Lost Tribes" Are Not Lost to Hashem

14 Menachem Av 5779

Someone once asked me how I decide what to write about.  Usually, in the course of reviewing my mail and the events of the day, something will leap up and grab hold of both my heart and my mind.  Something will cause my heart to be stirred with emotion and my mind to go wild with thoughts.  Then, I have to write and I have to write pretty much immediately, or I lose that inspiration.  If I delay, I will lose the momentum and whatever it was will simply never get written.  Not by me anyway.  That has happened to me a few times.  And if I don't post for a few days, it is because nothing inspired me.

Additionally, if something is "confirmed by two witnesses", i.e. two sources appear with the same information, I take that as a very strong indicator that it is an important and timely issue that needs to be addressed.   I believe this comes from Above and I try to be Hashem's obedient servant and put myself at His disposal.  Oftentimes, in the course of the writing, a piece will end up in a totally different place from where I started out and from where I thought it was actually going.

This morning, I received an off-topic comment to my latest blog post.  And then, when I opened Youtube to see the MSNBC newscast from last night, to listen to it as I made bread for the day, a video was "suggested" by Youtube about the Ten Lost Tribes.  That off-topic comment had also been about the Ten Lost Tribes, so I put it on to listen to as I kneaded my dough.  Following are the thoughts that occurred to me.

First of all, let me hasten to affirm that the prophecies of the Tanach indeed confirm that the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel will return at the End of Days.  They have never been "Lost" to HKB"H.  And He has the ability to keep these lines intact throughout history so that the descendants can make an actual physical return.  But, most importantly, they will not only return physically.  They will return spiritually, which as we know, in Hebrew, that "return" is called teshuvah.  The sin that got them exiled in the first place was a love of idolatry.  The returning descendants representing the Ten Lost Tribes will be especially sensitive to anything having to do with idolatry.

That aforementioned comment claimed, in part, that "a significant number of the christians are lost Israelites."  Of course, he focuses on Western Christianity, the US in particular.  Such is the teaching of a few groups among Evangelical Christians calling themselves variously, Bnei Yosef, Ephraimites, etc., because they, to their thinking, of course, make  up the largest and most prominent tribe, none claim descent from any of the other nine.

They've gone so far as to hold conferences in Israel and to have petitioned receptive Jewish leaders to their cause.  The basis of their theology is this: Western Christians have brought Jewish ritual and Hebrew terms into their worship, calling it their "return to Torah."  Thus they claim to rectified their original sin.  But, they say, "Judah" must also "repent" by, not only welcoming them back as complete brothers, just on their say-so, but by acknowledging that Yeshu was and is the Messiah in accordance with traditional Christian belief. These are unrepentant Christians missionizing by other means.

I would certainly agree that SOME Western Christians are assuredly descendants of the Lost Tribes who are in the process of their return and many, if not most, or even all of them pass from the church through so-called Messianic 'Judaism' and even by the Conservative or Reform movements before reaching conversion k'halachah under Orthodox auspices and in order to complete their return to Am Yisrael.

But, as Simcha Jacobovici proves in his documentary "Quest For The Lost Tribes," the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes are coming out of Christianity all over the world!  However, what separates all these people - those with a valid claim - from the pretenders or the insincere is that they throw Yeshu away like he is a smelly bag of excrement and they make no demands, demonstrating a willingness to submit themselves to the authority of the rabbis and humbling themselves to undergo a kosher conversion which is the ONLY way to return in truth and sincerity.

Some Jewish proponents of the search for the Lost Tribes rhapsodize about how many multiple millions of people this could bring to Am Yisrael, but, as tragically happened in the Holocaust when only one or maybe two representatives of a family survived, in this mass "return," only representative numbers will come, not everyone.  As the Yirmiyahu HaNavi (2.14, 18) said:

Return, backsliding children, says the Lord, for I possessed you, and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ...In those days, the house of Judah will go with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the north land to the land that I caused your forefathers to inherit.

Only HKB"H knows who is who for sure.  Anyone wanting to (re)join Bnei Yisrael must completely and unequivocally renounce idolatry and false messiahs and convert k'halachah.  When Eliyahu HaNavi arrives, he will reveal to which tribe each of us belongs.

Until then, this is for whomever needs to hear this message today.