Will They Return? The Talmud discusses whether the Ten Tribes will ever return. There are two opinions, based on the Torah source "…and He will send them to another land as today" (Devarim 29:27). The first claims that the Tribes will, in the future, return: As the night yields to the day, so too they will come from the darkness of exile to the light of return. The second opinion is that they are not destined to return: Just as a day, when it is over, is gone, so they are gone forever. A compromise opinion holds that if their descendants repent and change their rebellious ways, they will return. Even the opinion that they will not return means to return en masse, as a unit. Individuals of all the Tribes were mixed among the remnants of the population of Judah, and their descendants will also return with the final redemption. Based on the many Biblical statements and prophecies, the existence and return of the "Lost Tribes of Israel" has been seen as a sure sign and perhaps a necessary prerequisite for the final redemption and the Messianic age. Interest in the "Lost Tribes" has not been confined to Jews. It has become an almost universal concept. Groups in Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Iraq, Persia, China, Japan and in various places in Africa, have either claimed descent from the Lost Hebrew Tribes, or have been suggested by travelers or researchers for that distinction. It has even been suggested that some North and South American Indians, as well as the origins of the British people, could be traced to the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 03:05:00 +0000