Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 147b, Too much wine and luxury, the Northern Kingdom forgot Torah and forgot herself
This passage from Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 147b gives a very good illustration of what the Jewish impression was of the non-Jewish Northern Kingdom of Israel (they were Hebrew, but they weren’t “Jewish” as we generally think today):
“R. Helbo said: The wine of Perugitha and the water of Diomsith cut off the Ten Tribes from Israel. R. Eleazar b. ‘Arak visited that place. He was attracted to them, and [in consequence] his learning vanished. When he returned, he arose to read in the Scroll [of the Torah]. He wished to read, Hahodesh hazeh lakem [This month shall be unto you, etc.], [instead of which] he read haharesh hayah libbam. But the scholars prayed for him, and his learning returned.”
Read the entire tractate here: Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 147b
Perugitha was a region in the Northern Kingdom of Israel known for it’s wine. Although not all agree:
“When he returned to Palestine, he could no longer read Hebrew properly! Perugitha was identified by Neubauer as Phrygia; the editors of the Soncino edition of the Talmud in English identify it with Pelugta, or Pethugta, a place apparently in northern Palestine, mentioned in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 5.3 as producing wine which led Jews astray. However, the anecdote about Rabbi Eleazar is more appropriate to an area of non-Semitic speech outside Palestine; I prefer to retain Neubauer’s original identification.” -Sheppard, A.R.R. Anatolian Studies, Vol. 29, 1979 (1979), pp. 169-180
If Sheppard truly understood how far the Northern Kingdom had drifted from her original nature and culture, he would not feel so compelled to interpret Perugitha as Phrygia. The rabbis of the Southern Kingdom believed it was the luxuries and pleasures of the Northern Kingdom which turned their hearts away from the Most High and His Torah, ultimately leading to their exile and loss of identity in Media and else where. It has been the House of Jewdah’s fierce hold on the Torah which has helped maintain her identity as a people for the last 3500 years. Without the Torah, Ephraim quickly became a melting pot within the cultures of numerous surrounding peoples.
Identity Crisis: Should I align myself with "a religion"? Or with "a people"?
Being a shepherd for a time, I know from experience that sheep are intense social creatures. It is not just what they do, it is what they are. It is who they are, which is why there is no word to describe a singular “sheep”. They herd together in groups to find safety and comfort. And they develop what I call “Psychotic stress alienation syndrome” when isolated from the group. It is almost like they lose their “point of being” when not with “the others”.
YHVH, being the Designer/Creator of us all, of course knew we would behave like sheep in many ways, sometimes to our detriment. He knew we would need shepherds. He knew some would aspire to lead while the majority would be content to just follow, but He also knew there would be blind leaders who meant well and/or leaders who would rise in the ranks who weren’t even sheep, but instead predators dressed up to look like sheep (YHVH, being the Designer/Creator of us all, of course knew we would behave like sheep in many ways, sometimes to our detriment. He knew we would need shepherds. He knew some would aspire to lead while the majority would be content to just follow, but He also knew there would be blind leaders who meant well and/or leaders who would rise in the ranks who weren’t even sheep, but instead predators dressed up to look like sheep (Matthew 7:15).
Within the Two House movement, especially on the Joseph-side, there is an ongoing and developing Identity crisis. All the sheeple in all the various herds are curious why some of the sheep don’t align with a single group, sect, or denomination of a religion. Some are aligning with more than one group at once, while others try to go nameless or unaffiliated completely.
The reason the Two House (Ephraimite) movement will shift the general tendency of sheeple-herding is this: it isn’t about “religion” or “religious identification” anymore. It is becoming more about DNA (before you flip-out, read: Salvation and Genetics). Or rather, it is becoming more to do with: Who are your ancestors? Who are your “people” (Salvation and Genetics). Or rather, it is becoming more to do with: Who are your ancestors? Who are your “people” (Hosea 1:9-11)? And if you’re not sure of your DNA or who your “people” are, then what people do you align yourself with? What people are you a “companion” to (Ezekiel 37:16)? Note: you do NOT have to be a physical, pure-breed descendant of Jacob to be a part of the assembly of Israel (Exodus 12:37-38).
Imagine back 3,000 years to a time before Israel or Judah were taken into their respective captivities and before they turned to Idolatry. Can you fathom the broad populace then asking each other, “What religion are you?” Well, probably not. They would likely laugh, saying, “Helloooo, we’re Israelite! What part of ‘Israelite’ do you not understand? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Torah, etc… that is who we are, it isn’t our ‘religion’.”
So for our modern cultures, it is generally unacceptable to answer identity-type questions with, “I’m Israelite” or “I’m Hebrew”. People still want to know if you are “Christian” or “Jewish” or “Muslim”. Then they want to know if you are “Baptist” or “Catholic”, “Orthodox” or “Reform”, “Sunni” or “Shi’a”. Regardless, terms and catagories are always misleading in some way or another. Even the term “Jew” or “Jewish” doesn’t always represent the same thing to every one. Depending on the context, it can mean your ethnicity, your belief system, and/or your general behavior.
“What does it matter? Why can’t I just be?”
In fact, you can “just be” and you can just be “nobody” if that is how you wish to be aligned, which is the way I generally align myself, but it has a tendency to alienate “the others” who have a deep need to be intimately affiliated with something formal and larger, something with a governmentally recognized tax id, that is: an institutionalized religious system.
Religious isolation is generally easier for men, than for women… for women have a better sense of the importance of the group (there is inherit safety when in “the group” - look to the “sheep” lad), but this is dangerous when the groups themselves are led by Predatory shepherds (Jeremiah 23:1-8). Of course, that is just a generalization of men and women. I’ve seen the roles play out differently in some cases, but not wanting to get too entangled in a gender-based discussion here, I’ll move on and describe how I see myself.
For myself, for example, I trust in the One who Christians call “Jesus” (Yeshua), although I don’t perceive him the way most Christians perceive him. I don’t see him as one who intended the masses to think themselves “saved” while continuing in Lawlessness or practicing sin as a matter of culture. In my understanding of the scriptures, he didn’t promote lawlessness, but he did encourage his followers not to follow the “doctrines of men” (Matthew 15:1-9). Since Christians and Jews generally find it difficult to discern between the Torah and Jewish tradition (largely because they haven’t read the Torah), they have incorrectly thought of “Jesus” as one who tried to remove the Torah (Law), even though he himself said he didn’t come to do such (Matthew 5:14-19). Actually, if he would have taught the people to forsake the Torah, he would have been disqualified from being the true Messiah, according to Moses (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). So… Christianity has largely become a super-religion (with many sects) that I cannot and will not identify with on many levels, although I do identify with the Messiah Yeshua. On the flip side, I don’t identify with Judaism (Jew-da-ism) as a whole either. I don’t call or think of myself as “Jewish” because I don’t embrace the “Oral Torah” which is paramount within the major sects of Judaism. Karaite Judaism does embrace only the Written Torah of Moshe, and I’ve learned much from Karaites, but most of them are fiercely anti-Yeshua.
For the record, I don’t affiliate with the British Israelism movements, although I do believe they are Israelite descendants of Joseph, but there are Joes scattered far beyond England’s boarders or her old empire.
So, you may be asking, “What do I do? How do I describe myself? Do I even need to describe or categorize myself? What does it matter if my family is freaked out because I align myself with no one religion, sect, or denomination? What does it really matter?” In the End, I think we’ll care little about what “religion” or “denomination” we embraced as our own. If my suspicions are correct, we’ll be primarily and exclusively concerned with: Do I know YHVH and did I align myself with Him and His ways, proving that I love Him by doing what He told me to do? I assure you, that is all that will matter then and should be your ultimate concern now.
Read the Torah of the Most High, understand and judge it rightly with itself using the original language when possible, and do what He says. Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see how Yeshua walked out Torah in Wisdom, in Righteous Anger, and most importantly, in Love.
Shalom Aleikhem.
External Links:
* An Identity Crisis
* Why the Church teaches that Jesus Christ is NOT the Messiah
