The Keepers of Our Culture For 3,000 Years: The Mama or the Papa?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

       This is the order in which the 12 sons were born to Jacob.  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun were full brothers.

   Joseph and Benjamin were 1/2 brothers but also 1st cousins to the others.

      Dan, Naphtali, and Gad and Asher were 1/2 brothers to each other as well as to the first 6.  

I just finished watching Simcha Jacobovici's "Lost Ten Tribes" that accidently came on my YouTube Channel this morning, and I'm all hepped up into these facts of finding almost all 10 tribes, I think it was 9 that he found, and that these people have carried on some form of our culture and religion for all these years since 721 BCE when the Assyrians attacked and took away much of the Israelite population both males and females.  

Who is it today who teaches the children in the family our culture and practices such as lighting candles on Friday evenings?  The Mother. Who makes the food that is special for each holiday, designating that special holiday?  The Mother.  

Dr. Shalva Weil of Jerusalem, an anthropologist, has studied such people, specializing in the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, whose real religion other than Islam is Pashtunwali, which is an ancient form of our commandments.  She found that even they, Taliban families of today, were lighting candles on Friday nights but not knowing why.  In fact, many things they did were indicating our cultural past, but they didn't know why they did these things.  Simcha found out these facts personally, traveling the same course that our captured 10 tribes must have traveled on, going there and viewing the evidence.  

So, let's look at these original mothers.  Jacob and Leah produced  6 of the 12 tribes, which were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah (that's us), Issachar, and Zebulun,  Genetically, Jacob, whose name was also Israel, was the grandson of Abraham being his father was Isaac, and Abraham's male line went back directly to Shem and then Noah.  Jacob was unique, having a fraternal twin, Esau who was born a few minutes before he was, fighting with him and causing the divide that would be seen later as Arabs and Jews.  

From Rachel, came Joseph, and then much later, Benjamin, who would be  1/2 brothers and cousins of the 6 others.    That's 8 of the 12 sons.  

From Bilhah came Dan and Naphtali, 1/2 brothers.  From Zilpah came Gad and Asher, 1/2 brothers to the others.   

As it turns out, Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher were not raised by Israelite mothers, but more likely by converted Egyptian Israelite mothers.  

Jacob's mother was Rebekah, whose father was Bethuel.  Bethuel was also father of Laban. Laban's father was Nahor II.  So Rebekah and Laban were siblings.  He left home and went to his uncle Laban in Haran.  There he married his uncle's 2 daughters, Leah and later, Rachel, who were his 1st cousins.  Later he wound up marrying their handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah. We're not sure, but they were probably both Egyptians.   By these 4 women, he produced 12 sons, the progenitors of the 12 tribes.   

The land they were assigned to by Joshua, for Moses had died outside the wall of Canaan,  is as follows: 

          12 sons hearing their father's prophecy about them.

Dan the 5th  and Naphtali the 6th  were located in the North, neighbors, sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid.  The nearby tel, site of the biblical city of Dan (Laish), has been excavated by Avraham Biran. From the descendants of Naphtali were many Jews living in Galilee in 2nd Temple times.   

Asher  the 8th, given fertile territory from W Galilee to the S of Carmel,  was next to Naphtali, but Gad the 7th was separated, in the southeast and central area. Gad was settled in Gilead and Central Transjordan where they gained a warlike reputation.  Their position was consolidated under David.  After the split in the kingdom, Gad belonged to  Samaria and suffered severely from Syrian attacks.  In 732-721 BCE, the region was devastated by Tiglath-Pileser III and most of its people were exiled by the Assyrians.  Later it was occupied by the Ammonites-brought in by Assyrians.  

Reuben the 1st, requested and got territory in Moab (Transjordania) bordering Gad which was fertile but politically became a problem, so much of their land fell into the hands of the Moabites or Ammonites.  They were exiled to Assyria in 721 BCE.  Played little part in the history of the tribes after settling in Canaan. 

Simeon the 2nd, received land in Eretz within the lot of Judah in 2 different places of the Negev but was of minor importance.  During Hezekiah's days, they took possession of the Arab areas of Seir.  Some apparently settled in the Mountains of Ephraim.  

Levi the 3rd, would be the origin of today's Levites, given the job of teaching the Mosaic law to all the others, would be assigned to live with other tribes for teaching, and this was forecast by Jacob on his deathbed  that they would be scattered among the other tribes. When young, he and Simeon  avenged the rape of their sister, Dinah,  by killing all the  men of Shechem, getting Jacob in deep trouble.  Cohens come from this tribe.  They are the direct descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses.  As Levites, they read after the Cohens in the synagogue.  Levi had 1 daughter, Jochebed-mother of Moses.  His 3 sons were Gershom/n, Kohath-son was Amram, father of  of Moses, Merari.   Levi died in Egypt at age 137.  

Judah the 4th, received his father Jacob's blessing.  We Jews are from Judah.  He's the one that said, "Sell Joseph, don't kill him." The area he received was one of the largest in Canaan and it eventually absorbed also the inheritance of Simeon in the Negev.  David  came from this tribe.  The tribe of Judah supported Solomon's son, Rehoboam after Solomon's death. 

Issachar, the 5th son of Leah and Jacob, Jacob's 9th, whose descendants numbered 64,309 at the end of the desert wanderings, was the 3rd largest tribe.  They inherited land between Mt. Tabor and the Jordan River including much of the fertile Valley of Jezreel.  Apparently some of the tribe was saved from the Assyrian exile, and men of Issachar answered Hezekiah's summons to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.  

Zebulun, 6th son of Jacob and Leah, Jacob's 10th,  whose descendants received territory in central Eretz (the Valley of Jezreel),although its exact extent is unclear.  It's mentioned by Isaiah and Ezekiel.  The rabbis associated Zebulun with trade, the scholarly descendants of Issachar being supported by the tribe of Zebulun.  

Joseph , 11th son of Jacob, 1st of Jacob and Rachel,  loved more by Jacob who showed favoritism because he's the son of Rachel, causing jealousy among his siblings who wanted to kill him, saved by Judah by being sold him to traveling Ishmaelites on camels going to Egypt.  He had received grazing land in Goshen, beginning Israelite settlement in Egypt.  Died at 110.  His history is dated during the Hyksos domination of Egypt from 18th to 16th centuries BCE.

Benjamin, 12th son of Jacob, 2nd of Jacob and Rachel who died in childbirth when he was born. They occupied land between Ephraim and Judah which included Jerusalem.  It was almost exterminated in a war with the other tribes.  Saul, 1st king of Israel was from this tribe.  The land was a bone of contention between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah after the division of the kingdoms and  eventually, was partitioned between the two.  Which woman raised Benjamin?    

I think we can safely say, by comparing with today, it is the mother who carries on the culture.  Father's are busy with their work outside the shelter of the home.  Up to our 2nd World War, women were usually in the home with the children.  Since then, women have carried on both positions many times while still trying to maintain their mother's traditions.  

Descendants of Bethuel

  Generation No. 1

1.  BETHUEL¹⁵  (NAHOR¹⁴ II, TERAH¹³, NAHOR¹² I, SEROH-SERUG¹¹, REU¹⁰, PELEG-ABRAHAM⁹, EBER⁸, SHELAH⁷, ARPACHSHAD⁶, SHEM⁵, NOAH⁴, LAMECH³, METHUSELAH², ENOCH¹)

 Notes for BETHUEL:

Bethuel was also a town in the territory of the tribe of Simeon, west of the Dead Sea.[4] Some scholars[5] identify it with Bethul[ and Bethel in southern Judah,[ to which David gives booty.

 

More About BETHUEL:

Citizenship: Syrian

DNA: Nephew of Abraham

Nationality: Aramean

       

Children of BETHUEL are:

                   i.    LABAN¹⁶, m. ADINAHAND.

 

More About LABAN:

DNA: Uncle of son in law Jacob

Residence: Haaran, Aram-Naharaim, Mesopotamia

 

More About ADINAHAND:

DNA: not related to husband

 

                  ii.    REBEKAH BAT BETHUEL, b. Aram; m. ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM; b. 2048, Negev.

 

Notes for REBEKAH BAT BETHUEL:

Rebekah's father is Nahor and mother is Milkah. 

 

More About REBEKAH BAT BETHUEL:

DNA 1: very fair to look at

DNA 2: Aram was hereditary enemy of Israel, guilty of hideous barbarities, tried to annihilate Israel

DNA 3: Aramaean wife

Residence: Aram Naharaim, city of Nahor

 

Notes for ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM:

12/21/2021  Isaac is getting a lot of his father's DNA through his parents.   like a double dose as his parents are 1st cousins, and his father is his mother's uncle. 

 

More About ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM:

DNA 1: blind in old age

DNA 2: 35 years old in 2083 BCE

DNA 3: 37 when mother, Sarah, had died

DNA 4: 40 years old when married Rebecca

DNA 5: 60 years old when twins Esau and Jacob

Residence 1: famine made him removed from Negev to Philistine country in Israel

Residence 2: Beer-lahai- roi, lived in south country                       

   Resource;

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Family Tree Maker for the genealogy