Discovering the Lost People: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Girgashites

Rashi, in the opening of Parashat Bereshit, brings the famous words of the sages: Why does the Torah begin with the creation of the world? So that the nations of the world cannot say to Israel: 'You are thieves! You stole the land from the Canaanites!' Therefore, the Torah says: Hashem created the world, including the Land of Israel, and He took it from them and gave it to us.

Apparently, this expression 'You are thieves' is not just an expression, but reflects a very real situation.

In the list of Canaanite nations in the Torah, there are seven: the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. Yet in the Book of Joshua, when entering the land, only the first six are mentioned. The Girgashites were not conquered, not fought against, nothing. They vanished. Where did they go? The sages say: they fled to Africa.

The Torah commanded Joshua bin Nun to warn the Canaanite nations that if they chose to evacuate the land, they wouldn't be pursued. Fighting would only occur if they insisted on fighting and not yielding. The Girgashites exercised this right and fled to Africa.

The sages tell that in the days of Alexander the Great, representatives of the Girgashites came and claimed their portion in the land, and a Jew named Gabiha ben Pesisa managed to refute their claim and dismiss it.

Where in Africa were the Girgashites? In North Africa, there was the Phoenician Kingdom. Their capital was called 'Qart Hadasht'— meaning 'New City', possibly due to their escape from Canaan. Their language was similar to Hebrew, and they identified themselves as Canaanites. The Romans fought them in terrible wars until at one point the Phoenicians surrendered and assimilated, leaving no trace. Archaeologists found evidence among the ruins of their cities of a cruel Molech cult: hundreds of jars containing ashes and remains of infants and children who were 'passed through to Molech'.

And lo, several travelers who passed through the ruins of Qart Hadasht during the Middle Ages noticed a Hebrew inscription on the city gate pillars, which read: 'We are the Canaanites who fled from here out of fear of the thief Joshua bin Nun'. Thus, in the eyes of the Girgashites, Joshua bin Nun was a thief. We should inform them now that Hashem created the land, and by his will, He took it and gave it to us.