Fdo.: J uan J osé M ateos o tero
CUARTO CURSO ENSEÑANZAS APLICADAS
This is a Biblical concept. This paradigm is incorporated in Yehudah’s prayers in many places, e.g.
“Restore us our Father to thy Torah, draw us near our King, to thy
service; cause us to return to thee in perfect repentance. Blessed art thou L-rd, who art pleased with repentance.”
— The Amidah For Ephraim the emphasis to note here is on asking G-d to “Cause us to return in perfect repentance.” David, our master teacher of prayers, teaches the House of Joseph through his prophetic psalms. He writes prophetically to the flock of Joseph, in a time when they will have fulfilled the prophecies of our father Yaakov, having become a
“fruitful vine that was to overflow its original bounds and spread out, i.e. “branch out”
across the seas, (Gen. 49:22, Psalm 80:14). He tells us that at a specific time, at a time of calamity, we are to use G-d’s specific concepts in our prayers. David tells us three times in a row, indicating that this injunction from the Shepherd of Israel is of supreme importance.
Our spiritual life, the peaceful manner of our continued “resurrection,” i.e.
speedy quickening depends on it:
“Turn us again O G-d, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved,”
(Psalm 80:3,7,19).
“Quicken us and we will call upon thy name,”
(Psalm 80:18).
All the prophets reinforce the injunctions of king David, our commander in chief.
Jeremiah prophesies what we will say after we will have realized that we were chastised for refusing the Torah. We will ask G-d:
“Turn thou me and I shall be turned, for thou art the L-rd my G-d.”
(Jer. 31:18).
We are to lament our past wrong doings and ask G-d:
“Turn us unto thee, O L-rd, and let us return; renew our days as of old,”
(Lam. 5:21).
One of the most fitting Psalms, that has the many appropriate words and concepts in it for members of the awakening Ten Tribes to use is Palm 116. As we awaken to consciousness, and as we study the Tanakh on where we have been and what is happening to us now, we can contemplate the words and concepts in Psalm 116. We are struck by its seeming custom made qualities for the House of Joseph. Its allegorical language can express the emotional states of our heart as we wake up in the spiritual graves of the Valley of Dry Bones:
:1-2 expresses our thanks for G-d hearing us, (for our sufferings cry out to G-d, Ex. 2:23-24);
:3-4 as we are enlightened to the curses of our "graves" that held us fast, we call out to G-d to set us completely
free;
:4-5 we acknowledge the causes of our exile, and we thank G-d for His mercies;
:5-8 we keep beseeching G-d to set us free further, unbind us from the effects of our graves, and restore us fully;
:9-10 we promise to walk in the land of the living, i.e. keep the commandments;
:11-14 we contemplate how we can react appropriately to this "resurrection," and we decide to pay our vows,
(see above on sacrifices and vows);
:15 we can meditate on how much G-d, our Father, has felt the pain our "death"
in exile, for He was exiled with us;
:15-16 we acknowledge our "servant" status as members of the nation of priests, and decide to "wash, and
come clean" as our father Yaakov has prophetically instructed us, (Hos.
12:3, Gen. 32:2);
:17-19 we praise G-d with offerings of thanksgiving for setting us free of our "bonds," as we return to our
original vows, [The Covenant] we made at Mt. Sinai, where we promised to live by every word of the
Almighty.
Our Obligation:
The prophesied words are given to us to use especially upon waking to our identity. They speak of G-d’s mercy toward us and give us directives to follow, e.g. to ask G-d to turn us. How can this be, to ask G-d to turn us if we are dead?
Besides for all Israelites to ask G-d to continue to turn to us, and to enable us to turn to Him, these are words for the first contingent to awaken to use. These prescribed words and prayers are for us to use on behalf of the rest of the
“spiritually dead of the House of Joseph.” It is for us to use to ask G-d for mercy for those not yet awakened. Those awakening now have a responsibility and obligation to ask G-d to mitigate the terrible wakeup calls that are liable to come if the Ten Tribes continue in their current perverse, Sodom and Gomorrah-like downward slide, (Mal. 3: 24, [4:6]). Therefore, it remains for those in the first contingent, those that have been mercifully awakened by God before the masses up to now, to stand in and pray for the rest who are still in their spiritual graves. In the face of the pending calamity of severe judgment, God warns us and instructs us on what to do:
“Gather My pious ones (saints) to Me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice... Hear O my people and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee, I am G-d even thy G-d.... Offer unto G-d thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High... Now consider this ye that forget G-d, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver... whoso offers praise glorifies me; and to him that orders his conduct aright will I show the salvation of G-d.”
(Psalm 50:5-23).
God tells us that when we offer sacrifices, in essence we have made a covenant with Him. For us, who are in the gradual process of coming alive in The Valley of Dry Bones, (Ez. 37), the implications are that if we do so, i.e. give thanks, we have started to obey His words. By giving thanks for our calling to spiritual resurrection, we have started to show that we have embarked on the road to abide by His words and that we want to continue on that road. We may not be all the
way at the goal, but it is a start and we have entered with good faith into part of the Covenant. Therefore, it behooves all aware Israelites from all the Tribes to practiceahavat / love of Israel by offering sacrifices of thanksgiving for our awakening and to stand in and intercede NOW for the speedy and merciful
deliverance of all the rest of the two families of Israel not yet aware of the times we live in (Jer.33:24).
Instruction from king Yehoshaphat:
When the people of Ammon, Moab and mount Seir came against the kingdom of Yehudah, king Yehoshaphat prayed on behalf of the nation in the new courtyard of the Temple. At the end of his well-thought-out formal prayer he made a short but profound statement and plea: “We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon thee." (II Chron. 20:12). With this statement king Yehoshaphat tells us that it is not wise to assume that we are right about anything, or that if we are right about some things, that is all the learning we need. If we follow his advice in this, we will be open to G-d’s confirmation to us of what is correct and to his promise to that end: “I will guide you with my eye,” (Psalm 32:8). Therefore it is wise and imperative for us, that in our seeking the homeward-bound road,
returning from 2700 years of being estranged from G-d and His Torah, to always include in our prayers the above dictum. The G-d of Israel promises to teach us in the way we should go. He promises to guide us with His eye. Let us say with king David, “My eyes are toward thee,” (Psalm 141:8).
Suggestions on what to do:
David tells us to seek His face in order to receive His strength, (Psalm 105:4). God promises that if we seek the guidance of His holy
Spirit early, we will find it, (Prov. 8:17). As the "early" first contingent of returnees, it is imperative for us to do so. Ask the G-d of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov to guide you and this early contingent to arise from the Valley of Dry Bones, in being cleansed and readied to receive the revelations and guidance of His holy Spirit for the Return Movement of all Israel.
Some Pointers About Reunification
By Steve A. Mathe
Repre sentative for Brit Am in Southern California
Recently we have read several emails that Yair Davidiy has forwarded to us from concerned and hopeful readers about the reunification of the people
of Yosef and Yehudah. These inquiries portend to be a “siman tov,” a good sign, for these concerns represent the deepest yearnings from our souls
for re unification of all the tribes of Israel . They are the primordial voices written in our bones, which now cry out for wholeness, to be reunited with our
missing parts. These initial utterances for reunification are emanating from the very core of who we are as a people, who are to be reunited as an
integrated entity, the commonwealth of the Twelve Tribes Israel.
Yet, with all our hopes and good intentions, the ways to that unification are yet unknown to us, and are fraught with a great many seemingly
insurmountable difficulties. The road ahead to reintegration at this time is not laid out for us and is not easily seen upon first glance. These difficulties
are so great, that we, the small initial contingent to arise to consciousness about our identity, can at times say: “Our bones are dried and our hope is lost.”
This utterance voices the deep despair that strikes us when we realize how far away we are from any “reunification” at this time. We are fragmented
into many denominations, philosophies, theologies, interpretations and approaches upon our awakening. It is utterly impossible to reconcile all these
views with each other, much less with what the Torah and the Prophets expect from us. This is only to be expected, if we look at the resurrection
process in the Book of Ezekiel.
The Valley of Dry Bones is a visual metaphor of the resurrection of the whole house of (northern) Israel , (Ez. 37). The Ten Tribes, under the banner
of Yosef, are depicted by Ezekiel to be arising from 2700 years of spiritual death, from being forgotten by all, and from having become “lost” to their
brethren Yehudah, to the world, and to themselves. In the first stage of the resurrection process, we are shown as awakening to our identity. We have
all discovered through the work of Brit Am and to some extent other current works that promote the identity of latter day Israel that this information that
changed our consciousness came to us by Divine design. Our awakening can be likened to someone shouting, “Wake up!” and shaking us to
consciousness. This is the “noise” and “shaking” / tremor, done to us by G-d to wake us up to who we are. Then the various bones come together, a
metaphor for our inner framework being “reassembled” after having been disjointed and scattered for over two millennia. This takes time, as we sort
out our inner selves and we find our “core identities” as descendants, i.e. children’s children of our Israelite forefathers. However, what we are to do
next is not so clear to us from this vision. However, G-d has not left us without directions as to what we need to do first to find our spiritual bearings.
The Prophets tell us that in the last days we will be diligently studying and researching, and then understand the coordinates for finding our way back to
G-d, (Isa. 34:15, Jer. 30:24, 23:20, Psalm 78:6). We can take some initial cues as to what we need to do from Ezekiel who was spared in the
Babylonian persecution for this purpose. He was commissioned to be our watchman some 2600 years ago, (Ez. 3:17), over a century after the northern
kingdom of Israel went into captivity. Ezekiel writes extensively to us, the northern and the southern houses of Israel , all the twelve tribes of the
House of Israel in the latter days. He is expressly sent to us, “the children of the captivity,” for G-d wants to see whether we will hear or
we will refuse his instruction, (Ez. 3:11).
According to tradition, the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe were the first ones to break loose from the City of God when the Ten Tribes
seceded from the kingdom. Today, they seem to be in the forefront of the first ones to be awakened from their spiritual death. Therefore it behooves us,the people of Brit Am, to move toward reunification by looking to the directions left for us by the Prophets and our father Yaakov. Coupledwith the fact that we were cast out of the Land due to worshipping other gods and not keeping the Law / Torah, heeding the Prophets’ directives are most important to orient us upon our awakening from spiritual darkness. Those directions are not necessarily about making associations between our various organizations, or between Yehudah and the returning Ten Tribes. Those are relative micro-details that will work
out afterwe make moves to reconcile ourselves, i.e. reunite ourselves with the Torah’s and the Prophets’ directives, to reaccept and observe the commandments we have cast aside. This is most important, for Ezekiel and the rest of the
Prophets charge us with a “split consciousness” concerning our allegiance to the Torah. For this reason G-d has prophesied through Jeremiah, “And I will give them a heart to know me that I am the L-RD, and they shall be my people, and I will be their G-d: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” (Jer.
24:7). Therefore, the “reunification” that we need to seek first is within
ourselves. This emphasis implies that for Ephraimite returnees at this time it is of paramount importance to make spiritual aliyah first, before making a permanent physical aliyah to the Land. The framework that supports
that inner reunification needs to be sought first. The essence of this inner
reintegration is all summed up in G-d’s command to us: “Return unto me, and I will return unto you.” (Mal. 3:7).
Our history shows us that G-d allowed the second Temple to be destroyed due to a pervasive lack of unity, brought about by what we in retrospect
call sin‘at chinam / baseless hatred, which developed between the ideologically warring factions of Yehudah. When the very framework that held
Yehudah in an integrated unity together was torn asunder, the Shekhinah, G-d’s perceivable Presence, left the physical Mikdash / sanctuary, for there
was no spiritual framework left to support the spiritual Mikdash. Eventually, even the physical edifice was literally destroyed in 70 C.E., as a result
of this spiritual neglect. Ejection from the Land followed.
Rav Joseph Breuer calls Ezekiel the “the prophet of our exile, our guide through our exile and the prophet who also will lead us out of our exile,” (The
Book of Yehezkel, p. 329). Ezekiel tells us that we will be caused to repent, and will be given “a new heart” and a new spirit that will enable us, i.e.
“realign” our hearts to keep G-d’s commandments and judgments out of a love-for-G-d motivation, (Ez. 36:25-27). G-d says that all these will be
done to us so that we, and the nations may learn the quintessential lesson for this planet: “that I am the L-rd,” (Ez. 37:6, 36:36). Yet, this inner
realignment and reunification of our heart is impossible without G-d’s holy Spirit to empower, guide and literally ensoul us. This is why we are
depicted by Ezekiel saying, “Our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts,”
(Ez. 37:11). The literal translation of the Hebrew last phrase nigzarnu
lanu is “we have been cut off for us.” To give us a fuller sense of implied Hebrew meaning, the sense of this difficult-to-translate passage in an
expanded form can be: “As far as we are concerned, there is nothing in us to give us hope, like a withered branch cut off a tree, or a limb
from a body, our thread of life has been cut off.” We, the initial contingent to arise, in order to further energize the coming-to-life and return
process of the Ten Tribes, must have this missing Divine ingredient of the holy Spirit / Shekhinah added to our Israelite “being.” Only then will we
be able to perform our Israelite doing now, i.e. the task of finding our way back to observing the Torah, reuniting with Yehudah and the Land.
As the firstborn from the graves of apostasy and idolatry, we have two main obligations. Our primary focus needs to be on reunification with G-d’s
directives, to realign our selves with the commandments. They regulate our relationships with the G-d of Israel whom we have forsaken, and
secondarily regulate our relationships with each other. We are also to bring the identity information and the warnings of the Prophets to our brothers
so that as many as possible of our people may wake up and repent early. Doing so by the pioneering first contingent will help our people to avoid the
looming severe and harsh wake-up calls the G-d of Israel has on His prophets’ schedules to shake and shock us out of our complacency. We, the
initial contingent to arise from the congregation of the dead, are to take this message to heart, that G-d’s firstborn people were not to be split in their
consciousness, but are to be one, a unified and integrated entity, as He is one, (Ez. 14:22-23). To this purpose, we at Yahed Levavenu / Unite Our
Heart believe it to be G-d’s will that we unite in helping each other in the return process. For this reason the website Yached Levavenu was
organized, that we may focus on the “Elijah challenge” of the Prophets, and to draw down the Shekhinah, G-d’s holy Spirit into our prayers, efforts
and ourselves, to reunify and thusly “re-inherit ourselves,” (Ez.22:16, Artscroll’s Stone Edition Chumash, p. 1175). We invite you to visit Yahed
Levavenu / Unite our heart, and join with its efforts.
Yahed Levavenu / Unite Our Heart exists for the purpose of facilitating the regathering of all the Tribes of Israel as prophesied in the Tanach, / the
Hebrew Scriptures. It is specifically centered on the regathering of the Northern House of Israel, popularly known as the Lost Ten Tribes. It is
directed toward the initial returnees who have heard the Divine call to wake up to their Israelite identity, and who would like to achieve a closer
connection to Divine Guidance in their miraculous return. The emphasis in this regathering effort is on taking the first steps of the return from “captivity”
of the Ten Tribes to the Torah, to its prescribed ways, to building fellowship with Yehudah and ultimately to returning to the Land, as set down in the
Covenant with the G-d of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov.
Covenant with the G-d of Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov.