Our speaker, Shulamith, an
Ethiopian student of one of our madrichot, came to SFW to tell us all about the
holiday and about her family’s journey to Israel. We were fascinated by the
stories of her challenges and the culture clashes that occurred when they got
here. Of course, the story’s happy ending - her wonderful acclimation and integration
into Israeli society - was heartwarming as well!
Thank you to
Ruti and Elisheva for making this special event possible!
Click below for more information about this holiday.....
The following is a summary of the holiday Sigd from Rav Shlomo Aviner, Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim. This summary is an English translation of an article in Hebrew found here
Click below for more information about this holiday.....
The following is a summary of the holiday Sigd from Rav Shlomo Aviner, Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshivat Ateret Kohanim. This summary is an English translation of an article in Hebrew found here
Sigd,
a holiday of Jewish immigrants from the Ethiopian Diaspora, falls out each year
on 29 Cheshvan, and this year, since that date is Shabbat, it is pushed forward
to Thursday. True, this is a holiday of Ethiopian Jewry, but its content
applies to the entire Jewish people. It includes the seven foundations of faith
that every Jew is called upon to cling to.
1. Torah. The Torah is our life. We
love it. It is the most pure thing in our life, and the most lofty. Therefore,
for the Sigd holiday Jews ascend a pure, lofty mountain, a sort of Mount Sinai.
They climb the mountain together with the "Orit", i.e., the Oraita,
the Torah, in song and praise, as a sign of a yearly renewal of the giving of
the Torah. Let us derive strength from the Torah.
2.Repentance. Ideally one must keep
the Torah, but there is no man on earth who only does good and never sins.
Therefore, after the Torah comes repentance. Fifty days after Yom Kippur, comes
Sigd. It is a day of fasting and repentance, because it is not enough to repent
on Yom Kippur. We've got to repent all the time, every day and every moment.
And just as we count fifty days from Pesach to Shavuot, so do we count fifty
days from Yom Kippur to Sigd, which is a sort of "Miniature Shavuot".
Let us derive strength from the mitzvot.
3.Covenant. God forged an everlasting
covenant with His people. Even when we sin and fall, we are still God's people.
Every year we must renew the covenant. As the book of Nehemiah teaches:
"On
the 24th day of this month, the Israelites assembled, fasting, in sackcloth,
and with earth upon them. Those of the stock of Israel separated themselves
from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the inequities of
their fathers. Standing in their places, they read from the scroll of the
teaching of the Lord their God for one fourth of the day, and for another
fourth they confessed and prostrated
themselves before the Lord their God." (Nehemiah 9:1 3)
With
the return to the Land of Israel, the covenant was renewed between God and His
people. Likewise, down through the generations, every year there is the Sigd
holiday which represents the renewal of the covenant between the Jewish people
and G d, the "Amana" ceremony, a day of prayer for the sake of
Israel's redemption. In our own day, we see that all the prayers recited about
redemption and about Jerusalem spoke the truth, and now the vision is being
fulfilled before our eyes.
4. Unity. All of us, all of the
Ethiopians, climb the mountain together. We are united. And now, not just Ethiopians,
but the entire Jewish people. Once more we are seeing the fulfillment of
"who is like your people Israel, a united people in the land" (II
Samuel 7:23). The process of reunification is no simple task. It contains many
difficulties, but we are moving forward.
5. Rejection of Christianity. In the
year 4085, about 1700 years ago, the Habashite Empire was proclaimed as a
Christian country by the king. Then began a civil war between Habashite
Christians and Jews, whom the regime called "Beta Yisrael". The
Ethiopian Jews, headed by Phineas, established a Jewish state, the kingdom of
Beta Yisrael. The wars came to an end in about 4400, and King Gideon
established the Sigd holiday as a means of saying thank you to G d for His
miracles. This Jewish kingdom existed for about 1300 years, until it was
conquered by the Ethiopian empire. Certainly, that whole magnificent country
and all of those wars so full of bravery, were born on the foundation of
opposition to Christianity.
6. Valor. As noted, a Jewish kingdom
existed in strength and valor for 1300 years, and now, such valor is returning
to the Jewish people. We have excellent soldiers and officers including Ethiopians.
7. The Service of God. The purpose of all life is to serve
God. Such is the meaning of the word "Sigd", like Hebrew
"lisgod", to worship G d, to bow down to G d. That is the most
important thing in life.