The Beta Israel , or Ethiopian Jews , are a Jewish diaspora group that lived for thousands of years in the territory of the Kingdom of Aksum and its successor the Ethiopian Empire , which is currently divided between the Amhara Region and Tigray Region in modern-day Ethiopia . After the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, most of the Beta Israel immigrated there or were evacuated through several initiatives by the Israeli government.
161-681: Judaism has different names given to God , which are considered sacred: יהוה ( YHWH ), אֲדֹנָי ( Adonai transl. my Lord[s] ), אֵל ( El transl. God ), אֱלֹהִים ( Elohim transl. God[s] ), שַׁדַּי ( Shaddai transl. Almighty ), and צְבָאוֹת ( Tzevaoth transl. [Lord of] Hosts ); some also include I Am that I Am . Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God, and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. Some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews have adopted
322-404: A Berakah is said also at evil tidings. Hence, although the experience of God is like none other, the occasions for experiencing Him, for having a consciousness of Him, are manifold, even if we consider only those that call for Berakot. Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is immanent or transcendent , and whether people have free will or their lives are determined, halakha
483-446: A Talmudic opinion ( Shabbat , 10b) asserts that one would greet another with the word shalom in order for the word not to be forgotten in the exile . But one is not permitted to greet another with the word Shalom in unholy places such as a bathroom, because of the holiness of the name. Shekhinah ( שכינה ) is the presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among humanity. The term never appears in
644-634: A liturgical context. In casual conversation some Jews, even when not speaking Hebrew, will call God HaShem ( השם ), which is Hebrew for 'the Name' (compare Leviticus 24:11 and Deuteronomy 28:58). When written, it is often abbreviated to ה׳ . Likewise, when quoting from the Tanakh or prayers, some pious Jews will replace Adonai with HaShem . For example, when making audio recordings of prayer services, HaShem will generally be substituted for Adonai . A popular expression containing this phrase
805-575: A safek (legal doubt) over the Jewish peoplehood of the Beta Israel. Such dissenting voices include Rabbi Elazar Shach , Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv , Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach , and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein . Similar doubts were raised within the same circles towards the Bene Israel and to Russian immigrants to Israel during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah . In the 1970s and early 1980s,
966-551: A 10th-century usurping queen, was Jewish, some scholars consider that it is unlikely that this was the case. It is more likely, they say, that she was a pagan southerner or a usurping Christian Aksumite Queen. However, she clearly supported Jews, since she founded the Zagwe dynasty , who governed from around 937 to 1270 CE. According to the Kebra Nagast , Jewish, Christian and pagan kings ruled in harmony at that time. Furthermore,
1127-615: A centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism. Even so, all Jewish religious movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible or various commentaries such as the Talmud and Midrash . Judaism also universally recognizes the Biblical Covenant between God and
1288-598: A core background element of Early Christianity . Within Judaism, there are a variety of religious movements , most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism , which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. Historically, all or part of this assertion was challenged by various groups such as the Sadducees and Hellenistic Judaism during
1449-464: A means of experiencing God". Reflecting on the contribution of the Amoraim and Tanaim to contemporary Judaism, Professor Jacob Neusner observed: The rabbi's logical and rational inquiry is not mere logic-chopping. It is a most serious and substantive effort to locate in trivialities the fundamental principles of the revealed will of God to guide and sanctify the most specific and concrete actions in
1610-580: A means to learn the contents of God's revelation, but an end in itself. According to the Talmud: These are the things for which a person enjoys the dividends in this world while the principal remains for the person to enjoy in the world to come; they are: honoring parents, loving deeds of kindness, and making peace between one person and another. But the study of the Torah is equal to them all. (Talmud Shabbat 127a). In Judaism, "the study of Torah can be
1771-413: A name, as it may merely describe the presence of God, and not God Himself. In Jewish tradition the sacredness of the divine name or titles must be recognized by the professional sofer (scribe) who writes Torah scrolls , or tefillin and mezuzah . Before transcribing any of the divine titles or name, they prepare mentally to sanctify them. Once they begin a name, they do not stop until it
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#17327723214301932-514: A number of Jewish legal authorities, in previous centuries and in modern times, have ruled halakhically (according to Jewish legal code) that the Beta Israel are indeed Jews, the descendants of the tribe of Dan , one of the Ten Lost Tribes . They believe that these people established a Jewish kingdom that lasted for hundreds of years. With the rise of Christianity and later Islam , schisms arose and three kingdoms competed. Eventually,
2093-523: A parallel oral tradition, illustrating the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources. Halakha , the rabbinic Jewish way of life, then, is based on a combined reading of the Torah, and the oral tradition—the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud and its commentaries. The halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers,
2254-523: A permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul the king. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead. Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the Law, called the Oral Torah or "Oral Law," were originally unwritten traditions based on the Law given to Moses at Sinai. However, as the persecutions of
2415-555: A positive commandment is to be fulfilled: The ordinary, familiar, everyday things and occurrences we have, constitute occasions for the experience of God. Such things as one's daily sustenance, the very day itself, are felt as manifestations of God's loving-kindness, calling for the Berakhot . Kedushah , holiness, which is nothing else than the imitation of God, is concerned with daily conduct, with being gracious and merciful, with keeping oneself from defilement by idolatry, adultery, and
2576-701: A reward for his act of faith in one God, he was promised that Isaac , his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan ). Later, the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt , and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt. The Law was given at Sinai —the Torah , or five books of Moses. These books, together with the Nevi'im and Ketuvim , are known as Torah Shebikhtav , as opposed to
2737-570: A similar name for God, one that the Greeks wrote as Έλιονα . The Eternal One or The Eternal is increasingly used, particularly in Reform and Reconstructionist communities seeking to use gender-neutral language . In the Torah, YHWH El Olam ("the Everlasting God") is used at Genesis 21:33 to refer to God. It is common Jewish practice to restrict the use of the names of God to
2898-601: A single monotheistic God at the time of writing, or subsumed under a form of monolatry , wherein the god(s) of a certain city would be accepted after the fact as a reference to the God of Israel and the plural deliberately dropped. The plural form ending in -im can also be understood as denoting abstraction, as in the Hebrew words chayyim ( חיים , 'life') or betulim ( בתולים , 'virginity'). If understood this way, Elohim means 'divinity' or 'deity'. The word chayyim
3059-510: A title of Tammuz (the origin of the Greek Adonis ). It is also used very occasionally in Hebrew texts to refer to God (e.g. Psalm 136:3.) Deuteronomy 10:17 has the proper name Yahweh alongside the superlative constructions "God of gods" ( elōhê ha-elōhîm , literally, "the gods of gods") and "Lord of lords" ( adōnê ha-adōnîm , "the lords of lords": כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים ; KJV: "For
3220-522: A way of avoiding writing any name of God out in full. The hyphenated version of the English name ( G-d ) can be destroyed, so by writing that form, religious Jews prevent documents in their possession with the unhyphenated form from being destroyed later. Alternatively, a euphemistic reference such as Hashem (literally, 'the Name') may be substituted, or an abbreviation thereof, such as in B ' ' H ( בְּעֶזרַת הַשֵׁם B'ezrat Hashem 'with
3381-415: A wide territory, alongside predominantly Christian and Muslim populations. Most of them were concentrated mainly in what is today North Gondar Zone , Shire Inda Selassie , Wolqayit , Tselemti , Dembia, Segelt, Quara , and Belesa. The Beta Israel appear to have been isolated from the more mainstream Jewish communities for at least a millennium, and practiced a non- Talmudic form of Judaism that
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#17327723214303542-476: Is Baruch HaShem , meaning "Thank God " (literally, 'Blessed be the Name'). Samaritans use the Aramaic equivalent Shema ( שמא , 'the name') in much the same situations as Jews use HaShem . Talmudic authors, ruling on the basis of Gideon 's name for an altar ( YHVH-Shalom , according to Judges 6:24), write that "the name of God is 'Peace'" ( Pereq ha-Shalom , Shabbat 10b); consequently,
3703-468: Is Geʽez , also Semitic. Since the 1950s, they have taught Hebrew in their schools. Those Beta Israel residing in the State of Israel now use Modern Hebrew as a daily language. Contemporary scholars believe that the Beta Israel emerged comparatively recently and formed a distinct ethnonational group in the context of historical pressures that came to a head from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Many of
3864-483: Is Maimonides ' thirteen principles of faith , developed in the 12th century. According to Maimonides, any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an apostate and a heretic. Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in various ways from Maimonides' principles. Thus, within Reform Judaism only the first five principles are endorsed. In Maimonides' time, his list of tenets
4025-580: Is 54,000 years, and with others - 125,000 years. Additionally, around 18% of Ethiopian Jews are bearers of E-P2 (xM35, xM2) ; in Ethiopia, most of such lineages belong to E-M329 , which has been found in ancient DNA isolated from a 4,500 year old Ethiopian fossil. Such haplotypes are frequent in Southwestern Ethiopia , especially among Omotic -speaking populations. The rest of the Beta Israel mainly belong to haplotypes linked with
4186-487: Is a system through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world. Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always been followed in practice. The Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh ) records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel . In the Greco-Roman era, many different interpretations of monotheism existed in Judaism, including
4347-544: Is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism, יַהֲדוּת Yahaḏuṯ . The term Ἰουδαϊσμός first appears in the Koine Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE (i.e. 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38) . In the context of the age and period it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity". It resembled its antonym hellenismos , a word signifying people's submission to Hellenistic cultural norms. The conflict between iudaismos and hellenismos lay behind
4508-550: Is an esoteric tradition in Judaism in Kabbalah , Rabbinic scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism", because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews. This is played out through the observance of the halakha , or Jewish law, and given verbal expression in the Birkat Ha-Mizvot , the short blessings that are spoken every time
4669-493: Is banned. Ethiopian Jews were forbidden to eat the food of non-Jews. A Kahen eats only meat he has slaughtered himself, which someone else may prepare. Someone else may also eat meat that a Kahen has slaughtered. Those who break these taboos are ostracized, and must undergo a purification process that includes fasting for one or more days, eating only uncooked chickpeas provided by the Kahen, and ritual purification, before entering
4830-418: Is best explained as a plural of self-deliberation . The use of the plural as a form of respectful address is quite foreign to Hebrew. Mark S. Smith has cited the use of plural as possible evidence to suggest an evolution in the formation of early Jewish conceptions of monotheism , wherein references to "the gods" (plural) in earlier accounts of verbal tradition became either interpreted as multiple aspects of
4991-684: Is called the Jerusalem Talmud . It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine. According to critical scholars , the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts. Several of these scholars, such as Professor Martin Rose and John Bright , suggest that during the First Temple period the people of Israel believed that each nation had its own god, but that their god
Names of God in Judaism - Misplaced Pages Continue
5152-463: Is cognate to the 'lhm found in Ugaritic , where it is used for the pantheon of Canaanite gods, the children of El and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim" although the original Ugaritic vowels are unknown. When the Hebrew Bible uses elohim not in reference to God, it is plural (for example, Exodus 20:2). There are a few other such uses in Hebrew, for example Behemoth . In Modern Hebrew ,
5313-634: Is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions in the world. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah , the first five books of the Hebrew Bible , a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same contents as the Old Testament in Christianity . In addition to
5474-494: Is considered to be a crypto-Jewish offshoot of the Beta Israel community. The Beta Israel first made extensive contact with other Jewish communities in the late 20th century, after which a comprehensive rabbinic debate ensued over their Jewishness . Following halakhic and constitutional discussions, Israeli authorities decided in 1977 that the Beta Israel qualified on all fronts for the Israeli Law of Return . Thus,
5635-423: Is derived from the names אהיה יהוה אדוני הויה . By spelling these four names out with the names of the Hebrew letters ( א לף, ה א, ו ו, י וד, ד לת and נ ון ) this new forty-five letter long name is produced. Spelling the letters in יהוה (YHWH) by itself gives יוד הא ואו הא . Each letter in Hebrew is given a value, according to gematria , and the value of יוד הא ואו הא is also 45. The 72-fold name
5796-523: Is derived from three verses in Exodus 14:19–21. Each of the verses contains 72 letters. When the verses are read boustrophedonically 72 names, three letters each, are produced (the niqqud of the source verses is disregarded in respect to pronunciation). Some regard this name as the Shem HaMephorash . The Proto- Kabbalistic book Sefer Yetzirah describes how the creation of the world
5957-502: Is finished, and they must not be interrupted while writing it, even to greet a king. If an error is made in writing it may not be erased, but a line must be drawn round it to show that it is canceled, and the whole page must be put in a genizah (burial place for scripture) and a new page begun. One of the most important names is that of the Ein Sof ( אין סוף 'Endless'), which first came into use after 1300 CE. Another name
6118-463: Is heavily associated with and most often thought of as Orthodox Judaism . 13 Principles of Faith: — Maimonides In the strict sense, in Judaism, unlike Christianity and Islam, there are no fixed universally binding articles of faith, due to their incorporation into the liturgy. Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism. The most popular formulation
6279-631: Is lord (singular) even over any of those things that he owns that are lordly (plural)". Theologians who dispute this claim cite the hypothesis that plurals of majesty came about in more modern times. Richard Toporoski, a classics scholar, asserts that plurals of majesty first appeared in the reign of Diocletian (CE 284–305). Indeed, Gesenius states in his book Hebrew Grammar the following: The Jewish grammarians call such plurals ... plur. virium or virtutum ; later grammarians call them plur. excellentiae , magnitudinis , or plur. maiestaticus . This last name may have been suggested by
6440-520: Is mostly composed of Beta Israel (practicing both Haymanot and Rabbinic Judaism ), and to a smaller extent, of Falash Mura who left Christianity and began practicing Rabbinic Judaism upon their arrival to Israel. Throughout its history, the community has been referred to by numerous names. According to tradition , the Beta Israel (literally, 'house of Israel' in Ge'ez ) community had their origins in
6601-490: Is no scholarly consensus on this point. All surviving Christian-era manuscripts use Kyrios ( Κυριος 'Lord') or very occasionally Theos ( Θεος 'God') to translate the many thousand occurrences of the Name. אֲדֹנָי ( ăḏōnāy , lit. transl. My Lords , pluralis majestatis taken as singular) is the possessive form of adon ('Lord'), along with the first-person singular pronoun enclitic . As with Elohim , Adonai's grammatical form
Names of God in Judaism - Misplaced Pages Continue
6762-402: Is not clear whether these "el"s refer to the deity in general or to the god El in particular. El also appears in the form אֱלוֹהַּ ( Eloah ). A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim ( אלהים , ʾĕlōhīm ), the plural of אֱלוֹהַּ ( Eloah ). When Elohim refers to God in the Hebrew Bible, singular verbs are used. The word is identical to elohim meaning gods and
6923-694: Is not used as a divine epithet in the Torah , Joshua , or Judges . Starting in the Books of Samuel , the term "Lord of Hosts" appears hundreds of times throughout the Prophetic books , in Psalms , and in Chronicles . The Hebrew word Sabaoth was also absorbed in Ancient Greek ( σαβαωθ , sabaōth ) and Latin ( Sabaoth , with no declension). Tertullian and other patristics used it with
7084-565: Is one of the names of God in Judaism, with its etymology coming from the influence of the Ugaritic religion on modern Judaism. El Shaddai is conventionally translated as "God Almighty". While the translation of El as ' god ' in Ugaritic / Canaanite languages is straightforward, the literal meaning of Shaddai is the subject of debate. Tzevaot, Tzevaoth, Tsebaoth or Sabaoth ( צבאות , ṣəḇāʾōṯ , [tsvaot] , lit. "Armies"), usually translated "Hosts", appears in reference to armies or armed hosts of men but
7245-726: Is premundane and has no peer or associate; (3) the whole universe is created; (4) God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon; (5) the Law of Moses alone is true; (6) to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty; (7) the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world's Ruler; (8) belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah; (9) final judgment; (10) retribution. In modern times, Judaism lacks
7406-606: Is referred to as responsa (Hebrew Sheelot U-Teshuvot ). Over time, as practices develop, codes of halakha are written that are based on the responsa; the most important code, the Shulchan Aruch , largely determines Orthodox religious practice today. Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Major Jewish philosophers include Philo of Alexandria , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Saadia Gaon , Judah Halevi , Maimonides , and Gersonides . Major changes occurred in response to
7567-600: Is regarded as the first Jewish diaspora . Later, many of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylon by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later, an event known as the Return to Zion . A Second Temple was constructed and old religious practices were resumed. During the early years of the Second Temple, the highest religious authority was a council known as
7728-474: Is similar in some respects to Karaite Judaism . The religious practices of Israeli Beta Israel are referred to as Haymanot . Having suffered persecution in Ethiopia, a significant portion of the Beta Israel community was forced into Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries; those who converted to Christianity then came to be known as the Falash Mura . The larger Christian Beta Abraham community
7889-409: Is similarly syntactically singular when used as a name but syntactically plural otherwise. In many of the passages in which elohim occurs in the Bible, it refers to non-Israelite deities, or in some instances to powerful men or judges, and even angels (Exodus 21:6, Psalms 8:5) as a simple plural in those instances. El Shaddai ( אל שדי , ʾel šadday , pronounced [ʃaˈdaj] )
8050-418: Is that halakha should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced halakha ; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and
8211-582: Is the Aramaic word for God and the absolute singular form of אלהא , ʾilāhā . The origin of the word is from Proto-Semitic * ʔil and is thus cognate to the Hebrew , Arabic , Akkadian , and other Semitic languages ' words for god. Elah is found in the Tanakh in the books of Ezra , Jeremiah (Jeremiah 10:11, the only verse in the entire book written in Aramaic), and Daniel . Elah
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#17327723214308372-602: Is the most common paternal lineage among Ethiopian Jews. The clade is carried by around 41% of Beta Israel males, and is primarily associated with Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan -speaking populations. However, the A branches carried by Ethiopians Jews are principally of the A-Y23865 variety, which formed about 10,000 years ago and is localized to the Ethiopian highlands and the Arabian peninsula . The difference with some Khoisan
8533-604: Is used as a term for the Jewish religion by the Beta Israel community, although Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also use it as a term for their own religion. Mäṣḥafä Kedus (lit. "Holy Scriptures") is the name for the religious literature of the Beta Israel. These texts are written in Geʽez , which is also the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church . The holiest book is the Octateuch, known as
8694-886: Is used to describe both pagan gods and the Abrahamic God. In the Book of Genesis , Hagar uses this name for the God who spoke to her through his angel . In Hebrew, her phrase El Roi , literally, 'God of Seeing Me', is translated in the King James Version as "Thou God seest me." The name Elyon ( עליון ) occurs in combination with El , YHWH , Elohim and alone. It appears chiefly in poetic and later Biblical passages. The modern Hebrew adjective 'Elyon means 'supreme' (as in "Supreme Court": Hebrew : בית המשפט ה עליון ) or 'Most High'. El Elyon has been traditionally translated into English as 'God Most High'. The Phoenicians used what appears to be
8855-560: Is usually explained as a plural of majesty . In the Hebrew Bible, the word is nearly always used to refer to God (approximately 450 occurrences). As pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton came to be avoided in the Hellenistic period , Jews may have begun to drop the Tetragrammaton when presented alongside Adonai and subsequently to expand it to cover for the Tetragrammaton in the forms of spoken prayer and written scripture. Owing to
9016-655: The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy ), 2 Macc. ii. 21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme." At its core, the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is an account of the Israelites ' relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple ( c. 535 BCE ). Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. As
9177-503: The Christian and Muslim Ethiopian kingdoms reduced the Jewish kingdom to a small impoverished section. The earliest authority to rule this way was the 16th-century scholar David ibn Zimra (Radbaz), who explained elsewhere in a responsum concerning the status of a Beta Israel slave: But those Jews who come from the land of Cush are without doubt from the tribe of Dan, and since they did not have in their midst sages who were masters of
9338-987: The E-M35 and J-M267 haplogroups, which are more commonly associated with Cushitic and Semitic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Further analysis show that the E-M35 carried by Ethiopian Jews is primarily indigenous to the Horn of Africa rather than being of Levantine origin. Altogether, this suggests that Ethiopian Jews have diverse patrilineages indicative of indigenous Northeast African , not Middle Eastern, origin. A 2011 mitochondrial DNA study focused on maternal ancestry sampling 41 Beta Israel found them to carry 51.2% macro-haplogroup L typically found in Africa. The remainder consisted of Eurasian-origin lineages such as 22% R0 , 19.5% M1 , 5% W , and 2.5% U . However, no identical haplotypes were shared between
9499-716: The Enlightenment (late 18th to early 19th century) leading to the post-Enlightenment Jewish philosophers. Modern Jewish philosophy consists of both Orthodox and non-Orthodox oriented philosophy. Notable among Orthodox Jewish philosophers are Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler , Joseph B. Soloveitchik , and Yitzchok Hutner . Well-known non-Orthodox Jewish philosophers include Martin Buber , Franz Rosenzweig , Mordecai Kaplan , Abraham Joshua Heschel , Will Herberg , and Emmanuel Lévinas . 13 Principles of Hermeneutics: — R. Ishmael Orthodox and many other Jews do not believe that
9660-951: The Ge'ez calendar . The years are counted according to the counting of Kushta: "1571 to Jesus Christ, 7071 to the Gyptians , and 6642 to the Hebrews"; according to this counting, the year 5771 ( Hebrew : ה'תשע"א ) in the Rabbinical Hebrew calendar is the year 7082 in this calendar. Beta Israel holidays include ba'āl lisan (New Year in Nissan), fāsikā (Passover), mã'rar (Shavuot, lit. "harvest"), 'āl Matqe (Rosh Hashana, lit. "blowing holiday", compare zikhron teru'ah in Hebrew ), astasreyo (Yom Kippur), and ba'āla maṣallat (Sukkot, lit. "tabernacles holiday"). Other holidays unique to Beta Israel include ṣomä mã'rar (a fast before Shavuot, lit. "harvest fast"),
9821-487: The Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Later, Roman emperor Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple Mount and prohibited circumcision; these acts of ethnocide provoked the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE), after which the Romans banned the study of the Torah and the celebration of Jewish holidays, and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from Judea. In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism
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#17327723214309982-541: The Holy of Holies of the Temple in Jerusalem on Yom Kippur . He then pronounces the name "just as it is written." As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has not been rebuilt since its destruction in 70 CE, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read אֲדֹנָי ( Adonai , Hebrew pronunciation: [ʾăḏōnāy] , ' My Lords ' , Pluralis majestatis taken as singular) during prayer and while reading
10143-448: The Ishmaelites , and part of which to the Christians, and part of which to the Israelites from the tribe of Dan . In all likelihood, they are from the sect of Sadok and Boethus , who are [now] called Karaites , since they know only a few of the biblical commandments , but are unfamiliar with the Oral Law , nor do they light the Sabbath candle . War ceases not from amongst them, and every day they take captives from one another... In
10304-413: The Kohanim and Leviyim (members of the tribe of Levi ), some only to farmers within the Land of Israel. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and only 369 of these commandments are still applicable today. While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs were based on the written text of the Torah alone (e.g., the Sadducees , and the Karaites ), most Jews believe in
10465-622: The Maccabean Revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos . Shaye J. D. Cohen writes in his book The Beginnings of Jewishness : We are tempted, of course, to translate [ Ioudaïsmós ] as "Judaism," but this translation is too narrow, because in this first occurrence of the term, Ioudaïsmós has not yet been reduced to the designation of a religion. It means rather "the aggregate of all those characteristics that makes Judaeans Judaean (or Jews Jewish)." Among these characteristics, to be sure, are practices and beliefs that we would today call "religious," but these practices and beliefs are not
10626-513: The Orit among Ethiopian Jews: the Five Books of Moses plus Joshua , Judges and Ruth . The Beta Israel scriptures also include the Book of Lamentations and Book of Jeremiah , which are also found in the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon . Deuterocanonical books that also make up part of the Beta Israel canon are the Book of Sirach , Book of Judith , Esdras 1 and 2 , the Books of Meqabyan , Book of Jubilees , Book of Baruch (including 4 Baruch ), Book of Tobit , Book of Enoch , and
10787-433: The Oxford English Dictionary the earliest citation in English where the term was used to mean "the profession or practice of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews" is Robert Fabyan's The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce (1516). "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin Iudaismus first occurred in a 1611 English translation of the Biblical apocrypha (the Deuterocanonical books in
10948-417: The Patriarch Abraham as well as the additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses , who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet . In the Mishnah , a core text of Rabbinic Judaism , acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant forfeit their share in the World to Come . Establishing the core tenets of Judaism in
11109-512: The Second Temple period ; the Karaites during the early and later medieval period; and among segments of the modern non-Orthodox denominations. Some modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be considered secular or nontheistic . Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism ( Haredi and Modern Orthodox ), Conservative Judaism , and Reform Judaism . Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to halakha (Jewish law),
11270-402: The Septuagint , and Philo , and Revelation or, "I am The Existing One"; Latin , ego sum qui sum , "I am Who I am." The word asher is a relative pronoun whose meaning depends on the immediate context, so that "that", "who", "which", or "where" are all possible translations of that word. Baal meant ' owner ' and, by extension, 'lord', ' master ', and 'husband' in Hebrew and
11431-670: The Testaments of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob . Many of these books differ substantially from the similarly numbered and named texts in Koine Greek and Hebrew (such as the Book of Maccabees ), though some of the Ge'ez works are clearly dependent on those texts. Others appear to have different ancient literary and oral origins. Many texts used by the Beta Israel but other rabbinic Jewish groups are also used by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians but not other Christian groups. Important non-Biblical writings include: Mota Aron ("Death of Aaron"), Mota Musé ("Death of Moses"), Nagara Muse ("The Conversation of Moses"), Te'ezaza Sanbat ("Commandments of
11592-563: The Torah and as HaShem 'The Name' at other times. Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus ('The Lord') and most English translations of the Bible write "the L ORD " for YHWH and "the L ORD God", "the Lord G OD " or "the Sovereign L ORD " for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. The Septuagint may have originally used the Hebrew letters themselves amid its Greek text, but there
11753-521: The Torah explicitly prohibits speaking the name and the Book of Ruth shows that it continued to be pronounced as late as the 5th century BCE. Mark Sameth argues that only a pseudo name was pronounced, the four letters יהוה (YHVH, YHWH) being a cryptogram which the priests of ancient Israel read in reverse as huhi , 'he–she', signifying a dual-gendered deity, as earlier theorized by Guillaume Postel (16th century) and Michelangelo Lanci (19th century). It had ceased to be spoken aloud by at least
11914-560: The chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt - Vav ( טו , lit. '9-6') instead of Yōd - Hē ( יה , '10-5', but also ' Jah ') for the number fifteen or Ṭēt- Zayin ( טז , '9-7') instead of Yōd-Vav ( יו , '10-6') for the Hebrew number sixteen. The names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness are the Tetragrammaton , Adonai , El , Elohim , Shaddai , Tzevaot ; some also include I Am that I Am . In addition,
12075-504: The halakha whereas its ultimate goal is to bring the holiness down to the world. Mordecai Kaplan , the founder of the Reconstructionist Judaism , abandons the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism with civilization and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas, he tries to embrace as many Jewish denominations as possible. In turn, Solomon Schechter 's Conservative Judaism
12236-535: The oral law . These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee school of thought of ancient Judaism and were later recorded in written form and expanded upon by the rabbis. According to Rabbinical Jewish tradition, God gave both the Written Law (the Torah ) and the Oral Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai . The Oral law is the oral tradition as relayed by God to Moses and from him, transmitted and taught to
12397-465: The rabbis and scholars who interpret them. Jews are an ethnoreligious group including those born Jewish, in addition to converts to Judaism . In 2021, the world Jewish population was estimated at 15.2 million, or roughly 0.195% of the total world population, although religious observance varies from strict to none. In 2021, about 45.6% of all Jews resided in Israel and another 42.1% resided in
12558-521: The we used by kings when speaking of themselves (compare 1 Maccabees 10:19 and 11:31); and the plural used by God in Genesis 1:26 and 11:7; Isaiah 6:8 has been incorrectly explained in this way. It is, however, either communicative (including the attendant angels : so at all events in Isaiah 6:8 and Genesis 3:22), or according to others, an indication of the fullness of power and might implied. It
12719-590: The "black and beautiful" in Song of Songs 1:5). Rather, the narrative records that she was impressed with Solomon's wealth and wisdom, and they exchanged royal gifts, and then she returned to rule her people in Kush . However, the "royal gifts" are interpreted by some as sexual contact. The loss of the Ark is not mentioned in the Bible. Hezekiah later makes reference to the Ark in 2 Kings 19:15 . The Kebra Negast asserts that
12880-600: The 1st, a holiday for the reception of Moses by the Israelites on the 10th, and a fast on the 12th. The month of Elul also has additional holidays for the Beta Israel— awd amet (lit. "year rotate") on the 1st, ṣomä lul (lit. "Elul fast") between the 1st–9th, anākel astar'i (lit. "our atonement") on the 10th, and asartu wasamantu (lit. "eighteenth") on the 28th. The fast in Tammuz ( ṣomä tomos ),
13041-472: The 3rd century BCE, during Second Temple Judaism . The Talmud relates, perhaps anecdotally, that this began with the death of Simeon the Just . Vowel points began to be added to the Hebrew text only in the early medieval period. The Masoretic Text adds to the Tetragrammaton the vowel points of Adonai or Elohim (depending on the context), indicating that these are the words to be pronounced in place of
13202-552: The 4th century CE, when they refused to convert to Christianity during the rule of Abreha and Atsbeha (identified with Se'azana and Ezana ), the monarchs of the Kingdom of Aksum who embraced Christianity. This name contrasts with Beta Kristiyan , the term for the church in Ge'ez, literally meaning "house of Christianity". Since the 1980s, it has also become the official name used in the scholarly and scientific literature to refer to
13363-561: The Beginning God Created"). The synagogue is called the masgid (place of worship), it is also called the bet maqdas (Holy house) or the ṣalot bet (Prayer house). Beta Israel kashrut law is based mainly on the books of Leviticus , Deuteronomy , and Jubilees . Leviticus 11:3–8 and Deuteronomy 14:4–8 list permitted and forbidden land animals and their signs. Leviticus 11:13–23 and Deuteronomy 14:12–20 list forbidden birds. Leviticus 11:9–12 and Deuteronomy 14:9–10 list
13524-527: The Beta Israel are descended from a battalion of men of Judah who fled southward down the Arabian coastal lands from Judea after the breakup of the Kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms in the 10th century BCE (while King Rehoboam reigned over Judah). Although the Kebra Nagast and some traditional Ethiopian histories have stated that Gudit (or "Yudit", Judith; another name given her was "Esato", Esther),
13685-531: The Beta Israel were required to undergo a modified conversion ceremony involving immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath), a declaration accepting Rabbinic law, and, for men, a hatafat dam brit (symbolic recircumcision). Avraham Shapira later waived the hatafat dam brit stipulation, which is only a requirement when the halakhic doubt is significant. More recently, Shlomo Amar has ruled that descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity are "unquestionably Jews in every respect". With
13846-629: The Beta Israel's accounts of their own origins state that they stem from the very ancient migration of some portion of the Tribe of Dan to Ethiopia, were led by the sons of Moses, perhaps at the time of the Exodus. Alternative timelines include the later crises in Judea, e. g., the split of the northern Kingdom of Israel from the southern Kingdom of Judah after the death of King Solomon or the Babylonian Exile . Other Beta Israel take as their basis
14007-514: The Christian account of Menelik 's return to Ethiopia. Menelik is considered the first Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia , and is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel , and Makeda, ancient Queen of Sheba (in modern Ethiopia ). Though all the available traditions correspond to recent interpretations, they reflect ancient convictions. According to Jon Abbink, three different versions are to be distinguished among
14168-590: The Christian overthrow of the Zagwe by the "Solomonic" Aksumite dynasty, whose rulers are glorified. The writing of this polemic shows that criticisms of the Aksumite claims of authenticity were current in the 14th century, two centuries after they came to power. Many Beta Israel believe that they are descended from the tribe of Dan. Most reject the "Solomonic" and "Queen of Sheba" legends of the Aksumites . To prove
14329-593: The Conservative movement. The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought: The basis of halakha and tradition is the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some only to the ancient priestly groups,
14490-550: The Great Assembly, led by Ezra the Scribe . Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the Bible were written at this time and the canon sealed . Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE, and its creation sparked widespread controversy in Jewish communities, starting "conflicts within Jewish communities about accommodating the cultures of occupying powers." During
14651-524: The Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton, יהוה , which is usually transliterated as YHWH. The Hebrew script is an abjad , and thus vowels are often omitted in writing. YHWH is usually expanded to Yahweh in English. Modern Rabbinical Jewish culture judges it forbidden to pronounce this name. In prayers it is replaced by the word אֲדֹנָי ( Adonai , Hebrew pronunciation: [adoˈnaj] ' My Lords ' , Pluralis majestatis taken as singular), and in discussion by HaShem 'The Name'. Nothing in
14812-826: The Hebrew Bible; later rabbis used the word when speaking of God dwelling either in the Tabernacle or amongst the people of Israel. The root of the word means "dwelling". Of the principal names of God, it is the only one that is of the feminine gender in Hebrew grammar. Some believe that this was the name of a female counterpart of God, but this is unlikely as the name is always mentioned in conjunction with an article (e.g.: "the Shekhina descended and dwelt among them" or "He removed Himself and His Shekhina from their midst"). This kind of usage does not occur in Semitic languages in conjunction with proper names. The term, however, may not be
14973-579: The Israeli government, with support from the United States , began a large-scale effort to conduct transport operations and bring the Beta Israel to Israel in multiple waves. These activities included Operation Brothers , which evacuated the Beta Israel community in Sudan between 1979 and 1990 (including Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Joshua in 1985), and Operation Solomon in 1991. By
15134-622: The Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten, these oral laws were recorded by Judah ha-Nasi in the Mishnah , redacted c. 200 CE . The Talmud was a compilation of the Mishnah and Gemara , rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship, Palestine and Babylonia ( Lower Mesopotamia ). Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created. The older compilation
15295-701: The Karaite teaching...but in other things, they appear to follow the instruction of the Rabbis; and they say they are related to the tribe of Dan. Rabbi David ibn Zimra of Egypt (1479–1573), writing similarly, held the Ethiopian Jewish community to be similar in many ways to the Karaites, writing of them on this wise: ...Lo! the matter is well-known that there are perpetual wars between the kings of Kush , which has three kingdoms; part of which belonging to
15456-422: The L ORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords"). The final syllable of Adonai uses the vowel kamatz , rather than patach which would be expected from the Hebrew for 'my lord(s)'. Professor Yoel Elitzur explains this as a normal transformation when a Hebrew word becomes a name, giving as other examples Nathan , Yitzchak , and Yigal . As Adonai became the most common reverent substitute for
15617-634: The Mediterranean world over the succeeding centuries and persuaded rabbinic authorities there that they were of Jewish descent, and so could if slaves be ransomed by Jewish communities, join synagogues, marry other Jews, etc, also referred to the Mosaic and Danite origins of Ethiopian Jewry. The Mosaic claims of the Beta Israel, in any case, like those of the Zagwe dynasty, are ancient. Other sources tell of many Jews who were brought as prisoners of war from ancient Israel by Ptolemy I and settled on
15778-609: The Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishnah and the Talmud . Eventually, God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies. As time passed, the nation's spiritual level declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told Samuel that they needed to be governed by
15939-541: The Sabbath"), Arde'et ("Disciples"), Gorgoryos ("Apocalypse of Gorgorios"), Ezra ("Apocalypse of Ezra") , Barok ("Apocalypse of Baruch"), Mäṣḥafä Sa'atat ("Book of Hours"), Fālasfā ("Philosophers"), Abba Elias ("Father Elijah"), Mäṣḥafä Mäla'əkt ("Book of Angels"), Dərsanä Abrəham Wäsara Bägabs ("Homily on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt"), Gadla Sosna ("The Story of Susanna"), and Baqadāmi Gabra Egzi'abḥēr ("In
16100-425: The Tetragrammaton (see Qere and Ketiv ), as shown also by the pronunciation changes when combined with a preposition or a conjunction. This is in contrast to Karaite Jews , who traditionally viewed pronouncing the Tetragrammaton as a mitzvah because the name appears some 6800 times throughout the Tanakh; however, most modern Karaites, under pressure and seeking acceptance from mainstream Rabbinical Jews, now also use
16261-455: The Tetragrammaton, it too became considered un-erasable due to its holiness. As such, most prayer books avoid spelling out the word Adonai , and instead write two yodhs ( יְיָ ) in its place. The forms Adaunoi , Adoinoi , and Adonoi represent Ashkenazi Hebrew variant pronunciations of the word Adonai . El appears in Ugaritic , Phoenician and other 2nd and 1st millennium BCE texts both as generic "god" and as
16422-409: The Torah is a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self-positioned as encompassing at least seventy, and potentially infinite, facets and interpretations. Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam . Hebraism , like Hellenism , played a seminal role in the formation of Western civilization through its impact as
16583-700: The United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe, and other groups spread throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The term Judaism derives from Iudaismus , a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos ( Koinē Greek : Ἰουδαϊσμός , from the verb ἰουδαΐζειν , "to side with or imitate the [Judeans]"). Its ultimate source was Hebrew : יהודה , romanized : Yehudah Judah ", which
16744-541: The Yemenite and Ethiopian Jewish populations, suggesting very little gene flow between the populations and potentially distinct maternal population histories. The maternal ancestral profile of the Beta Israel is similar to those of highland Ethiopian populations. The Ethiopian Jews' autosomal DNA has been examined in a comprehensive study by Tishkoff et al. (2009) on the genetic affiliations of various populations in Africa. According to Bayesian clustering analysis,
16905-597: The Zagwe dynasty claimed legitimacy (according to the Kebra Nagast ) by saying it was descended from Moses and his Ethiopian wife. Most of the Beta Israel consider the Kebra Negast to be legend. As its name expresses, "Glory of Kings" (meaning the Christian Aksumite kings), it was written in the 14th century in large part to delegitimize the Zagwe dynasty, to promote instead a rival "Solomonic" claim to authentic Jewish Ethiopian antecedents, and to justify
17066-596: The antiquity and authenticity of their claims, the Beta Israel cite the 9th-century CE testimony of Eldad ha-Dani (the Danite), from a time before the Zagwean dynasty was established. Eldad was a Jewish man who appeared in Egypt and created a stir in that Jewish community (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean Jewish communities he visited) with claims that he had come from a Jewish kingdom of pastoralists far to
17227-442: The area as his homeland. Eldad's was not the only medieval testimony about Jewish communities living far to the south of Egypt, which strengthens the credibility of his account. Obadiah ben Abraham Bartenura wrote in a letter from Jerusalem in 1488: I myself saw two of them in Egypt. They are dark-skinned...and one could not tell whether they keep the teaching of the Karaites, or of the Rabbis, for some of their practices resemble
17388-504: The authority of the rabbinic tradition , and the significance of the State of Israel . Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and halakha are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position
17549-483: The basis of the Talmud. According to Abraham ben David , the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah haNasi after the destruction of Jerusalem, in anno mundi 3949, which corresponds to 189 CE. Over the next four centuries, the Mishnah underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylonia ). The commentaries from each of these communities were eventually compiled into
17710-471: The belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of mankind. According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation. Many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God; that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God's concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another; that is, Jews are to imitate God's love for people. Thus, although there
17871-545: The border of his kingdom with Nubia ( Sudan ). Another tradition asserts that the Jews arrived either via the old district of Qwara in northwestern Ethiopia, or via the Atbara River , where the Nile tributaries flow into Sudan. Some accounts specify the route taken by their forefathers on their way upriver to the south from Egypt. As mentioned above, the 9th-century Jewish traveler Eldad ha-Dani claimed he descended from
18032-422: The community. The term Esra'elawi , meaning " Israelites ", is also used by the community to refer to its members. The name Ayhud (lit. " Jews ") is rarely used in the community, as Ethiopian Christians had used it as a derogatory term; however, the term has increased in usage in the 20th century as the Beta Israel strengthened its ties with other Jewish communities. The term Ibrawi (lit. "Hebrew")
18193-500: The consent of Ovadia Yosef, Amar ruled that it is forbidden to question the Jewishness of this community, pejoratively called Falash Mura in reference to their having converted. A number of DNA studies have been done on the Beta Israel. Genealogical DNA testing allows research into paternal (meaning only through fathers) and maternal (meaning only through mothers) ancestry. According to Cruciani et al. (2002), haplogroup A
18354-563: The end of 2008, there were 119,300 Ethiopian Jews living in Israel, including nearly 81,000 born in Ethiopia and about 38,500 (about 32% of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel) born in Israel with at least one parent born in Ethiopia or Eritrea (formerly a part of Ethiopia). At the end of 2019, there were 155,300 Jews of Ethiopian descent in Israel. Approximately 87,500 were born in Ethiopia, and 67,800 were born in Israel with parents born in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel
18515-462: The establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities. Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods, the Hebrew God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the Hebrew God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the world, and more specifically, with the people he created. Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism :
18676-493: The expansion of chumra (the idea of "building a fence around the Torah "), the word Adonai itself has come to be too holy to say for Orthodox Jews outside of prayer, leading to its replacement by HaShem ('The Name'). The singular forms adon and adoni ('my lord') are used in the Hebrew Bible as royal titles, as in the First Book of Samuel , and for distinguished persons. The Phoenicians used it as
18837-562: The fast for Tisha B'Av ( ṣomä ab ), the fast in Tevet ( ṣomä tibt ), and the Fast of Esther ( ṣomä astēr ) are multi-day fasts while they are only one day in rabbinical Jewish tradition. The first of each month is celebrated as yačaraqā ba'āl (lit. "new moon festival") (compare Rosh Chodesh ), and the last of each month is a fast called ṣomä mälěya (compare Yom Kippur Katan ). There are also monthly celebrations commemorating
18998-457: The fourth sabbath of the fifth month, and an additional ṣomä mã'rar and mã'rar in Kislev. The most notable of the holidays unique to Beta Israel is Sigd , or měhlělla (lit. "supplication"), celebrated on the 29th day of Cheshvan , and recognized as an official state holiday in Israel since 2009. The month of Cheshvan also includes a holiday for the day Moses saw the face of God on
19159-430: The generic "god". In theophoric names such as Gabriel ("Strength of God"), Michael ("Who is like God?"), Raphael ("God healed"), Ariel ("My lion is God"), Daniel ("My judgment is God"), Ezekiel ("God shall strengthen"), Israel ("one who has struggled with God"), Immanuel ("God is with us"), and Ishmael ("God hears/ will hear / listens/ will listen") it is usually interpreted and translated as "God", but it
19320-545: The head of the divine pantheon. In the Hebrew Bible, El ( אל , ʾel ) appears very occasionally alone (e.g. Genesis 33:20, el elohei yisrael , 'Mighty God of Israel', and Genesis 46:3, ha'el elohei abika , 'El the God of thy father'), but usually with some epithet or attribute attached (e.g. El Elyon , 'Most High El', El Shaddai , 'El of Shaddai ', El 'Olam 'Everlasting El', El Hai , 'Living El', El Ro'i 'El my Shepherd', and El Gibbor 'El of Strength'), in which cases it can be understood as
19481-494: The help of the Name'). Judaism Judaism ( Hebrew : יַהֲדוּת , romanized : Yahăḏūṯ ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people . Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant , which was established between God and the Israelites , their ancestors. The religion
19642-496: The imperfect denotes any actions that are not yet completed, Accordingly, Ehyeh asher ehyeh can be rendered in English not only as "I am that I am" but also as "I will be what I will be" or "I will be who I will be", or "I shall prove to be whatsoever I shall prove to be" or even "I will be because I will be". Other renderings include: Leeser, "I Will Be that I Will Be"; Rotherham, "I Will Become whatsoever I please", Greek, Ego eimi ho on ( ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν ), 'I am The Being' in
19803-427: The interpretations that gave rise to Christianity. Moreover, some have argued that Judaism is a non-creedal religion that does not require one to believe in God. For some, observance of halakha is more important than belief in God per se . The debate about whether one can speak of authentic or normative Judaism is not only a debate among religious Jews but also among historians. In continental Europe , Judaism
19964-540: The main annual holidays, asärt (lit. "ten") on the tenth day to commemorate Yom Kippur, asrã hulat (lit. "twelve") for commemorate Shavuot, and asrã ammest (lit. "fifteen") for Passover and Sukkot. Shabbat is called Sanbat . There are also weekly fasts on Monday ( ṣomä säňňo ), Thursday ( ṣomä amus ), and Friday ( ṣomä 'arb ). The Beta Israel once spoke Qwara and Kayla , both of which are Agaw languages . Now, they speak Tigrinya and Amharic , both Semitic languages . Their liturgical language
20125-525: The meaning of "Army of angels of God". Ehyeh asher ehyeh ( אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה ) is the first of three responses given to Moses when he asks for God's name in the Book of Exodus . The King James Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew as " I Am that I Am " and uses it as a proper name for God. The word ehyeh is the first-person singular imperfect form of hayah , 'to be'. Biblical Hebrew does not distinguish between grammatical tenses . It has instead an aspectual system in which
20286-504: The modern era is even more difficult, given the number and diversity of the contemporary Jewish denominations . Even if to restrict the problem to the most influential intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth century, the matter remains complicated. Thus, for instance, Joseph Soloveitchik's (associated with the Modern Orthodox movement ) answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following
20447-471: The name Jah —because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected. The tanna Jose ben Halafta considered "Tzevaot" a common name in the second century and Rabbi Ishmael considered "Elohim" to be one. All other names, such as "Merciful", "Gracious" and "Faithful", merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings. Also abbreviated Jah , the most common name of God in
20608-431: The name of God. The general halachic opinion is that this only applies to the sacred Hebrew names of God, not to other euphemistic references; there is a dispute as to whether the word "God" in English or other languages may be erased or whether Jewish law and/or Jewish custom forbids doing so, directly or as a precautionary "fence" about the law. The words God and Lord are written by some Jews as G-d and L-rd as
20769-489: The next few centuries. Later, two poetic restatements of these principles (" Ani Ma'amin " and " Yigdal ") became integrated into many Jewish liturgies, leading to their eventual near-universal acceptance. The oldest non-Rabbinic instance of articles of faith were formulated, under Islamic influence, by the 12th century Karaite figure Judah ben Elijah Hadassi : (1) God is the Creator of all created beings; (2) He
20930-486: The original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud . The Hebrew-language word torah can mean "teaching", "law", or "instruction", although "Torah" can also be used as a general term that refers to any Jewish text that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses . Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition,
21091-477: The other Northwest Semitic languages . In some early contexts and theophoric names , it and Baali ( / ˈ b eɪ ə l aɪ / ; "My Lord") were treated as synonyms of Adon and Adonai. After the time of Solomon and particularly after Jezebel 's attempt to promote the worship of the Lord of Tyre Melqart , however, the name became particularly associated with the Canaanite storm god Baʿal Haddu and
21252-476: The passage in Exodus where God names himself as " I Will Be What I Will Be " using the first-person singular imperfective aspect, open to interpretation as present tense ("I am what I am"), future ("I shall be what I shall be"), or imperfect ("I used to be what I used to be"). Rabbinic Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest of Israel , who should only speak it in
21413-455: The revealed Torah consists solely of its written contents, but of its interpretations as well. The study of Torah (in its widest sense, to include both poetry, narrative, and law, and both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud) is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance. For the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, and for their successors today, the study of Torah was therefore not merely
21574-431: The sages ( rabbinic leaders) of each subsequent generation. For centuries, the Torah appeared only as a written text transmitted in parallel with the oral tradition. Fearing that the oral teachings might be forgotten, Rabbi Judah haNasi undertook the mission of consolidating the various opinions into one body of law which became known as the Mishnah . The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying halakha , which are
21735-504: The same responsum , he concludes that if the Ethiopian Jewish community wished to return to rabbinic Judaism, they would be received and welcomed into the fold, just as the Karaites who returned to the teachings of the Rabbanites in the time of Rabbi Abraham ben Maimonides . Reflecting the consistent assertions made by Ethiopian Jews they dealt with or knew of, and after due investigation of their claims and their own Jewish behaviour,
21896-574: The scholarly traditions of his own people. Eldad said that the Jews of his own kingdom descended from the tribe of Dan (which included the Biblical war-hero Samson ) who had fled the civil war in the Kingdom of Israel between Solomon's son Rehoboam and Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and resettled in Egypt. From there, they moved southwards up the Nile into Ethiopia. The Beta Israel say this confirms that they are descended from these Danites. Some Beta Israel, however, assert that their Danite origins go back to
22057-419: The shedding of blood. The Birkat Ha-Mitzwot evokes the consciousness of holiness at a rabbinic rite, but the objects employed in the majority of these rites are non-holy and of general character, while the several holy objects are non-theurgic. And not only do ordinary things and occurrences bring with them the experience of God. Everything that happens to a man evokes that experience, evil as well as good, for
22218-598: The signs of permitted fish. Insects and larvae are forbidden in Leviticus 11:41–42. Gid hanasheh is forbidden in Genesis 32:33. Mixtures of milk and meat are not prepared or eaten, but benefiting from them is permitted—Haymanot use a literal interpretation of the verses Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21, "shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk", similar to Karaite Judaism ; whereas, under Rabbinic Judaism , any benefit from mixing dairy products with meat
22379-502: The singular word ba'alim ('owner') looks plural, but likewise takes a singular verb. A number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root * yl , 'to be first, powerful', despite some difficulties with this view. Elohim is thus the plural construct 'powers'. Hebrew grammar allows for this form to mean "He is the Power (singular) over powers (plural)", just as the word Ba'alim means 'owner' (see above). "He
22540-637: The sole content of the term. Thus Ioudaïsmós should be translated not as "Judaism" but as Judaeanness. Daniel R. Schwartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the Book of Maccabees, refers to the religion, as opposed to the culture and politics of the Judean state. He believes it reflected the ideological divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees and, implicitly, anti-Hasmonean and pro-Hasmonean factions in Judean society. According to
22701-761: The son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (or Makeda, in the legend) (see 1 Kings 10:1–13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1–12 ). The legend relates that Menelik, as an adult, returned to his father in Jerusalem, and later resettled in Ethiopia. He took with him the Ark of the Covenant . In the Bible , there is no mention that the Queen of Sheba either married or had any sexual relations with King Solomon (although some identify her with
22862-402: The south. The only language Eldad spoke was a hitherto unknown dialect of Hebrew. Although he strictly followed the Mosaic commandments, his observance differed in some details from Rabbinic halakhah. Some observers thought that he might be a Karaite, although his practice also differed from theirs. He carried Hebrew books that supported his explanations of halakhah. He cited ancient authorities in
23023-584: The term Adonai instead. The Beta Israel pronounce the Tetragrammaton as Yahu , but also use the Geʽez term Igziabeher . The Tetragrammaton appears in Genesis and occurs 6,828 times in total in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia edition of the Masoretic Text . It is thought to be an archaic third-person singular of the imperfective aspect of the verb "to be" (i.e., "[He] is/was/will be"). This agrees with
23184-514: The time of Moses, when some Danites parted from other Jews right after the Exodus and moved south to Ethiopia. Eldad the Danite speaks of at least three waves of Jewish immigration into his region, creating other Jewish tribes and kingdoms. The earliest wave settled in a remote kingdom of the "tribe of Moses": this was the strongest and most secure Jewish kingdom of all, with farming villages, cities and great wealth. Other Ethiopian Jews who appeared in
23345-516: The tradition, they clung to the simple meaning of the Scriptures. If they had been taught, however, they would not be irreverent towards the words of our sages, so their status is comparable to a Jewish infant taken captive by non-Jews… And even if you say that the matter is in doubt, it is a commandment to redeem them. In 1973, Ovadia Yosef , the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel ruled, based on
23506-417: The traditions which were recorded by the priests of the community. According to one account, the Beta Israel originated in the kingdom of Israel and they were the contemporaries rather than the descendants of King Solomon and Menelik. The Ethiopian history described in the Kebra Nagast relates that Ethiopians are descendants of Israelite tribes who came to Ethiopia with Menelik I , alleged to be
23667-574: The tribe of Dan. He also reported other Jewish kingdoms around his own or in East Africa during this time. His writings probably represent the first mention of the Beta Israel in Rabbinic literature. Despite some skeptical critics, his authenticity has been generally accepted in current scholarship. His descriptions were consistent and even the originally doubtful rabbis of his time were finally persuaded. Specific details may be uncertain; one critic has noted Eldad's lack of detailed reference to Ethiopia's geography and any Ethiopian language, although he claimed
23828-443: The two Talmuds, the Jerusalem Talmud ( Talmud Yerushalmi ) and the Babylonian Talmud ( Talmud Bavli ). These have been further expounded by commentaries of various Torah scholars during the ages. In the text of the Torah, many words are left undefined, and many procedures are mentioned without explanation or instructions. Such phenomena are sometimes offered to validate the viewpoint that the Written Law has always been transmitted with
23989-416: The village. Unlike other Ethiopians, the Beta Israel do not eat raw meat dishes such as kitfo or gored gored . The Beta Israel calendar is a lunar calendar of 12 months, each 29 or 30 days alternately. Every four years, there is a leap year which adds a full month (30 days). The calendar is a combination of the ancient calendar of Alexandrian Jewry , Book of Jubilees, Book of Enoch, Abu Shaker , and
24150-485: The workaday world. ... Here is the mystery of Talmudic Judaism: the alien and remote conviction that the intellect is an instrument not of unbelief and desacralization but of sanctification. To study the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study how to study the word of God. Beta Israel Historically, Beta Israel lived in northern and northwestern Ethiopia , where they were spread out across more than 500 small villages over
24311-454: The writings of David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and other accounts, that the Beta Israel were Jews and should be brought to Israel. Two years later this opinion was confirmed by a number of other authorities who made similar rulings, including the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren . In 1977, the law was passed granting the right of return. Some notable poskim (religious law authorities) from non-Zionist Ashkenazi circles, placed
24472-427: Was achieved by manipulation of these 216 sacred letters that form the names of God. 3 And ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. 4 Ye shall not do so unto the L ORD your God. From this it is understood by the rabbis that one should not erase or blot out
24633-432: Was centered on a pantheon of gods much like in Greek mythology . According to the Hebrew Bible , a United Monarchy was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon with its capital in Jerusalem . After Solomon's reign, the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it
24794-454: Was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire ; many people were taken captive from the capital Samaria to Media and the Khabur River valley. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple , which was at the center of ancient Jewish worship. The Judeans were exiled to Babylon , in what
24955-546: Was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo . Albo and the Raavad argued that Maimonides' principles contained too many items that, while true, were not fundamentals of the faith Along these lines, the ancient historian Josephus emphasized practices and observances rather than religious beliefs, associating apostasy with a failure to observe halakha and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs. Maimonides' principles were largely ignored over
25116-400: Was given to the community in the 15th century by the Emperor Yeshaq I ; its use is now considered offensive. The term Zagwe is also used for the Beta Israel, although it is considered derogatory, as it associated the community with the Agaw people of the Zagwe dynasty , who largely practice traditional African religion . Haymanot ( Ge'ez : ሃይማኖት) is the colloquial term for "faith" which
25277-478: Was gradually avoided as a title for Yahweh. Several names that included it were rewritten as bosheth ("shame"). The prophet Hosea in particular reproached the Israelites for continuing to use the term: "It will come about in that day," declares the Lord , "That you will call Me Ishi And will no longer call Me Baali." Elah ([אֱלָה] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |3= ( help ) , pl. Elim or Elohim ; Imperial Aramaic : אלהא )
25438-402: Was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah, in itself being the history of the constant updates and adjustment of the Law performed by means of the creative interpretation. Finally, David Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement in Judaism by opposing it to the strict and traditional rabbinical approach and thus comes to the conclusions similar to that of
25599-410: Was recognized as a religio licita ("legitimate religion") until the rise of Gnosticism and Early Christianity in the fourth century. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship was rebuilt around the community (represented by a minimum of ten adult men) and
25760-501: Was superior to other gods. Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile, perhaps in reaction to Zoroastrian dualism. In this view, it was only by the Hellenistic period that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god and that the notion of a bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish religion formed. John Day argues that the origins of biblical Yahweh , El , Asherah , and Ba'al , may be rooted in earlier Canaanite religion , which
25921-436: Was used to refer to the chawa (lit. "free man") in the community, in contrast to the barya (lit. "slave"). The term Oritawi (lit. " Torah -true") was also used to refer to the Beta Israel; since the 19th century, it has been used in contraast to the term Falash Mura (converts). The colloquial Ethiopian/Eritrean term Falasha or Felasha , which means "landless", "wanderers", or "associated with monks",
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