The Liturgy of Beta Israel: Music of the Ethiopian Jewish Prayer

Some scientific enterprises, like good wine, mature over a long period of time. The present publication, dating back to 1986, is the result of a similarly deliberate and painstaking process, and in view of the fact that it was undertaken with French colleagues, the wine metaphor is a most natural fit.

The clandestine aliyah (immigration) of Ethiopian Jews that started in 1979 became publicized in the wake of Operation Moses when a significant proportion of the Jewish population of Ethiopia was flown from the Sudan to Israel between November 1984 and early January 1985. In the wake of this operation, the Israeli absorption authorities decided to gather the Qessoch (Qessoch, priesthood; sing. Qes, from the Amharic qəs, also called kahenat, sing. kahen, from Ge’ez kahən) at a learning institution in Jerusalem, Machon Meir, to familiarize them with general Jewish history and Orthodox religious law (Halacha) that regulates the private sphere among Jewish citizens in the State of Israel. These religious leaders of the Beta Israel community were seasoned practitioners of the unique Ethiopian Jewish tradition, which differs from Halacha. It quickly became obvious that such a contentious re-education process would lead to the rapid erosion of the autochthonous liturgical practices of the Beta Israel. Under the initiative of Prof. Simha Arom; the joint research efforts of Prof. Frank Alvarez-Pereyre (France), Dr. Shoshana Ben-Dor (Israel), Dr. Olivier Tourny; and with the cooperation of various French and Israeli research institutes, a project of systematic recordings of the Qessoch – which started at Machon Meir in the 1980s – turned into an ambitious research which provides a comprehensive understanding of the Beta Israel liturgy, as it was performed in Ethiopia until the mid-1980s.

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