Are Descendants of the Ten Tribes also Jews? (20 November 2017, 2 Kislev, 5778)
Contents:
1. The Ten Tribes are Not Jews in the Religious Sense!
2. Jews from Ethiopia as an Example
3. Biblical Indications and Divorce of a People
4. Adoption of Paganism before the Exile
5. The Legal Decision: Gentiles in Every Way!
1. The Ten Tribes are Not Jews in the Religious Sense!
The question was asked,
 "Are Descendants of the Ten Tribes also Jews? "
The answer is, No. They are not Jews in the religious sense. They are descended from Israel and will return to keep the Law and reunite with Judah.
The term "Jew" is often used as synonymous with Israelite. Strictly speaking the Jews are only part of the Israelite Nation.
Jews are that part of the Israelites who have to keep the Law today. There are other Israelites who do not, at least for the time being.
For the present, strictly speaking, the Ten Tribes do not have to keep the Law! In fact without converting to Judaism they probably should not do so!
The Ten Tribes were exiled and forgot their ancestry. We may be able to tell where they are in general terms but we cannot be certain concerning any specific family or individual. Even if we could be sure it would still requite a Renewal of the Covenant. This is similar to conversion but does not deny the possibility of Hebrew ancestry.
2. Jews from Ethiopia as an Example
This is what is (or was) being applied in the case of Jews from Ethiopia.
Jews from Ethiopia are probably descendents of Jews or of converts from Judaism. We do not know for sure. No records were kept. There are contradictory traditions. They may never really have left Judaism but rather due to geographical and cultural distance doubt has set in. A ceremony such as Renewal of the Covenant removes the doubt. The Ancient Israelites themselves when they came out of Egypt and were wandering in the Wilderness also went through a ceremony similar to renewal of the Covenant.
The Ten Tribes are different. Their case is more extreme.
3. Biblical Indications and Divorce of a People
All the Israelites were commanded to keep all the Law. A council of Sages (Numbers 11:16) existed that had the right to decide how the Law should be applied (Deuteronomy 17:8-13).
Keeping the Law and the system of adjudication was continued in Judah but not in the north kingdom.
When the Northern Kingdom stopped keeping the law, practised foreign religions, and intermixed with foreigners their status changed. It was as if their membership in the religious community had been suspended.
The Prophets indicated that the Ten Tribes after their exile would not be recognizable as Israelites under the Law. Jeremiah quotes the Almighty as saying that the Ten Tribes had been given a bill of divorce (Jeremiah 3:8).
Hosea refers to them as having begotten "alien offspring" (Hosea 5:7) and as "not my people" and "I will not be their God" (Hosea 1:9). This however will change in the End Times and the Ten Tribes will once again be accepted (Hosea 1:10).
4. Adoption of Paganism before the Exile
The term Jew is derived from the word "Yehudah" i.e. Judah. The present-day Jews are mainly descendants from former inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah.
The Israelites had divided into separate entities. "Israel" was in the north with 10 Tribes. Judah was in the south with 3 tribes plus minority representatives from the others.
The 10 Tribes before they were exiled had gone in the ways around them. They had worshipped foreign gods. According to tradition they had also ceased to circumcise themselves.
2-Kings (NKJV) 17:
5 Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods, 8 and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9 Also the children of Israel secretly did against the LORD their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the LORD had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, 12 for they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
5. The Legal Decision: Gentiles in Every Way!
The Sages in the Talmud (Yebamot 17)Â discuss the case of different groups who were once Jewish but complications arose.
A case involving the offspring of certain gentile soldiers and Jewish woman who all lived in a certain village is discussed. The Ten Tribes are referred to. What if somebody comes along and claims to be from the Ten Tribes and wants to marry a Jewish girl without converting to Judaism? The conclusion was that the Lost Ten Tribes and all similar groups are legally considered to be non-Jews for all intents and purposes. This applies even when there is a very good chance that the people concerned really are descended from Israel. The decision also exists alongside an accepted principle that in the future THE TEN TRIBES WILL RETURN! The covenant with them will be renewed.
Ezekiel (NKJV) 37:
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. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 24 “David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them.Isaiah (NKJV) 11:
12 He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
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