doubt. Again, we see echoes of the Greco-Roman edges of the world, beyond
which the ten tribes are located. Remarkably, while the sages discuss the actual
geography, they do not discuss the question of what happened to the ten lost
tribes—an ultimately far more important issue. And they debate it seperartly.
Theological deliberations over the meaning of exile end up creating a new
place of exile, as did Esdras. This is evident in one of the earliest debates on the
tribes found in the Mishnah (redacted and compiled in the early third century).
The great sage Rabbi ‘Aqiva (? 50 – 135 CE) states the Talmudic problem of the
ten tribes very clearly in his commentary on Leviticus 26 : 38 : “and ye shall
perish [be lost] among the gentiles.” The passage, says ‘Aqiva, “refers to the
tribes exiled to Media [the ten tribes].”^55 The debate here is about the meaning
of the Hebrew wordavad:does it mean to “perish” (as ‘Aqiva insists), or does it
mean to be “exiled” and, therefore, as Neubauer puts it, to be “with the hope of
returning”?^56
The oldest Mishnah concerning the ten tribes discusses those “who have a
share in the world to come.” The chapter begins with the hopeful assertion that
“[a]ll Israel has a share in the world to come,” but proceeds to discuss indivi-
duals or categories of people who actually do not:
The ten tribes who were exiled will not be returned, as it reads
[Deuteronomy 29 : 27 ]: “And he cast them into another land, as to this
day.” As that day will not return, so will they not return. So R. ‘Aqiva.
[On the other hand,] R. Eli‘ezer said: As this day means as usually a
day becomes clouded and thereafter lights up again, so the ten tribes,
who are now in darkness, the future will lighten upon them.^57
The broader context is a discussion of the various types of people who have
been “overturned,” “covered,” “swallowed,” did not reach their destination, or
simply disappeared from this world in all sorts of strange ways. It begins with
the “generation of [the] flood,” and follows with the “people of Sodom,” the
“generation of Israelites in the desert,” and the “congregation of Korah,” and
ends with the ten tribes. Of the “congregation of Korah,” who rebelled against
Moses in the desert, we are reminded, tellingly, that “the earth covered them”—
god’s punishment. To complicate things, however, the biblical text cryptically
says elsewhere (in Numbers 26 : 11 ) “the sons of Korah died not.” This contra-
diction in the biblical text calls for rabbinic intervention: what is fate of the
Korahites? The Korahites, insinuates theMishnah,“are not going to ascend”—
it is as if they are still stuck under the ground right now.
The inclusion of the ten tribes in such a fold of dubious cases suggests
that, at least in the early stages of rabbinic deliberations, the question of return
was a topic hotly contested by various rabbinic figures. It also suggests that the