Introduction
For many, one of
the triumphs of Zionism was the mass immigration of the Beta Israel community
from Ethiopia towards the end of the 20th century. The ingathering
of exiles had extended to those who had been detached from the nucleus of
Jewish life for centuries. Some of these groups had yearned for Eretz Yisrael
for many years, and that dream was now actualised.
However, while
the missions to rescue these people were successful, their integration into
Israeli society would prove to be a much harder challenge. Accusations of
racism and violent protests have ensued, amidst a general atmosphere of mutual
distrust. In this post I will concentrate on the halachic aspect of these
communities and not on who is to blame for the social issues, but first I would
like to point out that these two aspects are interrelated.
The Beta Israel was
not the only group who had difficulties adapting to a more Westernised society.
The atrocities committed by the early Israeli governments, attempting to force
a new lifestyle on the Yemenite (and to a lesser extent, Moroccan) Jews, are
well documented. Yet since then, these communities have integrated far more
successfully.
There may be
many reasons for this difference. Although Yemen was far from a modernised
country, a tradition of scholarship (at least among the privileged minority)
existed there for many centuries.[1]
Correspondence between the Yemenite Jews and the Rambam, and several others
within the rest of the Jewish world, though irregular, existed to a far greater
degree than it did with the ancient Ethiopian communities.
The more
optimistic might point out that the Yemenite Jews have had more time to
acclimatise, and that the same may happen with the Ethiopians in our
generation. The critical (or cynical) among us may point to skin colour as a
psychological barrier (although Yemenite Jews are also typically darker skinned
than Ashkenazim or Sefardim).
The Elephant
in the Room
I believe that the
major factor here is none of the above. The halachic question as to whether
these groups are actually part of the Jewish People sits in the back of the
minds of many of us, even among the irreligious. Although some poskim have
ruled with certainty that they are Jewish, there is no denying that this is not
unanimous. Dismissing all those who doubt the halachic status of the Beta
Israel as racist is ridiculous – as with any halachic question we must analyse
it intellectually, not allowing emotions to take over.
Before doing
this, it is important to point out that the answer to this halachic question
says nothing about the quality of character of these individuals. The fact that
the Beta Israel resisted persecution and religious pressure for many years,
refusing to convert to Christianity, is to be applauded irrespective of whether
they are Jewish or not.[2]
Chazaka
The final
introduction necessary is the question as to how any of us know that we are
Jewish. There is probably no-one in the world who can trace their lineage with
certainty back to those from the period of the Tanach, or even to the period of
Chazal. How do we know that throughout all the generations, there were no
cover-ups and all of our maternal ancestors were Jewish?
The answer is that whenever people are known to
the world as having a certain status (chazaka), this can be relied upon until
proved otherwise. The gemara tells us that we even administer the death penalty
based on such assumptions; if a man, a woman, a boy and a girl lived together
as one family, we do not need any further evidence as to their familial relationships.
If later, the boy had an incestuous relationship with the woman (his mother) or
the man with the girl (his daughter), they can be stoned (in the first case) or
burned (in the second case).[3]
Similarly,
anyone who was publicly known as a Jew is a Jew, irrespective of his or her
religious observance, until proven otherwise. Without reliance on such
assumptions, known as chazakot, we simply would not be able to function.
What happens
when someone we are unfamiliar with comes to shul, claiming to be Jewish? It
will usually be possible to verify this claim subsequently, contacting people
within a known Jewish community that he claims to come from. However, the
standard practice is to count the newcomer as part of a minyan without making
such enquiries. What is the halachic basis for this?
Tosfos write
that a person is believed to say that he is Jewish, even in an area where most
people are not Jewish, as "most of those who come before us as Jews are
(part of) Israel."[4] The underlying principle is that when assessing what is most
probable, we need to look at all factors involved. We cannot look at the
population as a whole, but at those "who come before us." As it is
unlikely that someone would falsely claim to be Jewish, this possibility can be
discounted.
Extending this
principle, R' Chaim Soloveitchik writes that if the person in front of us does
not know Hebrew, we cannot assume that he is Jewish.[5]
We can no longer consider all of those "who come before us," but at
those who come before us not knowing Hebrew. Obviously, all relevant factors
must be taken into account, and sometimes not knowing Hebrew may not be
critical.[6]
Communal
Application
Applying the
principles above to the Beta Israel community as a whole, we have to first ask
whether the community was ever known as being Jewish. The earliest testimony to
this effect is from the 9th century traveller Eldad
ha-Dani, who claimed that he had come from a Jewish community in Ethiopia,
descended from the lost tribe of Dan.
There does not
seem to be any reason to doubt the veracity of the main claim of Eldad HaDani
about the Jewishness of the community at the time. While there were differences
between his tradition and ours, the basics were clearly the same. Moreover,
there is no record of any dispute at the time. However, equally it is
impossible to rely on testimony from the 9th century applying to the
Beta Israel in the 20th century, without further evidence that the
community was preserved.
The next
important source is the ruling of the Radvaz in the 16th century. By
then, the community had diverged further from classical Judaism, becoming
similar to the Karaites. However, the Radvaz rules that should they wish to return
to the fold, they should be accepted as Jews.[7]
As with the
testimony of Eldad HaDani, lacking any other information we are forced to accept the
ruling of the Radvaz. If at the time he saw enough to establish a chazaka that
this Ethiopian community were Jewish, we must assume that this was indeed the
case.
The question
would not become practical for another 400 years. In 1955 the Israeli Rabbinate,
led by R' Yitzchak Herzog, had to decide whether to encourage the immigration of
the Beta Israel and what their status was. R' Herzog never wrote a formal
responsum on the matter, but in letters he made it clear that he felt it was
not possible to decide with any certainty about the ancestry of the Beta
Israel. The Rabbinate adopted this position, and due to this doubt they
strongly encouraged helping the Beta Israel to immigrate but required them to
undergo conversion.[8]
The letters of
R' Herzog do not mention the responsum of the Radvaz and why he did not want to
rely on it.[9] I can only assume that the reason is as R' Shaul Yisraeli
writes- although there is no reason to dispute the ruling of the Radvaz in his
day, there certainly is a possibility that subsequently non-Jews were accepted
into the community without a halachic conversion process.[10] While we would not have such concerns with a standard Jewish
community, with a community that stopped following the rule book so long ago
(even if they cannot be held responsible for this), this possibility becomes
highly probable.[11]
Either way, it
is clear to me that by the early days of the State of Israel, there was no
clear chazaka regarding the Jewishness of the Beta Israel. As such, without any
conclusive scientific proof, their status prior to conversion remains doubtful.
The rule that "most of those who come before us as Jews are part of Israel"
also cannot apply to those whose claim to Jewishness is based on being part of
this community.
The Mamzerut
Issue
Many of the
poskim mentioned above point out that the Beta Israel may be far better off if
we could assume that they are not Jewish from birth. If this is the case,
conversion will allow them to achieve a halachic status almost identical to a
regular Jew (one significant exception being that the females cannot marry
Kohanim).
If, however, the
Beta Israel is a lost Jewish tribe, a far more serious problem may result. It
is known that this community did not require the giving of a get for
divorce. Thus every time a couple 'divorced' and the wife re-married, the
children from the second marriage would be mamzerim. As just one mamzer parent
results in all children being mamzerim, the numbers of mamzerim within the
community would increase exponentially through the generations. Thus marrying
into the Beta Israel raises a serious halachic problem.
The only solution
to this problem is if marriage within the Beta Israel was also invalid. Some of
the poskim above were not fully aware of the customs of the community; my
understanding is that now it has become clear that the marriage ceremony did
not include a valid kidushin (betrothal). However, I already wrote in Civil
marriage- does it mean anything? that when a couple live together as man
and wife, even if the original ceremony was invalid, whether or not they are
halachically married is far from straightforward.
Conclusion
Taking all of
the above into consideration, it would seem that the original ruling of the
Rabbinate was both prudent and halachically sound. After conversion, marrying
into the Beta Israel should be permitted due to three possibilities resulting
in leniency:
1) They may
not have been born as Jews and as such are now fully kosher converts.
2) It is
possible that no halachic marriage existed among the Beta Israel and as such
there is no mamzerut issue.
3) The
specific individual may not be one of the mamzerim.
There is one
thing that the overwhelming majority of poskim agree on regarding the Beta
Israel – we must do our best to bring them closer to authentic Judaism, out of
love and compassion.[12] However, attempting to silence those who raise valid halachic
concerns will not help their plight. Until the Sanhedrin is restored and we
have a ruling binding on all, we must accept that different views will continue
to exist and that tolerance cannot be expected in only one direction.
[1] To see this, one only has to look at some of the writings of R' Yosef Kapach.
[2] In fact, those who accuse the doubters of racism, reveal their own
racist perception that the Jewish People are inherently superior to others. See
How
are Jews Unique?
[3] Kiddushin 80a
[5] Shu"t Chut HaMeshulash 1:5
[6] See Chazon Ish, Hilchos Geirim 158:8
[7] Shu"t Radvaz 7:5, 9
[8] See Techumin volume 8, from page 121 onwards.
[9] R' Ovadya Yosef
understood that R' Herzog accepted secular research
which concludes that the Beta Israel are not from Jewish ancestry (Yabia Omer
8, Even HaEzer 11). Although this is not at all clear from the writings of R'
Herzog himself, it is possible that R' Ovadya had personal knowledge of this at
the time. I have written before that in principle I would be happy to use secular
research as a basis for halachic decisions, however in this case my impression
is that the research itself is far from conclusive (see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel#Genetics).
[10] Techumin volume 7, page 321.
[11] R' Moshe Feinstein also says that it is difficult to
rely on the testimony of the Radvaz, in an article in volume 12 of Techumin. He explains that it is not clear both whether the Radvaz was aware of the real facts in his time (it is unclear to me why he casts such an aspersion) and whether anything has changed since then.
[12] The same position is not so unanimous regarding the Falash Mura, an
offshoot of the Beta Israel community who converted to Christianity but now see
themselves as Jewish. Recently, some Ethiopians who have no connection to the
Beta Israel community have also started to jump on the bandwagon claiming Right
of Return, and we cannot afford to open the gates to everyone.
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