{"id":31301,"date":"2024-01-09T14:49:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T14:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/?page_id=31301"},"modified":"2024-01-09T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T14:53:16","slug":"unit-6-abba-mahari","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/unit-6-abba-mahari\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 6: ABBA MAHARI"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a>ABBA\u00a0 <\/u>MAHARI<\/u><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Students should read the following excerpt to learn about Abba Mahari and his influence in Ethiopia:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
TEXT 1: Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia<\/em>, pp. 35-36<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Abba Mahari was born into the Beta Israel community in the early nineteenth century in the Kawara district. After he was ordained as a kes <\/em>(religious leader), Mahari became a monk and lived a life of\u00a0isolation in which he wandered from one village to another, teaching Torah to Jews. [When] Henry Stern [a famous Anglican missionary who was born a German Jew] first met Abba Mahari in 1860, [he offered the] following description of their meeting: \u201cAbba Mahari, the leader, appeared in a turban white as snow and garments of the same color, holding a long bamboo staff, like a bishop\u2019s staff, and moving with hushed weightiness. There was something imposing and majestic in the appearance of the man, which one could scarcely behold without admiration and reverence. In my opinion, he was about sixty years old, his appearance noble and authoritative, his forehead high and expressive, his eyes sad and restless, and his expression, which before had undoubtedly been moderate and attractive, had become quite strange and other-worldly as a result of self-training and abstinence.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rendering of Abba Mahari Credit: <\/strong>Historia Olamit74<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After reading this passage, students should be asked to share their thoughts about Abba Mahari\u2019s way of life, his aspirations, and even his appearance, to explain his influence on the Beta Israel community.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>To inspire students\u2019 imaginations, teachers may wish to share an artistic rendering of Abba Mahari.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>After this discussion, students should read the following passage about a seminal event that took place in 1862 \u2013 two years after the Jewish-born Anglican missionary Henry Stern first met Abba Mahari.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
TEXT 2: Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, From Sinai to Ethiopia <\/em>p. 36<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Abba Mahari gathered thousands of Beta Israel and told them about [his] vision. They followed him on a tortuous journey. When they reached the Red Sea,75<\/sup> they stood gazing at the water, but it refused to part. Many began to doubt the reliability of the dream, and begged Abba Mahari to return to Ethiopia. Abba Mahari tried to calm the public and spoke to them about Zionism: \u201cWe must believe that God is testing us, as he did our forefathers during the Exodus from Egypt. He parted the sea then, and He will do so now as well.\u201d He believed that God was with him, watching over the community. Abba Mahari raised his staff over the water, but it did not divide. He entered the sea first, followed by thousands who believed that God would part the waters. Instead, many drowned.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>After reading this piece, students should be asked to write a fictional diary entry, <\/strong>as though from the perspective of a member of the Beta Israel <\/strong>who was present during this disaster at the Red Sea. Students should be asked to write in their \u201cdiary\u201d the details they \u201cwitnessed<\/strong>\u201d as Abba Mahari entered the water and urged others to join, describing their \u201cemotions<\/strong>\u201d as thousands followed and drowned.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

74 Photograph courtesy of Historia Olamit,\u00a0http:\/\/histori-aolamit.blogspot.com\/2016\/07\/blog-post_21.html<\/a><\/p>\n

75 As Micha Feldman wrote in On Wings of Eagles: The Secret Operation of the Ethiopian Exodus<\/em>, pp. xii-xiii: While Abba Mahari believed that he was on the shore of the Red Sea, he was \u2013 in fact \u2013 on the banks of the Tekeze River.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MY FAMILY THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM ABBA\u00a0 MAHARI \u00a0Students should read the following excerpt to learn about Abba Mahari and his influence in Ethiopia: TEXT 1: Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":30932,"parent":0,"menu_order":91,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31301","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31301","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=31301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31301\/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=31301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}