being “ignorant where this River rises, or where it ends, whether in Asia,
Africa, or in Utopia.”^78 Ludolf probably uses the term “utopia” to mean “no
place,” but it seems to me that the more popular meaning of utopia as the ideal
humantoposis apt as well.
Wherever it is, the river, then, became attached to the ten tribes and
underwent a transformation not dissimilar to the spinning ofEretz Ahereth
from a vague other place into a real site of exile. When exactly the transforma-
tion of Sambatyon occurred is difficult to determine, but it emerged as an
important element in the ten tribes package, not least, as we shall see, because
it is the element of their story most strongly associated with redemption. And
above all, Sambatyon represents the boundary between our world and a differ-
ent world, between exile and redemption.
The Messiah and the Ten Tribes
Let’s now recall the Talmudic use of Isaiah’s verse ( 49 : 9 ) in relation to the ten
tribes: to those who “are in darkness, Show yourselves,” and “to the prisoners,
Go Forth!” The messianic/redemptive overtones are clear. Indeed, a later
Midrashic passage discussing the gathering of all exiles under the Messiah
elaborates more explicitly on the subject. Asking, “what is meant by the
Messiah’s saying to the prisoners: ‘Go forth’?” the Midrash answers:
It means that the Messiah will sayGo forth, and so on, to the Ten
Tribes who were separated long ago into three companies of exiles,
one which was banished to the [River] Sambatyon, one banished to the
region beyond the Sambatyon, and one to Daphne near Riblah where
it was said “Israel is swallowed up” [Hosea 8 : 8 ]. The Messiah will
besaying to the prisoners: “Go forth”—speaking to those held in
Sambatyon; andto them that are in darkness[he will say],“Show
yourselves”—speaking to those held in the region beyond Sambatyon.
As for those swallowed up in Riblah, the Holy One, blessed be He, will
make passageway after passageway for them, and they will find their
way underground [mehilim mehilim mi-le-matan] through them until
they arrive under the Mount of Olives which is Jerusalem and come
up. And [the] Holy One blessed be he, will stand upon the Mount, and
after it is cleaved open for [the] exiles, they will come out of it.^79
Mehilim—tunnels—is the plural ofmehila,a tunnel or a burrow that an
animal digs underground. The Midrash then uses the strangest and most rare
of verbs in order to describe the motion of the tribes making their way under