Sambation

Sambation or Sambatyon, also Sanbatyon and Sabbatyon referred to rabbinical tradition, the legendary river, behind the ten lost tribes of Israel have been displaced by the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V.

Location

The Sambation is a mystical river, which is impassable, six days a week, because it can result in its swift current at full power stones and sand with it. On the Sabbath, however, the flow stops and is now impassable because of the Sabbath rules for the exiled Jews. Perhaps this fact has something to do with the name.

In addition to the early mention of the river in rabbinic sources, he is the Elder in his Naturalis historia mentioned also by Pliny. Josephus localized flow between Arka ( in northern Lebanon ) and Raphanaea ( in Syria). In the post-Talmudic period, the legends grew by the Sambation. The Jewish traveler Eldad ha - Dani ( 9th century ) claimed that the flow does not exclude from all ten tribes, but only the descendants of Moses. In addition, the river leads no water, but only stones and sand to. The river also found mention in the Alexander novels and in the Christian Antichrist legends of the Middle Ages. In German and Yiddish -speaking was the talk of the "red Jews " (or Yiddish " rojte jidlech " ), which provides talking behind the river to get along with the Antichrist to avenge the Final Judgment on the Christians. Analogous ideas were in the various messianic movements also on the Jewish side.

In addition to Eldad ha - Dani tried to find the fabled river, other Jewish travelers. So the travelogue of Pethahiah from Regensburg is introduced so that his journey had led him to the Sambation. Also in the 12th century Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia, the Spanish set out on a journey to the East, with the intention to find the Sambation.