MY FAMILY
THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM
FAITH (AND DOUBT) IN G-D
Students should now be asked to read the following paragraphs on faith and doubt in religion:
The most central element in the values and philosophy of the Beta Israel is undoubtedly faith in G-d. Unlike some Jewish communities, who emphasize the notion of “intellectual faith”47 in G-d, as derived from philosophical inquiry and rational proofs (such as in the Talmud and Gemara), the Beta Israel sought and maintained “simple faith” in G-d, as received directly from their ancestors.48
As Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom explains in From Sinai to Ethiopia, “within the Beta Israel community, religion is understood as a mysterious, spiritual entity, personal and transcendent, not something that can be understood with the mind.”49
“A believing Jew is a person who lives with doubts, uncertainties, and questions. …Indeed, doubt is a component of belief… Judaism speaks of a mysterious world full of doubt, and its goal is to enable a life of faith in such a world. The impulse to try to make clear, absolute decisions originates in the scientific world, as science strives to give unconditional, universal answers about life. But it cannot give the individual what Judaism does – the awareness that he lives in a world full of mystery and wonder.”50
Having reflected on the Beta Israel’s approach to faith and doubt in G-d as a core element of their Jewish belief and heritage, students should be asked how they relate to the concepts of faith and doubt in G-d.
47 For more, see Benjamin Brown, “The Comeback of ‘Simple Faith’: The Ultra-Orthodox Concept of Faith and its Development in the Nineteenth Century,” in Dynamics of Continuity and Change in Jewish Religious Life (2018), pp. 130-197 (as quoted by Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, “The Encounter Between Two Opposing Worldviews in Jewish Philosophy,” Daat: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah No. 87, p. 661).
48 Shalom, “The Encounter Between Two Opposing Worldviews in Jewish Philosophy,” p. 661.
49 Shalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia, 21.
50 Shalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia 20-21.
