To:                britam@netvision.net.il
From:          yair davidy <britam@mail.netvision.net.il>
Subject:       The Lost Ten Tribes and the Cimmerians


      THE LOST TEN TRIBES AND THE CIMMERIANS

   BRIT-AM is an ORTHODOX JEWISH Organization

  #1) Do Orthodox Jews believe in Replacement theology? NO
  #2) Do Orthodox Jews believe in Christian British Israelism? NO

 "Brit-Am  Israel".  (Brit = Covenant, Am = People in Hebrew)

 "Brit-Am  Israel" at present is headed by Yair Davidy and by Rabbi
Abraham Feld.

 The address of  "Brit-Am  Israel"  is Yair Davidy, "Brit-Am Israel",
 P.O.B. 595, Jerusalem 91004, Israel.

The e-mail is : britam@netvision.net.il

 "BRIT-AM  ISRAEL" BELIEVES:

 *  The Hebrew Bible is the message of God.

 *  Out of the original 12 Tribes of Israel Ten were lost. Two
 remained. The present-day Jews are descended mainly from the two
 remaining Tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

 *  The Khazars were a Kingdom in southern Russia many of whose
 leaders converted to Judaism. The Khazars were descended from the
 Lost Ten Tribes. The Khazars were blood-relatives of the Picts who
 went to Scotland, and of the Anglo-Saxons, and of peoples in
 Scandinavia.

 * In addition to the Khazars, many  other converts to Judaism
 through the ages were descended from assimilated Jews or from members
 of the Lost Ten Tribes.

 * Most of the Lost Ten Tribes migrated to Northwest and Western
 Europe and their descendants are now in those areas or in North
 America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

 * We do not claim that all residents of the said nations are
 descended from Israel. We do however affirm  that most descendants of
 the Lost Ten Tribes are residents of those nations. On the whole
they are unaware of their Israelite Identity.  Even so in the course
of history  the Israelite origins  of peoples in those areas have
influenced national developments and national characteristics.

 *  The Tribe of Joseph was divided into  two other Tribes: Ephraim
 and Menasseh. People from ALL of the Israelite Tribes congregated in
 North America but in general the U.S.A. is dominated by Menasseh.
 Britain has characteristics of Ephraim.

 * Reuben was important in France, Issachar in Switzerland, Benjamin
 in Belgium, Zebulon in Holland, Dan in Denmark, Naphtali in Norway,
 Gad in Sweden, the country of Finland was influenced by the Tribes of
 Simeon, Issachar, and Gad; Simeon, Dan, and Ephraim were important in
 Ireland.

 * There is a need for the present-day  "Jews" of Judah and the Lost
 Ten Tribes to recognize each other, and to work towards
 re-unification and reconciliation.

 * Proof exists confirming "Brit-Am  Israel"  Identity beliefs. Some
 of the evidence has been presented in works by Yair Davidy such as
 "The Tribes" (1993), "Ephraim" (1995), and "Lost Israelite Identity"
 (1996), as well as in articles in our journal "Tribesman". Much
 additional evidence is available and needs to be uncovered and
 published. Our sources include the Bible, Talmud, Midrashim,
 Commentators, Classical Greek and Roman historians, Chroniclers,
 Legends, Linguistics, Archaeology, and where pertinent racial and
 other scientific studies.

 * Even though much of the evidence has been revealed by ourselves it
is not ours alone. Our proofs have never been properly refuted. The
basic claims we have made are irrefutable. If one cannot deny our
claims and there is nobody else who can it follows that one should
accept them. This means that  the identity of the Lost Ten Tribes of
Israel with western peoples should be acknowledged.  Once this
acknowledgment is forthcoming  it is possible to discuss whatever
practical conclusions need to be made.

 IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE, IN DISCUSSION, AND/OR IN
 JOINING "BRIT-AM ISRAEL", please make contact by Return Mail.

                                  +++++++++++++++++++++++

NOTE FROM EDDIE:

FYI:  Yair Davidy is an ORTHODOX JEW. He does NOT believe in:

#1) Replacement theology
#2) Christian British Israelism

   Yair Davidy / Brit-Am / Orthodox Jews DO believe in:

#1) The Restoration of BOTH houses of Israel in the future (the
Messianic redemption or the Ingathering of the Exiles) (Ezekiel
37:15-28) when the house of Israel (The Ten Lost Tribes) join
themselves to / with the house of Judah in the end of days.

   Recently, I ordered from Brit-Am and read the first three issues of
the MAGAZINE BRIT-AM. The articles and the information in the magazine
was OUTSTANDING.

    It is VITAL in these days in which we live to understand that the
belief in the restoration of both houses of Israel / Messianic
Redemption / Ingathering of the Exiles and the reuniting of Ephraim
(Ten Lost Tribes) with Judah and Ephraim returning to Torah is a
fundamental and foundational belief of Orthodox Judaism. It is one of
the 13 articles of Jewish faith and a prayer for the Messianic
Redemption / Restoration of both houses of Israel is prayed THREE
times a day by Orthodox Jews.

  I would HIGHLY recommend that our newsgroup members subscribe to the
Brit-Am magazine to gain a greater understanding of Orthodox Jewish
belief regarding this issue. In a recent edition of the magazine,
Brit-Am stated that they have come to the conclusion that the primary
religion of the Ten Lost Tribes today is Christianity.

 Brit-Am declares that this information is VITAL to your
understanding of the Bible and Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int'l
agrees. Please consider obtaining the first 3 issues of the Brit-Am
magazine and subscribing to future editions.

Yours for the restoration of both houses of Israel,

Eddie Chumney
Hebraic Heritage Ministries Int'l

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THE TRAIL OF ISRAEL
The Lost Ten Tribes and the Cimmerians

by John Hulley (an ORTHODOX JEW)

According to prophecy Ephraim's turn to the faith of the prophets (described
in Chapter 3) has to have been not just a turn but a return.  The faith
which he acquires cannot be entirely new.  It has to have been one which his
ancestors had abandoned.

And it shall come to pass that, instead of that which was said unto
them: "Ye are not my people", it shall be said unto them, "Ye are the
children of the living God".  (Hosea 2:1)

Before becoming "children of the living God" this people must first have
been rejected as "not my people" Israel.

Yet a little while, and I . . . will cause to cease the House of
Israel  [Ephraim] . . .  for I will no more have mercy upon the House of
Israel, but I will utterly take them away . . . For ye are not my people,
and I will not be your god.  (Hosea 1:4,6,9)

Only then can the House of Ephraim be accepted.  Then
I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will
say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say,
Thou art my God (Hosea 2:23)

Taking them away means sending them into exile.  Ceasing to be their God
means ending their faith in Him.  Ceasing to be God's people means losing
consciousness of descent from Israel.

The reason for rejection was unfaithfulness to God:

For all the causes whereby backsliding Israel [Ephraim] committed
adultery [idolatry] I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce.
(Jeremiah 3:8)

 To determine whether this sequence of events actually occurred, we have to
go further back in time.  We need to know what happened to the Ephraimites
after their deportation to Assyria.  The history of many other peoples of a
similar antiquity has been successfully traced.   So it should be possible
to do the same for this one.

Their cousins - the Jews - were exiled by the Romans nearly a thousand years
later.   Their geographic distribution today may exemplify what happened to
the Ephraimites.  The pattern is one in which large numbers are concentrated
in a few countries, and small numbers are scattered nearly everywhere else.
The nations of concentration used to be those of eastern and central Europe;
but in the 20th century the greatest numbers have been moving to the
Anglo-American countries and western Europe.  At the same time there are
seventy countries with estimated communities of 500 Jews or more.

    For three reasons the Lost Tribes should be even more widely
scattered than the Jews: they have been in exile longer; they were about
three times more numerous at the time of exile, and probably even more so
today; and they lacked the cohesive effect of a single, exclusive religion.
It is not easy to pinpoint the small scattered groups of Ephraim, and we
will attempt here only to trace the movement of the largest concentration.

4a.      Assyrian name for the Israelites

The beginning of the trail is recorded in theTanach.   In 722-21 BCE

. . . the King of Assyria took Samaria and exiled Israel
[House of Ephraim] to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor by the
river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
(2 Kings 17:6)

The Assyrian Empire was centered in the area now sometimes called Kurdistan,
where Iran, Iraq and Turkey meet. How did the deported Israelites move from
there thousands of miles into central and western Europe?  
During the 20th century the search for answers has been simplified by
archaeological discoveries.  The implications for the Lost Tribes have
received little public attention thus far, probably because neither the
professional academics nor the Christian churches have been interested in
the topic.  But for those who are concerned the discoveries are quite
revealing.  The royal files of the Assyrian Empire have been found; the
cuneiform script, written on clay tablets, has been deciphered.  One by one
the files are being translated and the results are appearing in
dictionaries, histories and other studies.  

Some of the sparse details in the Tanach about the deportation of the ten
tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel are confirmed.  And there is much
additional information besides.  It turns out that mass exile was a common
phenomenon in the Empire; it was the standard way of dealing with rebellions
among subject peoples. 

We can also explain two of the three destinations of the deportees (see
citation above): Halah and the cities of the Medes were on the northeastern
and eastern border respectively; only Habor was close to the middle of the
country.   Settling deportees along the border was intended to help deal
with the Medes inside and outside the imperial frontier. 

 To understand what the imperial records have to say about the Israelites it
is necessary to know that the Assyrians did not call them by that name;
instead they called them by a name which has come into English as
'Cimmerian'.  There is nothing unusual about applying different names to
foreign nations.    (For instance the people which calls itself Deutsch is
known to the English as German, to the French as Allemand and to the
Italians as Tedesco - and no doubt by other names to other peoples).  
The Assyrian name for the Ephraimites was apparently taken from the name of
a famous Israelite king, founder of Samaria, whose name is written in
English as Omri (1 Kings 16:16-30; Micah 6:16).  The Assyrians called the
northern kingdom Bit Omri, or House of Omri - equivalent to calling it
Omriland.  They called the people Humriaa - equivalent to Omrians. 
How that name has been transformed into Cimmerian is a long story, which
begins with the fact that the first letter in the name of Omri  the Hebrew
ayin  is a throaty guttural.  Pronouncing it is almost impossible for
persons whose native language is not a Semitic one.   The trail of efforts
to pronounce and transcribe the name of the "Omrians" leads through Humriaa,
varying to Gimirri in parts of the Assyrian Empire, Kimmeri in Greece and
Cimmeri in western Europe. 

Sections of the history of the Cimmerians were already known to historians.
Assyrians, Greeks and Romans wrote about them.  Their origins were then
shrouded in mystery.  The idea that they were Israelite seems not to have
been mentioned until modern times.  Now that the change of name in Assyria
has come to light, several stages of Cimmerian history confirm their
Israelite identity.

4b.       Cimmerian trail through Asia Minor

The clearest record of their origins shows them on the eastern and
northeastern borders of the Empire.   There in 707  a generation after the
exile  a considerable number of Cimmerians broke out. 

A weakness in the management of the Assyrian Empire - and the cause of its
eventual downfall - was the failure to establish really tight control over
subject peoples, including the Israelites.  One of the reasons may have been
lenience. After putting down a revolt, the Assyrians would usually impale
the leaders and deport everyone else.   This was not enough of a deterrent.
Even after they had been exiled, the subject peoples continued to revolt
anyway. 

Almost every year the Assyrian monarch had to lead his troops to
suppress yet another insurrection in some part of the Empire.  Sometimes
there would be two or three in the same year.  And when enemies tried to
infiltrate, the subject peoples would sometimes help rather than hinder
them. 

The Assyrians themselves lacked sufficient manpower to defend all
the frontiers; in fact the continuous need for military action was reducing
their population.  By allotting farmland in the frontier regions to
deportees, they hoped to use these subject peoples as human barriers against
invaders.

The eastern border of the Empire ran through Media.  There were
Medes on both sides of it.   This is an area where Hebrew deportees were
settled.  It was a region of shifting loyalties.  The Medes had not been
subjected to direct rule by the Assyrians; instead they retained their own
local princes, who were supposed to become vassals to the Assyrian monarch.
Each such prince paid tribute now and then - mainly when compelled to do so.
The princely tactic seems to have been alternately to submit, then attack,
submit again and attack again. 

Since there was no fixed border, the Median cities were sometimes
under indirect Assyrian control, sometimes independent.  From time to time
deportees living in the border regions might thus fall under the control of
Median or other tribes outside the Empire.

On this volatile, turbulent frontier a large body of Israelites was
concentrated.  What were they likely to do in such a situation?  The very
reason why they had been deported in the first place was for conspiring
against imperial authority (2 Kings 17:4).  If other peoples revolted now
and then, might not Israelites feel tempted to do the same? 

     In fact they broke out from the Empire in 707 about a generation
after the deportation.  The Medes appear to have been involved.  Under Mede
leadership they worked their way around the northern border of the Empire
into western Asia Minor (= modern Turkey).  There they went on a military
rampage that lasted through the 7th century.  Their martial strength was
sufficient to conquer several kingdoms and regions in the area one after
another  including Paphlagonia, Lydia and Phrygia as well as part of Ionia
an Athenian colony on the coast of Turkey.   

    They remained in Ionia until plague drove them away.  However traces of the
Cimmerians survived in Greek culture thereafter.  Among these were the
prophetesses, known as Sibyls.   Centuries later, these influential women
were active in warning the Romans to leave Israel alone  a warning that went
unheeded.

    The flowering of Greek culture in philosophy, science, literature and art
began only a generation or so after the Cimmerian invasion.  It started in
the place where they had been  Ionia  and only moved to Athens when the
Persian conquest drove many Ionians there as refugees.   The sequence of
events leads to the question whether it was the Israelite stimulus that
served as catalyst of the Golden Age.  Over the preceding centuries of Greek
existence in the region that culture had produced nothing like it. 
In any case the conquest of part of Ionia, like the other conquests, did not
interest the Cimmerians for long.  They never settled down.  They
occasionally returned to a sort of base in Cappadocia in central Asia Minor
(still known to the Armenians as Gamir  another form of their name).  But
their main preoccupation seemed to be to attack the Assyrian Empire from the
west at the point nearest to the land of Israel.

     By that time the Empire extended all the way down to the Mediterranean coast
in the area of Phoenicia (= modern Lebanon).  Thus any army trying to travel
from Turkey to Israel would have to pass through it.  The Cimmerians did in
fact attack in this area three times - in 705, 679 and at some time between
637 and 626.   In the first battle they killed the Emperor Sargon himself.
Whatever satisfaction this success may have given them, the overall results
seem to have been disappointing.  They moved on again.

     What could have led them to attack the Empire they had just escaped? Why
would they challenge what was at the time the greatest military power on
earth?   The most likely reason seems to be that they were seeking a way
back to Israel.

    Thus far nothing written by Cimmerians has been discovered; so we do not
have from them any indication of their motive.  But there is evidence in the
Tanach that the Jews in Jerusalem were keeping track of their movements and
hoping for their return.  Part of this evidence revolves around the
mysterious person referred to in the as Gog.

One of the kingdoms conquered by the Cimmerians was Lydia, ruled by a man
whom the Assyrians called Gugu (Gyges to the Greeks).  Their first attack
failed, but the next one succeeded: in 652 they killed the king and ruled in
his place.  However, when they moved on into Ionia (as described above), a
descendant of Gugu recaptured the kingdom.  Gradually Lydia built up an
empire, covering all of western Asia Minor.   Some time in the reign of
Alyattes, perhaps around 600 B.C they were powerful enough to drive the
Cimmerians across the Bosphorus into Europe.

Twentieth century historians have identified Gugu, king of Lydia, as the Gog
of the Tanach.  The fact that Gog looms as such a terrible figure there can
be explained by the Lydian role in driving the Cimmerians out of the Near
East.  This event must have been an awful blow to the hopes of the people of
Judea.  Conquered by the Babylonians, they were facing deportation
eastwards. 

According to other evidence in the Tanach (not given here) they had been
following the fortunes of the Lost Tribes, including their military
adventures.  They must have been praying that the tribes would succeed in
breaking through to the south and so save them from Babylon.  This alone can
explain how Gog serves as a prototype of the leader of the forces of evil.
For this king was in other ways relatively insignificant.  Neither did he
have any direct relationship with Jerusalem.   So there is no obvious
explanation of his role in the Tanach other than this one.

The fateful crossing of the Bosphorus provides another piece of evidence on
the Cimmerian identity.  School children in Israel learn the tradition about
the disappearance of the Lost Tribes across a mysterious river named
Sambatyon.   According to the Talmud one of the characteristics of this
strange river is that it stops on the Sabbath.  For generations rabbis in
search of the Lost Tribes have been looking for a river that meets this
description, but without success. 

The Bosphorus is a narrow strait through which water from the Black
Sea flows toward the Aegean.   It acts like a river, except that it stops
every few days, when there are southwest winds over those two seas.  No
other river stops every few days.

Did the Bosphorus happen to stop on the Sabbath during the period of the
crossing by the Lost Tribes?   If so, they could have reported it to
Jerusalem.   This and other details about the river lead to the conclusion
that the fabled Sambatyon is indeed the Bosphorus.  Thus the Cimmerian
identity offers the solution to this mystery in Jewish tradition about the
Lost Tribes

4c.     Loss of identity in Europe
(#1 in the Prophetic Profile)

On the other side of the Bosphorus the Cimmerians entered Europe at a time
that it was mostly Celtic.  Their long-lasting association with the Medes
seems to have ended in a bloody confrontation; and they now started to
associate with the Celts. 

Along with the latter the Cimmerians were pushed westwards by the advancing
Teutons, followed by the Slavs, who in turn were fleeing before the
expansive drive of Asiatic peoples.   In course of time the Celts and
Cimmerians concentrated in central Europe from Bohemia down to northern
Italy and points west and north of there.

It is probably in this association that the Cimmerians lost their Israelite
identity.   They had endured so many setbacks that they may well have
wondered whether God cared for them any more.   First they had been exiled.
Then, after a successful escape from the Assyrian Empire, their three
attempts to break through to Israel had all been repelled.  Finally they had
been driven out of Asia into Europe  further away from home than ever.
 One sign of loss of identity is the absence of later information about them
in Jerusalem.   Communication with the Judeans seems to have dried up during
the Babylonian exile of the latter, and never to have resumed.  

At the time of the Assyrian exile they had been practicing a mixture of
faith and idolatry such as had developed in Israel long before their
departure and continued there some time after it.  During the 7th century,
while they were in Asia Minor, there is no evidence of any change in
religion.   Their communication with Jerusalem and efforts to get back there
suggest that their basic outlook had not changed much. 

After their arrival in Europe, however, the cessation of communication with
Jerusalem does suggest a marked change.  In the ensuing centuries it seems
probable that the Cimmerians gradually assimilated with the Celts, adopting
their religious and other customs.

Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people (Hosea 7:8)

In western Europe any memories of an Israelite past would have been
discouraged by the negative attitude of the Catholic Church toward Jews.
For a thousand years from about 500 CE to about 1500 CE became increasingly
costly to admit any Jewish connections (see section 3a above). 

Evidences of Cimmerian presence can still be found, however, in words,
customs, traditions and names of peoples and places.   Thus the Welsh name
for themselves is Cymru, (pronounced Cumri).   The Romans called Wales
Cambria.  In Belgium the names of the city of Cambrai and of the river
Sambre may be cognate.

The land we now call Denmark was known to the Romans as the Cimbric
peninsula.  Those whose ancestors had attacked the Assyrian Empire three
times (see preceding section) were prepared to challenge Rome too.  They set
off in a campaign southwards through eastern France, where they defeated two
Roman armies in succession.  As they crossed the Alps, Rome went into panic
thereafter remembered as the panica Cimbrica.  But in northwestern Italy in
101 BCE this Cimbric army was destroyed.

In later centuries the name of the people of the peninsula changed to Danes,
and that of their country to Denmark (Danmark in Danish).  Why the change?
Apparently members of the tribe of Dan became dominant among the Cimbri in
the area.   Under that name they conquered England, but many of the place
names recall the large numbers of Cimmerian settlers that came in on these
or other invasions  Cumbria, Cumberland, Northumberland, the Humber and
perhaps Cameron.  Denmark itself still has Himmerland and Himmersijssel.
 So the general area where the Cimmerians settled is known.  And so is their
origin.   It is also clear that the Cimmerians did lose their Israelite
identity.  At the time of the Assyrian exile they must have been speaking
Hebrew, and occasionally citing the prophets - along with the mixture of
idolatrous religions they had picked up.   Above all they were aware of who
they were and where they came from. 

As might be expected, this awareness remained strong during their
century-long rampage in Asia Minor.  But after that, living for more than
two millennia among the Celts and other European peoples, all of these
ethnic features faded - language, religion, knowledge of their origins. What
remains is a few place-names, words and such. They had indeed fulfilled the
prophecy of loss of faith and identity.

4d.     From Cimmerian to Zionist

The loss of identity opens up a gap in the trail of the Lost Tribes of
Israel.  There are two segments - before and after.  We can trace the path
of Ephraim under the Cimmerian name into central and western Europe
(sections 4a and 4b above).  As the identity is lost, the trail peters out
(preceding section).  But in the same location we can pick up another trail
some centuries later which leads from the recovery of faith (Chapter 3)
through the increase in numbers, wealth and power to the Zionist restoration
of Israel (Chapter 2).  The question is whether the same people made the
tracks both before and after the gap.  Are Zionists descended from
Cimmerians? 

Or are they a different people who happened to arise in the same place?
Identity of locations is not identity of peoples.  In those places the
Cimmerians mixed with Mediterranean, Celtic, Teutonic and other peoples.
Other names - like British or French - were applied to the new combinations.
How are the ancestors of the Zionists to be recognized among these
populations?

Even as they were forgetting or suppressing their Israelite roots, the
descendants of the Cimmerians could unconsciously have retained in the
culture an affinity for the Tanach and the Jews.  This can explain, at least
in part, why some people were drawn into the struggle to recover the Bible,
while others remained indifferent to it.  This interpretation is a
reasonable reconstruction of what happened; but it is only conjecture, not
proof. 

Another line of argument comes from the Tanach itself.  It would be
inconsistent for one people to carry out some of the prophecies and another
people to carry out others.    All the prophecies about the House of Ephraim
must be carried out by descendants of that house:

. . . look unto the rock from which ye are hewn, and to the
hole of the pit from which ye are digged.   Look unto Abraham, your father,
and unto Sarah, who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and
increased him.   Hearken unto me, my people . . .  the redeemed of the Lord
shall return, and come with singing unto Zion . . . (Isaiah 51:1,2,4,11)

Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart
toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of
Israel [House of Ephraim], turn again to these thy cities.
(Jeremiah 31:21)

[Gomer = House of Ephraim] hath played the harlot .
. .  she shall follow after her lovers [idols] . . . but shall not find
them.  Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband [God];
for then was it better with me than now . . .   and she shall sing there,
as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the
land of Egypt.  (Hosea 2:5,7,15)

I will sift the house of Israel [Ephraim] among all nations,
as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet shall not the least kernel fall upon the
earth. (Amos 9:9)

And I will sow them among the people: and they shall
remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and
turn again . . . I will bring them [Ephraimites] out of Assyria; and I will
bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon
(Zechariah 10:9-10)

     In different ways these citations from five prophets express the
concept of return.  People cannot return to a place where it has never
been.  There is no room here for the replacement of one people by another.
The people which went out is the one which comes back.  New blood may be
introduced through intermarriage; but the old blood must still be there.
The deported Israelites, renamed Cimmerians, who arrived in western and
central Europe, must be ancestors of the Bible-believing groups which sprang
up centuries later in the same place.  

     For those who believe in Bible prophecy, these quotations should be
sufficient to prove the link between the two segments of the history of the
fulfillment of prophecies about the Lost Tribes.   Some may be persuaded by
the identity of location, and the plausibility of cultural continuity.
Others may prefer to wait for confirmation from archaeology, history,
genetics or other fields of research.

    Of interest to all will be the further evidence that is still to come.   Some
of the prophecies about the House of Ephraim are as yet unfulfilled or only
partially fulfilled (see next chapter).  Will their fulfillment be completed
by the same peoples?

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