[Avodah] Aseres haShevatim

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 02:16:13AM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
:                                             As for Shimon, Rashi  says they 
: were poor people, sofrim and teachers of children, and therefore they  were 
: scattered, for their work or to collect tzedakah.  It is reasonable to  
: assume that some of them assimilated into Yehudah and that many assimilated 
: into  all the other tribes among whom they lived for their parnassah.  
: Therefore  most of them would have ended up going into exile with the Ten Tribes.

Except that we see from Yehoshua 19:1 that "vayhi nachalasam besokh
nachalas Benei Yehudah." (This pasuq was the original source of my
question.) And we later learn from Divrei haYamim I 4 that some went to
Gedor (pasuq 39), which is South-East of Beis Lechem, and 500 continued
to Har Seir (South East of Yam haMelakh) to exterminate the Amaleiqi
settlement of Har Seir (4:42).

So it's unlikely that most were in the North.


Their being teachers is in Medrash Rabba. The Jewish Encyclopedia gives
the mar'eh meqomos Bereishis Rabba 98:5, 99:7 and Bamidbar Rabba 21:8.

It's interesting that both shevatim that were rebuked by Yaaqov for
Shechem ended up being scattered teachers. I guess they learned savlanus
somewhere along the way.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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