B"H
This week's Torah Parasha "Chaye Sarah" (25:1 ff.) informs us that Avraham married a second time after the death of his wife Sarah. He married a woman named "Keturah" and most Torah commentators agree that Keturah this is nobody else but "Hagar" (Ishmael's mother and concubine of Avraham).
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch states in his commentary that there was nothing unusual about Avraham marrying a for a second time because he lived 35 years longer than Sarah. After he married Keturah she bore him a few more sons called Simran, Jakschan, Medan, Midian and Shuach. G - d wanted Yitzchak as another forefather of the Jewish people. Also because Sarah was Jewish. A Gentile mother Hagar with her sons would have been able to fulfill that task.
After Avraham and Keturah had raised their children, Avraham saw that he didn't succeed in raising them spiritually. Only Yitzchak had the same thoughts as him but all the other children had different souls. In order to avoid fights about the heritage between Yitzchak and the other sons, Avraham sent his and Keturah's sons to the east.
This is the reason why we sometimes find "Jewish" ideas or behaviour in the Far East. Although the sons from Keturah were not Jewish, they had still taken over certain kinds of attitude from Avraham. Some people of the Far East may have a slightly Jewish behaviour, as their ancestors may have been Jews who got dispersed before and after the destruction of the First Temple.
Today, hundreds of maybe thousands of Indians call themselves "Bnei Menashe - Sons of Menashe" (one of Yaakov's sons). Nobody is able to say whether this is really true. Fact is, that not every Gentile can come and make a claim to be Jewish in order to get Aliyah rights for Israel. Many of those Indians were allowed to immigrate to Israel but had to undergo conversion. Their true intention as well as the extremely fast conversion is questionable and when you ask me, those Indians are not Jewish. Israelis usually don't let them integrate into their society and consider the "Bnei Menashe" as Asian slaves and fake converts in order to seach for a better lifestyle.
On the other hand, the Indian "Bnei Menashe" do anything but integrate. Simply because they are not interested in Israeli society but rather into Israeli social benefit. They keep on claiming to be "Bnei Menashe" although only the Meshiach can stipulate which Jew is from what tribe. Moreoever, the Indians in Israel demand their rights and ask for the same life just like in India. Only with a bit more cash.
If we could, we would send those false converts back just as Avraham did with his and Keturah's sons.
Indians by and large descend from Elam and Madai. The caste system in India is the result of the ancient merger of Elam and Media. Hinduism has some Babylonian aspects like reincarnation, the wearing of some amulets, the red string, etc., all of which have nothing to do with Abraham or Judaism.
ReplyDeleteNorth-east Indians near the Nepal border, look east-Asian , are genetically linked to Tibetans( sino-tibetans)etc and are not related(genetically) to the rest of the Indians .