Identifying as an Israelite versus being Jewish.
Replacement Theology in Disguise?
Are Believers in Israelite origins victims of a Hoax?
Recently the following article appeared on the Web:
"We are Ephraim": Christians claiming to be the lost tribes are reviving replacement theology, rabbi warns
by
Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz
https://israel365news.com/422417/we-are-ephraim-christians-claiming-to-be-the-lost-tribes-are-reviving-replacement-theology-rabbi-warns/
The author quotes at length from a certain Rabbi Elie Mischel
# Rabbi Elie Mischel says Christians who believe they are the lost tribes of Israel repeat the church's oldest error in a new form. God will gather the tribes Himself, and the nations already hold a holy role of their own.
The rest of the article continues in a similar vein. The author himself is apparently a rabbi and he belongs to a group similar to himself.
These are Modern Orthodox National Religious type Rabbis.
Other Rabbis however exist who are less prominent and more learned and more numerous and possibly more strict in their observance.. They would not be hostile towards Rabbi Bekowiitz nor Rabbi Mischel but neither would they agree with them.
# Across America and Britain, thousands of Christians who love the Bible and stand with Israel have come to a startling conclusion about themselves: they are Israel. Members of the Two House, Ephraimite and British Israelite movements believe they descend from the ten tribes carried off by Assyria 2,700 years ago, and that their love of the Hebrew Bible is the stirring of ancient Israelite blood. Rabbi Elie Mischel, Director of Education at Israel365, says he meets them constantly and admires their passion. He also says their belief is replacement theology in a new costume.
The article is using modern non-Jewish means of dating which is fair enough.
This puts the date of exile of the LTTs at ca. 720 BCE.
Further on the article says:
# In 722 BCE, the Assyrian Empire conquered the north and exiled its people to the region of today's northern Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, and Iran (2 Kings 17:6). #
There are several different methods of Jewish Rabbinical dating. The most accepted one is that used by Mattis Kantor on the Chabad Website,
Timeline of Jewish History.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3915966/jewish/Timeline-of-Jewish-History.htm
This is the method ascribed to:
The Midrash Seder Olam Rabbah, composed around 165 CE by Rabbi Yose ben Halafta.
This puts the time of the Exile of the LTTs at
574 BCE The first two of the Ten Tribes were exiled.
566 BCE Another two of the Ten Tribes were exiled.
556 BCE The last of the Ten Tribes were exiled.
At all events the author is using a non-Jewish pseudo-academic date in preference to the Jewish one.
The article keeps attempting to impute Replacement Theology type aims to believers in the LTTs (Lost Ten Tribes).
Replacement Theology says that the Christians have replaced the Jews as the True Children of Israel.
LTTs Believers however say that the Jews are part of the Tribes of Israel whereas the LTTs are another part.
Each has its own task at this stage in Time.
The MAHARAL (1526-1609) also spoke of the separate tasks of both HOUSES.
So does the Bible.
The author quotes sources proving that not all the LTTs were Lost. There always remained a minority who remained attached to the Jews of Judah.
NACHMANIDES ib the Book of Redemption also speaks of this.
Nachmanides however also points out that the main task of the LTTs at this time is to remain as they are and in effect halachically Gentiles.
Extract from Brit-Am Preliminary Note:
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/guest/judah-should-bring-the-ten-tribes-back!!!-by-alexander-zephyr-(1).html
The greatest Jewish Sage of all time Nachmanides (Moshe ben Nachman 1194-1270) knew very well of the existence of the Ten Tribes of Israel in exile. He was well aware of the difference between them and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin known collectively as Judah, whose descendants are now to be found among the present-day Jews. Nachmanides pointed out in his work 'The Book of Redemption' ("Sefer Ha Geulah") that the overwhelming majority of the Ten Tribes had been exiled by the Assyrians and had never returned to the Promised Land though they were destined to do so in the future. The Ten Tribes, he said in 1260 CE, were still in "Tserefath" (France and its neighborhood) and 'at the ends of the north,' meaning at that time the northern areas of Europe. According to Nachmanides, chapter 37 of Ezekiel speaks of a future Redemption for both Judah and Israel. The two kingdoms will unite into one kingdom under the House of David.
The article says:
# The Sages teach (Megillah 14b) that Jeremiah personally brought back a portion of the ten tribes.
Nachmandies quotes from the sources that those few from the LTTs who had come back later returned to their places of Exile.
# The Jews of Ethiopia were identified in the 16th century by Rabbi David ibn Zimra, known as the Radbaz, as descendants of the tribe of Dan.
The RADBAZ did say the Jews of Ethiopia were from the Tribe of Dan.
The Ethiopian Jews themselves however deny this. They claim descent from converts going back perhaps to very ancient times.
No-one else (as far as we know) supported the Radbaz in this matter.
The author also speaks of the Bnei Manasseh from the border areas of India and Burma.
# The Bnei Menashe of northeastern India preserved a tradition of descent from the tribe of Manasseh, and in 2005 Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar formally recognized them as descendants of Israel. Right now, Israel is bringing them home. Roughly 4,000 have already made aliyah, and last November the government approved a plan led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer to bring about 1,200 more by the end of 2026 and another 4,600 by 2030.
And again later he says:
# "They did not wake up one morning with a feeling that they belong to one of the ten lost tribes," Rabbi Mischel said. "These are communities with thousands of years of real history, real traditions, real memory passed down from parent to child across the generations."
The Bnei Menashe movement however only began in 1951:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Menashe
# The movement began in 1951, when a tribal leader reported having a dream that his people's ancient homeland was Israel; some tribal members began embracing the idea that they were Jews.
Nevertheless:
# Israel did not formally support immigration of the Bnei Menashe until 2005, when Shlomo Amar, then Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, recognized the Bnei Menashe as a lost tribe.
The bottom line as far as Jews are concerned in accepting claims to be Jewish is the ability of the applicant to abide by Jewish Law.
The Hebrew Bible states plainly that the covenant is permanent:
This is consistent with the Bible as quoted by the article.
"If these ordinances depart from before Me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever." (Jeremiah 31:35; Jeremiah 31:36 in most English Bibles).
This caveat however does not mean that belief in physical descent from Israel is disallowed.
The LTTS from the West do not on the whole wish to be Jewish. Neither is there a need for them to do so. At least not at present.
Some of them would like to come and live in Israel. In our opinion the time is not yet ripe for this though they could take over adjoining areas in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, or Turkey.
In the future Judah and the LTTs will re-unite BUT each will dwell in its own Tribal Area.
Ezekiel (TCJB) 47:
21 AND YOU SHALL DIVIDE THIS LAND AMONG YOURSELVES ACCORDING TO THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL.
22 AND THAT WILL BE WHAT YOU ALLOT AS A HERITAGE, FOR YOURSELVES AND FOR THE STRANGERS WHO DWELL IN YOUR MIDST, WHO WILL BEGET SONS IN YOUR MIDST, AND THEY WILL BE TO YOU AS CITIZENS AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; WITH YOU THEY WILL INHERIT OF THE INHERITANCE IN THE MIDST OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL.
23 AND IT SHALL BE IN THE TRIBE WITH WHICH THE STRANGER SOJOURNS, THERE YOU SHALL GIVE HIS INHERITANCE, SAYS THE LORD GOD.
See Also:
Claiming To Be Ephraim Is Replacement Theology In DISGUISE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWAez-E3igg&t=346s