To the Editor:
"More and more goyim want to move to Israel" (9 Iyar)
and the intended immigration of thousands more Falash Mura
reminded one of the statement of Rabbi Avigdor Miller
zt"l: "Ethiopian `Jews' are not Jews at all. It's a
falsehood, sheker vekozov." (tape 853).
The keenness of some Sephardi religious authorities to allow
them in is thus doubly perplexing, and a great deal of
ignorance, wishful thinking and emotion clouds the
subject.
The original Falashas believed themselves to be descended
from Jewish nobles of Jerusalem who escorted the Queen of
Sheba home from her visit to Shlomoh. This belief is
challenged by scientific theory which holds them to be of
pure Ethiopian stock, part of the Agaw group of tribes of
Cushitic origin, indistinguishable physically and
psychologically from their fellow Ethiopians. Most of the
great Ethiopicists of the last century, especially Conti
Rossini of Rome, Cerulli of Milan, Polotsky of Jerusalem,
Leslau of California, Rodison of Paris, Ullendorff of London,
and Rabbi Dr. Maurice Gaguine of Manchester, rejected the
concept of an authentic Jewish source for the Falashas as
being historically unwarranted.
Rabbi Gaguine, whose thesis on Ethiopic studies has been
entered by universities as the definitive work on the
subject, noted ("The Falashas: Fact and Fiction," 1985) that
the Falashas: 1) called their place of worship masgid
— "mosque" in Arabic; 2) had no knowledge of Hebrew or
Aramaic, reciting all their prayers in Ge'ez; 3) used only
the Ethiopic Bible, which includes Apocryphal books excluded
from our Tanach, such as Tobit, Judith and
the Wisdom of Ben Sirah; they did not possess any
Sefer Torah in scroll form, but read from a book; 4)
did not use Tefillin, Tallis, Tzitzis or
Mezuzas; 5) observed the Sabbath without any light,
fire or heated food, and kept the Festivals on different
dates and in styles markedly different from our own; 6)
performed animal sacrifices forbidden by the rabbis since the
destruction of the Temple; 7) practiced a crude form of
Shechitah, not in accordance with the sophisticated
and painless method laid down in the Codes; 8) made no ritual
distinction between meat and milk; 9) circumcised boys, as do
all Ethiopians, but omitting the vital per'iah, as
mandated by the Din. They subjected girls to excision,
that is common to most African tribes. Both the operations on
boys and girls were performed by women; 10) practiced
monasticism, a movement totally alien to Judaism, as an
important part of their theology which was a mixture of
pagan, Judaic and Christian elements; they had no knowledge
of the Oral Law or of Talmudic interpretation; 11) allowed
the title and performance of Cohanic functions to persons of
non-Aharonic descent; 12) Chalitzah was unknown to them;
ironically, those who wish to recognize the Falashas as Jews
would by definition be classing many of them as mamzerim,
since the written Get was also unknown to them and
matrimonial and genealogical records non-existent.
There is evidence that Jewish merchants from Arabia spread a
form of Judaic culture throughout Ethiopia during the pre-
Christian Aksumite era. The available historical, linguistic,
cultural and semantic evidence suggests that the Falashas are
probably descended from those pockets of resistance that
clung to this Judaic culture against the fierce Christian
penetration of Ethiopia.
Claiming filiation from Jews is a fairly common phenomenon
whereby colonized minorities tend to identify their plight
with that of Ancient Israel e.g. the African-American "Black
Hebrews" of Dimona, who claim to be the real Jews, with
Ashkenazim and Sephardim as the impostors!
Some claim that the Falashas are connected to the Tribe of
Dan. Yet The Talmud rules that because they lost contact for
so long with the spiritual leadership of the Tribe of Judah,
all the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel are halachically
goyim to all intents and purposes (Yevomos 17),
but that in Messianic times they will return and accept again
the Torah of Moshe.
The consensus of almost all Halachic authorities was that
there is such room for doubt as to the Falashas' Jewishness
that they require a formal conversion procedure. This was the
plan until the Ethiopian immigrants were incited almost to
riot at Ben Gurion airport in 1985 by anti-religious elements
to refuse to undergo any conversion, not even simple ritual
immersion in a mikveh. Some Rabbinic authorities,
under political pressure, backtracked on their ruling, now
holding that they are full Jews not requiring any
conversion!
It is advocated that any conversion be performed on an
individual basis outside the Land of Israel, not out of
"racism" as some claim, but as a matter of upholding Torah
Law. Whilst acknowledging their courage in wanting to be
identified as Jews, the Falasha lineage is so suspect that
for them to be accepted by all Jews as a bona fide part of
the Am Yisroel, Halachic conversion is a sine qua non. The
Falash Mura even more so.
"Be careful not to state a false halacha which in itself is
prohibited. Do not tell them that we consider them definite
Jews. Rather, tell them that we are unsure of their
Jewishness but we are prepared to educate them in the Torah
of G-d and His commandments. Until they convert, do not
consider them in practice to be definite Jews, even regarding
counting them for a minyan or calling them to the
Torah. Do not embarrass them but do not flatter them"
(Igros Moshe, Yoreh De'ah 4:41).
We await with keen anticipation the time when the Moshiach
will reveal from which of the Twelve Tribes each Jew truly
hails (Rambam, Hilchos Melochim 12:3), and the
Ingathering of the Exiles when, "The L-rd shall set His Hand
a second time to recover the remnant of His people that shall
be left, from Ashur and from Mitzrayim, from Patros and from
Cush and from Elam and Shinar and from Chamas and the isles
of the sea" (Yeshaya 11:11)
Yours truly
Amnon Goldberg
Tzefas
