comments on the aborted journey that “it is quite possible that Abulafia
thought, as did many others of his generation, that the Mongols were them-
selves the ‘hidden ones,’ha-genuzim, the ten lost tribes of Israel reputed by
legend to be dwelling beyond the Sambation River.”^92 Idel also suggests that
Abulafia’s eventual rejection of “eschatological calculations” for the years 1270
and 1280 “might have been part of his disillusion when learning that the
Mongols were not the ten lost tribes.”^93
Abulafia’s interest was framed by the premise of “natural redemption,”
that is, a redemption of the Jews that was to occur in this world, involving this-
worldly means such as, in this case, an army of the ten tribes interfering in
global politics. As Idel puts it, “in an unstable situation such as this, it would be
fitting to suppose that the Jews could also be integrated in an historical process
that would allow them a foothold or even a victory by exploitation of a certain
constellation of events.” Abulafia, the messianic mystic, became “disillusioned”
when he learned that the Mongols weren’t, as he had hoped, the ten lost
tribes.^94 The redemption they might have brought would have been natural
and would not have necessitated any “disruption of nature.”^95 The persistent
search for the Sambatyon and the hope that the Mongols might turn out to be
the ten tribes remind us that one man’s dreadful apocalypse is another’s
messianic hope. They also remind us of the potentially vital role, particularly
military, that the ten tribes could play in such a scenario—be it of natural
redemption or apocalypse. The young Abulafia might well have hoped to enlist
the Mongols—that is, the ten tribes—in this process of natural redemption.
The Mongols turned out to be just Mongols, but Abulafia’s logic was still valid.
The sudden appearance of the ten tribes remained a possibility within the
redemptive messianic scheme.
lu
(lu)
#1