The Land of Edom AKA Idumea, Enemies of Jews and Why

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Mentioned in Gen.33:14;  Num. 24:18

In the southeast section of Israel was a country called Mount Seir, otherwise known as EDOM or IDUMEA.    It was in the mountains and easily fortified.  The land was most fertile.  EDOM was south of the Dead Sea and bordered on the Red Sea at Elath and Ezion Geber.
                                                                     

Esau and Jacob, twins of Isaac

The Edomites were Semitic people, traditionally the descendants of Esau who was the oldest twin of Isaac, twin brother of Jacob. Evidently they were not identical twins.   When they grew up, they became enemies even though they were twins.  Though born minutes apart, Esau was born first and claimed the right of the first born inheritance.  Jacob managed to get it instead, by trickery,  angering Esau, of course.   What Jacob had done was to approach Esau when he was very hungry after a hunt and had bought Esau's birthright from him in exchange for a mess of pottage.   Their mother, Rebekah also showed her favoritism by helping Jacob to trick Isaac when he was blind and dying into thinking that he had given his birthright to Esau.  It was Jacob who later struggled with an angel and by overcoming him, was given the new name of ISRAEL.   This was the way this story explains by such symbolism the relationship between the 2 nations which became hostile to each other.  The Talmud speaks of Esau with villainy and violence which indeed, Jacob's tricking Esau had brought out.  Anger and retribution knows no end as we see today.

These mountain Edomites lived by hunting.  They were stronger than the Horite people, who were there before the Edomites took the land over, and so organized themselves along tribal lines with a chieftain they called the Allooph.  This arrangement later consolidated like other people into a monarchy.  (An Israeli general is called an Aluf in Hebrew.)

Thus, the Edomites became the traditional enemies of the Israelites.  They fought King Saul and were defeated by David who annexed much of their land.  They regained their independence during the reign of Jehoram (853-843 BCE)   This was after King Solomon had died and Jehoram was the 9th king after Solomon's death in 920 BCE.  However, wars between the 2 state were frequent.
                                                                           

Assyrians leading away captive Israelites of 10 of their tribes

By the 8th century BCE, the Edomites were vassals of Assyria who would attack northern Israel in 722-721  BCE and take the best of the men and women as captives.  This is the time Israel lost 10 of their 12 tribes.
                                                                             

At the time of the destruction of the 1st Temple in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian,  they also plundered and looted along with the Babylonians all the gold and silver from the Temple.  They probably aided and abetted them in their thievery and destruction.
                                                                             

Judeans return from Babylon to Jerusalem 

They got their upcoming by being driven from their home on the mountain by the Nabateans, forcing them to occupy southern Judah during or after the period of the Exile of Judeans in Babylon. Taken there in 586 BCE, many Judeans were able to return in 538 BCE, making their kidnapping last for 48 years.
                                                                       

Nehemiah (5th century BCE), famous for his writings, had to teach  the people about their
religion and get them to rebuild the Temple. He became the governor of Judah.

The Edomites were then conquered by John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE) son and successor of Simon the Hasmonean who had become the ruler and  who forcibly converted them to Judaism, and from then on they were part of the Jewish people.  John  became a high priest.  It was John's sons defeated the Samaritans and gained control of Bet Shean and part of the Valley of Jezreel.  Only his last years of rule had become tranquil.
                                                                           
HEROD was one of the Edomite descendants and had died in 48 CE.  During Titus' siege of Jerusalem (79-81 CE), they marched in to reinforce the extreme elements by killing all they suspected of having peace tendencies.  Titus, the Roman emperor was the son of Vespasian, the Roman Emperor 69-79 CE. .  He had taken over command of the Roman army in Judea from his father in 70 CE when they destroyed the 2nd Temple.  This happened after a 5 month siege.  The destruction of the Temple was deliberate an done in hoping to eliminate the Jews' national religion and center of the religion.
                                                                     

His mistress was Bernice, who was also his niece and  a Jewish princess.  Thereafter, they stopped figuring in Jewish history.  The name EDOM in our Talmud is a synonym for an oppressive government, especially Rome which was the worst.  This was replaced by the Middle Ages and was applied to Christian Europe.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tankakh (Old Testament)

The Tribe of Dan and What Happened to the 10 Lost Tribes?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

                                                                                 

Samson, our strongest man,  was from the tribe of Dan.  He was one of the Israelite judges, son of Manoah. He was born before Saul of the tribe of Benjamin  became a king which was in the 11th century BCE.   He was a Nazirite from birth, meaning for one thing that he was not to cut his hair or drink any alcoholic beverage.  His hair was where he got his strength and courage and was capable of doing feats against the Philistines.  Delilah, his love, a woman of the Valley of Sorek (grapes ?) , deceived him and told the Philistines where his strength came from,  for a price.1100 pieces of silver.  She then cut his hair for them.  The Philistines held a festival in Gaza where they mocked him by having him, now a slave of theirs, to turn the prison mill for them.  He ended his life by destroying the building  and killing everyone there, including himself.
                                                                         

The movie, Samson and Delilah came out in 1949 with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. This certainly immortalizes the pair.

The twelve tribes of Jacob were from 4 mothers, the sisters Leah and Rachel and their handmaids.    Dan was Jacob's 5th son and his mother was Bilhah, the handmaid of beautiful Rachel, Jacob's first love.  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun were the sons of Leah, daughter of Laban.   Joseph and Benjamin were the sons of Rachel.   Dan and Naphtali were the sons of Bilhah,  and Gad and Asher were the sons of Zilpah, handmaiden of Leah. Gad had developed  a warlike reputation.   This made up Jacob's  12 sons. Dinah, daughter of Leah, was the only daughter.

Moses conferred the priestly office on the tribe of Levi. This meant that Levi would not receive any land as they were to be teachers and would travel to each tribe and live there while teaching.   To maintain the number of tribes receiving territory at 12, which was a sacred number,  he divided the tribe of Joseph into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's 2 sons.  Joseph was the son who had been kidnapped and taken away to Egypt where he rose in status to have a very high commission and be working just under the Pharaoh.  He had remained in Egypt.  The Levites must have been divided up between the Empires of Israel and Judah- the North and the South.

After the conquest of Canaan, Dan was allotted a portion south of Jaffa (today joined with Tel Aviv) , but was forced back into the hill country by the Amorites, and only a part of the tribe remained in the coastal region.  The greater part of Dan was forced to migrate northward where it eventually wrested from the Phoenicians a settlement area around Laish (Judg. 8:27-9)  On the map above it is shown as the farthest north in brown.  It is also mentioned in the MAR1 tablets( or Leshem (Jos. 19:47), the name of which became Dan.  The Danites had been expelled from their original inheritance by the Amorites so moved on to the sources of the Jordan River.  "The tribe of Dan  was one to be the avenger of his people.  Dan would be the snake that bites those that would come to harm his people."

Under Joshua's division of Canaan, Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh received territory in what was later called Transjordan, now just Jordan.  .  Naphtali and Asher were placed on the Sidonian frontier in the Galilee.  Issachar and Zebulun were settled in the Valley of Jezereel area.  Ephraim and the other half of Manasseh were to live in the mountains of Samaria with Benjamin to their south. and Judah even further south.  So Dan was to live basically along the seacoast around Jaffa and Simeon was placed in the Negev.

The rest of the tribe of Dan's   existence grew serious after the arrival of the Philistines.  Samson was a hero of the tribe.  The period of Saul and David helped.  The northern part of Dan was the site of a temple (Judg. 18:26-30) at which the descendants of Manasseh or Moses acted as priests.  This became one of the chief cult centers in the kingdom of Ephraim, and Jeroboam erected it it the image of a calf to deflect worshippers from the sanctuary at Jerusalem.

Some other tribes also didn't succeed in occupying the entire areas assigned to them.  Simeon seized further land in Seir and the territory of the Amalekites, a tribe of Caanan especially hateful of the Israelites who treated them horribly when they came through on the Exodus.  It is said that Haman in Persia much have been from the Amalekites, and possibly Hitler was, too.

Dan was captured by Ben Hadad of Syria during the rule of Baasha around 900 BCE .They would have been the closest tribe to Syria.

This tribal division of the land was maintained under the period of the Judges, but King Solomon (961-920 BCE)  changed the format of the division of land to suit his administration.

When King Solomon died, the land of Israel split into 2 halves with the southern half going to the tribe of Judah and Simeon, sons of Jacob and Leah,  and most of the tribe of Benjamin, son from Jacob and Rachel.  So Jews of today come from these 3 tribes.  

Then, in 732 BCE, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser invaded and took away people of Israel in the north  as slaves.  While the state of Judah was crippled from the loss of warriors, in 721-715 BCE the King Sargon of Assyria also attacked and took away more people as slaves.  In all, 10 tribes had been exiled from the northern kingdom of Israel.  The kidnapped population had gone mostly to Assyria, of course, but also had been sold to Media and the lands neighboring  Aram-Naharaim.

Our 10 Lost Tribes to us were mourned.  This weakened the southern kingdom of Judah who were then attacked by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BCE   and many were exiled.

An Israeli communal settlement at the foot of Mt Hermon near the source of the River Dan was founded by pioneers of Romanian origin in 1939.  It withstood a heavy Syrian attack in the War of Independence in 1948.  Their population in 1990 was 554.  Nearby is a tel, the site of the biblical city of Dan (Laish) which has been excavated by Avraham Biran.

 Modern Israel has a Soreq Valley and even a Sorek Vineyard (since 1994/5) producing Merlot. Soreq, however, is the grapevine itself in Genesis 49:11, Isaiah 5:2, and Jeremiah 2:21. Samson had been dedicated as a Nazirite, "from the womb to the day of his death"; thus he was forbidden to touch wine or cut his hair.

Ezekiel's prophecies (Ezek. 37:16)  about these northern lost 10 tribes has much importance as it is associated with the final Redemption with the reunion of the whole House of Israel that is to happen in the FINAL DAYS.  There has been reports in many generations of their whereabouts;

1. Eldad Ha-Dani reported them apparently in the mountains of Africa.
2. Benjamin of Tudela heard of them in Central Asia.
3. David Reuveni claimed to be the brother of one of their rulers in some region in Arabia
4. Antonio de Montezinos stimulated Manasseh ben Israel's political activity in  England by his reports that he had found them in South America
5. Shabbetai Tzevi appointed rulers over the various tribes.
6. One story associates them with the Japanese
7.  Votaries of the Anglo-Israel theory place them in the Anglo-Saxon countries. After watching a travel show into Scotland and their food  customs, I would say they had no connection to any lost tribe.  They proudly proclaimed that hunting for their food was the best thing to do and ate bloody meat.  Jews don't.  Whatever traces showing of their connection are usually in the customs, so this doesn't comply.

Actually as a historic fact, some members of the Ten Lost Tribes remained in the land of Israel and Judah,  later after 135 CE to be called Palestine.  Apart from the Samaritans, which is another case, some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population.  Others were assimilated, while still others were presumably absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597-586 were deported to areas adjacent to the place of exile of the Ten Lost Tribes which was Media, Assyria and Mesopotamia.
                                                                         

Bnei Menashe In North East India, in the land mass that lies between Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Bangladesh, there lives a small group of people returning to Judaism

Today Israel is receiving reports and taking in people claiming to be of the lost tribes of Israel, who were surprised to find that others thought them lost, as they knew where they were.  The problem was that the Jews didn't know where they were and could not bring them back.  India's tribe of Menashe, called Bnei Menashe, one of the sons of Joseph, has returned to Israel.  2,000 now live in Israel.  In 2013, 7,000 more were waiting to return. Bnei Menashe are also from Burma (Myanmar) Recently a return to Judaism began. Several thousand people of Menashe decided to observe the laws of the Torah and returned to Judaism. They have synagogues in Manipur, Assam, and Mizoram. There are also those who emigrated to Israel. Thousands long for returning to Israel.

" Several Christian organizations helped bring them home."In fact, the Hebrew prophets said when God gathered His Jewish people back from all the ends of the earth in the last days that there would be Gentiles helping and bringing them back," David Parsons, with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told CBN News."

"India is also home to the Bené Israel, a group whose Jewish bona fides are not in question. India is also home to the Bene Israel, a group whose Jewish DNA is not in question. In fact, markers in DNA samples from the Bene Israel are consistent with descendants of a small group of hereditary Israelite priests or Cohanim—those descended from Moses’ brother Aaron. They now number less than eight thousand (most of them emigrated to Israel in the 1950s), but once, more than thirty thousand Jewish People lived in and around Mumbai (formerly Bombay). "That would be the dna Cohen gene of J1.  "Some associate them with either the tribe of Zebulon or Asher because of their tradition of working as oil pressers and merchants. Others think they are Jews who fled persecution from various Arab governments.

  It is thought that the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan could contain some of the lost tribes as they have a history of descending from Benjamin and Joseph. Some Maasais of Africa claim to be of the lost tribe.  A few have returned.  A group from Burma has as well.

The Lemba tribe of Israel has been found to carry the Cohen gene.  They even believe they have the ark of the covenant.

"Ethiopians have finally convinced Israel's rabbis that they have Jewish roots.  65,000 have moved to Israel, starting in 1974.  They say they are either from the tribe of Dan, or are descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia, who had come for a visit to Jerusalem.  DNA did not turn up any evidence of a Jewish connection, but they have been practicing Judaism up to a point in our ancient history. " They should have a few of Solomon's  genes."  Today those in Israel are having a hard time adjusting, especially with rioting Blacks in the USA on TV bringing out their similar problems of education and position.    

 Anthropologist Shalva Weil of Jerusalem has documented differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Lost Tribes throughout the world.  Dr. Shalva Weil is a Senior Researcher at The Research Institute for Innovation and Education at the Hebrew University. She focuses on Indian Jewry, Ethiopian Jewry, and the Ten Lost Tribes and specializes in qualitative methods, violence, gender, ethnicity, education, religion, and migration.  "Shalva Weil has published widely on the Bene Israel, Cochin Jews, Baghdadi Jews, and the Shinlung (“Bnei Menasseh”)."" Weil has published extensively on the Ten Lost Tribes and in particular, the Beta Israel, the Bene Israel, and the Pathans/Pashtuns, as well as on Judaising groups all over Africa, China and elsewhere. In 1991, she curated an exhibition at Beth Hatefutsoth: the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora on the Ten Lost Tribes entitled "Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes".^[17] She is on the international board of ISSAJ [International Society for the Study of African Jewry]"

Resource:  The New Jewish Encyclopedia p. 254,928-929
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GROcMlaGTA Shalva Weil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioYAjdDALqk Jon Entine
Book:  The Lost Ark of the Covenant by Tudor Parfitt-mentioning the Lemba Tribe in Africa
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/06/found-lost-tribe-of-israel-right-in.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-assyrians-who-carried-away-10.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/12/lost-tribe-of-israel-living-in-india.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/11/india-burmas-lost-menashe-tribe-of.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/can-pashtun-tribe-of-afghanistan-have.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/04/10-lost-tribes-and-what-happened-to.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/01/pashtuns-and-other-lost-10-tribes-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/09/death-bed-prophecy-for-jacobs.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/03/jacobs-twelve-tribes-of-israel-and-how.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/01/claiming-to-be-one-of-lost-10-tribes.html  Maasais
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-finding-israels-lost-ten-tribes-has.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/08/part-iii-lost-ten-tribes-of-israel-and.html
http://www.jewishvoice.org/messianic-education/messianic-vision/lost-tribes-of-israel.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1701071/jewish/Are-the-Ten-Lost-Tribes-Ever-Coming-Back.htm
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/January/Lost-No-More-Bnei-Menashe-Tribe-Returns-to-Israel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes
http://moshiach.com/tribes/ns/2.html
http://www.bneimenashe.com/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalva_Weil

Am Yisrael Chi, The Jewish People Live: Explaining Why We Are Still One People

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                             

        Wall painting found in Egypt, topic of video program about Pharoah Ahmose, now thought to be pharaoh in Exodus, which translated means "brother of Moses" in 1500 BCE.  It used to be thought that Ramses had been the Pharaoh.  The problem is that in the Torah the name of the Pharaoh is not given.

Today's science has discovered genetics.  From this we have found the Cohen gene that identifies the descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses.  They were designated to be Cohens, men with certain responsibilities in their new religion.  These were duties to be carried out in the Temple that would someday be built.  Moses lived in c1391-1271 BCE, or earlier since researchers now believe that the Exodus happened in 1500 BCE.  .  Aaron was a little older than Moses.

 Aaron and Moses both were carrying the Cohen gene, identifying their Y dna haplogroup as J1.  This should be traced back to their father, Amram, and his father, Kohath, and then Levi, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Eber, Shelah, Arpachahad, Shem, and finally-Noah himself.

Therefore, Aaron and Moses were both from the tribe of Levi.  Their ancestor was Jacob, who had 12 sons and Levi was one of them.  Jacob fathered these twelve through 2 wives, Leah and her sister, Rachel.  Each wife had a handmaiden who also bore Jacob sons.  They were Reuben, Simon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, sons of Leah; Gad and Asher, sons of Ziphah the handmaiden, Dan and Naphtali, sons of Bilhah, handmaiden,  and Joseph and Benjamin, sons of Rachel.   Joseph became the Vizier of the Pharaoh of Egypt and did not need to receive a portion of land, so Jacob gave his share to Joseph's 2 sons, Manasseh, who was Joseph's first son by Asenath, and Ephraim.    According to DNA, all 12 of these tribal fathers should be carrying the J1 Cohen gene for their haplogroup.

The 12 tribal fathers went into Egypt at a time of famine in Canaan and didn't come out till 400 years later.  They had become very numerous and this caused them to be taken as slaves and kept until Moses was 80 years old and freed them by marching back to Canaan for 40 years where they established themselves again as their ancestor, Jacob,  had lived there.

All these people had been followers of one g-d, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  This distinguished them from other people of the period.  They were also distinguished by circumcision, started by Abraham  whose tradition was to do this to their male children at the age of 8 days.  Two other sons of the group, Ishmael, first son of Abraham  and Esau, son of Isaac and twin brother of Jacob,  also carried on this tradition of circumcision, but  at the age of 13 years.  They had not followed their fathers but had parted from them to go their separate way.

Moses, son of Jochebed, daughter of Levi,  and Kohath, also a son of Levi, whose son, Amram, was the father of Moses,  wrote the first 5 books of the Bible on his 40 year journey.  Having been born in Egypt to slaves, he had been found in the bulrushes and adopted by the daughter of the Pharaoh, so was raised as a prince and was well educated.  He could read and write among other skills.  So he is credited with writing Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  He established the Mosaic Law and caused the men to be divided into Cohens who were direct descendants of Aaron, Levites for other direct descendants and the others who were to be called Israelites, for that is what Abraham's people were called when they came to the city of Ur, which happens to be in modern day Iraq.

Today many researchers feel that these were the Hyksos that had been ruling Egypt and that the Exodus itself happened in 1500 BCE.  We know that Abraham's Israelites came from the East.  Cohen meant "Priest."  His role was as the chosen holy instrument to mediate between man and G-d.  Originally it seems that every Israelite family head was consecrated to serve as priest with the first-born son who was regarded as the inheritor of his father's house, a position of great power.  This was maintained until after the Exodus when the first-born became suspect as a result of the Golden Calf incident.  The tribe of Levi was selected in their stead.  Most of the Levites were then employed in work connected with the Tabernacle where the family of Aaron became the actual priests responsible for sacrifices, the supervision of hygienic purity, and instructing the people in the Mosaic Law.  The High Priest or Cohen was also responsible for divination through the Urim and Thummim.  The tribe of Levi was excluded from having their own territory and they made their livelihood from contributions of tithing from the others.  The priest received 1/10th of the Levites' tithe and also a portion of the sacrifices offered.  The priesthood was hereditary and they were subject to strict laws regarding contamination by corpses and the choice of a wife.  They wore distinctive clothing in prayer.  To make sure they didn't all live in one area, but were dispersed throughout the territory, special cities were assigned to them in the territories of the other various tribes.  These laws were written down before they ever took Canaan, and evolved differently when the Israelites settled on the land. Knowing you were a Cohen was handed down orally to the children in the family.

The Levites were to be the teachers and helpers of the Cohens.  It also is a hereditary position, as the Cohens are also.  Each family of Levites was assigned specific duties connected with the transport and assembly of the parts of the Tabernacle in the wilderness which was later transferred to duties in the Temple.  After the conquest of Canaan, the Levites were to teach the Torah to the people..  They received 48 towns they were to work in to cover all the territory, so they were traveling teachers.   Sometimes this didn't always go according to plan.  Ezekiel replaced the non-Jewish Nethinim with the Levite in his Utopian Temple plan but this never came about.  The Temple service was organized by King David and the Levites were divided into groups, each doing some different  job such as singers, instrumentalists, gatekeepers, assistants to the priests during the sacrifice, etc.  Every group was divided into 24 sections, each serving for a week at a time.  During the 2nd Temple period, the priests outnumbered the Levites and shared their tithe.  The Levites were also to wash the priest's hands before the priests blessed the people.

We have the 3 distinct roles today, and we see it in the synagogues.  The Cohens are first to read from the Torah on Shabbat, the Levites are next, and then any Israelites may read to the congregation. There is also a time when the Levites are to wash the feet of the Cohen.   Today we find that half of today's Cohens in the synagogue have the haplogroup of J1c3 or (J-P58), as the geneticists call it.  15% of the Cohens today belong to the haplogroup of J2a.  This goes back a good 3,200 years to 4,200 years ago to Aaron or to his descendants who have morphed into J2 from J1.  Ydna does mutate, and this could be what has happened to show a slight variation.  That takes care of 65% of the Cohens who have actually descended from Aaron, proven through DNA testing.

The Assyrians attacked the 12 tribes in 721 BCE and took away most all of 10 of the tribes.  Knowing that the Exodus occurred in 1500 BCE, that means that these tribes had been living on land originally called Canaan for about 800 years already.  What tribes remained were Judah, who had about 76,500 members and was the largest and strongest of the 12 tribes.  Some Benjamites remained with them.   Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob and one of the smallest tribes with about 45,600 in it.

Because the tribe of Judah was the main tribe remaining, many of them were also taken as slaves when the Babylonians attacked the weakened state in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE and carried them to Babylonia where they met up with many former tribal relatives as well.  We find that others had become scattered throughout the Middle East.  Finally, Cyrus, king of Persia (Iran) conquered the Babylonians which included Judah and Israel's land.  In 538 BCE  he granted permission to the exiles of Judah living in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple.  They thought of him as a Divine agent.  Most did return and rebuild.  So we find that from a huge amount of people  numbering at least 603,500, the Jews, as they are now called from the name of the tribe of Judah, have been narrowed down to a few remaining ones, and in DNA language, this has produced a bottleneck population.  What holds them all together?  They all still share the belief in one G-d.  They have not adopted the belief of the Assyrians or Babylonians of multiple gods.  They all follow the Mosaic Law as laid down by Moses back in 1271 BCE, 733 years previously.

After settling again the Romans arose in power and attacked Jerusalem, the capital of Judah and home of the 2nd Temple and burned both down in 70 CE.  This caused another dispersion of the people.  This time, some stayed in nearby cities and became known as the Mizrachim Jews.  Mizrachi was the name of Egypt.  Some went to nearby Rome as slaves, and then managed to be taken to France and Germany.  They became known as the Ashkenazim Jews because their language, Hebrew, also added a lot of German words to it.  Some managed to get to Spain, and became known as the Sephardi Jews, Sephard being the Hebrew word for Spain. They spoke Hebrew with a lot of Spanish words added.   They also were driven to Portugal later.  So we developed 3 different groups of Jews speaking Yiddish, Ladino, and Arabic with Hebrew added.  Each group kept the divisions of Cohen, Levites and Israelites within the religious structure.  Usually we add the Mizrachim to the Sephardim Jews and make it only 2 different groups that have been geographically divided, but not in religion.  We find that 40% of the Sephardim Jews belong to haplogroup J1, the Cohen gene.  Also, we find that some Arabs carry the Cohen gene.  So we find that 35-43% of all Jewish men belong to the J haplogroup and its sub haplogroups.

Ashkenazim share the same DNA with their Middle Eastern brothers.  As a rule they do not share much dna with their non-Jewish population of Europe.  You must remember that Judaism caused them to not mix with others.  Eating would require that they eat with their own group as they kept kosher.  That meant that they wouldn't eat the same foods.  Meat had to  be specially prepared and the animal had to be killed in a certain manner with certain prayers.  Meat and milk were not eaten in the same meal together.  There were these differences that Christianity found deplorable and why they didn't want to follow the Mosaic Law in the first place, so both parties, Jews and non-Jews, did not get it on, as they say, except in rare cases where there were no women to be had.  Then they would have been taught all about Judaism to be proper mothers, because later on the fact that you were a Jew or not was decided if the mother was Jewish or not.  We find that the men remained as the same group as their ancestors with Ashkenazim.  It was with the women that you can find more interbreeding and mixing of mt dna than you will find with Sephardim.  .

Ashkenazim also took in Khazaria's Jews.  Khazaria, situated on the Silk Road, was a nation that was almost like a 2nd Jewish state.  The Bulan or King converted to Judaism and so did his royal house.  Others could choose it or not.  They were free.  Khazaria, a state that was part of southern Russia, existed in the 7th-8th century.  They may account for the R1b found among Jewish Ashkenazim.  Since when the state became part of Russia and many of the Jewish people joined up with others in eastern Europe, many Ashkenazim probably carry some genes of theirs as well.

Today, Israel has 8,012,400 people.  They started with 650,000 in May 1948 when they announced their acceptance as a state by the UN after the big vote. The 12 tribes numbered 603,500 at their highest count.   Only 6,037,700 are Jewish, or 75.4%.  The state of Israel was created as a refuge for Jews.Out of the Jewish population of some 6 million, 2,921,000 are Sephardim and Mizrachim.  They make up 50.2% of the Jewish population of Israel.  Ashkenazim number 2,767,000 or 47.5% of Israel's Jewish population.

70% to 82% of all the Jews share the same DNA haplogroups with Arabs.  The last few thousand years show they have been sharing from the same chromosome pool.  The current Cohens descended from a small number of paternal ancestors.  The estimates of the coalescence time ( united into one time period ) also lends support to the hypothesis that the extended CMH ( Cohen Modal Haplotype) represents a unique founding lineage of the ancient Hebrews that has been paternally inherited along with the Jewish priesthood.

  Jews  have been treated badly for the entire length of time since 70 CE and 6 million were killed by Hitler's Nazis in WWII.  The beautiful thing about establishing Israel again is that it has brought the 3 branches of Jewish people back together.  Today we see the intermarriage taking place between them.  Though having to defend Israel from the very beginning is terrible, but  the Army service has also meshed the three  groups together as one.  It has turned both men and women into warriors.

Work has been going on to find the Lost 10 Tribes, and many have been added to the fold and brought back to Israel after the almost 3,000 years of being apart from each other.  This is probably the most exciting and uplifting project going on.  To find people who still maintain some quality of their long lost brethren and their faith brings joy to all our hearts.   The beauty is that they have wanted to return.  They have wanted to be a part of today's in-gathering.

Carrying the burden of only accepting the one G-d has been difficult on Jewish population numbers as they haven't followed the crowd in their religious belief but have maintained their covenant to follow the Laws of Moses.  Jews make up only 0.02% of the world population.    We haven't been exterminated yet.  Yes, we are up against another bottleneck, and pray to continue to live. What's been important to us in our religion has been what responsibilities  we have.  Are we Cohens, Levites or Israelites?  Not what haplogroup we happen to be a part of.  We are just learning that beautiful fact today, anyway.  We are happily surprised to see that we have done so well, considering we started over 4,000 years ago by accepting G-d's  Covenant.  Much has happened to us since then.  Just ask the population geneticists  and historians.  Am Yisrael Chi, the people of Israel live.

Resource:  http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/03/jacobs-twelve-tribes-of-israel-and-how.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-abraham-back-to-noah-and-our.html
http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/cohanim-dna-connection/  Excellent, please read this.
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/dominicansephardim/default.aspx?section=results  update 11/3/13
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-other-y-and-mt-dna-haplogroups-were.html update: 11/3/13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEjHkk6Xbls  VIDEO  -Excellent
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanach, the Stone Edition (Bible)-5 books of Moses and more

Lost Tribe of Israel Living in India Move to Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                          

  December 19, 2020:  "The group of 250 which made aliyah earlier this week was the first to arrive in two-and-a-half years.  The arrival of the Bnei Menashe  was a Chanukah miracle.  Early that past Tuesday, a group of 250 Bnei Menashe from northeastern India touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport on a special charter flight arranged by Shavei Israel, the organization I founded and chair, in conjunction with the Aliyah and Absorption Ministry. After undergoing formal conversion by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, the immigrants will move to Nof HaGalil, formerly known as Upper Nazareth." The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the Ten Lost Tribes exiled from the Land of Israel more than 2,700 years ago by the Assyrian Empire.

Some of the Bnei Menashe (Sons of Menasseh-one of the sons of Joseph, who was the son of Rachel and Jacob)who say they are from the Lost Tribes of ancient Israel that were taken by the Assyrians in the 8h century BCE are returning to Israel.  As they tell it,  they were banished from Israel then, but in actuality they were kidnapped and taken as slaves when Assyria attacked Israel.  Dozens are now moving  to Israel after 5 years of trying to enter   The Israeli Chief Rabbi recognized them in 2005, and about 1,700  moved there over the next 2 years before the government had to stop giving them visas.  Now Israel is agreeing to let the remaining 7,2000 immigrate.

On Monday the 24th, 53 arrived on a flight.  Michael Freund, activist on their behalf, said nearly 300 others will arrive in the next few weeks.  One of the immigrants was Lhing Lenchonz, 26, who arrived with her husband and 8 month old daughter.  "We are now in our land,"  she said.

Some Israelis think they are simply people fleeing poverty in India. Their claim's origins comes from a dream in 1951 of a Christian Pentacostalist who learned their religion was Judaism and their homeland was Israel.   Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has insisted that they undergo conversion to be recognized as Jews.  A rabbinical team had gone to India and converted 218 Bnei Menashe, and only stopped because the Indian authorities stepped in and stopped it.  DNA tests have been done and the feminine side (MTdna)  suggests a genetic profile with Middle Eastern people that may have arisen through inter-marriage". So far tests that have been done do not show a male connection to the Middle East, though it is possible that after thousands of years it is difficult to identify the traces of the common genetic origin. However, a positive answer can give a significant indication.  There are many new tests recently developed that may show more about their dna heritage.  It will be an exciting study.

"November 2006: In a Jerusalem Post article about an Indian historian's claims of finding a genetic link between his Northern Indian Pathan clan (Pashtuns  living in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) and the Lost Tribe of Ephraim, Hillel Halkin says that "there's no such thing as Jewish DNA. There is a [genetic] pattern which is very common in the Middle East; 40% of Jews worldwide have it and 60% do not have it. But many non-Jews and people in the Middle East have it also."

They come from the states of Mizoram and Manipur near India's border with Myanmar (Burma) , where they say their ancestors landed after the Assyrians banished them.  They had become headhunters and animists, and in the 19th century many had been converted to Christianity.  However, they had continued to practice ancient Jewish rituals, such as animal sacrifices, which Jews in Israel stopped with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.  The breakaway Judaic group was named Bnei Menashe by Eliyahu Avichail  because they believe that the legendary Kuki-Mizo ancestor Manmasi was Menasseh, son of Joseph.  They sing a traditional song which tells a tale similar to the Exodus.  According to the Bnai Menashe, they had been believing in one G-d and were familiar with many biblical stories when the Christian Missionaries first came upon them.  One thing, though their connection is shaky, they are people who want to be Israelis.  That is remarkable.

Israel has already taken in about 120,000 Falashas from Ethiopia (Beta Israel- House of Israel)  Many were arriving when I was living in Safed (Tzfat).  They claim to be from the lost tribe of Dan, though I've also heard stories of stemming from the Queen of Sheba when she visited King Solomon.

Resource:  http://news.yahoo.com/indian-jews-lost-tribe-move-israel-121503473.html
 Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/24/bnei-menashe-move-to-israel-indian-jews-from-lost-tribe-arrive-in-holy-land-photos_n_2359086.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Menashe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Jews_in_Israel
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/11/india-burmas-lost-menashe-tribe-of.html

India-Burma's Lost Menashe Tribe of Israel Enter Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Israel recognizes Bnei Menashe Tribesmen as one of the lost 10 Tribes.  More are due to arrive in a few weeks.  There were 12 tribes of Israel, with origins being  the sons of Jacob, his two wives and two concubines.  It was Jacob's family of 70 who descended to Egypt.  The Assyrians attacked Israel  in the 8th-7th Century BCE and took away many  of 10 of the tribes.  Most people thought they had been killed, or had assimilated amongst the other nations.  Jacob's first wife, Leah, was the mother to Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,Issachar and Zebulun.  Rachel, his 2nd wife and sister to Leah was mother to Joseph and Benjamin.  Zilpah, handmaiden to Leah was mother to Gad and Asher.  Bilhah, handmaiden to Rachel was mother to Dan and Naphtali.   

"I Chronicles 5:26 And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day."


The United Kingdom making up all 12 tribes of Israel was in existence starting with King Saul  from 1051 to 930 BCE.  The territory of the northern Kingdom of Israel comprised the territories of the tribes of Zebulun,  Issachar, Asher, Naphtali,  Dan,  Manasseh, Ephraim,  Reuben and Gad.

Its capital was Samaria.."  In 931 King Solomon died, leaving Rehoboam hereditary king which all the tribes refused to accept as king  except for Judah and Benjamin.  Rehoboam was a heavy tax person like his father had been.  Jeroboam, living in Egypt was sent for and  became king instead.  He's responsible for the division turning United Israel into Israel and Judah and was King of Israel, the northern kingdom, for 22 years..

In 721 BCE the Assyrians attacked Israel and the capital of Samaria, taking away captives.  They did it again in 701 BCE, this time attacking the other state of Judah.

Bnei Menashe Arrival

It seems that even with assimilation, some have managed to maintain their roots through oral history passed on down through the generations of about 2,700 years or 27 centuries since 721 BCE.  The tribe of Bnei Menashe, who have been living in north-eastern India and in Burma claims descent from the lost tribe of Menashe.They  believe that the legendary Kuki-Mizo ancestor Manmasi^[ was Menasseh, son of Joseph.  We know that Joseph was the father to Manasseh and Ephraim.  They found their roots and have been practicing Judaism for only the past 27 years.

By 2005 Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar ruled that the tribe had Jewish roots but must go through conversion to be eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return.  Our Jewish recognition is through the mother, not the father, so this was important as the tribal roots were of the father's line.  Though they had this connection, the mothers of today were not Jewish.

In 2006 some of the tribe entered Israel.  Five years went by and now the government of Israel has approved of continued immigration for them.  274 new immigrants will arrive in a few weeks.  Israel already has about 1,700 Bnei Menashe members living mostly in Judea-Samaria towns and in Kiryat Arba.  There are still about 7,000 to 9,000 tribesmen in India and Burma.

In 2007 the government policy changed by requiring mass immigration and conversions to be approved by cabinet decision, not just the Interior Ministry.  MK Meir Sheetrit of the Kadima Party and Interior Minister in 2007 was against renewed immigration for fear that it will endanger the Jewish identity of the state.  The thought is allowing people to come who will vote a certain way in elections.  (Isn't that a thought also in the USA?)

Another Kadima Party member, MK Otniel Schneller said that this is mainly about family reunification for people already here.  Shavei Israel, an NGO liaison between Israel and Bnei Menashe funds and manages renewed immigration.

Flights of the last remnants of the Jewish community of Falash Mura immigrants from Ethiopia has been renewed last week.  They will soon be arriving.  This is indeed a time of the Jewish people's ingathering again in Israel that has been prophesied.  They are not one of the lost 10 tribes but claim descent from King Solomon through the Queen of Sheba.

Resource: http://www.timesofisrael.com/bnei-menashe-immigration-to-resume-after-five-years/
http://www.bneimenashe.com/
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2011/06/manassah-one-of-10-lost-tribes-found.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1EeoXYdihs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Israel_(Samaria)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Siege_of_Jerusalem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes