Experience and notable insights

ben Yoseif was the leader of the first truly Josephite congregation in the United States -- Menuhat Rachel (the compassion of Rachel) in Akron-Canton Ohio from 1995-97. From the death of his mother in 1997, until returning to Israel in September 2000, a week before the "Al Aksa intifada" began, he taught Torah to two non-Jewish congregations in the Houston area and conducted more than two dozen Return of the House of Joseph seminars from coast to coast.

His knowledge of Eretz Yisrael comes from living and working there for about seven years off and on since 1987. First, he was the chief news writer and features producer for Middle East Television in the Jerusalem bureau. From 1989-90, he was the assistant editor of the Jerusalem Post's "In-Jerusalem" and "Metro" (Tel Aviv), weekly news-analyses special sections. In 1991-92, he became a senior member of the editorial staff and in addition to copy desk duties, was a religion writer/editor/columnist at the Post. 

Media interviews

He has been active in resisting the proposed Palestinian State in Judea-Samaria since 1987 with numerous newspaper articles and columns and emails as the "shaliah" or spokesman to the non-Jewish world on behalf of the Autonomous Jewish Authority in Yesha.  That has included interviews on numerous Christian television networks including TBN, LeSea and PrimeTime and Christian and secular radio stations too numerous to list but including the American Freedom Radio Network, Information Radio Network and affiliates with the American Family Radio Network.  For 10 weeks, he also hosted "Torah Voice" on Talkline National Jewish Radio Network in Manhattan.

I felt that it was important to at least attempt to brief my brother, Judah, on what I believed I was supposed to be doing before actually doing it.  So that's what the Talkline programs were about.  They were made possible by the late Monroe Spen, z"l, of South Florida, a really colorful Jew who refused to wear a religious label of any kind but who had one of the biggest hearts of any man I ever met.

The outline of the N'zir and other insights

In 1998, on the yartzeit (anniversary of the burial) of Rachel, the mother of Joseph, ben Yoseif was shown the revelation of the "partzuf" (the pictorial outline logo described in this website, a graphic which speaks more than 10,000 words on the biblical plan for Judea-Samaria as the locale chosen of Hashem to reunite the children of Joseph and the children of Judah and therefore unsuitable as a Palestinian State.

Other of the numerous revelations he has shared with the House of Joseph include:

1. The identity of Ephraim as the "melo ha-goyim" -- the fullness of the Gentiles, which is a key to the rescue and return of ALL of the House of Israel in Romans 11.

2. The discovery of the prophecy in the Torah that the House of Joseph would become a global rov (majority) and evidence in the Torah that the same House of Joseph was to be "intermingled or grafted" into every family of the earth.

3. The dire fate for the Palestinians who remain in the fields of Ephraim and the territories of Joseph's birthright.

4. The biblical justification for the transfer of the Palestinians to a conditional Palestinian state in the Gaza and regions contiguous.

But this state does not materialize until the terror ceases and the "pipe dream" of a Palestinian State in Judea-Samaria -- advocated by the Bush Road Map to Peace in the Middle East -- goes up in smoke.

A simplified Gospel

Perhaps his greatest contribution to the understanding of Joes, however, has been how he has simplified the Gospel message and shown its roots in the Torah, Prophets and Writings called the Old Testament. The points of continuity that describe the TRUE mission and message of Y'shua as Hashem's remedy of the judgments against the Northern Kingdom and their means to be renewed to covenant, are liberating, life-changing and profound.

At loggerheads with the President

With the help of Houston Women in Green coordinator Rachel Maddox and her staff, ben Yoseif was the major voice organizing the Aug. 17, 2003, rally protesting the proposed Road Map to Peace in the Middle East on scriptural grounds. The protest and march held at Crawford, Texas, near the ranch of President George W. Bush, was attended by more than 150 persons, mostly Joes from his email list, attending on short notice from 10 states. The Bush Administration -- and 98 of this nation's 100 senators -- have yet to reply to the letter written by MbY outlining the anti-biblical foreign policy of the U.S. as it pertains to the Road Map and proposed Palestinian state in the territories of Joseph.

Defending the Shomron

Finally, Maggid ben Yoseif and his House of Joseph email list have -- in the past -- evidenced their commitment to this message by actively supporting the Jewish settlers living in the inheritance of Ephraim in the village of Itamar. He and his list -- before his "vacation" from Israel -- funded the rental of a bullet-proof bus and provided defensive equipment and supplies to "put our money where our mouth is."

Itamar, a village from which you could look down onto Sh'chem and the tomb of Joseph, was virtually surrounded by Palestinian villages. There was not even a security fence. The IDF forces were being deployed elsewhere. It was a no-brainer. When you get the chance, you save a Jew.

Illegal imprisonment

His imprisonment was illegal, without charges filed, without affording him a day in court, initially denying him legal counsel and denying him contact with the U.S. Consul in Jerusalem until he had been incarcerated a week, in violation of his personal civil rights and the treaty between Israel and the U.S. When his release was ordered by cabinet level officials in the Sharon government, minutes after that consulate contact was finally allowed, the Israeli Secret Police instead transferred him to a high security prison.  In a compromise agreement with the Israeli government and Security cabinet, after an 18-hour marathon session reviewing his case, ben Yoseif agreed VOLUNTARILY -- he was not deported -- to be released from prison and take a "mandatory vacation." He will return only when invited to do so by the Security Cabinet when it is convinced the message of the Return of the House of Joseph as the biblical alternative to a Palestinian State is no longer a threat to Israeli national security.  

Attention: Prime Minister Sharon

Despite ben Yoseif's hardship, the beneficial fruit was the message of the Return making it to the desk of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israeli officials and Jewish leaders may disagree on HOW the Return will take place, but ben Yoseif made sure they know the Return is the only hope of the State of Israel in dealing with the Palestinian uprising.