Are the Taliban Descended From One of Ten Lost Tribes of Israel?

The Lid/jpost ^ | 1/9/09 | The Lid

[Shellybenoit]

Every Friday night observant Jews bless their sons by saying, "may you be like Manasseh and Ephraim," the two sons of the biblical Joseph, who were the first Jews, born outside of the Holy Land. The blessing expresses the hope that, just like Joseph's sons, today's Jewish sons will hold fast to their religion despite the fact they live in the diaspora.

Manasseh and Ephraim are two of the famous lost ten tribes, who were carted away into exile more than 2,500 years ago. Descendants of the tribe of Manasseh have been found living in India, and many of them are moving to Israel.

As far as Ephraim, many people believe that their descendants are now fighting against the United States in Afghanistan,and are now called the Taliban.

[agrace]

Amo 9:9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

I think one day we’ll all be very surprised at how far and wide the tribes of Israel ended up over time.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Fascinating article. Thanks for posting.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Fascinating articles. Thanks for posting.

Perhaps after everyone gets their DNA tested, we’ll figure all this out.

[Pilsner]

The Afghan Campaign. A novel of Alexanders campaign in Bactria on his way to India, from the viewpoint of a Macedonian hoplite.

I read a book by an English Officer, stationed in Western India, now Pakistan. He said some of the locals claimed to be descendants of Alexander's soldiers. He also said that the locality had a chain of hills, all with non-Indian, wild date palms growing on their tops. Local legend held that the date palms originally grew from seeds spit onto the ground by Alexander's troops, who were issued dried, compressed, dates carried from what is now Iraq.

The English Officer did not if that was true, but he said that if a General holding the territory to the West wanted to set out a line of pickets, to make sure no large army approached him unawares from the Indus valley, he would have chosen the hills topped with wild date palms.

[James C. Bennett]

You’re welcome, afraidoftherepublic!

As for the descendents of Alexander’s troops, Pilsner, they are the Kalash people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalash

(Not to be confused with the Indo-Aryans of northern India, who have had a presence in the Subcontinent well before Alexander.)

[colorado tanker]

This includes the Festival of the Budulak (the 'shepherd king'). In this festival, a strong prepubescent boy is sent up into the mountains to live with the goats for the summer. He is supposed to get fat and strong from the goat milk. When the festival comes he is allowed for a 24-hour period only to have sexual intercourse with any woman he wants, including even the wife of another man, or a young virgin or his own mother if he wants her. Any child born of this 24-hour rampage is considered to be blessed.

It's good to be King!

[LadyDoc]

actually, in a movie about the ten lost tribes, they pointed out that the Pashtun tribal customs were similar to Jewish customs.

The Taliban is concentrated in the Pashtun tribes, but not all Pashtun are Taliban.

The film also pointed out that a “Semetic” kingdom was in the area (the “Stan” areas) in ancient times, and now that the Soviet Union is dead, that westerners need to go and check if there are still Jews and Jewish artifacts in the area.

[SunkenCiv]