LOSS OF HOLY TEMPLE

MY FAMILY
THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM

LOSS OF HOLY TEMPLE

 Teachers should now explain:

 When the Beta Israel arrived in Israel, they contended with many losses: among these, their status as Jews was degraded by Israeli religious leaders; their customs and laws were deemed inauthentic; their traditions seen as strange and foreign; and they encountered varied expressions and forms of racism.

But before all this, they were faced with another great loss: the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was gone. For centuries, the Beta Israel believed the Second Temple still stood; its absence was earth- shattering.

As Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom writes: “Following Operation Moses, the kessim, the spiritual leaders of the community, were taken on a tour of Jerusalem, the city of their dreams. The last stop of the day was at the Western Wall Plaza. One of the kessim lifted his hand and asked, ‘Where is Jerusalem?’ Ya’akov from the Jewish Agency answered, ‘We’ve been in Jerusalem all day long, and now we’re at the Western Wall.’ The kes continued, ‘Where is the Temple?’ Ya’akov pointed at the Temple Mount and said, ‘That is where the Temple used to be.’ The kessim fell on their faces to the pavement of the plaza and began to weep like children.”¹⁴⁷

Some Ethiopian Jews had learned that the First and Second Holy Temples were both destroyed,¹⁴⁸ but most thought a Temple stood.¹⁴⁹ As Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom writes: “[The Beta Israel] continued to believe that Jerusalem was enveloped in sanctity… [and that] every Jew who came to Jerusalem could immediately sense the spiritual abundance that was expressed even in material ways.”¹⁵⁰

A member of the Beta Israel visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem.