Preliminary Notes by Yair Davidiy
The task of Brit-Am is to reveal where the Lost Ten Tribes and make it known.
We are not really interested in other matters and not out to reform the world. Neither do we have to have answers for every question that crops up. Here and there in our studies and in our discussions with others the subject of non-Israelite elements among both Judah and the Ten Tribes comes to the fore.
This concerns the Mixed Multitude or the "Erev Rav."
When the Israelites came out of Egypt many non-Israelites joined them.
Exodus 12:38: "A mixed crowd also went up with them, and livestock in great numbers, both flocks and herds" (NRSV).
The expression translated as "mixed crowd" is "erev rav" literally indicating "a great admixture."
Midrashim and other sources say they greatly outnumbered the full-born Israelites.
Wikipedia tells us:
# According to the Arizal [Isaac ben Solomon Luria Ashkenazi 1534 - 1572, a leading Kabbalist), in every generation, the souls of the Erev Rav are reincarnated in numerous individuals. The Zohar, which is the foundational text for Kabbalistic thought, says the Erev Rav not only exist in every generation, but they are the cause for most of the problems affecting the Jewish people. Currently, the term "Erev Rav" is used by Jews in a derogatory manner to describe someone who is perceived as a traitor. #
# Their influence is said to have been involved in the golden calf and other incidents where the people questioned Moses and his laws. #
Recently a Jewish supporter of Brit-Am brought up the subject.
He and a Rabbi he had been associated with were of the opinion that the Erev Rav have always existed alongside the "real" Jews without really mixing with them.
I quoted Hasidic sources ("Beit Yisroel," "Pri Tsadik") that we are all a bit mixed with the Erev Rav and by correcting ourselves we can "reform" whatever is wrong with us. So too, other sources say that by doing good we can elevate everyone including the "Erev Rav." My friend had heard these opinions before but was not in favor of them.
Concerning the Lost Ten Tribes the sources are contradictory.
The Zohar ("VaYechi") appears to indicate that when the Lost Ten Tribes return it will be found that they will have hardly mixed in at all.
Other sources (e.g. Abarbanel) quoted Scripture say they will have mixed in and they who mixed in with them will be accepted alongside of them.
Recently we have been studying aspects of the Lost Ten Tribes being in Scandinavia.
When the Israelites conquered the Land of Canaan at the beginning they were supposed to wipe out or expel the local Canaanites. They were warned that if they did not do that disaster would come upon them.
They did not do what they were told and eventually they were expelled. Foreign elements had remained among all of the Tribes.
Psalms (NIV) 106:
34 They did not destroy the peoples
as the Lord had commanded them,
35 but they mingled with the nations
and adopted their customs.
36 They worshiped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to false gods.
38 They shed innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was desecrated by their blood.
39 They defiled themselves by what they did;
by their deeds they prostituted themselves.
Numbers (NIV) 33:
55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. 56 And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.
In most areas the Hebrews were in the majority; but in others the pagans were. Tribes in which the pagans predominated were Asher (Judges 1:32), Naphtali (Judges 1:33), and Dan (Judges 1:34-35).
Judges (NIV) 1:
32 The Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land because they did not drive them out. 33 Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. 34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. 35 And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the tribes of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.
The Tribes that remained a minority in their own country were Asher, Naphtali, Dan.
These are all Tribes that according to our studies became prominent in scandinavia.