Community Magazine September 2009

30 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE T he Israelite nation that left Egypt and stood at Mount Sinai, becoming Gd’s Chosen Nation, consisted of thirteen tribes. Today, however, the Jewish Nation as we know it con- sists of only three tribes. What happened to the other ten tribes, and will we be reunited with our lost brethren at the time of Mashiah? Each of the thirteen tribes descends from our forefather Yaakov. Eleven were named after his sons and two were named after his grandsons, the children of Yosef. The tribes lived together for several centuries in the land of Israel, separating into separate kingdoms after the passing of King Solomon. However, in the Hebrew year 3205 (555 BCE), the unrepentant Northern Kingdom of Israel, which consisted of ten of the tribes ruled by the King Hoshea, was invaded and captured by the mighty Assyrian Empire led by the king Sanherev 1 . The entire Northern Kingdom was exiled to an unknown, distant land. Ever since this calamity, the Jewish nation from which we descend is assumed to consist only of the tribes Yehuda, Binyamin, and Levi. Indeed, after the fall of the Northern Kingdom the Scriptures refer to the Jewish Nation as “Yehudim,” or “Judeans,” because they are mainly from the tribe of Yehuda. 2 Throughout Megilat Esther, for example, the Jews are called “Yehudim.” A Three-Pronged Exile The exile of the ten tribes occurred in three distinct stages over a period of approximately twenty years. The first to be exiled were the tribes of Zevulun and Naftali, in the Hebrew year 3187 (573 BCE), during the rule of the Israelite king Pekach. Eight years later (3195/565 BCE), the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe were driven into exile, during the rule of King Hoshea. The final stage occurred in 3205 (555 BCE), when Shomron, the Northern Kingdom’s capital city, was conquered, at which point all those remaining from the ten tribes were captured and exiled. 3 The RABBI E. C. ABOUD Where are the Ten Lost Tribes? Part VIII: