A Rabbinical Source. Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein of Sochotchov (1856-1926)
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.A correspondent of ours, Mark Williams, just sent us a Rabbinical Source ("Interesting blog post on the Ten Tribes") concerning Joseph and the Ten Tribes in the Future
This was published in the English Edition of the newspaper- magazine "Yated Neeman" which is an important semi-official Publication associated with the Ultra-Orthodox non-Hasidic Community in Israel. This could be significant. It is good to see such people taking an interest in these matters.
The article is taken from the work of
Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein of Sochotchov (1856-1926) in his book, "Shem MiShmuel," in the section of "Parshas Vayeishev 5627."
He was a leading Hasidic thinker in and a Rebbe of Hasidim in different areas of Poland.
See:
Shmuel Bornsztain (second Sochatchover rebbe)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuel_Bornsztain_(second_Sochatchover_rebbe)
For his father, See:
Avrohom Bornsztain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avrohom_Bornsztain
Here is the article under consdieration.
The Strange Side of Jewish History
http://strangeside.com/ten-tribes-2/
Yated Neeman's Jewish history
Extracts:
CONDENSED AND SLIGHTLY ADAPTED
[For the original go to http://strangeside.com/ten-tribes-2/. We have summarized sections of the article and altered the language slightly.]
Ten Tribes
Posted on July 6, 2016 by David
Why did the Ten Tribes split off from Malchus Bais Dovid and found their own kingdom?
YOSEF'S DREAM
According to Rav Shmuel Bornstein of Sochotchov (Shem MiShmuel, Parshas Vayeishev 5627), the process was programmed into the Creation at the very beginning, and the seeds of the division between the kingdoms of Yehudah and Yisroel were sown during the quarrel between Yosef and his brothers.
This was when Yosef revealed his dreams to his brothers, informing them that he would one day be king.... Yosef was not only predicting that he would be viceroy of Egypt but also that his descendants would be kings in Eretz Yisroel.
Yosef's kings would work in parallel with the DYNASTY OF DAVID in bringing God's sovereignty and sanctity down to the world. Their task would be to rid the world of the negative impact of evil as [the Midrash] Bereishis Rabba (73) predicts, "Esau will not fall except by the hands of the Children of Rachel." [Rachel was the wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin.]
Then, once evil was eradicated, the kingdom of Yehudah would build the Temple and bring the Divine Presence to the world.
This idea is supported by the Zohar [Zohar Chodosh, Parshas Balak] that foresees the future redemption:
# On that day, the Ten Tribes will arise to make war against the four directions of the world under the Moshiach [ben Yosef] who is anointed over them. This Moshiach will be from the tribe of Ephraim and from the seed of Yerovom (Jeroboam) ben Nevat #
In other words, first the Ten Tribes, headed by Moshiach ben Yosef, will make war and, afterwards, will come the Messiah son of David and all that is associated with his coming.
Originally, King Saul [the first king of Israel], descended from Benjamin, was supposed to fulfill the task of destroying in advance all enemies of Israel....
However, this plan was abrogated when Saul disobeyed the command of God to destroy Amalek; the task of destroying the enemies of God was subsequently left to David. Solomon, son of David and completed building the Temple.
[Solomon sinned. it was decreed that most of the Kingdom would be taken away from his successor, 1-Kings 11:11-12.]
however... because of certain actions of Solomon, the original two-king plan was put back on track.
As 1-Kings 11:11-12 reports, the trouble started when some of Shlomo's foreign wives began serving idols. Hashem then tells Shlomo, "Because this happened to you and you did not guard My covenant and the statutes I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. However, I will not do it in your days for the sake of Dovid, your father. I will tear it from the hand of your son."
YEROVOM BEN NEVAT
This servant who would rise up against the son of Solomon was Yerovom {Jeroboam) ben Nevat. He was so righteous at the time that, out of all Yisroel, he alone had the courage to risk his life and rebuke Solomon for wrongdoing.
The Talmud makes it clear that, from the outset, the righteous Yerovom had two conflicting traits. On the one hand, he was willing to risk his neck to do what was right while, on the other hand, his rebuking Shlomo in public revealed an arrogant streak that would eventually lead to his downfall.
The fall of Yerovom [Jeroboam] fall was rooted in the quarrel between Yosef and his brothers. The purpose of Yosef's royal dynasty was to bring redemption and unity to ALL Yisroel. Yosef flawed the process by speaking lagainst his brothers, which is the epitome of separation.
This seed of imperfection later erupted in Yerovom, leading him to totally separate his followers from the House of David.
Just as the Ramban says that a small wrong can end up sprouting into great evil, Yosef's small flaw led to Yerovom's sinning and bringing people to sin.
In fact, the brothers had perceived this seed of imperfection in Yosef that would eventually lead to Yerovom's evil, and this is why they tried to forcibly forestall his dreams from coming true.
In support of the idea that establishment of Yerovom's kingdom was predicted in Yosef's dreams, we find incredible parallels between Yosef and Yerovom.
Chazal inform us that after the brothers saw how much misery they had caused their father, the brothers lowered Yehudah from his greatness, saying to him, 'You told us to sell him. If you had told us to return him to his father, we would have listened to you.' This lowering of Yehudah's greatness by his brothers parallels the split of the Ten Tribes from Rechovom [i.e. Rehoboam, son of Solomon].
It is intriguing to note that the only brother not involved in lowering Yehudah from his greatness was Benjamin who knew nothing of the whole story. This was reflected later when Binyomin [Benjamin] was the only tribe to remain with Yehudah after the Ten Tribes pledged allegiance to Yerovom.
The ultimate redemption will include the reunification of the Ten Tribes with Yehudah and Binyomin as Hashem tells Yechezkel (37:16-17, 21-22):
Ezekiel (NKJV) 37:
16 As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions. Then take another stick and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions. 17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.....
21 Then say to them, Thus says the LORD God: Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.
(Please note that this discussion does not incorporate the full spectrum of opinions found in works of the Talmudical and Rabbinical Sages that deal with these issues.)