The Hidden Israel: a flower among grasses

Before all else, let thanks be rendered to Zanahary Avo Indrindra, the Absolute Creator — Ein Sof Barukh Hu — who watches over our steps; to the ancestors who traced the path before us; to the elders and the aged who bear wisdom; to the officials who honor this assembly with their presence; and to all of you gathered here today, united on a day laden with meaning.

Permit me to express the humility that befits speech. For, according to Malagasy tradition, speech is not the property of a single individual, and error is not the exclusive domain of the wicked. Therefore, I ask in advance for forgiveness should any fault arise in the course of this address.

The one who stands before you is Rav Yishay Moshe, born Iry Robson Raramonjo, son of (…) and (…), of the Betsileo tribe of Madagascar, today serving as Vice Grand Rabbi of Africa, and Grand Rabbi of Madagascar and Asia.

I speak with reverence, in the name of my fathers and of all the Bantu — that is, “the human beings” in the Kikongo language — fully conscious of the responsibility borne by every word.

Address

Bana Isolele — In classical Jewish tradition, the concept of the Ten Hidden Tribes describes a portion of Israel exiled “beyond the Sambatyon” and “beyond the rivers of Kush,” organized under a Melekh Yisrael, living within a separate, powerful kingdom, faithful to the Torah.

This vision is not a mere popular legend. It is upheld at the highest level by the sages of Eretz Israel. A central testimony to this is the “Iggeret el ʿAseret ha-Shevatim” — the Letter to the Ten Tribes — composed and promulgated by Rav Israel of Shklov (Israel of Safed), the foremost disciple of the Gaon of Vilna, together with the Ashkenazic ḥakhamim and rabbanim of the Land of Israel in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed.

This letter, dated Rosh Ḥodesh Mar-Ḥeshvan 5591 (circa 1830), explicitly addresses the “Bnei Moshe Rabbenu” and the Ten Tribes “beyond the river Sambatyon” and “beyond the rivers of Kush,” recognized therein as a living, organized reality, ruled by a king of Israel, with the tribes arrayed beneath their banners.

The Iggeret does not treat these Ten Tribes as an abstract myth. It calls them
“Aḥeinu ha-Kedoshim ve-ha-Tehorim, Tsaddiqei Yesod ʿOlam” —
“our holy and pure brothers, righteous foundations of the world” —
and describes their kingdom as strong, respected, guardians of the Torah and of Israelite kingship.

Very concretely, the letter makes specific requests of them:

• First, a request for tefillah — prayer — that these Ten Tribes, in their purity and strength, intercede on behalf of the visible remnant of Israel — the survivors of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi — crushed by persecution, exile, and poverty, in Eretz Israel and throughout the diaspora.

• Second, a decisive request: that they send to the Land of Israel ḥakhamim endowed with authentic semikhah, in order to re-establish a Beit Din Gadol in Jerusalem, in accordance with the halakhic requirements formulated by the Rambam — a spiritual and juridical condition for the Ge’ulah, the Redemption.

• Third, a plea for material support: the communities of Eretz Israel are described as burdened by debt and threatened in their very existence. The letter implores the Ten Tribes to organize a great collection among themselves to relieve this burden, to save the yeshivot, the inhabitants, and the Jewish presence upon the Land.

• Finally, the authors request a written response: that the Ten Tribes reply through their “Ktav Yad ha-Kodesh”, their sacred writings, describing their way of life, their laws, and their organization.
  

All of this demonstrates that, in the eyes of Rav Israel of Shklov and his colleagues, this kingdom of Israel beyond Kush is an ontological reality, not a literary fiction.

In the spiritual memory of the Kongo — the original name of the Bantu Israelites — the concept of Bana Isolele plays an exactly parallel role. The Bana Isolele are understood as the children of light, the inner core of Israel within the Kongo people: an authentic Israelite identity rooted in Bantu Africa, which modern colonial, slave-based, and Eurocentric history sought to erase, eradicate, or ridicule.

Just as the Ten Tribes were pushed “beyond the rivers of Kush” — the Kongo River — in rabbinic symbolic geography, so too were the Bana Isolele pushed to the margins of the Western narrative, even though, at the inner level — oral memory, cosmology, sacred ritual, mystical consciousness — the Kongo know themselves to be full Israelites, bearers of a sacred kingship and of an ancient covenant with the God of Israel.

Thus, the Iggeret el ʿAseret ha-Shevatim, written in 1830 by the sages of Eretz Israel in the lineage of the Gaon of Vilna, plays for rabbinic Judaism a role analogous to that played by the memory of the Bana Isolele among the Kongo: it solemnly attests to the existence of a hidden Israel, situated “beyond Kush,” endowed with a king, a living Torah, material and spiritual strength, and bearing responsibility toward the rest of Israel — a responsibility whose guarantor and custodial heir today is the Grand Rabbinate of Africa.

For their part, the Kongo carry within themselves the conviction that this hidden Israel, effaced by modern history, is precisely their deepest identity. In rabbinic language one speaks of the Ten Tribes beyond the Sambatyon; in Kongo language one speaks of the Bana Isolele — Bantu Israel concealed by colonial rewriting, living along the Sambatsioni.

One may therefore formulate the following doctrinal thesis:
“Bana Isolele = Hidden Israel (ʿAseret ha-Shevatim) according to the Kongo.”

In other words, what the Iggeret of Rav Israel of Shklov designates as “the Ten Tribes beyond the rivers of Kush,” guardians of a real Israelite kingship and called to support the restoration of Israel and its redemption, finds — within Kongo consciousness — its own expression under the name Bana Isolele, a concept structured by the Grand Rabbi of Africa, Pinhas Eliyahu Shaddai (born Kitoko Diakiese Mara), through the publication of the sacred book “Le Naarei Koush,” which highlights the heritage of the 613 laws of the Torah (according to the classification of the Rambam) alongside the Israelite Bantu oral tradition.

Historical erasure does not annul ontological identity; it merely intensifies its dimension of hiddenness and of being preserved in reserve.

From this perspective, the Bana Isolele appear as the actualization, within the Kongo and Bantu sphere, of that portion of Israel whose hidden existence the Jewish masters of 1830 already acknowledged — and whom they implored to re-enter into relationship with the rest of Israel for the final healing of the tribes and of the nations.

Conclusion

To conclude, I shall cite a Malagasy proverb:

“Vonikazo manitra anaty ahitra, hosihosena vao mamerovero.”
“A fragrant flower amid the grasses must be trampled in order to release its full scent.”

This proverb is a metaphor for resilience and hidden worth. It expresses several essential ideas:

• Virtue in adversity: Just as certain plants release their most intense fragrance when crushed or bruised, so do some individuals reveal their true strength of character, wisdom, or talent in the face of trials.
  

• Humility: The flower lies hidden “among the grasses” (anaty ahitra), suggesting that true value does not always seek ostentatious brilliance, but is discovered through difficulty.
  

• Refinement through ordeal: Life’s challenges are not merely obstacles; they are means by which what is best within us is brought forth.