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We know that all 12 tribes of Israel (The tribe of Benjamin and Judah plus the 10 lost tribes) were given the Torah at Mount Sinai. And we know that since the destruction of the first temple all tribes were scattered throughout the world. So It would be safe to assume that today there are hundreds of millions of modern day Israelites (not part of Judah but part of the other lost tribes of Israel) that are descended from at least one of these tribes and don't even know it. Therefore, would anyone descended from one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel still be obligated to keep the 613 mitzvot to this day? (barring the fact that its not possible for all commandments to be kept at this time)

Miguel
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  • wouldn't this apply https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinok_shenishba – rosends Feb 08 '24 at 19:14
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    @rosends unless they are hiding in a cave somewhere, then the answer is not even that. They aren't Jewish anymore, it's been too long, they have fully assimilated. Miguel, if a person doesn't have an unbroken chain of mothers and mother's mothers, all the way back to Sinai, one isn't Jewish I am afraid. – Rabbi Kaii Feb 08 '24 at 19:54
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    This question also mentions that the tribes were scattered at the destruction of the temple, but that's not true. They were scattered around 722 BCE, during the time of the First Temple – Rabbi Kaii Feb 08 '24 at 19:58
  • @RabbiKaii According to Jewish law, the religion is passed down through the mother, so if a Jewish woman marries a non-Jewish man, she is still Jewish, and so are her children. – Miguel Feb 08 '24 at 20:36
  • @RabbiKaii can we make a kal vachomer? If one doesn't know a law, he might be not responsible. All the moreso, someone who doesn't even know he is Jewish. – rosends Feb 08 '24 at 20:44
  • If we assume that roughly every other marriage was an intermarriage where the babies weren't jewish, and it has been 75 generations since then, we are only left with 1 x 10^-21 % population still Jewish. Which is way way waaaaay less than the number of them that went into exile. I think there's no chance any of them are still Jewish @rosends – Rabbi Kaii Feb 08 '24 at 20:49
  • @RabbiKaii so your answer is that, practically speaking, there is almost no chance that the people are halachically Jewish. I'm looking at the halachic theory which would apply if any of them ended up being "Jewish" in whatever is the necessary sense. – rosends Feb 08 '24 at 20:59
  • @rosends Wouldn't the lost tribes be in the same situation as the Falash Mura are today? – Tamir Evan Feb 08 '24 at 21:19
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    @RabbiKaii In Sanhedrin 110b, there's a 3 way dispute: Rabbi Akiva holds that the ten tribes are not coming back; Rabbi Eliezer holds that they are; and Rabbi Shimon says that it depends on whether they repent. Extrapolating from this, all the opnions hold that somehow the ten lost tribes have remained jewish. Otherwise what would the argument be for gentiles to return? – Shababnik Feb 08 '24 at 21:36
  • Just found this gemara in yevamot 16b. Which seems relevant to the ten tribes intermarriage @RabbiKaii . As well as the maharal miprague netzach Yisrael ch. 34 who seems to say the 10 tribes don't exist... Not sure if I fully understand what he is saying. My point being, either they are intermarried (barring my previous comment) or they don't exist [?] – Shababnik Feb 08 '24 at 22:29
  • This is a video I found on YouTube about the identities of the lost tribes of Israel that is very informative. https://youtu.be/RK8ZBPqnUbE?si=YB1GfyU61_dI_ZPJ – Miguel Feb 08 '24 at 22:51
  • @rosends all Jews are obligated in mitzvot? Even tinokei shenishba and those who don't know they are Jewish? There's not halachic exemption, just reduced punishment? – Rabbi Kaii Feb 09 '24 at 08:15
  • @RabbiKaii that's a great question and distinction -- if there still exists a chiyuv and simply a reduced punishment then that would answer the question as asked. – rosends Feb 09 '24 at 11:45
  • @RabbiKaii thank you for noticing. The correction has been made. – Miguel Feb 09 '24 at 14:46
  • https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/98082/759 – Double AA Feb 09 '24 at 14:49
  • @RabbiKaii I don't think your math checks out. If every exiled Jewish woman had an average of one daughter, then there are the same number of Jewish woman now as when exiled. (Obviously the variance on that mean is high.) – Double AA Feb 09 '24 at 14:50
  • The equation for family name extinction is P(extinction by gen. n) = G(P(extinction by gen n-1)), so as n->∞, P(Ultimate Extinction) = G(P(Ultimate Extinction)). x = G(x). Therefore if we weigh the probabilities of how many girls each generation has, and solve, we note that the answer has to be larger than 1. I.e. if each family had an average of one Jewish girl, or less, then they would definitely go extinct. If more than 1, they still might go extinct, but not guaranteed. The math of extinction is very conterintuitive, but it seems impossible that any made it this many generations. – Rabbi Kaii Feb 11 '24 at 13:30

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