Across the sabbath river : in search of a lost tribe of Israel / Hillel Halkin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Halkin, Hillel, 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lost tribes of Israel.

India--Description and travel.

India.

China--Description and travel.

China.

Thailand--Description and travel.

Thailand.

Physical Description:

394 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

Summary:

The fate of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel has fascinated Jews and Christians throughout the ages. Hillel Halkin, a distinguished writer and translator, has long been intrigued by the old legend that the tribes still exist in distant corners of the earth -- a legend that, like nearly all contemporary investigators of the subject, he considered to lack all factual basis. In 1998, he accompanied a Jerusalem rabbi and dedicated Lost Tribes hunter to China, Thailand, and northeast India in search of traces of the biblical Israelites who disappeared in the eighth century B.C.E. The journey ended among a little-known ethnic group living along the India-Burma border who had themselves been swept in recent years by Lost Tribe fever. Halkin returned twice more to the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur for a deeper look. Gradually, despite his initial skepticism, he became convinced that this remote group is -- incredible as it may seem -- historically linked to the ancient biblical tribe of Manasseh. Across the Sabbath River is the compulsively readable account of Halkin's experiences in arriving at this conviction. A superb writer, he effortlessly interweaves the biblical and historical backgrounds of this centuries-old quest with a captivating account, both funny and poignant, of his own adventures. In vivid, engaging portraits, he introduces us to a wide and memorable range of characters at once alien and familiar, while transporting us to an exotic society obsessed with the enigma of its own identity. Piece by piece, as in a tantalizing detective story, he amasses the evidence that finally persuades him, and will persuade many of his readers, that, for the first time in history, a living remnant of a lost biblical tribe has been found.

Contents:

1. Siyata Di-Shmaya 1

2. Mu Kaw Lee and Mu Lee Kaw 30

3. Aizawl 54

4. A Short History of the Lost Tribes 96

5. Chhinlung Israel Mipuite 137

6. Ratu 177

7. To Lianpui and Back 197

8. Lianpuisuaka's Will 238

9. Introducing Dr. Khuplam 256

10. The People Driven from Their Land by a Long-tailed Wildcat 279

11. Sorting It Out 316

12. Across the Sabbath River 333

Biblical Palestine with Its Tribal Territories 99

Northeast Africa, the Middle East, and Asia 132

The Present Territory of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo 137.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [389]-394).

ISBN:

0618029982

OCLC:

50241672