Ten Tribes Studies.
 Contents:
1. Disgruntled with Brit-Am and will not contribute.
2. Remarks on the Kabballa.
3. Reactions to 7 Reasons Article and YouTube Clip.
4. What Tribe do you belong to?
5. Pleased with The Tribes.
1. A Christian Sympathizer who wishes not to donate.
Yair, I do greatly respect your work and believe it is important. Many of your supporters are Christians and believe in [the Christian Messiah]. I for one have to overcome the statements you have made concerning my faith and so when it comes to financial support I limit my support to you with my book purchases. I know you get hundreds of emails and do understand the difficulty in responding to them, but several years back I wrote you with a question about Hosea and received no response. So, for now, I do hope the best for you and believe in the importance of your research. I am not convinced of all of your conclusions, but do believe your "Lost Israelite Identity" is one of the finest books on the subject anywhere. I am not sure that the best way to get financial help is to criticize your readers though. Financial times are hard here in the US and I am committed to my church with my tithes and offerings.
S.
Brit-Am Reply:
Questions directly concerning the Ten Tribes usually get answered. Queries on Biblical Passages whose relevance to the Ten Tribes may not be clear to us may get passed over. So too, with difficult questions in general. Regarding difficult questions sometimes we deal with them right away and sometimes we leave them aside, in which case they may be forgotten.
For a good few years now we have been going out of our way not to offend Christians. We do not believe in Christianity but acknowledge it has a role to play concerning the Ten Tribes. If something was offensive it was probably inadvertent.
At present our financial situation is difficult. If you do not want to contribute to Brit-Am you do not have to. Most people do not. There is no need to explain. We all have our priorities.
God bless you
Yair
(a) Experience in Sfat, Israel, etc.
Yair, when I was in Sfat [northern Israel], quite a number of persons I thought must be believers/devotees in Kabbalah would come up to me and attempt to tie a red thread on my wrist or anywhere on my torso within reach. I found that pretty creepy, as they would not respond to questions as to what they thought they were doing. They just scampered off once they got a knot tied. I understand this may be some ritualized practice derived from the birth of Zarah (Genesis 38:27-30). If there are redeeming characteristics of Kabbalah, I would like to know what they are. One negative aspects of Kabbalah that I note is that lots of wealthy & famous nut-cases seem to be drawn to at least the outward manifestations of Kabbalah (e.g., Michael Jackson, Rosie O'Donnell, Demi Moore, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Mariah Carey, Lucy Liu, Mick Jagger, Naomi Campbell, Britney Spears, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Goldie Hawn, David and Victoria Beckham, Avril Lavigne, Sandra Bernhard, Reese Witherspoon... (from Wikipedia). Be well. Mark
(b) Witchcraft?
Re Brit-Am Now no. 1919
#1. The Kabballa.
http://hebrewnations.com/features/now/1919.html#a
Â
Duane wrote:
Yair
Re: k-b-l-. You got to be kidding!
That teaching of witchcraft has no place anywhere near anyone but the abyss in chains!
Â
Brit-Am Reply:
Shalom,
First of all the Kabballa is NOT witchcraft BUT there have been cases where nut-cases and bad people have attempted to use it in negative ways.
They do the same with the Bible.
Even in the Bible, there are passages in Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, etc that taken out of context could easily be misinterpreted.
Anyway, witchcraft is forbidden. Spiritualism (seances, etc) is forbidden. Even the use of astrology etc raises questions.
Deuteronomy 18:
13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
The word translated as blameless in Hebrew is Tamim. This can mean simple, innocent, trusting.
The Sages quote this verse when urging us not to practice magic, to avoid superstitions, etc.
Anyway,
Kabbala is a whole big system of thought. We are not involved with it. It encompasses a lot of different ideas and explanations. Many concepts used in modern day science, physics, etc, reflect ideas from the Kabbala.
They may have derived from it.
Kabbala is similar to philosophy in general. I guess it can be used for good or bad. It deals with complicated matters in a sometimes involved convoluted manner that may easily confuse the reader.
It also uses exaggerated language and symbolism that is easy to misunderstand.
Many misunderstandings have arisen in the past and because of this it was once forbidden to people who were unlearnt.
We mentioned the Kabbala because it could be that certain ideas may be found useful. Even if such is the case we would only use these ideas after having understood and clarified them from Biblical sources and logical processes. By the time we got through with them their source might hardly be recognizable.
In the past we have quoted from the Zohar pertinent remarks concerning the Lost Ten Tribes.
In our Brit-Am Now remarks we sometimes throw out thoughts and considerations that come up but do not necessarily materialize.
3. Reactions to 7 Reasons Article and YouTube Clip.
Re 7 Reasons You Cannot Come to Israel
(a) Fredrick: You are one heck of a historian, thanks for the lesson. I think I see what you are saying, from an overall point of view. Appreciate it. Todah Yair, Shalom.
(b) Esther: Thank You Yair for encouraging us!... The word is getting out and is spreading like a wild fire. This is the work of The Almighty. When a person finds out their identity it is OVER-WHELMING.
4. What Tribe do you belong to?
Judah?
Are you musical? inventive? legalistic? are you an instructor? do you have Jews in your family? are you attracted to Jewish customs?
do you like Jews, beyond the average? dislike Jews, beyond the average?
If you answered affirmatively to the above you may well be from Judah, or Levi.
If you also answer yes to the following the likelihood that you are from Judah increases:
do you seek reasons for things being as they are? are you a fighter? do you seek to reform the world? when something seems wrong or unjust do you have an inclination to see it corrected and to work for its correction? are you a supporter of the State of Israel? does the color blue attract you?
and so on.
This shall be a series of articles.
At first we may deal with Judah and Levi, then with the other Tribes.
The answers do not really prove anything but they could be indicative of something worth noting.
5. Pleased with The Tribes.
Dear Yair
Thank you very much. ... I can see that this book is the culmination of a lot of research and work over years!
Kind regards
C.