Holy Sparks

The Lubavitcher Rebbe teaches:

The Talmud offers the following explanation for the phenomenon of galut: "The people of Israel were exiled amongst the nations only so that converts might be added to them."

On the most basic level, this is a reference to the many non-Jews who, in the course of the centuries of our dispersion, have come in contact with the Jewish people and have been inspired to convert to Judaism.

But Chassidic teaching explains that the Talmud is also referring to souls of a different sort that are transformed and elevated in the course of our exiles ... It is to this end that we have been dispersed across the face of earth: so that we may come in contact with the sparks of holiness that await redemption in every corner of the globe.

So how does the northern kingdom find it's way back? We know that the Lost Tribes have assimilated into the nations that they were exiled to. They have become, for all practical purposes, Gentiles.  When they return, however, what halacha do they follow?  Will it be a standard conversion process where each individual is absorbed into what ever tradition of Judaism they are sponsored into.  Some Sephardic, some Ashkenazi, some Chassidic, etc.

The prophets don't indicate that will be the case.  In Ezekiel after the vision of the valley of "dry bones" it says:

Ezekiel 37:16

... Now Son of Man, take for yourself one piece of wood and write upon it, For Judah and for the Children of Israel, his comrades; and take one piece of wood and write upon it, For Joseph, the wood of Ephraim and all the


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