| Regions with significant populations | |
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 Israel | |
| Scriptures | |
| Mäṣḥafä Kedus | |
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| Geʽez, Amharic, Hebrew | |
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Haymanot (Ge'ez:ሃይማኖት) is the branch ofJudaism practiced by theBeta Israel, orEthiopianJews.
InGeʽez,Tigrinya andAmharic,Haymanot means 'religion' or 'faith'. Thus in modern Amharic and Tigrinya, it is common to speak of theChristianhaymanot, the Jewishhaymanot or theMuslimhaymanot. InIsrael, the term is only associated with Judaism.
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Mäṣḥafä Kedus (Holy Scriptures) is the name for the religious literature. The language of the writings isGeʽez. The Beta Israel lack a firm distinction between "canonical" and "non-canonical" religious texts.[1] The religious texts of the Beta Israel include:
Ethiopian Jews did not have access to theTalmud or other post-biblical Jewish texts, and traditionally practiced a purely Torah-based Judaism.[3][4]
The synagogue is calledbet maqdis,masgid, orṣalot bet.
Dietary laws are based mainly onLeviticus,Deuteronomy andJubilees. Permitted and forbidden animals and their signs appear onLeviticus 11:3–11:8 andDeuteronomy 14:4–14:8. Forbidden birds are listed onLeviticus 11:13–11:23 andDeuteronomy 14:12–14:20. Signs of permitted fish are written onLeviticus 11:9–11:12 andDeuteronomy 14:9–14:10. Insects and larvae are forbidden according toLeviticus 11:41–11:42.Birds of prey are forbidden according toLeviticus 11:13–11:19.Gid hanasheh is forbidden perGenesis 32:33.Mixtures of milk and meat are not prepared or eaten but are not banned either: Haymanot interpreted the versesExodus 23:19,Exodus 34:26 andDeuteronomy 14:21 literally "shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk" (like theKaraites). Nowadays, underRabbinic influence, mixing dairy products with meat is banned.
Ethiopian Jews were forbidden to eat the food of non-Jews. A Kes (priest) eats only meat he has slaughtered himself, which his hosts then prepare both for him and themselves. Beta Israel who broke these taboos were ostracized and had to undergo a purification process. Purification included fasting for one or more days, eating only uncooked chickpeas provided by the Kes, and ritual purification before entering the village. Unlike other Ethiopians, the Beta Israel do not eat raw meat dishes likekitfo orgored gored.[5]
The Beta Israel calendar is alunar calendar of 12 months, with each having 29 or 30 days. Every four years, there is aleap year, which adds a full month (30 days) to the Jewish year. The calendar is a combination of the ancient calendars ofAlexandrian Jewry, theBook of Jubilees, theBook of Enoch, Abu Shaker, and theGeʽez calendar.[6] The years are counted according to theCounting of Kushta: "1571 to Jesus Christ, 7071 to theGyptians and 6642 to theHebrews".[7]
Jewish holidays inHaymanot,[8] divided into months, are given below:
Monthly holidays are mainly memorial days to a given annual holiday:
Weekly holidays include theṣomä säňňo (Monday fast),ṣomä amus (Thursday fast),ṣomä 'arb (Friday fast), andSanbat (Shabbat).
The Beta Israel are the only extant Jewish group with amonastic tradition, albeit a historic one. Themonks, bearing the title "abba" (አባ), lived separated from the Jewish villages to live inmonasteries. However, only some Ethiopian Jews were monastics; "abba" was also used to refer to community elders. The monastic tradition went extinct in the mid-20th century.[11][12][13]
By 1994, modern scholars ofEthiopian history and Ethiopian Jews generally supported one of two conflicting hypotheses for the origin of the Beta Israel, as outlined by Kaplan:
Some Ethiopian Jewish practices disagree with rabbinic practice but do match the practices of lateSecond Temple sects, suggesting that Ethiopian Jews may possess a tradition from ancient Jewish groups whose beliefs have become extinct elsewhere.[according to whom?]
The Torah (orit) is written in Geez... The name applies not only to the Pentateuch but to the entire Old Testament, and the text is identical with that of the Christian Ethiopians. [V]arious apocrypha and pseudepigrapha such as... the Paralipomena of Baruch... are included.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Traditionally, the Beta Israel were monotheistic and practiced a Torah-based Judaism, without observing Oral Law, or knowing the Talmud, known to other communities of Jews.
In terms of their religious beliefs, the Beta Israel have always identified themselves as exiles from the land of Israel and believers of the faith of Moses. For almost 2,000 years, however, they were completely isolated from the rest of the Jewish world. They never learned of the Talmud, the codification of Jewish oral law, or any of the traditions that arose after biblical times, such as the holiday of Hanukkah.
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