Shivat Tzion, First Return to Eretz Yisrael (2) On Motzei Shabbat, I received a phone call from Avi from Ramot who wanted to know more about how "the descendants of the northern ten tribes maintained an independent existence." Weren't they totally "Avodei Avoda Zara (idol worshippers)? Didn't the 'ten lost tribes' disappear and just became the subject of legends?" Not at all! While they weren't perfect, the ten tribes were not simply Avodei Avoda Zara and they did not disappear. The descendants of the "ten lost tribes" who remained between the Two Rivers (some wondered off to more exotic climes) did not assimilate into the surrounding population but rather they maintained their separate identity as "Israelites" in Assyrian exile. Eventually they amalgamated with the Judean exiles and became "Judaized". Scholars love to write learned articles in prestigious publications about how the northern ten tribes exiled by Assyria were "shot through and through with paganism even before they were exiled in 722 BCE". However a careful reading of our primary sources notes that Yeihu, after he annihilated the House of Omri, "destroyed the Ba'al out of Israel" long before that exile (I Melachim 10:28). By trickery, he had succeeded in gathering the Ba'al worshipers from all Israel into one temple "and smote them with the edge of the sword". In reality, Yeihu's purge was only the culmination of an aroused people in their struggle against pagan gods. Following Eliyahu's victory on Mt. Carmel (II Melachim l8,19:2), though the victorious prophet had to flee from the wrath of Queen Izevel (Jezebel), the prestige of "Ba'alism" fell dramatically and in further confrontations with King Ach'av (Ahab), Eliyahu never had to accuse him of Ba'al worship again. Later we find the king is surrounded by prophets of the G-d of Israel. Many of them were corrupt - "false prophets" - but they do not prophesy in the name of a strange god. After Ach'av's heroic death in battle, he was succeeded his by his worthless son Achaziah who only lasted a year. Achaziah's brother Jehoram, upon ascending the throne of Israel, began to distance himself from Ba'al worship. "And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; but not like his father and his mother; for he put away the pillar of Ba'al that his father had made." Though Jehoram removed royal patronage from the Ba'al cult, he still had to contend with the all-pervasive influence of his murderous mother who was still alive. Nevertheless, Jehoram, the scion of Izevel and Ach'av, would ask Geichazi the servant of Elisha, Eliyahu's successor, "Tell me… all the great things that Elisha has done" (II Melachim 8:4). Elisha doomed the House of Omri (Ach'av's father) to destruction not because of Ba'al worship; the House of Omri was condemned to destruction because of the judicial murder of Navot and the prophets. Eliyahu told Ach'av, "Thus saith the Lord, 'In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Navot, they shall lick your blood… I will cut off from Ahab every man-child… " And then, surprisingly, the Navi partially absolved Ach'av of guilt by pinpointing Izevel as the real source of evil - "whom Izevel his wife stirred up." When, at the behest of Elisha, Yeihu was secretly being anointed as king, he was charged, "And thou shalt smite the house of Ach'av thy master that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Izevel. For the whole house of Ahab (Omri's father) shall perish…" (II Melachim 9:7,8). Later, while Yeihu was murdering Jehoram, he mouthed slogans against the "harlotries" and "witch crafts" of his mother Izevel and that the judicial murder of Navot was being avenged, but he never accused the hapless Jehoram himself of committing any sin at all! The fact is that during the entire 200 year span of existence of the Northern kingdom, idols were worshipped publicly under royal protection for only 20 years. (Note. Similar to the "image of Micha", the "golden calves" in Bethel and Dan were accoutrements of unsanctioned worship of the G-d of Israel. Debased in our eyes perhaps, nevertheless, strictly speaking the calves were not Avoda Zara. Yeihu does not destroy them nor do Eliyahu and Elisha or any other northern prophets before Hoshea denounce them. Nor were there ever "calf-prophets".) Public worship of Ba'al existed only during the reign of Ach'av and Izevel and his son Achaziah. Jehoram who succeeded his brother on the throne of Israel was in the process of "phasing out "Ba'alism". In fact no one accused Jehoram of Ba'al worship at all! In their wonderings through the countryside, Eliyahu and Elisha never encounter Ba'al worshippers; Ba'al worship was a phenomenon strictly limited to the Queen and her coterie. Would Elisha would have been the confidant of three of Yeihu's now royal descendants had they been idolaters? Hardly. A careful analysis of the prophecies in Amos, Yeshayahu, and Micha reveals that there is no reference to the sin of Ba'al worship. The prophet Hoshea refers to Ba'al worship only as a sin of the past. When the northern Kingdom of Israel fell in 722 BCE, the deported northern Israelites did not take the Ba'al with them into exile. Sefer Melachim notes that Hoshea, the last king of Israel before the Assyrian exile, "…did evil in the eyes of the Lord but not as the kings of Israel before him (II Melachim 17:2). The Gemara says that he "removed the guards that Jeroboam the son of Nevat (the first king of the northern kingdom) placed on the roads to prevent Israel from going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Tana'it 30b). Probably he removed the golden calves that Jeroboam I had set up in his Bethel temple long before. When the Judean King Yoshiayahu later destroyed this schismatic shrine, there were no calves! Had they still been there, the author of Melachim certainly would have gloated over their destruction. (To replace the deported Israelites, the Assyrians transplanted colonists "from Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel" (II Kings 17: 24). With the aid of an Israelite priest, this potpourri of aliens - who later called themselves Samaritans and claimed to be "Israelites" - evolved a syncretic form of worship which also retained traces of paganism. Eventually the Israelitish element became dominant. It is noteworthy that the Israelite priest did not instruct the Samaritans in a "calf-cult".In short, the ten tribes took neither the Ba'al nor some sort of a "calf cult" with them into exile; they had cleansed themselves of those sins long before.) The prophet Yirmiyahu describes G-d's acceptance of the exiled northern tribe's repentance and Tziduk Hadin in some of the most beautiful Pesukim in all of Tanach."I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself; Thou hast chastised me and I was chastened, As a calf untrained, turn Thou me and I shall be turned, for Thou art the Lord my G-d. Surely after that I was turned and repented … I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did nor bear the reproach of my youth" (31:17,18)…Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me? …I do earnestly remember him still … I will surely have compassion upon', saith the Lord." Later "men of the people of Israel", hailing from northern cities, joined Zerubavel when he returned to Jerusalem. (I Divrei Hayamim 9:3)". <to be continued> Catriel's book in progress: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrims Prospective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service [The
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