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 |  Subject: People of Yehudah (But not Judah)  Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:34 am | |
| People of Yehudah (But not Judah)
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Wendy Wippel
The Abayudayah ("People of Judah") are a tight-knit community of about 2000 devout Jews. They keep kosher and keep the Sabbath; they have a synagogue and Jewish schools. They even have a Jewish hospital and a mikva (ritual bath)! Not worth noting, except the Abayudayah live not in Yehudah, but Uganda. The inhabitants of five villages spread over about a 25-mile radius, the Abayudayah followed an unlikely path to Judaism. Bantu tribal leader Semei Kakungulu, given Bibles by British missionaries in the early 1900s, came to embrace the Old Testament, particularly the law as conveyed to Moses as truth. As a worthy standard of living.I mean he really embraced it. So much so that he had himself and his sons circumcised, eventually converting most of his tribe to his rudimentary form of Judaism. Shortly thereafter a Jewish traveler encountered the tribe and (staying with the tribe, as it happened) for several months, ended up teaching Kakungulu and his followers more about their fledgling faith, particularly the idiosyncrasies of the Jewish calendar, the traditional way of celebrating Jewish holidays, and some rudimentary Hebrew.It took a while, but eventually word of the "People of Yehuda" reached the ears of an Israeli studying at a Ugandan college in 1962. She spent some time in the Abaydayah villages and taught them more about how modern Judaism was observed in Israel.Eventually, word of these unlikely converts reached Jerusalem, and rabbis were dispatched to guide the converts in a comprehensive understanding of Judaism. Approximately 400 Abayudaya community members were formally converted by five rabbis of the Conservative branch of Judaism in February 2002[7], and these "official" conversions by conservative rabbis have continued ever since. Rabbis have provided an official Torah to ever village.In fact, the lives and character of the Abayudah have garnered admiration from neighboring tribes. Members of the Abayudayah created a coffee-growing co-op with both Muslim and Christian growers in the area, bringing a measure of prosperity to the area and creating a general feeling of good will for the Abayudah who had, particularly under Idi Amin, faced a good deal of persecution. Since Amin, the Abayudah congregation, only 300 strong in 1980, has grown steadily.Gershom Sizomu, the current shepherd of the Abayudayah flock, studied four years in LA and one in Jerusalem, earning formal recognition of rabbinical status by the Conservative Jewish authorities and subsequent certification as a rabbi, returning to his position as the Abayudayah's rabbi in 2008.His hope is that his training and subsequent official recognition as a rabbi by authorities in Jerusalem will allow his people, like other Jews around the world, to make "Aliyah".To immigrate to Israel and join their Jewish brethren in the faith.A hope no doubt bolstered by the fact that Gershom's daughter Navaah was born while he studied in Israel, the first "sabra" ("born in Israel" Jew) in the congregation.And no doubt bolstered by the fact that Gershom's recordings of the tribe singing Hebrew songs (albeit sometimes in a distinctly African manner) has garnered the tribe much attention among the Jewish community worldwide (their albums were nominated for a Grammy) and Jewish groups like Kulanu (all of us) are working in Israel on their behalf.And no doubt bolstered by the fact that Gershom has arranged for regular visits by rabbinical authorities in Jerusalem to teach his people everything they need to know to be kosher Jews (with respect to dietary laws and beyond.)Which to me is a very interesting story. But is that all it is? Just a story?Not on your life. I can't pretend that I understand completely why God would bring Ugandan tribesmen into Judaism rather than Christianity, but I do know that, - Quote :
- “Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him." II Samuel 14:14 (NASB)
God brings everybody through their lives with the goal of bringing them to Him, and everybody's "way" is different.And I know one thing more that makes me doubly sure that God has it all under control.The Bible clearly describes an widespread return of the worlds Jews to Israel, with the purpose of God "refining" them during the tribulation, separating the precious gold and silver from the dross: - Quote :
- The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver. Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out My fury on you.’” Hosea 5: 18-22 NKJV
- Quote :
- As I live, says the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. Ezekiel 20: 33-34.
This regathering, although largely under the general radar, has taken place at a furious pace over the last twenty years, with the bulk of Jewish populations all over the world returned the land of their fathers.In fact, the only country that still has a substantial population outside of Israel is the US. And orthodox elements of Jewry in Israel, recognizing that the Jewish repatriation precedes the coming of the Messiah in prophecy, regularly send emissaries to the US to try to convince our Jewish population to return.(The red, white and blue Jew is at fault for the Messiah's delay.)Which makes it really interesting that in the context of this return of the world's Jewry to Israel, the return that we are witnessing with our own eyes, God says something else: - Quote :
- The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. Isaiah 14:1
Isaiah prophesied, nearly 3000 years ago that Jewish converts to Judaism would join them in Israel.You can't make this stuff up!BTW-- Here is a sample of Abayudayah music. Enjoy! |
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