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Who will populate Eretz Yisrael in the future?

The wide expanse of the Golan is waiting for millions of Jews to settle there and infuse the area with Torah life. Yehuda, Shomron, the Negev and Galil, will be settled by tens if not hundreds of millions of Jews returning home.

From where will all these Jews come?

For this we have to think “outside of the box”.

They will not come from the Jewish community in the United States which is quickly dwindling through inter-marriage, coupled with apathy and antagonism of most orthodox Jews towards God’s greatest miracle of the last 2000 years. The Jews of Western Europe and South America are following suit.

The 70 plus years of opportunity for the Jews in the West to return home +is rapidly ending, for the timetable of HaShem waits for no man.

The big numbers will come from the hundreds of millions of Jewish descendants of the Ten Tribes and Anusim (people forced to abandon Judaism and adopt a different religion), who will awaken one day to their Jewish heritage. They are the Jewish nation of the future, as prophesied by Yechezkel (11:17)

לכן אמר כה אמר א-דני ה’ וקבצתי אתכם מן העמים ואספתי אתכם מן הארצות אשר נפצותם בהם ונתתי לכם את אדמת ישראל:

 

Therefore say: ‘This is what the LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’

As Malbim explains this verse:

שלעתיד יאסוף את עשרת השבטים שהם בארצות רחוקות ולא שבו בבית שני, ונתתי לכם את אדמת ישראל לא כמו שאמרו לנו נתנה הארץ למורשה

 

“In the future HaShem will gather the Ten Tribes from faraway lands, those who did not return at the time of the second Temple, and I will give them the land of Israel”

With this in mind, I would like to suggest an additional understanding of the verses quoted at the beginning of this message:

לא תראה את שור אחיך או את שיו נדחים והתעלמת מהם השב תשיבם לאחיך:

ואם לא קרוב אחיך אליך ולא ידעתו ואספתו אל תוך ביתך והיה עמך עד דרש אחיך אתו והשבתו לו

The first verse deals with lost articles that belong to your brother Jew. The second verse deals with a Jewish brother or sister who is seemingly lost to our people:

ואם לא קרוב אחיך אליך ולא ידעתו ואספתו אל תוך ביתך והיה עמך עד דרש אחיך אתו והשבתו לו

 

If your brother  Jew is far from you (in the spiritual sense), to the extent that you can no longer recognize any Jewish features in his life. Bring him into your home (Eretz Yisrael) until his heart is opened and he begins to seek out his Jewish roots. Then be prepared to return him to those roots.

This is what will be in the near future, when HaShem will awaken the millions of our brothers so distant from their roots, and return them miraculously to us in Eretz Yisrael.

Comment by Shlomo Moshe Scheinman

The conclusion of the Talmud Yevamot 16b and 17a seems to be that the descendants of the 10 lost tribes lost their status as Jews. Either because most of the women of the 10 lost tribes had problems giving birth and so the men intermarried with Gentiles or because of the verse in Hoshea 5:7.There is an opinion in the Talmud Yerushalmi that if the 10 tribes will come back to the Jewish people in the future they will do so as converts and this seems to fit with the prophecy of Hoshea chapters 1,2,3
Here’s a Hebrew quote of the relevant passage in the Yerushalmi

The Talmud in Yevamot 109b as translated into English says https://www.sefaria.org/Yevamot.109b.3?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en
Rabbi Yitzḥak said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “He who serves as a guarantor for a stranger shall suffer evil; but he who hates those who shake hands is secure” (Proverbs 11:15)? This means: Evil after evil will befall those who accept converts…This is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Ḥelbo. As Rabbi Ḥelbo says: Converts are difficult for the Jewish people like a leprous sore on the skin.

Tosafot on that page of the Talmud limits the statement of the Talmud to a situation, where the Jews are either actively involved in trying to get the Non-Jew to convert or if they accept the conversion candidate immediately. Tosafot says that if we see they are making a strong effort to convert, then we should accept them.

Given the statement of Tosafot we have to structure a strategy that avoids the curse “Evil after evil will befall those who accept converts”.

Another issue that has to be addressed is, who can we trust to perform the conversions, even if we solve the issue raised by the Talmud and Tosafot? I at the outset want conversion courts that “produce” fully righteous Jews who observe all the commandments. I am not interested in producing converts, who say statements, such as the one attributed to the most famous convert in America “We’re pretty observant, more than some, less than others”.
Now, however, that she has become a member of the Jewish community, we have to make the best of the situation and encourage her to do Teshuva and observe all the halacha.

I also strongly suspect that she has the potential if properly inspired to bring tremendous salvation for the Jewish people.

Comment #2 by Shlomo Moshe Scheinman – Activities That We Can Do To Inspire Our Brothers, the Ten Lost Tribes to Want to Return From Their Own Initiative and with Deep Commitment To Israel and the Religion of Israel

To quote from Kol Hator 2:156 written by a disciple of the Vilna Gaon, who claimed this was also the opinion of his rabbi, the Vilna Gaon:

“repair of the world in the Malchut (Kingdom) of the Almighty” — Wherever repair is mentioned, it is part of the mission of Mashiach ben Yosef. This is the ultimate purpose of all the work connected with the beginning of the footsteps of the Mashiach, whose main goals are as follows: to gather in the exiles, rebuild Jerusalem, remove the impure spirit from Eretz Israel, redeem Truth, sanctify the name of G-d, and repair the world in the Malchut (Kingdom) of the Almighty, as is written: “with their own eyes they will see when G-d returns to Zion” (Isa. 52:8). This refers to the ingathering of the exiles. “Burst out, sing glad songs together, O ruins of Jerusalem” (Isa. 52:9). This refers to rebuilding Jerusalem and reviving the land that has been desolate. “G-d has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem” (Isa. 52:9), refers to G-d’s redemption of Truth, for Jerusalem is called “the city of Truth” (Zach. 8:3). “G-d has exposed His holy arm before all the nations” (Isa. 52:10), refers to sanctifying the name of G-d “All ends of the earth will see the salvation of our L-rd” (Isa. 52:10), refers to repairing the world in the Malchut (Kingdom) of the Almighty. All of these are the mission of the Mashiach of the beginning, the first Mashiach, Mashiach ben Yosef, who comes at the time of the awakening from below, and will find completion when Mashiach ben David comes, speedily in our day, Amen.

According to the outlook of the Vilna Gaon, Mashiach Ben Yosef is not limited to being just one individual, but many individuals (even women) can have the status of Mashiach Ben Yosef.

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