The unique Ethiopian festival with Jerusalem at its heart

When Rabbi Dr Sharon Shalom was a little boy, he and friend set off from their village in Ethiopia to find the Promised Land. They were unable to get very far on that occasion but less than two years later, aged eight, he made the long trek to a camp in Sudan and with an aunt and uncle was brought to Israel with the help of naval commandos. It was to be another two years before he learned that news he had previously been given of his parents’ death had been mistaken and he was reunited with them.

Probably no other diaspora community has held the hope of Zion so close to their hearts as the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. When people saw migrating storks who had flown over Israel on the way from Europe, it was the custom to call  to the birds and ask how were things in Jerusalem.

In the 1860s, the French Orientalist Professor Joseph Halevi went on an expedition to Ethiopia to try to make contact with the community of Jews said to be living there. When he reached them, the sight of a white-skinned Jew perplexed them and they were unsure of how to take him. But when he mentioned the word “Jerusalem”, their doubts fell away. “Like lightning in the dark of night, the word ‘Jerusalem’ lit up the eyes and hearts of my lost brothers,” he recorded.

That spiritual connection is embedded in the unique festival of Sigd, which is celebrated this week. For most Jews, after the festival-packed month of Tishri, the succeeding Cheshvan is a barren month with no special days of its own. But for the Beta Israel, Sigd represents the culmination of the autumn season; just as Shavuot marks 50 days from Pesach, so Sigd marks 50 days from Yom Kippur.

Technically, it falls on Cheshvan 29, but because that is Shabbat this year, the festivities take place earlier on Thursday.

Its name means “prostration” in Ge’ez, the ancient Ethiopian language which the Beta Israel use in their liturgy, and is related to the Aramaic sigda, meaning “worship”. Sigd might not be a festival prescribed in the Bible but it is one rooted in a biblical episode.

Some of the exiles have returned from Babylon to Jerusalem but knowledge of their religious traditions has fallen by the wayside. So Ezra the Scribe gathers the people and institutes a series of public readings of the Torah to restore them. The Book of Nehemiah records that at the climax the people convened to fast and confess their sins. “They read from the scroll of the Lord their God’s Torah for a quarter of a day and for another quarter of a day, they confessed and prostrated themselves before the Lord, their God” (Nehemiah 9:3).

And so Sigd re-enacts this sacred assembly, commemorating both the renewal of the covenant and the return to Jerusalem, not only physically but spiritually too.

The festival is a unique mixture of solemnity and rejoicing. For the first half of the day the community fasts. Early in the morning they would immerse themselves in the river and don their holiday clothes. Then led by the kessotch, their spiritual leaders, carrying the Orit, the collection of sacred scriptures in Ge’ez, the people would ascend to a chosen spot on a mountain, where verses from Exodus on the Giving of the Torah on Sinai and Nehemiah would be recited along with other prayers. Some who lived in outlying areas would have travelled for days to join the community for the day.

Then they would descend to break their fast with dabo (a special bread) and enjoy a communal meal. “Immediately when the prayers finish, the atmosphere of this day changes,” Rabbi Shalom says. “Suddenly everything is happy, people are dancing.”

Since Sigd coincides with Shabbat, he explains, the ceremonies are held earlier not postponed until Sunday, because that day happens to be Rosh Chodesh, a festival taken seriously among the Beta Israel when fasting would not be permitted.

But once in Israel, the community faced a dilemma. “The question was if we already here in Israel, in Jerusalem, is this actually relevant, to continue the Sigd celebration,” he said. “We got our dream. Some people argued we don’t need it, others that we do.”

Eventually, the leaders decided that since the Temple still no longer stood, “we also still dream to build the Bet Hamikdash, the Temple again,” and so Sigd was to remain.

Rabbi Sharon himself has been a strong advocate for maintaining his community’s traditions, which are based on biblical, rather than on rabbinic Judaism. But as the rabbinic graduate of a modern Orthodox Ashkenazi yeshivah, he has sought a balanced approach that acknowledges practice within the wider Jewish world.

While the Charedim in Israel tried to continue exactly what they did in the diaspora and the secular to remake Jewish culture altogether, he reflects on “what kind of tradition we have to continue and what to stop because it is no longer relevant”.

His book, From Sinai to Ethiopia, sets out the observances of the Beta Israel in Ethiopia, compares the talmudically-based halachic way of doing things and makes suggestions as to how the Ethiopian community should practise in Israel.

Discussions not only went on over whether Sigd should take place in Israel but also where. Nowadays many preserve the custom of gathering on a hilltop by holding the collective ceremony on the Armon Hanatziv Promenade, which overlooks the Old City. However, some believe the Kotel is a more appropriate location.

Traditionallly, the biblical verses would be translated from Ge’ez to the vernacular Amharic spoken in Ethiopia. But he wonders whether in time that might change to translation to Ivrit, for the sake of the young who have only known life in Israel..

Whereas his peers were often “shy” about their heritage amid their concern to integrate, the younger generation “want to return to their tradition, they feel very proud and not inferior… If we want to connect them, we have to build a bridge through the language.”

Chag Hasigd, which was recognised as a national holiday in Israel in 2008, is now an emblem of diversity. But he believes its themes of renewal and standing together should resonate beyond the Ethiopian community to all in Israel, especially after October 7, conveying the importance “of making peace and speaking with love instead of fear”.