Both Judah and Israel are subsets of Israel.
Hosea 1:10, 11.
The argument here is whether that prophecy has been fulfilled. 
Posted on 08/19/2004 7:11:00 PM PDT by missyme
A team of senior Israeli rabbis is due to rule soon on whether thousands of Indians who say they are members of one of the lost tribes of Israel can settle there.
Only 5,000 of the Benei Menashes have converted to Judaism Shlomo Amar recently led a delegation of rabbis to the north-eastern Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram where members of the Benei Menashe tribe live and practise Judaism.
At the Beith-el Synagogue in the Manipur capital, Imphal, nine men wearing knitted skull caps read silently from the Old Testament.
Four others stand on a wooden platform in the centre of the room as a young man reads from the holy book under the supervision of an elderly priest.
These people claim to be one of the lost tribes of Israel.
Recent discovery
Tongkhohao Aviel Hangshing is the leader of the Benei Menashes in Imphal.
We found that the stories, the customs and practices of the Israeli people were very similar to ours
Tongkhohao Aviel Hangshing "We are Benei Menashe, because we belong to the Menashe tribe," he says.
"Menashe is the son of Joseph, who was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. So we are the lost tribe of Israel."
Mr Hangshing says for thousands of years they did not know they were lost.
"We found out only 27 years ago," he says.
"When the Bible was translated into our language, in 1970s, we studied it.
"And we found that the stories, the customs and practices of the Israeli people were very similar to ours. So we thought that we must be one of the lost tribes."
Saturdays are observed by Jews the world over as the Sabbath, the day of rest, and the members of the Benei Menashe community meet for morning prayers at the synagogue in Imphal.
A lamb-skin scroll of the Torah, is unrolled and then rolled up again as each reader finishes his part.
Hope
There are more than 300,000 Benei Menashes in Manipur but most of them follow Christianity.
Only about 5,000 have converted to Judaism, most of them during the 1970s.
Mr Hangshing says although India has treated them quite well, they do not consider it their home.
Lucy Vaiphei (right) is hoping to join her family in Israel The recent visit by a delegation of rabbis from Israel has given new hope to the members of this community.
Caleb, a 24-year-old college student, wants to go to Israel because he says it is the land of his forefathers.
Amram is studying to be a lawyer. He says Israel is the promised land, for him and the others too.
"In Israel it will be easier for us to practise our religion."
In a chamber partitioned from the main prayer hall, about a dozen women join in the Sabbath prayers.
Lucy Vaiphei is the caretaker of the synagogue.
Her parents and six siblings have emigrated to Israel in the last few years and she is now looking forward to making the move herself.
Michael Freund, director of Amishav - an organisation that helps Jews move to Israel - says he firmly believes that Menashe is one of the lost tribes of Israel.
"We have brought over 800 of them to Israel," he says, "and the remaining people also want to emigrate".
Mr Freund says that last year the new Israeli interior minister, Avraham Poraz, suddenly declared his opposition to bringing the Benei Menashes into Israel.
"But I'm confident that if the chief rabbi issues a ruling saying that the Benei Menashes are indeed descendents of the Jewish people and should be allowed back home, then he will have no choice but to let them in."
So while the rabbis in Israel take a decision on whether or not to grant the right to emigrate to Israel to the Benei Menashes, this community here is waiting with bated breath - and praying.
Both Judah and Israel are subsets of Israel.
Hosea 1:10, 11.
The argument here is whether that prophecy has been fulfilled.
touche
Bloodlines are important to God, I think, them being so prevalent in the OT, especially. I would think references to a people in a prophecy would mean blood descendants.
But as I said, I'm willing to concede there are 14 million hereditary Jews in the world. It doesn't change the reasoning for Hosea not to have been fulfilled yet.
By no means. Adam & Eve had 3 sons, Cain, Abel and Seth. Cain killed Abel and was banished by G-D. Seth was the only survivor.
The descendants of Shem the son of Noah are the Semites.
Europeans are generally considered to be descendants of Yefeth (Japhet).
As far as Biblical lineage is concerned, Sannharib the Assyrian (who conquered the 10 Tribes) pretty much wiped out their lineage by dispersing and mingling all his conquests. The Judeans resisted, but they were dispersed by the Romans.
In these times, "Jews" are all those people who:
1. Practice the Jewish religion
2. Can track their ancestors to people who practiced the Jewish religion.
3. Convert according to the halachah (religious law) of the Jewish religion.
This does NOT include practicing Christians or Muslims. Such people MUST accept Judaism in order to be considered Jewish.
Do you suffer from short-term memory loss? I think that I have answered this same question from you a number of times.
I've heard, or read, the claim that Abraham was a Kurd.
So it may be the Kurds that this is referring to.
I've also read that the Pashto consider themselves a Lost Tribe, although they are Muslim now.
Wasn't Abraham a Chaldean from central Iraq?
The Bible says Abraham was from Ur Kasdim which was Iraq, so he might have been Kurd or Iraqi, although those terms were not known during his life. Abraham was called Ivri (Hebrew--"wanderer") because he migrated beyond the borders of the Kasdim.
OK it's Sabbath now. I'm going off until 9:30 EDT.
From Ur.
Oh,I see.
"Ur of the Chaldees"......
I have not been to Sunday School regularly for a long long time and it shows.
thanks to you both
I haven't be to Sunday school in a long time,but what I learned there,STUCK! :-)
Gen 9:20 And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
Gen 9:21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid [it] upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces [were] backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
Gen 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Gen 9:25 And he said, Cursed [be] Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Gen 9:26 And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Gen 9:27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Gen 9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
Gen 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
So actually, God punished Ham by putting a curse on Canaan, his son.
The Hamites were believed to be the Negroid race, so this curse was interpreted to be a curse on Black Africans, that they would be subservient to the other races, hence a justification for slavery.
Somehow, this turned into the idea that the "curse." was that of being Black skinned.
As you can see from scripture, that is not the case.
Link:http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Gen/Gen009.html#top
That is considered sacriligous to many of us here.
Do you know how I can post a picture?
Sure DNA could prove this. I imagine that if the calim is true, they are related to either Persian and Central Asian Jews, or to Yemeni Jews. I doubt that they are one of the lost tribes. Personally, I believe that this distinction belongs to the Kurds.
No not this question.. my first one to you..
missyme is one of THE biggest morons on FR and will argue to the death,that she is brilliant.It's enough to make one want to destroy one's monitor.
This one was from a long-time Freeper. And he is white.
I only have loved/liked women who were both sexy and smart. That let's you out...
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