Sponsored by Sharona, Josh, Dov and Moshe Halickman in honor of Yehuda Maccabi’s Bar Mitzvah
After the jealousy and deceit that
we read about over the last few weeks, in Parshat Vayigash, all of Yaakov’s
children are reunited. Yosef reveals who he is and does not hold a grudge
against his brothers for how they treated him in the past.
Then he (Yosef) fell upon his brother
Binyamin’s necks and wept; and Binyamin wept upon his neck. He then kissed all
his brothers and wept upon them; afterwards his brothers conversed with him.
(Breisheet 45:14-15)
According to Gur Aryeh, Yosef and
Binyamin cried because they prophesied that in the future, the tribes would no
longer be united and would be divided into two kingdoms: Yehuda (which would
include Binyamin) and Yisrael (Yosef and the other nine tribes) and they would
then be exiled. However, they would all eventually return to the land and be
reunited as the prophecy says in Yirmiyahu 31:6-8:
For thus says the Lord; Sing with
gladness for Yaakov, and shout on the hilltops of the nations: announce, praise
and say, O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Yisrael. Behold, I will bring
from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, and with
them the blind and the lame, the pregnant and birthing together: a great
company shall return here. They shall come with weeping and with supplications
will I lead them. I will guide them on rivers of water, on a direct path, in
which they shall not stumble: for I am father to Yisrael, and Efraim is my
firstborn.
The kingdom of Yisrael is referred
to as Efraim as most of the kings of the ten tribes in the Northern Kingdom
were from the tribe of Efraim (who is considered to be Yosef’s bechor, firstborn,
even though Menashe was technically born first).
The Haftara for Parshat Vayigash
from Yechezkel 37 prophesies the future unification of the twelve tribes.
Thus says my Lord, Hashem Elokim:
See! I take Yosef’s wooden tablet which is in Efraim’s hand, and the tribes of
Israel his comrades, and shall place them with him together with Yehuda’s
wooden tablet and I will make them one wooden tablet, and they shall become one
in my hand…Behold! I take B’nai Yisrael from among the nations to which they went
and I shall gather them from around and I shall bring them to their soil and I
shall make them into a single nation in the land upon Israel’s hills and a
single king should be for them as a king; and they shall no longer be two
nations, no longer divided into two nations again…(Yechezkel 37:19-23)
Part of this prophecy has come true.
The kingdoms of Yisrael and Yehuda went out to exile. Some of the Jews came
back to build the Second Temple and were exiled again when it was destroyed.
Now after two thousand years, the Jewish people are returning to their land.
There is a dispute as to whether only parts of the kingdom of Yehuda have
returned or if parts of the kingdom of Yisrael have returned as well.
Which of the lost tribes have come
back to Israel?
So far, the following groups have been
recognized by the State of Israel as lost tribes and are eligible to make
aliya: Bene Yisrael (1964), Bnei Menashe
(2005) of India and Beta Israel (1973) of Ethiopia (who believe that they are
from the lost tribe of Dan).
May we continue to search for the
missing tribes and may all of the Jewish people have the opportunity to once
again be reunited in the modern State of Israel.
