Dear Jeremy,
When you think about the fact that Jews as a people are as ancient as the
Chinese, you realize that by now there ought to be at least a billion of us.
Where are we all? The answer is that being Jewish - while truly a most wonderful
thing to be - has never been extremely popular. Aside from murdering us, the
nations have shrunk us through assimilation via coercion, enticement and expulsion
in all directions.
So finding Jewish traces anywhere on the globe shouldn't surprise us that
much. A classic case of this is the Ten Tribes of Israel, who were expelled
from their land by the Assyrians around two and a half millennia ago. As one
would expect, being exiled was bad for their national identity. They all went
lost.
Do any of them live today in Afghanistan?
First of all, let's put the record straight that Bin Laden has no connection
to Judaism except maybe for his similarity to Haman and Pharaoh. He's not
even Afghani; he hails from Yemen via Saudi Arabia.
As for the Afghani people, yes, there is fascinating evidence that some of
them, most notably the Pathani tribesmen, may have roots going back to the
Ten Lost Tribes.
First of all, many Afghani people claim this to be so. Rabbi Avraham Hacohen,
president of the Jewish community in the Afghani city of Harath, testified
that he heard former Afghani king Habib Allah Han proclaim, "I am from
the tribe of Benjamin."
In similar testimony, an immigrant to Israel recalls his childhood memory
of King Habib Allah's horseback tour of Harath: "The Jewish dignitaries
of the city gathered, among them my father.… My father coerced me to
join in greeting the king. The King asked the Jews, 'What tribe are you from?'
"
'We have no tradition regarding that, so we don't know, O King,' answered
the head of the delegation."
'Well, we do know,' said the king. 'We, the Mahmad Zei family, are all descendants
of the tribe of Benjamin from the seed of King Saul, from the sons of Yonatan
Afghan and Pithon.' "
Many Pathani village elders claim this as well. They are "the seed of
Israel," descended, they say, from Pithon of the tribe of Benjamin.
Pithon, a great-grandson of King Saul, is mentioned among a list of hundreds
of names chronicling the descendants of the Twelve Tribes (Chronicles I 8:35).
Nothing more is said of him.
Other names of Afghani tribes resemble those of some of the Ten Lost Tribes
of Israel: Rebbani (Reuben); Levoni (Levi*); Ephriti (Ephraim); Yusuf Si means
Sons of Yosef (Joseph). The Ghaghi tribesmen claim their name is from Gad.
(*Levi, as a whole, is not a lost tribe. Many Levites still exist among Jews
today. Yet it is assumed that many individual Levites were exiled along with
the Lost Tribes.)
Jewish names such as "Israel," not so typical in the radically
fundamental Islamic state of Afghanistan, are found among many Pathani. Jewish
names have been seen on tombstones in far-flung graveyards around the country.
As for Jewish customs, the Pathani are quite strict about not shaving their
sidelocks (peot), which is in accordance with the Torah command, "Don't
shave the sides of your head," (Leviticus 19). Their day of rest is Saturday,
and Friday towards evening they light candles, which some then cover with
a basket (originally to hide their Jewishness?). They wear a four-cornered
garment, to which some attach fringes on the corners. Some pray facing Jerusalem,
and the Star of David symbol is prevalent in almost every Pathani home!
The great Torah Sage "Tiferet Yisrael" wrote regarding the Ten
Tribes: "Many of the remaining became assimilated amongst the non-Jews….
Regarding them is the dispute between the Talmudic Sages Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi
Eliezar, regarding whether in the future those who remain but are assimilated
will eventually be brought back to the true faith in G-d…. For, although
many of them are actual idol worshippers and their identity as "Israel"
is forgotten, and the few Jewish practices they have are merely traditions
handed down from their fathers, such as the people of Afghanistan, regarding
whom many geographers consider to be forgotten Jews…."
In sum, there is interesting evidence that some Afghani may have Jewish roots.
What do we take from all this? We should realize that it's a miracle of the
greatest magnitude that we as Jews exist at all, remaining fully Jewish, and
with our entire Torah extant for the 3,314th year in a row.
Sources:
Based on an article by Rafael Berelson
Tiferet Yisrael Reish Perek Chelek
