{"id":31147,"date":"2023-12-24T07:39:15","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T07:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/?page_id=31147"},"modified":"2024-07-01T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T12:12:00","slug":"unit-4-the-goodness-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/unit-4-the-goodness-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 4: THE GOODNESS OF HUMANITY"},"content":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY<\/span><\/a>
\nTHE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Beta<\/p>\n

THE GOODNESS OF HUMANITY<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students should now be asked to read the following paragraphs:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When reflecting on the hardships that afflicted the Beta Israel in Ethiopia, such as persecution and famine, one might imagine that this community would have developed a sense of distrust or even cynicism toward other human beings. Yet this most certainly was not the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many Jewish communities worldwide, along with other oppressed minority\u00a0 groups,\u00a0 indeed\u00a0 developed\u00a0 a\u00a0 prevailing\u00a0 attitude\u00a0 of\u00a0<\/strong>suspicion51<\/sup> toward humanity, in which they considered anyone outside their own community to be untrustworthy52<\/sup> and unreliable. This attitude emerged in response to the very real chances of danger, and improper53<\/sup> behavior, that faced these persecuted communities for so long.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Beta Israel community, however, maintained as one of its core values the idea that even when people sin, humanity is still broadly and inherently good54<\/sup> \u2013 trustworthy, and reliable.55<\/sup> As Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom explains: \u201cI have a tradition from my grandfather\u2026 that at the foundation of the theological conception of the Beta Israel is the idea that a person\u2019s heart is good by its nature. This is because the sages of the community believe that it is not possible that a person\u2019s nature is evil at its core, for humanity was created in the image of G-d, and G-d is good. How could a wholly good G-d create a man who is evil at his core?\u201d56<\/sup><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having read this, students should be asked to consider how the Beta Israel\u2019s emphasis on the \u201cgoodness of humanity\u201d might influence their interactions with others. To that regard, how might a conversation with a member of the Beta Israel differ from a conversation with a Jew from another community?<\/em><\/p>\n

51 As Rabbi Dr. Shalom explains, the Beta Israel consider the idea \u201csuspicion\u201d and what it represents to be \u201ca foreign word\u201d (From Sinai to Ethiopia<\/em>, p. 142).<\/p>\n

52 In the aftermath of the flood that destroyed all of humanity aside from Noah and his family, G-d mused how \u201cthe desire of the heart of mankind is evil from his youth (Bereishit <\/em>8:21), and, in this spirit, the\u00a0rabbis understood that \u201chumanity is always presumed to be a [physical and spiritual] danger to others\u201d (Mishnah Bava Kamma <\/em>2:6).<\/p>\n

53 As evident in the various Talmudic laws of \u05d7\u05e9\u05d3 and \u05e2\u05d9\u05d5 \u05de\u05e8\u05d0\u05d9\u05ea.<\/p>\n

54 Shalom, \u201cThe Encounter Between Two Opposing Worldviews in Jewish\u00a0Philosophy,\u201d p. 672.<\/p>\n

55 See Rabbi Sharon Shalom, Sichot Al Ahava V\u2019Pachad (Dialogues of Love and Fear)<\/em>, Hebrew, p. 182.<\/p>\n

56 See Rabbi Sharon Shaloms, Dialogues of Love and Fear<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>English (Maggid, 2022).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM THE GOODNESS OF HUMANITY \u00a0 Students should now be asked to read the following paragraphs: \u00a0 When reflecting on the hardships that afflicted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":30932,"parent":0,"menu_order":108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31147","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}