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From: Root & Branch Association, Ltd
To:     heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Lost Ten Tribes/Commentary

copyright (c), 2001, by Yosef Ben Shlomo HaKohen 

	On the second day of Rosh HaShanah (The Jewish New Year), we chanted
the following words from the Book of Jeremiah, words which convey a Divine 
promise which has comforted the Jewish People throughout all the years of 
our exile:

	"Behold, I will bring them from the land of the North and gather
them from the ends of the earth.  Among them will be the blind and the lame, the 
pregnant and the birthing together.  A great community will return 
here.  With weeping they will come and through supplications I will bring 
them.  I will guide them on streams of water, on a direct path in which 
they will not stumble.  For I have been a father to Israel, and Ephraim is 
My firstborn". [Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 31:7-8]

	In the above prophecy, HaShem (G-d) refers to the entire nation of
Israel as Ephraim.  Ephraim, however, also refers to the Northern Kingdom of 
Israel where ten of the twelve tribes of Israel lived, including the tribe 
of Ephraim.

	These ten tribes broke away from the Davidic Monarchy after the
death of  King Solomon, and they set up a separate kingdom which was initially led by 
kings from the tribe of Ephraim.  They went into exile before the Southern 
Kingdom of Judah, and they are known as "The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel".

	There is a tradition cited by some of our sages that the Lost Ten
Tribes  will be ingathered at the dawn of the Messianic Era, together with the two 
tribes from the Southern Kingdom, Judah and Benjamin.

	According to our Prophets, the ingathering of the tribes of Israel
will  serve as a prelude to the ingathering of all the "tribes" of 
humankind.  This will be the era when all human beings will join together 
to serve HaShem, and the rebuilt Third and Final Temple in Jerusalem will 
be known as "a house of prayer for all the peoples" [Yeshiyahu/Isaiah 56:7].

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