Rabbi Elyahu Kin: The Jews living in Israel are only from about 2-3 Tribes. We wanna know where everybody else is because part of the prophecies clearly state that they will be coming back and joining us. A very important prophecy has yet to be fulfilled and that is the coming back of the 10 Lost Tribes. Very soon, when we do discover them ~ the 10 Lost Tribes ~ what it means is that our family will grow and, once again, there will be akhdut: there will be unity between all the Tribes. For the most part, the Tribes that were in the South were Shevet Y'hudah-Binyamin-and Shim'on. Everybody else were in the North. They were placed in Assyria (Assyria was a large area that comprised of portions of Turkey, Armenia, Iraq: that was Ashur.) and Iran. The commentators explain that even though that's where they were driven they did not stay in one location. They continued Eastward, so we're expecting to see the Tribes move on towards The East and populate a larger region, a larger area than they initially occupied. The Ten Tribes are not the only ones that went into exile. There's a very special group called the descendants or Children of Yitro, the father-in-law of Moshe. A very special group who observed certain strict laws based on what their father instructed them to do. The third group that is most fascinating of all is B'nei Moshe, the Children of Moshe, also a separate group that also went into exile. Now, it is possible that even portions of Y'huda and Binyamin went along with them. We have Jews that are from Georgia who observe Torah and Mitzvot just like everybody else and, most likely, they're not from the 10 Lost Tribes simply because they've been in touch with us all the time. They have the full tradition: the Oral and the Written Word, so Jews in that area may be those portions of Y'huda and Binyamin that went into exile with the 10 Lost Tribes. The Levi is not the Children of Moshe; anybody who is a Levi today is most likely not from the Children of Moshe; he's just from the rest of the Tribe. The Children of Moshe were exiled in different ways and in different directions, somehow taken by a cloud and placed on the other side of the River Sambatyon: a River that throws up stones 6 days a week and right before Shabbat the River rests, so we have a description of this River, as you can see in this Midrash: it's a little bit of a question whether there's any water in the River because one version seems to say that it's a River of stones and sand that has some sort of volcanic activities 6 days a week and one description says that there's water; it's a regular River. In any event, this group called B'nei Moshe is on the Other Side. I say the Other Side because according to the Midrash that said they went to the Sambatyon~the group of Tribes~some of them came close to Sambatyon and the others went Beyond the Sambatyon. It is a big difference between the two of them, but those that went Beyond the Sambatyon are surrounded~protected~ by this River. Nobody should bother them. In other words, there's a group of Jews out there that, according to our tradition, are completely observant~this B'nei Moshe~till this very day, righteous, they have their own king, they're not to be bothered, and, therefore, not everybody will be able to know where they are because the idea is not to bother them. There are many ways that He can hide it. There have been reports, supposedly, by astronauts and others who have seen something strange in the area of Viet Nam. Even though it's there, you may not be able to see it. Nevertheless, we know it exists. As far as Ramban is concerned, it's hidden. There is one opinion that this River was hidden during the time of the Inquisition. Some say it just stopped working. It was a beautiful land full of only clean animals. No unclean animals. Very, very wealthy with their own king. Apparently, it still exists. They will all come back from all sorts of places that you could never imagine them from coming, including a place called Sinim. M'Eretz Sinim. China. There are 2 opinions as to where they actually went, whether it was some going to Africa or some going to Asia. The majority opinion is that this is in Asia, except 1 or 2 Tribes. They're gonna come from all corners of the world. Some of them are gonna come back with Moshiakh ben Yosef. Yosef brings his share. Moshiakh ben David is in charge, if you can call it that, of bringing the rest of the Tribes back, so there will be an effort made, and there are efforts being made, as we speak, by various groups and organizations to try to find out where they are. Some of them are actually coming back. Now. As we speak. Some of them are in Israel all ready. Y'huda and Binyamin are all ready making aliyah. According to our tradition, there is a group or two that did go to Africa. There are over 1,000,000 B'nei Menashe and many have come to Israel. Many are still waiting to come.
Rabbi Elyahu Kin: We are living in the Generation of Moshiakh.
