Note: This article originally appeared in issue No. 9 (September 2006) of Brit-Am Truth Magazine

                                                               Some Pointers About Reunification

                                                                                                                                      By Steve A. Mathe

                                                                                                              Representative 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. Coupled with 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 after we 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.

We at Yahed Levavenu believe that this captivity is defined as a 2700-year-old estrangement from the G-d of Israel , His Covenant and His Land.  It is also characterized by conformity to the ways and identification with the nations among which we were exiled. These ways include the religions, philosophies and worldviews of the gentiles whom we set out to emulate from the beginning of our rebellion against the G-d of Israel till our present day. Yahed Levavenu maintains that we are in the beginning stage of the fulfillment of “resurrection from the dead” of the Northern House of Israel as described in Ezekiel 37. We believe that this resurrection and return / teshuvah process is impossible to do on one’s own, and that it requires Divine empowerment and guidance by His holy Spirit from start to finish in the individual and collective exodus from 2700 years of spiritual death.

To facilitate this process, in addition to studying the Tanach, Yahed Levavenu advocates establishing and maintaining a   prayer-centeredintimate connection with G-d for personal and corporate guidance on the return process by the G-d of Israel . Yahed Levavenu asserts that this guidance is not only vital for our spiritual growth but is absolutely necessary to show us the way through religious, theological and logistical difficulties that may been encountered and indeed separate and divide us today. To promote receiving this Guidance, Yached Levavenu advocates specifics-content prayer and doing teshuvah / repentance as the Torah-prescribed response to the effects of our exile in which we find ourselves upon awakening from spiritual death.

 Further and most importantly, Yahed Levavenu acknowledges that the Divine Guidance is to be received through G-d’s directive and animating force of

 the Ruach haKodesh, / G-d’s holy Spirit, as pictured in Ezekiel 37.  For this Guidance to be received, Yached Levavenu promotes and invites “the entire

 first contingent” to partake of building the Mishkan of Prayers.  To build the framework for this spiritual edifice, Yached Levavenu calls for asking for

 guidance by G-d’s holy Spirit with our concerted and persistent prayers in our daily lives and whenever we congregate for public worship.  Doing so by a

 dedicated group will start our project of drawing down the holy Spirit to guide us all on our homeward trek to reunification. Yached Levavenu takes 

 pointers from the challenging message of Elijah and invites the initial returnees to take the challenge to heart and ask G-d to be given Divinely sent 

 instruction to their requests about repentance on personal and corporate fronts. Yached Levavenu maintains that God is waiting for us to ask for His 

 holy Spirit to guide us if only we ask with no reservations. Yahed Levavenu hopes that we are one of the road signs along the way of teshuvah to further

  Israel ’s return to the G-d of her Covenant. To this purpose, we at Yahed Levavenu believe it to be G-d’s will that we unite in fervent prayer to help 

 each other in the return process.

“Only prayer and Torah will unite Israel .”

“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you…”

                                                                                                                   —  Ezekiel 11:19