When Rabbi Dr Sharon Shalom was a little boy, he and friend set off from their village in Ethiopia to find the Promised Land. They were unable to get very far on that occasion but less than two years later, aged eight, he made the long trek to a camp in Sudan and with an aunt and uncle was brought to Israel with the help of naval commandos. It was to be another two years before he learned that news he had previously been given of his parents’ death had been mistaken and he was reunited with them.
Probably no other diaspora community has held the hope of Zion so close to their hearts as the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. When people saw migrating storks who had flown over Israel on the way from Europe, it was the custom to call to the birds and ask how were things in Jerusalem.
In the 1860s, the French Orientalist Professor Joseph Halevi went on an expedition to Ethiopia to try to make contact with the community of Jews said to be living there. When he reached them, the sight of a white-skinned Jew perplexed them and they were unsure of how to take him. But when he mentioned the word “Jerusalem”, their doubts fell away. “Like lightning in the dark of night, the word ‘Jerusalem’ lit up the eyes and hearts of my lost brothers,” he recorded.
That spiritual connection is embedded in the unique festival of Sigd, which is celebrated this week. For most Jews, after the festival-packed month of Tishri, the succeeding Cheshvan is a barren month with no special days of its own. But for the Beta Israel, Sigd represents the culmination of the autumn season; just as Shavuot marks 50 days from Pesach, so Sigd marks 50 days from Yom Kippur.
Technically, it falls on Cheshvan 29, but because that is Shabbat this year, the festivities take place earlier on Thursday.
No Comment Found.