Posted on 01/18/2012 9:35:37 AM PST by marshmallow
ASHKELON, Israel -- Israel is closing the books on a rare millennia-old Jewish tradition.
Nearly three decades after Israel began airlifting Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community out of the Horn of Africa, Israel's rabbis are now working to phase out the community's white-turbaned clergy, the kessoch, whose unusual religious practices are at odds with the rabbinate's Orthodox Judaism.
The effort has added to the sense of discrimination felt by Israel's 120,000 Ethiopian citizens. These sentiments boiled over this month after a group of landlords in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi refused to accept Ethiopians as tenants.The move has prompted large protests, including a gathering outside parliament on Wednesday that drew more than 1,000 young immigrants and other supporters.
Kess Semai Elias, 42, said the recent reports of discrimination add to his and other Ethiopian Jewish spiritual leaders' dismay and feelings that they are not welcome.
"We are just like all the other Jews. We don't have any other religion," he said.
Descendants of the lost Israelite tribe of Dan, according to Jewish lore, Ethiopian Jews spent millennia isolated from the rest of the Jewish world. In most Jewish communities, the priesthood of the Bible was replaced by rabbis who emphasized text study and prayer. Ethiopia's Jewish kessoch continued the traditions of Biblical-era priests, sacrificing animals and collecting the first fruits of the harvest.
The two traditions diverged so much that the first trickle of Ethiopian Jewish immigrants to Israel were asked to undergo a quickened conversion ceremony to appease rabbis who were dubious about their religious pedigree.
When Israeli clandestine operations rescued large groups of Ethiopian Jews from war and famine in the 1980s and early 1990s, a rabbinic consensus was reached and the newcomers did not have to convert - except for a group known as the Falash Mura.........
(Excerpt) Read more at sunherald.com ...
Lost no more; due to the fine detective work of our highly educated MORMON scholars!
--MormonDude(Where do you think the MAYANs came from???)
As recorded by Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary of the English Language, one of the most famous anagrams of all time was devised in the Middle Ages. Its unknown author contrived it as a Latin dialogue between Pilate and Jesus. Jesus’ answer to Pilate’s question Quid est veritas? (”What is truth?”) is phrased as an anagram of the letters of that very question: Est vir qui adest (”It is the man before you”).
I’m sure wherever he is, Sammy is keeping an eye out for them...
A few general facts concerning this matter:
1. There has been discrimination against Ethiopian Jews ever since they arrived in Israel; I’ve seen it in my hometown Karmiel. Public discrimination has been due chiefly to skin pigment, but ‘institutionalized’ discrimination has existed only among the ultra orthodox, since all others, including the State itself, has recognized them as bona fide Jews ever since Rabbi Ovadia Yosef determined that they indeed were.
2. DNA testing has proved beyond a doubt they they are Jews, but orthodox rabbis haven’t been too impressed since they’ve been hung up on the fact that the Ethiopians were not brought up with the ‘Oral Law.’ This should come as no surprise, seeing that The Shomronim (Samaritans) have been slandered by the rabbinical establishment since the end of the Babylonian exile; they invented some story that they constituted a replacement population for the Jews who were exiled. Recent DNA tests prove that they are not only genuine Jews, but even decendants of the High Priesthood line. The problem? They reject the ‘Oral Law.’
The Karaites, who also dismiss the ‘Oral Law,’ have been similarly slandered by the rabbis, who have falsely attributed irregular rituals and backgrounds to them.
3. The ‘Oral Law,’ obviously separate from the written Torah, is clearly an invention of the rabbinical establishment, unless you believe their story that it was given to Moses in the Sinai desert along with the hard copy. Although various parts of the ‘Oral Law’ have decisively been proven false, rabbis will NEVER admit to this.
4. There is absolutely no basis in Jewish Scripture for any kind of rabbinical authority. The rabbis claim that they were given Torah by the Judges (see Pirkei Avot - which was, of course, written by them)and that the Torah commands us to obey the judgements of the wise among the congregation. Thus, they immodestly assume that they are the ‘wise’ amongst us, whereas they actually spend more than 90% of their studies on the ‘Oral Law,’ rather than on the Torah itself. My personal experience is that most rabbis are no more conversant with the specifics of the Torah than self-taught laymen like myself.
This is by no means an anti-rabbinical treatise, but meant to put things in their proper perspective.
BTW, I am an observant Jew and not a member of the Karaites.
The ancient priests were to be derived from the tribe of LEVI who had the LORD as their inheritance and were given no tribal lands. I should be skeptical of any claims priests derived from the tribe of Dan.
Discuss the issues all you want, but do not make it personal.
The post to which I replied indulged in name-calling directed at me.
If there is to be a consistent application of a “don’t make it personal” rule, the post to which I replied (#44) should be deleted as well.
Evidence?
Ethiopia and Yemen were politically and culturally united for long periods in the past. The two names Sheba(Saba-Yemen)) and Ethiopia are almost interchangeable. There are Jews and Christians of ancient origin in both areas.
If there is to be a consistent application of a “don’t make it personal” rule, the post to which I replied (#44) should be deleted as well.
I'm OK with that. I shouldn't have called you an idiot.
In that case, I retroactively retract the personal characterization that I wrote in turn.
Thank you.
“this world that hates us
What a paranoid and misanthropic statement.
You sound exactly like Gollum.”
1. This is a paraphrase of David Ben-Gurion.
2. I guess you’re right. There have not been 2,000+ years of constant persecution of the Jewish people.
All those pogroms, forced conversions (followed by Inquisitions), expulsions, the Nazis, routine discrimination, irrational hatred by everyone from the BBC to Al Quada, to Occupy Wall Street, is imaginary.
First, it doesn’t matter who you are paraphrasing. A non-constructive statement remains that regardless of how many times it is repeated.
Second, extreme statements like that are wielded as excuses for correspondingly extreme actions. That’s why such statements merit being rebuked, exactly as my original response did.
FINALLY!!
Someone who knows the value of a good rebuke!!
You didn’t “rebuke” anything.
The statement is quite true.
There is a non-rational and over-arching hatred of the Jewish people in the world.
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.