One minor point to add/correct here is that The Jews of Ethiopia do not generally claim to be descendents of the Lost Tribes but rather of King Solomon (tribe of Judah) and the Queen of Sheba. They say that Sheba converted to Judaism, which had been a sticking point to some in determining their authenticity since there is no official record of her conversion. In general, they themselves do not often claim to be of the lost tribe of Dan although others attribute this heritage to them.
http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/ethiopia2.htm
Welcome to the SDMB, Rain. It’s customary to give a link to the column you are referencing, so we all know what you are talking about. Here, I’ll do it for you:
Similarities between their salute and the gesture made during the Jewish priestly blessing have led to the suggestion that the ten lost tribes went on to colonize the planet Vulcan.
Actually, Leonard Nemoy, who is Jewish and attended the same synagogue as I when I was a kid, came up with the Vulcan sign from the Cohenim blessing.
Whoosh!
Wait, what?
I’m confused. Who’s been whooshed, and how?
-FrL-
hajario offered an explanation of what coffeecat was joking about.
That I knew, and I’m still not understanding where the “whoosh” is supposed to have happened.
Coffeecat made a joke, and hajario chimed in explaining that not only is there a joking conncetion, there’s a real connection. Who was whooshed?
To my understanding, one is whooshed when one has misunderstood a joke, thinking it not a joke but serious instead. Who did that happen to?
-FrL-
AFAIK your understanding of whooshing is correct. And it appeared to me that Hajario did not, in fact, realize that coffecat was making a joke. I am, of course, open to correction from Hajario.
Okay but…
I can’t understand how Hajario’s post could not be understood as taking coffeecat’s joke into account.
I mean… do you really think Hajario thought to him/herself “Huh! Coffeecat thinks the ten lost tribes colonized the planet Vulcan! I’d better set her straight in the interests of fighting ignorance.” :dubious:
-FrL-
hajario was obviously whooshed. Beginning the sentence with “actually” implies that hajario thought that coffeecat (a) didn’t already know that and (b) needed the explanation. Explaining the joke to those ignorant of ST:TOS lore would have started “For those who didn’t already know…”
Why do you assume that coffeecat already knew about the connection to the Cohenim?
I am really, really really confused here. (As you can see.) I repeat:
Do you really think Hajario thought to him/herself “Huh! Coffeecat thinks the ten lost tribes colonized the planet Vulcan! I’d better set her straight in the interests of fighting ignorance.” :dubious:
I mean, really?
Anyway, I read the “actually” in hajario’s post as meaning “hehe, nice joke, but anyway, did you know that actually…?” At the very least, that’s reading an amount equal to or less than the amount you read into it by saying it means “You don’t know the origin, and you’d like to know it, so I’ll tell you:…”
-FrL-
Regarding “actually,” I read it in
-FrL-
There’s no reality, only perceptions. coffeecat obviously thought hajario was whooshed. Whether hajario or anyone else agrees is sorta irrelevant, si?
Look, it’s perfectly clear: the Ten Lost Tribes ended up in Cimmeria, where a descendant of Aaron became the famed hero Cohen the Barbarian. 
In all seriousness, Paul of Tarsus, the first great traveling Christian evangelist, makes it clear in some of his sermons and writings that he traces his ancestry to the Tribe of Benjamin.
Since Benjamin and Judah were the two tribes of the southern kingdom, which maintained its Israelite/Jewish identity even after the Babylonian exile, it’s not surprising that a few people, even six hundred years later, might maintain some tribal identity. The tribe of Benjamin was not “lost” as were the ten northern tribes.
Modern-day Jews are from the tribes of Levi (still maintained as a patrilineal tribal distinction), or the tribes of Judah or Benjamin (not typically maintained as a separate identity, but just called “Israel” nowadays.)*
- The kohanim, descendents of Aaron and the priesthood, still maintain that identification, but that’s not a “tribe.”
“Actually”, the Greeks thought circumcision was barbaric!
I… umm…
I…
I go away now. You’ve gone nuts. 
-FrL-
Exactly correct.
Yeah, I read it the same way – “Actually, there’s something about that joke that you don’t know.” Which I find absolutely flabbergasting, and not a little insulting. I can’t IMAGINE making that joke and NOT knowing that. It’s why the joke was funny, for chrissake!
I didn’t know about the Cohenite thing, and I found coffeecat’s joke to be a little funny. Knowing about the Cohenite thing hasn’t made it seem any more funny, either.
When I first read it, I read the joke as “ha ha, turns out the vulcan salute is the same as a gesture used by an actual religion.” Not hilarious, just pointing out a slightly absurd coincidence.
Then I read Hajario’s post as perfectly legitimately pointing out that, it turns out, it’s no coincidence at all.
-FrL-