If you haven't heard about the people from this region who lately have been claiming to be of the lost tribes, I recommend Simcha Jacobovici's Quest for the Lost Tribes by A&E. It seems to be available on youtube here: https://youtu.be/PhB16xVTlbQ or you can get it on amazon. While I don't agree with everything he presents, I believe the piece on Manipur is accurate. There was an additional group making aliyah this week: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=feb1817/oth050
They also have a website http://www.bneimenashe.com/index.html which appears to be maintained by one Stephen Epstein (about whom I know nothing).
Through a contact in Israel, I was able to get in touch with someone from the local Bnei Menashe community. She came to visit me in my apartment on Shabbat last week. Although she has a car and driver (as some older people do here), she took a taxi because it was Shabbat. I gather she wanted to give the driver the day off.
She told me many stories, about half of which I understood. There are many dreams and visions associated with the process of moving the people to full-fledged Judaism from Christianity. In the 50's, there was a tribal leader in Manipur, the next state over, who had a vision that the people were of the lost tribes. Someone had a vision for the state of Mizoram, and a man who later took the name Gideon Ray began preaching Judaism here. Although they were Christians, they gradually migrated toward Judaism and when Rabbi Avichayil found them in the 1980's or 90's, he affirmed their identity and many of them began to officially convert and make aliyah.
My guest told me of one pastor who had a vision of a large stone coming toward Mizoram shouting "Maher maher shabbat leil". She said the pastor knew no Hebrew. I asked her if she knew what it meant and she suggested that I could tell her. She said at that time, people began to question that pastor about whether the vision was talking about the Jewish sabbath, but in the end he denied it. She said he was jealous for his Presbyterian salary and retirement. It is told that he died an agonizing death.
The lost tribes people always tend to tell the story of how they had leather scrolls, but the dog ate them. It seems like the dog might have been some ancient Chinese emperor, but they take the reference to dogs in the New Testament to mean that gentiles either burned or otherwise destroyed their scrolls.
My guest's father was a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, but her parents were divorced and she grew up with her mother. However, she was already acclimated to the sabbath at the time that she became convinced that Judaism was the way. She has been practicing since 1980, having become persuaded in her mind from the preaching.
There are some 30 people in her group, but just like everywhere else in the world, the community is divided into two groups: Avichayil's group Amishav and Michael Freund's group Shavei Israel. They are divided not only here in Mizoram but also in Israel. Since Avichayil passed away, Freund's group is growing stronger and more people are joining.
My guest had a lot of 'interesting' ideas about the New Testament: that it was written about a thousand years ago to force people to adopt Roman customs. I politely disagreed and told her it was a very Jewish book. I told her she needed to have another look at it since it has undoubtedly been a long time since she read it. She also does not understand why, if Jesus is the son of Abraham, the church does not worship on Sabbath. Good question, indeed. She says that if the church says that Yeshua is the son of the Holy Spirit, then it's fine for them to worship on Sunday, but if not, they should worship on Saturday.
We talked for a long time about many things, including what I am doing here. She did agree that it was a good thing for the church to understand Old Testament faith and practice. I would say that we had a moderate amount of communication difficulties, but we left the apartment arm in arm and immediately ran into some young people who already had taxis ordered that would carry her down the hill to the nearest town where should could catch a cab back to her house.
They also have a website http://www.bneimenashe.com/index.html which appears to be maintained by one Stephen Epstein (about whom I know nothing).
Through a contact in Israel, I was able to get in touch with someone from the local Bnei Menashe community. She came to visit me in my apartment on Shabbat last week. Although she has a car and driver (as some older people do here), she took a taxi because it was Shabbat. I gather she wanted to give the driver the day off.
She told me many stories, about half of which I understood. There are many dreams and visions associated with the process of moving the people to full-fledged Judaism from Christianity. In the 50's, there was a tribal leader in Manipur, the next state over, who had a vision that the people were of the lost tribes. Someone had a vision for the state of Mizoram, and a man who later took the name Gideon Ray began preaching Judaism here. Although they were Christians, they gradually migrated toward Judaism and when Rabbi Avichayil found them in the 1980's or 90's, he affirmed their identity and many of them began to officially convert and make aliyah.
My guest told me of one pastor who had a vision of a large stone coming toward Mizoram shouting "Maher maher shabbat leil". She said the pastor knew no Hebrew. I asked her if she knew what it meant and she suggested that I could tell her. She said at that time, people began to question that pastor about whether the vision was talking about the Jewish sabbath, but in the end he denied it. She said he was jealous for his Presbyterian salary and retirement. It is told that he died an agonizing death.
The lost tribes people always tend to tell the story of how they had leather scrolls, but the dog ate them. It seems like the dog might have been some ancient Chinese emperor, but they take the reference to dogs in the New Testament to mean that gentiles either burned or otherwise destroyed their scrolls.
My guest's father was a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, but her parents were divorced and she grew up with her mother. However, she was already acclimated to the sabbath at the time that she became convinced that Judaism was the way. She has been practicing since 1980, having become persuaded in her mind from the preaching.
There are some 30 people in her group, but just like everywhere else in the world, the community is divided into two groups: Avichayil's group Amishav and Michael Freund's group Shavei Israel. They are divided not only here in Mizoram but also in Israel. Since Avichayil passed away, Freund's group is growing stronger and more people are joining.
My guest had a lot of 'interesting' ideas about the New Testament: that it was written about a thousand years ago to force people to adopt Roman customs. I politely disagreed and told her it was a very Jewish book. I told her she needed to have another look at it since it has undoubtedly been a long time since she read it. She also does not understand why, if Jesus is the son of Abraham, the church does not worship on Sabbath. Good question, indeed. She says that if the church says that Yeshua is the son of the Holy Spirit, then it's fine for them to worship on Sunday, but if not, they should worship on Saturday.
We talked for a long time about many things, including what I am doing here. She did agree that it was a good thing for the church to understand Old Testament faith and practice. I would say that we had a moderate amount of communication difficulties, but we left the apartment arm in arm and immediately ran into some young people who already had taxis ordered that would carry her down the hill to the nearest town where should could catch a cab back to her house.
No comments:
Post a Comment