my stay in Kibbutz Ramat Yochanan, where I volunteered on a kibbutz for five months between 1982 and 1983, blessed me with memories to cherish for a lifetime. One such experience occurred immediately after our volunteers’ trip to the Golan Heights. While we were there, near the old Syrian bunker overlooking the Sea of Galilee, I saw an eagle in the sky with a snake in its claws and I pointed it out to everyone’s amazement and oh and aaah! me love God’s good creation.
While having breakfast with about 10 other people, all kibbutzniks except a girl volunteer from France, in the kitchen of the material – the chicken incubator where eggs were stored, chicks hatched, then inoculated and shipped to Europe (David, a Moroccan Jew, used to make the best shukshuka) – I used my very limited Hebrew to mention how the volunteers had just visited Ramot Ha Golan (the Golan Heights). I was very happy to have seen part of the biblical heritage of Shevet Menashe ben Yosef (the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph), especially since the descendants of Menashe today are American. I said, “Yosef lo Yehudi”. Joseph is not a Jew!
Immediately there was a stir, a conversational commotion, and I asked the French girl who spoke Hebrew what was going on. She said that everyone was debating whether Joseph was Jewish or not. They all started telling me, “You have to talk to Professor Karniel, you have to talk to Professor Karniel.” I said, “Who is Professor Karniel?” I was informed that he was a professor at the University of Haifa who lived in Ramat Yohanan and knew the Bible. He said, “If he knows his Bible, then he’ll know the difference between Joseph and Judah.”
It so happened that the wife of Professor Tzvi Karniel was there and said that she would talk to her husband and make an appointment to meet. We met and Professor Karniel was very nice and he said that he understood the difference between Joseph and Judah, but he was curious why he thought Joseph was not Jewish. I explained why and gave him a copy of Herbert W. Armstrong’s America and Britain in Prophecy and The Plain Truth magazine. He said that his class was now discussing the story of Joseph, and knowing how God can work, I wouldn’t be surprised if he brought up what I said about the United States being the only prophesied GREAT NATION of Menashe (Gen. 48:19). He said that he was welcome to come back for more talks.
Later I was also invited for coffee and conversation at the kibbutz home of a widower who was present at breakfast and seemed angry and adamant that Joseph was Jewish. God blessed our meeting too.
Blessed be the God of Joseph and Judah! May the modern identity of our twelve tribes continue to be restored and the reconciliation process be fulfilled. I am happy to help in any way I can to let everyone know that, “I’m Jose, your brother!”
United States and Great Britain in Bible Prophecy
brit am israel
Origin of Nations
The Plain Truth About the “Ten Lost Tribes” and Why You Need to Know!