The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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| 14 emphasis on the ban on pork, recognises the Sabbath in addition to Sunday as the day of rest, and incorporates - in theory at least - many other Jewish rituals, including those dealing with personal cleanliness. Little wonder that visitors are often struck by the Old Testament atmosphere which pervades much of Ethiopian life. Female circumcision (or excision), which is widely practised in Ethiopia by Jews as well as by other groups, is an African custom without justification in Scripture. Just as Ethiopian Orthodoxy can no doubt tell us much about early Christianity before it was subjected to Greek and Roman and other influences, so too the Falasha brand of Judaism, cut off at a very early date from the mainstream of Jewish thought, can throw much light on the Jewish religion Lefore it developed under the impact of rabbinic teaching. In both areas there is still plenty of room for research. If the two religions have become 'fossilised', as is often said, as the result of their isolation from the centres of civilisation, it can be argued that fossils have much to teach the inquiring mind. The unique way in which Jewish customs have influenced Ethiopian Christianity seems to attest, as Joseph Halevy suggested - and Donald Levine among others has agreed(1) - to the probable presence of Jews in the early days of the spread of Christianity. Indeed, the Jewish religion appears to have been widely adopted and, in Professor A.H.M. Jones's opinion, it was the conversion of the royal house to Christianity which 'prevented Judaism from becoming the official religion of the Abyssinian Kingdom, but was not in time to prevent the conversion of various independent Agau tribes to Judaism, nor the adoption by the Abyssinians of certain Jewish practices.(2) Professor Edward Ullendorff, (3) more cautiously, states that 'Old Testament influences and reflections had probably reached Ethiopia even before the introduction of Christianity in the fourth century and before the translation of the Bible'. In these circumstances, it is a little surprising that as most contemporary Jewish communities received some attention in the Talmud there is no mention in it of Jews living in Ethiopia, though its few references to the country itself are friendly. For example, in the discussion of the nations offering gifts to the Messiah, Ethiopia is praised for never having been Israel's taskmaster, and there is a tradition that Dan, one of the lost ten tribes, had migrated to Cush, that is to say Ethiopia, and made its home there. (4) While the strength of Jewish practices in the Ethiopian Church (1) Greater Ethiopia, p. 32. |