Messianic Hope is Drawing Home the Lost Tribes of Assyrian Conquest.
The story with a happy ending found in the two YNet news Excerpts
Involving the return of Jews carried Far away during Assyrian War
From the Kingdom of Israel Lying North of the Judean Kingdom!
Kingdom of Ephraim And The Kingdom of Judah Shall Be One!
December 24, 2012
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Ezekiel 37:15-22 – The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, [16] Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: [17] And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. [18] And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? [19] Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. [20] And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. [21] And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: [22] And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
The Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian monarchs, Tiglath-Pileser III (Pul) and Shalmaneser V. The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor, Sennacherib, were responsible for finishing the twenty year demise of Israel’s northern ten tribe kingdom. Sennacherib also invaded some parts of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He records forty-six fortified towns captured from Judah, and presumably carried away into Assyria. Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken. The tribes exiled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes.
Biblical account
The captivities began in approximately 740 BC (or 733/2 BC according to other sources[, when the first successful Assyrian invasions began.
And the Elohim of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tigathpileser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.(I Chronicles 5:26)
1 Chronicles 5:26 – And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.
In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.(II Kings 15:29)
II Kings 15:29 – In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
In 722 BC, nearly twenty years after the initial deportations, the ruling city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria, was finally taken by Sargon II after a three year siege started by Shalmaneser V.
Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.(II Kings 17:3-6)
2 Kings 17:3-6 – Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. [4] And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. [5] Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. [6] In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded and would not hear them, nor do them. (II Kings 18:11-12)
2 Kings 18:11,12 – And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: [12] Because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
Begin Excerpt 1 from YNet News
Indian soul yearning for Zion
May 5, 2012
Special: Bnei Menashe members in India observe Shabbat, dream of moving to Israel
Rami Tal
INDIA – “From a very young age I knew that our family was from the ‘Bnei Menashe’ and that we were different from our neighbors, but I didn’t know exactly how,” Harel Kingbol says. “When I was nine years old, my father took me to the hospital and I underwent circumcision. Somehow my friends found out about it. They wanted to see what they did to me and then made fun of me. I came home crying. My mother and father told me ‘don’t cry, we are different, we are Jews and we must cope with this type of problem’. This was the first time I became aware of my Jewishness,” he tells me.
Kingbol, now 25, appears much younger than his age. His tzitzit (ritual fringes) hang conspicuously from his pants and he wears a knitted kipa on his head. He is married to Hodaya and has a 2-year-old daughter named Rachel. They live in an apartment at the Shavei Israel organization’s Hebrew Center in the city of Aizawl, capital of the Indian state of Mizoram, which straddles Bangladesh and Myanmar (formerly Burma.)
Related stories:
*Bnei Menashe celebrate Sukkot
*7,300 Bnei Menashe to make aliyah
*1st ever Bnei Menashe officer in IDF makes history
As members of the Bnei Menashe, Harel and Hodaya belong to a community comprising approximately 7,200 people who identify deeply with Judaism and the State of Israel, observe the commandments of the Torah and long to move to the Jewish state. They all introduce themselves with Jewish names. They view their residence at the “Shavei Israel” center in Aizawl as temporary, until they move to Israel; a move that has been delayed for years but has now seen renewed hope.
The Kingbol family belongs to the Mizo tribe which lives in Mizoram, the land of the Mizos. Out of its 1 million people, only 1,000-1,500 residents of Mizoram count themselves as Bnei Menashe. The rest are Christian. The majority of the Bnei Menashe – about 5,000 people – belong to the Kuki tribe that lives in the adjacent Indian state of Manipur. About 250 Bnei Menashe live in Nagaland and a similar number in Myanmar. The Bnei Menashe insist, based on ancient traditions that have been passed from generation to generation, that they are the direct descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the 10 Tribes which comprised the Kingdom of Israel. In the year 722 BCE, the Assyrian empire captured part of the land of Israel and cast the 10 Tribes into exile.
A store named Shalom
Harel Kingbol’s father taught his four children the Hebrew alphabet, their home had a Bible in the Mizo language, and the parents and children read it at every opportunity. Yet Kingbol studied in a Christian school along with the majority of students in Mizoram.
“On Sunday all my friends went to a Christian school to study religion. I didn’t go, and when the teacher asked why, I replied that I am Jewish and do not want to learn a different religion,” he says.
“I believe that the majority of the Mizo people are descendants of Menashe but they want to remain Christian,” Kingbol says. “Only our small Jewish group wants to return to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the entire Mizo people have a strong connection to Israel. Whenever Israel was at war, with Lebanon or Hamas, the Mizo people supported her,“ he says. Walking through the Aizawl, I notice there is a street called “Zion” and the stores carry names such as “Shalom” or “Israel.”
Kingbol has dreamt about moving to Israel for as far back as he can remember. “As kids, we would sit on a bench, in one long row, and the first one would make a roar like the sound of an engine on a plane and we would shout- ‘goodbye- see you in Israel’”, he recalls.
Kingbol excelled at soccer and played on a professional team from Calcutta, part of the second Indian league. But he left the team because as a professional soccer player he could not observe the Sabbath. Since 2007 he has been studying Hebrew and Judaism at the Shavei Israel center in Aizawl, where he is responsible for the computer system. Most of his family is already in Israel. His older sister, Hila, moved to Israel in 2000 and she is married to an immigrant from Russia. His brother, Aviv, enlisted in the Givati combat unit in the Israeli army, completed basic training and was killed in an army accident two years ago.
Edmond Kingbol, (52) Harel’s father, said that his attraction to Judaism began in 1988 and since then he has been observing the commandments and praying every day. “When my son was killed we went to his funeral in Israel and last year we went again, for the first year memorial service. As parents of an army casualty we have the right to remain in Israel but we want to come as new immigrants, based on the Law of Return. But the Government requires us to undergo conversion. We understand this. After all, 2700 years passed from the time our forefathers were exiled, we were cut off the Jewish nation and in order for us to return and be Jews in every aspect we must undergo conversion.”
“However, the conversion process in Israel is very difficult. Therefore we have returned to India. We want to return to Israel after all of the issues are taken care of,” he said.
Edmond’s eyes then fill up with tears and his voice breaks as he tells me, “Sometimes I want to cry out of longing for the land of Israel. When I read the Psalms, I cry when I reach chapter 136.” He then quotes it in the original Hebrew, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and we wept, when we remembered Zion.”
“I want to send a message through you to the entire people of Israel”, his son Harel tells me. “I know that there are people in Israel that think that we want to move there in order to improve our economic situation. Yes, in relation to Israelis we are poor but trust me, that is not what is guiding us. We want to live as Jews together with our people in our homeland, Eretz Yisrael. We are industrious and know how to work. When we arrive in Israel we will work hard, progress and we will not be different from the rest of the Israelis.
All of the Bnei Menashe in India hope that it will not be long before they can move to the Jewish state. Azriel Hamar (44), married to Maayan and father of two, served in a senior position in the educational system of Mizoram and later opened a successful human resources company. He sold it four years ago because he thought that he was soon moving to Israel. His living room is almost empty – he even sold his furniture. “I know that great efforts are being made to renew our Aliyah,” he said. “There are strong rumors that there has been a recent breakthrough and I deeply hope that this time we will not be disappointed.”
Story originally published by Yedioth Ahronoth
Begin Excerpt 2 from Associated Press via Ynet News
Indian Jews from ‘Lost Tribe’ move to Israel
Some 50 Jews believed to be descend from one of 10 Lost Tribes of Israel make aliyah
Associated Press
December 23, 2012
A group of 50 Jews said to descend from one of the 10 Lost Tribes immigrated to Israel Thursday from their village in northeastern India
The members of the Bnei Menashe community prayed in their local synagogue and then hugged their crying relatives before heading off to the airport in the Manipur state capital of Imphal, 34 miles away.
The Bnei Menashe say they are descended from Jews banished from ancient Israel to India in the eighth century BC
An Israeli chief rabbi recognized members of the Bnei Menashe community as a lost tribe in 2005 and about 1,700 moved to Israel before the Israeli government stopped giving them visas.
The government recently reversed that policy. About 7,200 of them remain in India.
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