What differentiates a Jew from Lakewood and a Jew from Brooklyn, Teaneck, Yerushalayim, LA, Chicago, or elsewhere? Is it possible that the answer may depend on which Shevet he or her comes from? Does that even matter, other than who gets which Aliyah in shul or who gets preference to lead the Zimun?
When I set out to do this series on the Lost Tribes I was simply focused on the “story” of them being lost and those who were fascinated by it. Today, we Jews come from just a few tribes, namely Levi, Yehuda, and Binyamin (and perhaps Shimon - who lived in the kingdom of Yehuda- more on this to come). Other than the Leviim, there is no practical difference which tribe one comes from, so would we benefit from knowing if we were from Yehuda or not?
However, it wasn’t until I received an email from R’ Fishel Mael describing his Sefer Shivtei Yisrael on all 12 tribes that I even thought about exploring the difference between Reuven vs Gad, Binyamin vs Naftali, and so on. What unique qualities did each of those tribes embody? What would it be like to have a whole tribe embodying peacemaking or high-energy? Torah learning or Kiruv? What characteristics would we have within our entire nation, what legacies could we tap into, who would be our role models, and what could we strive to perfect?
So when you stop to think about it, it becomes abundantly clear just how important this is to putting the series in perspective. It’s not simply that a (large) amount of Jews are missing, it’s the fact that a distinctive part of Am Yisrael- each with their own special attributes and characteristics- has been absent for centuries.
And so this episode on the Twelve Tribes of Israel came to be included in a series about the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and it is one which helps contextualize the series and hopefully brings some clarity to the “why” the missing tribes are such a loss and what we are lacking without them.
Listen to the podcast episode with R’ Mael here and purchase R’ Mael’s Sefer Shivtei Yisrael here.