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Ono Beit Midrash Explores the Ethiopian Jewish Calendar

The 11th meeting of the Beit Midrash for the Study of Ethiopian Jewish Religious Texts at Ono Academic College, took place on Ono’s new campus. It began with Rabbi Yasu blessing the Ethiopian Dabo bread brought by participant Fanta Freda. The evening’s first lecture “The Familiarity of Beta Israel of Tigray and Amhara with the Jewish Calendar of Israel,” was given by Rabbi Reuven Yasu. He presented the origins and basic building blocks of the Rabbinic calendar and the Beta Israel calendar.   He noted that the first month, known as Aviv in the Torah, known as Nissan in some of the biblical writings, and known as Myazya in the Beta Israel tradition are all the same month.  Rabi Yasu noted that the Ethiopian Jewish calendar and the Land of Israel Jewish calendar can be offset by up to 5 days. He noted that this perfectly parallels three other distinctions between the Ethiopian Jewish calendar and the Land of Israel Jewish calendar. For instance, the difference between the equinox at the equator versus the equinox in Israel is 5 days. The difference between the latitude of Israel and Ethiopia is 5 days. The offset of the length of the nights in Israel versus Ethiopia is also 5 days. After Rabbi Yasu’s lecture, the participants enjoyed a delicious traditional Ethiopian repast prepared by Fanta Freda.  Rabbi Sharon Shalom gave a pre-Pesach lecture about the concept of freedom in the worldview of Beta Israel, entitled, “Between Hofesh (Freedom) and Herut (Liberty): Ethiopian Jewry as a Test Case”. He defines freedom as freedom from outside control. Liberty, however, is an internal kind of autonomy, is much harder to acquire. Beta Israel is much more focused on Herut (Liberty) than on Hofesh (Freedom).