Modern Day Exodus: Members of Lost Tribe of Menashe Return to Land of Israel
“And I will bring you to the land, concerning which I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage; I am the Lord.” (Exodus 6:8)
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/bnei-menashe-idf.jpg
Members of the Lost Tribe of Menashe serving in the IDF. (Photo: Laura Ben-David/Shavei Israel)
Some 3,500 years ago, Moses lead the Jews out of Egypt with the help of God’s overt miracles, his strong hand and outstretched arm. Approximately 3 million Jewish slaves – men women and children – left Egypt and crossed into their ancestral home of Israel. Through this process, God created a nation by taking them out from the midst of another (Deuteronomy 4:34). Today, a similar feat is occurring. While this miracle is on a smaller scale, without the bells and whistles of the plagues and crossing of the Red Sea, the journey the members of the Lost Tribe of the Bnei Menashe are undergoing is very similar in character to the process of that of their ancestors all those years ago.
The process of an Exodus.
The Bnei Menashe are a tribe of Jews from India who trace their heritage back to the time of the first exile of the Ten Tribes (circa 722 B.C.E.) at the hands of the Assyrian King Sennacherib. According to the Bnei Menashe heritage, 2,700 years ago their tribe traveled from Assyria, through Persia and what is modern day China, until they finally settled in the northern sections of India. The Bnei Menashe maintained many of their Jewish customs over the long years of exile.
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/68A1957.jpg
However, being out of touch with other Jews for 2,700 years, members of the tribe forgot where many of their traditions originated. It took missionaries to shed light on the matter.
In the 19th century, Christian missionaries arrived in India and attempted to proselytize the Bnei Menashe. The missionaries handed out Bibles to the leaders of the community. Upon reading it, the leaders recognized many of their traditions as those of the Hebrews from the Bible.
This led to a journey of exploration of the groups Jewish roots and modern Judaism. When the State of Israel was founded in 1948 and Jews began returning to their ancestral homeland, the Bnei Menashe saw this as a sign from God that they too should return home.
Skip ahead some 67 years to today. Half of the entire Jewish community of the Bnei Menashe worldwide live in Israel. They have finally come home. However, many thousands still remain in India, yearning for their chance to make the journey to a place they have dreamed of their entire lives. Many Bnei Menashe families are divided, with half living in Israel and the other half still living in India. For many of the families, it is very difficult to be divided and they long to be reunited with their loved ones who have already made the journey. Over the last several years, one organization in Israel has answered the call to assist in the retun of the Bnei Menashe to Israel and fulfill Biblical prophecy. Shavei Israel has facilitated the aliyah of thousands of Bnei Menashe. This past year alone, the organization is responsible for having brought back close to 1,000 Bnei Menashe Jews to Israel.
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