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From: teitz@aecom.UUCP (Eliyahu Teitz)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Ethiopian Jews - " racist Ultra-Orthodox"
Message-ID: <1135@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Feb-85 11:38:26 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1135
Posted: Thu Feb  7 11:38:26 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 06:55:02 EST
References: <3780002@csd2.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 29


   The token giyur as it was called does not alleviate the problem of
 mamzerut. A Jew who is a mamzer can never undo him status. So if the 
 problem with the Ethiopians was mamzerut they would be stuck The idea
 of the gerut, as I understand it, is for the Ethiopians to show that they 
 accept modern rabbinic explainations of the Torah. By modern I mean the
 Talmud, which they did not have. They must show that they are willing to
 join rabbinic Judaism, and not the version they have been practicing, 
 because their version is not recognized, and if tey want to join the
 Jewish community they must accept the laws as we have them.

   The only probem I have is their contention of coming from the Queen of 
 Sheba. Aside from the traditional commentaries who say that the ruler was
 not female but rather a male, and the use of the feminine is to show a weak
 ruler, or to show that a delegation was sent to Solomon rather than the king
 himself, I still have one problem. Was the queen, assuming she was a woman,
 Jewish? If not, then the Ethiopians are not Jewish either, and then their 
 gerut is a very real one. If she was Jewish then the gerut would be a symboic
lic
 acceptance of rabbinic authority

			Eliyahu Teitz.



> The "racist Ultra-Orthodox" people mentioned in Bill's article are
> just trying to save the Israeli society from a disaster. If the
> Ethiopian Jews don't undergo a "token" giyur then their children
> would be considered possible mamzarim by jewish law (like it or not).