Rabbi Dr. Nachum Rabinowitz
BS”D Monday of Parashat Naso –“And he heard the voice speaking to him,” 5771
In the miracle of the ingathering of exiles that we have witnessed since the revival of the State of Israel, the most impressive event is the aliyah of the entire Beta Israel community from Ethiopia. This Jewish community was almost completely disconnected from the body of the Jewish people for two thousand years, to the extent that they forgot the holy language of Hebrew. However, they strictly preserved ancient traditions and practical mitzvot. Despite temptation on one side and torture on the other, this community adhered to its faith and to the hope of returning to Zion. Surprisingly, the aliyah to Israel of this community literally fulfilled the words of the prophet, “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” (Isaiah 60:8). Many lost their lives in the attempt to reach Israel, and could not fulfill the verse “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle on you” (Isaiah 43:2). The sacrifice of those who did not survive will stand forever in the merit of the entire Jewish people.
However, the difficult trials have not yet ended. The absorption of the Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society raises particularly thorny issues, even more so than those faced by multiple immigrant groups from other countries. Some thought that we could bring in all the immigrants and combine them as in a pressure cooker, annulling the barriers and particular traditions of each group. This concept is invalid ethically and has proven impractical in Israeli life. We cannot expect believing Jews who are faithful to their own tradition to abandon the customs they inherited from their ancestors, all at once, and to adopt the manner of worshipping God and the way of life of one or another Jewish community, following recent rabbinic authorities. But undoubtedly, somehow we must reckon with the many fundamental halakhot that the Sages determined, and which bind the entire Jewish people.
Rabbi Sharon Shalom, shlita, is a descendant of spiritual leaders of the Beta Israel community who has studied Torah in yeshivas in Israel, and thus exemplifies the Beta Israel tradition along with the complete history of Torah. He has taken upon himself a weighty and sacred project, to create a kind of Kitzur Shulhan Arukh that will bridge the gap between Jewish communities – “The end of the matter, everything having been heard: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Through this book, Ethiopian Jews will find a way to connect to their past as a distinct community, Beta Israel, as well as to the past and present of the entire Jewish people as it returns to its land.
May it be His will that he enjoy success, and that his work will serve to enlighten many. Ve-yizkeh le-hagdil Torah u-le-ha’adirah – May he be privileged to teach and strengthen Torah study.
Written and signed on behalf of the honor of the Torah and its students,
Nachum Eliezer Rabinowitz
Rabbi Shabtai A. Hacohen Rappaport
B”H
Shabtai A. Hacohen Rappaport
Purim 5771
To: Rabbi Sharon Shalom, shlita, a respected member of our beit midrash and a diligent student of Torah, who studies in order to teach.
I congratulate you on the publication of your book. I observed close at hand how you labored at it, and how you searched for and compiled, with your characteristic thoroughness, the customs practiced by our brethren in Ethiopia. In the past generation, these fellow Jews have been permitted to make aliyah to the Holy Land, their ancient heart’s desire, and we, the rest of the Jewish people, have benefited from their return to live among us. Due to the long years of disconnection between those far off in the land of Cush and the remainder of exiled Jewry in distant lands, many of their customs are different from those of the remainder of Diaspora Jewry. As Ethiopian Jews are introduced to the customs that are common among their Jewish brethren, their original traditions are gradually disappearing.
The river of explanation and documentation that springs from the fountain of Jewish custom divides into four streams, or four reasons for the importance of research and knowledge of customs.
First: customs reflect ancient halakhic decisions. Although we may not know the identity of the posek, it is important to verify the underlying reasoning, as the Gaon Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, ztz”l, explained in detail in Dibbrot Moshe, Shabbat par. 10. Unique customs of a particular Jewish community require study of their origin, if we can identify it, as you have assiduously attempted to do in your book.
Second: customs are a source of identity and belonging. Although most people do not usually know the true reasons for their customs, they characterize their life as individuals, families, and communities, and represent the infrastructure of ancestral tradition. An accurate concept of the “I” is an important foundation for worshipping God (see Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, Olat Ra’ayah, on the prayer Modeh ani lefanecha). Therefore, as you have written, it is vital that Ethiopian Jews know themselves through the customs that their ancestors practiced.
Third: Jewish customs differentiate between Jews and non-Jews. Our fellow Jews in Ethiopia were extremely careful not to intermingle with non-Jews, and not to marry non-Jewish women. Thus we have eternal appreciation for the customs that enabled our brethren to preserve their uniqueness and their Judaism throughout thousands of years of disconnection from the majority of the Jewish people.
Fourth: accurate appreciation of these customs enables reexamination and adoption of necessary changes. It is very difficult to change a custom whose origins and reasons are unknown. Therefore, publicizing the customs and investigating the reasons behind them represents an important beginning on the basis of which we may correct what should be amended. The individual and the community should be moving forward, not standing in place.
From all of the above aspects, your work is deserving of praise. May it be His will that your labor succeed, and that your work will open an ever-expanding space for acquaintance with the customs of a community that had disappeared from the view of most of our people. May we have the merit to observe the virtues of our brethren, and not their shortcomings.
With true admiration,
Shabtai A. Hacohen Rappaport
Rabbi Yosef Hadana
B”H
Bureau of Religious Services
Branch of Religious Services for the Ethiopian Community
Office of the Chief Rabbi of Ethiopian Jewry – Rabbi Yosef Hadana
BS”D, 12 Iyyar 5771
40679
Letter of Recommendation
Rabbi Yosef Hadana, shlita
To my dear friend of many deeds, Rabbi Sharon Shalom, shlita, author of the book Shulhan ha-Orit:
I am overjoyed to see this book, which is written in clear and elegant language. The book encompasses the yearly cycle with refinement and wisdom. I reviewed the book, with particular attention to the description of the customs of Ethiopian Jewry as they were actually practiced.
It is true that the Oral Torah was not available in written form. We had no books. Everything was passed from the spiritual leaders to the public, from parents to children. For this reason, we did not have clear, organized halakhot. We did have the written Torah, the entire Tanakh, and it was studied with great care. We did not use the terms “religious” and “non-religious.” Every Jew had to keep the Torah and mitzvot. Whoever did not keep Torah and mitzvot was considered a non-Jew. Each family had a connection to the kes. They accepted him as their spiritual father, and followed his instructions.
I was born in the village of Ambober, which together with the nearby villages served as the largest Jewish center. There were three kesim in Ambober, all given the honorary title lika kahanat (high priest): High Priest Taube Malko, High Priest Kes Barhan Baruch, both of blessed memory, and High Priest Kes Hedna Refael Tekoya, may God grant him a long life. They were the accepted authorities for all Ethiopian Jewry.
Shulhan ha-Orit, which is written in clear, pleasant language as mentioned, describes many of the customs of Ethiopian Jewry, in a wise and well-informed manner. The author advances one step beyond the labor of collecting the customs. He compares them to halakhot in the Talmud, and thus offers a halakhic way to worship God for the generation of Ethiopian Jews living in Israel. Naturally, some Ethiopian Jews will disagree with one custom or another, because in their village they behaved differently. Some Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian Jews will question the method of halakhic decision making proposed by the author. Personally, when I read about the customs, I noticed, as a friend who respects the author, that some of the customs recorded here were practiced differently in Ambober. Following are several examples:
Prayer: “Prayer was accompanied by . . . lying on the stomach and spreading the hands on the ground.” I visited many villages and participated in prayer services, but I never saw or heard that the Jews were praying in this manner. Rather, they bent their knees and bowed down with their foreheads, as other Jews do on Yom Kippur.
Injera: This is a national dish in Ethiopia, made of teff flour. Teff is a high-quality, nutritious food. It is unrelated to legumes such as peas or chickpeas, nor is it one of the five types of grain defined in halakhah. I checked about the appropriate blessing for before and after eating injera, and the conclusion is that it is like rice. Thus one should recite borei minei mezonot before eating it, and Borei nefashot afterwards.
Beginning and end of Shabbat: Following a well-known custom among Ethiopian Jewry, shortly after noon on Friday, we cease all physical labor, such as field work, making clay pottery, weaving, and sewing. We make preparations for Shabbat until just before sundown. Then we douse the coals – “You shall not cause a fire to burn throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3). On Motzaei Shabbat we wait until the stars come out. After we see three stars, inside the home we prepare a new fire by rubbing two sticks together. We make a fire, and from it, each woman takes her own flame. When she enters her own home with the flame, each woman ululates and recites a special prayer for the coming week to be blessed and successful. She then begins to boil buna, coffee. On Motzaei Shabbat as well, women and men refrain from physical labor.
Drinking wine: You wrote that there is a complete ban on drinking wine. In Ambober, we received matzot for Passover and bottles of wine for Seder night. On the evening of Seder night, after the holiday prayer service, the entire community went out of the synagogue to the courtyard and stood. The oldest of the kesim blessed the community and the matzot. He gave everyone pieces of matzah and a sip of wine in the cap of the bottle. People waited with excitement and great anticipation. No one ever asked if it was permitted to drink wine or not. Therefore, we should instruct members of the community to make Kiddush over ordinary wine, as in halakhah.
Giving charity on Shabbat: In Ethiopia, certain communities used to give charity offerings on Shabbat. This custom originates in error and ignorance of the many halakhot of Shabbat. The problem is not only giving money in synagogue, but also involves laws of muktzeh, carrying, and other issues. Therefore, every spiritual leader bears the pleasant obligation of explaining and instructing in order to annul this custom, even for the older generation. With regard to the halakhic decision, my opinion is that we should follow the Shulhan Arukh, like the majority of the Jews.
At any rate, the power of this unprecedented work is as a foundation for the discussion, comments, and clarification that will follow.
May it be His will that you continue to rise up on the ascent of Torah, fear of God and good qualities, le-hagdil Torah u-le-ha’adirah – to teach and to strengthen the study of Torah.
With friendship and deep respect,
Rabbi Yosef Hadana
Chief Rabbi of Ethiopian Jewry
Rabbi Reuven-Tal Iasso
B”H
Sunday, 30 Adar I, 5771
To Rabbi Sharon Shalom, light of Israel, greetings and blessings.
First of all, I must admit that I am delighted and moved, sheheheyanu ve-kiyemanu ve-higianu la-zman ha-zeh – Blessed is He Who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.
As a child alone, you traveled through the forests of Ethiopia to the deserts of Sudan, where you wandered from one refugee camp to another. Only those who have experienced this journey personally can relate to the suffering and uncertainty you felt during this time.
This book is a first, a pioneer at the frontier of the field of halakhah. The world of halakhic decision making has a number of methods, of which I will note two. The posek can never be immune to the obstacles confronting him when he attempts to make practical halakhic decisions, as every method of pesika has its advantages and disadvantages.
One method of halakhic decision making is:
We begin with the original source (the oldest one), follow the issue to modern times, and then reach a practical halakhic conclusion. The problem is, a halakhah or custom that is found in ancient sources but missing in recent literature lacks status and validity. Is its absence in recent literature evidence that this custom was rejected from the body of Jewish tradition for various reasons? Or does its presence in the early and most ancient sources represent proof of its authenticity and status as practical halakhah? Further, under this method, the approach to oral tradition and custom is unclear.
A second method of halakhic decision making is:
We begin with the halakhah as practiced, and follow it backward in history to the most ancient source. The problem with this method is that it does not give expression to halakhot or customs that are absent from the ancient sources. What is the status and validity of such a custom? Does its absence from our ancient sources prove that it originated among foreign peoples (this has halakhic implications)? Further, when we cannot explain why the halakhah or custom no longer appears in the sources, should we assume that more recent generations objected to these sources, and decide according to the rule of halakhah ke-batrai, following the later authority?
And under this method, what is the approach to oral traditions and ancient customs?
In addition, we must ask, who are “our sources”? Ashkenazic customs are different from Sephardic ones, and so forth. And what about halakhot and customs of one community that conflict with customs of another community – can a custom of Middle Eastern Jewry conflict with and negate a custom or halakhah of Ashkenazic Jewry, and vice versa? Is the status of customs and halakhot practiced in the hassidic world (in its various streams) equivalent to the customs of other communities? In addition, we must inquire as to the customs of the Beta Israel community, whose unique practices are known from the period of the Ridbaz, and some of which are foreign to what is accepted today in the world of Talmudic tradition. May we view these customs as an integral, inseparable part of Jewish tradition? In general, is their status equivalent to that of other customs?
Rabbi Sharon Shalom, light of Israel, has chosen the path of integration, searching for shared aspects that unify Ethiopian Jewish traditions with those of the general Jewish public. The advantage of this method is shalom (peace), like the author’s name – unity among Jews that stems from what is shared and connects, and little or almost no attention to what separates and opposes. I have known Rabbi Shalom closely for thirty years, and this is his path and worldview – the path of peace. He has chosen this path for good reason. In this work, we find methodical, consistent work of many years – this book was not written in one morning, nor in one week. We can also recognize that the individuals and authors that the author mentions and cites are people whom he has met over the years.
In writing and publishing your book, Rabbi Shalom, you are privileged to fulfill the verse, “But your servants will cross over, all who are pioneers [halutz] in combat before the Lord, for the battle, as my master has spoken” (Numbers 32:27).
Ashreinu, mah tov helkeinu, u-mah naim goraleinu – “We are fortunate, how good is our portion, how pleasant is our lot.”
Reuven-Tal Iasso
Beit Shemesh
Priest Kes Mentosnot (Eli) Wende
Itbarech Egziabher amlake Israel – With blessings to the King of Israel –
I have reviewed the book Shulhan ha-Orit, and I was particularly inspired by its title. It has great significance, since our entire world of tradition in Ethiopia was based on the Orit and on a long history of oral tradition, which was passed from kes to kes, father to father, and generation to generation. In addition, when I made aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, I learned that Oraita in Aramaic means Torah, like Orit.1The word Orit in Ge’ez means “Torah” (the Five Books of Moses). The scroll of the Torah is placed in the ark in the synagogue or in the home of the kes, and is read on holidays and festivals. Some use the term Orit to refer to the entire Tanakh. The Tanakh of Ethiopian Jewry includes all the books recognized as canonical by other Jewish communities, as well as non-canonical books.
This composition is very important. In a clear and exact manner, the author records the customs of our community that have been practiced for thousands of years. As soon as I received the book, I read it together with my children. It inspired them to ask questions, and I felt that finally I had a shared language with them. Thus I may say that this work brings together the younger generation, which was born and grew up in Israel, and the adult generation, which made aliyah. This book is a link that connects between past and present, a continuation of the long chain of our tradition, this time a written tradition. The fact that it is written has particular importance since until now, the tradition of Ethiopian Jewry was transmitted orally and thus was endangered due to the changes that the community is experiencing in Israel, our generation’s unwillingness to listen and learn, and the deep damage to the status of our spiritual leadership.
Regarding the comparison to Ethiopian customs and Talmudic halakhah, I was pleased to discover that the similarities are greater than the differences, at least for the period close to when the Talmud was written, such as in the areas of family life and holidays. I was moved to learn that there are customs preserved in our tradition that the Talmudic tradition did not preserve, such as the Sigd holiday, a custom related to bride and groom, one day of Rosh Hashanah, and some Rosh Hodesh customs. When we research the issue, we find that all customs are derived from one origin. In actuality, today some of our customs are very different from what is practiced among other Jewish communities. Things are not so simple – such as the laws of muktzeh, tumah ve-taharah (ritual purity), burial, praying at the graves of the righteous, sexual relations on Shabbat, holidays, brit milah that falls on Shabbat. Most of these issues are covered in this work.
The halakhah proposed by the author is an attempt to preserve the traditions we practiced in Ethiopia, but also to find a way to enable the new generation to preserve our tradition and at the same time, to become part of the Jewish people of Jerusalem.2Jerusalem in Ethiopian tradition refers to all of Israel and is a spiritual reality that extends beyond the physical city of Jerusalem. Truthfully, there is no reason to change anything. As a spiritual leader, I will continue to instruct according to the customs in Ethiopia, as this has been our tradition for thousands of years. Still, I am aware that we face significant difficulties and problematic questions. After reading this book together with my children, I believe that it offers a solution to this challenge. Despite the significant differences in certain areas between our traditions and Talmudic halakhah, this is the place to request that members of our community be permitted to continuing observing their customs. I ask for understanding, even though our customs may seem foreign and far from accepted practice. Just as there are many traditions here in Israel – Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite – I believe that all of them are performed in the Name of Heaven. To return to Eretz Yisrael is the fulfillment of the vision of our prophets, and now we can continue to stride toward the coming of the Messiah, with mutual respect and understanding. We hope that we will have the merit to witness the rebuilding of the Temple. Because our community has preserved the customs of tumah ve-taharah as practiced in the Temple, undoubtedly we will be the ones to teach the rest of the Jewish people how to perform the Temple rituals.
In conclusion, in these lines I wish to bless the esteemed Rabbi Sharon Shalom, shlita, who toiled in order to publish Shulhan ha-Orit, which describes the halakhot followed by Ethiopian Jewry before they made aliyah, and proposes a method for halakhic practice in Eretz Yisrael. This book will facilitate those who study the issues of Shabbat, tumah ve-taharah, and holidays, among others. Such books are worthy of publishing. I hope that his book will be accepted enthusiastically, and I wish him success in all his endeavors. May all his efforts be blessed, she-yizkeh le-hagdil Torah u-le-ha’adirah – May he be privileged to teach and to strengthen the study of Torah.
Be strong and of courage,
Yours sincerely,
Priest Kes Mentosnot (Eli) Wende
Priest Kes Tefesahaku Malki Tzedek
In the Name of God, King of Israel, King of Abraham, King of Isaac, King of Jacob and Israel.
I have seen the book Shulhan ha-Orit, which describes the customs of our community, the Jews of Ethiopia. I did not read it, but I have heard it described by the author, my son, Rabbi Sharon Shalom. I listened closely to his explanation of the contents, and I emphasize that it is a blessed act, as these customs were our way of worshipping God. These customs are very special, and we have an emotional connection to them – they are our life. Through our prayers, we have succeeded in reaching God. These customs breathed life into us; they are like the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud that guided the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to Jerusalem. Thus my son Rabbi Sharon has achieved a great deed. I was pleased to see this book, and very moved. It has also given me new inspiration to study and pass down our tradition to the younger generation. I am certain that many will refer to this book. I therefore bless my son, Rabbi Sharon: May He who has blessed our ancestors bless you as well. As Moses the Prophet and Aharon the Kohen were able to guide the Israelites, so may you merit through this work to be a guide for the many. Amen.