Tonight begins the holiday of Sigd, an holiday central to Ethiopian Judaism and the Beta Israel community of Jews whose origins are in Ethiopia and nearby Eritrea.  

Sigd falls exactly 50 days after Yom Kippur, on the 29th day of the month of Cheshvan. The name “Sigd” means “prostration” in Ge’ez, the Beta Israel’s holy language, which is a Semitic language like Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic.  

Sigd is a celebration renewing the covenant between God and the Jewish people. In Ethiopia, members of the Beta Israel community, who lived scattered among many villages, would gather on Sigd to climb a mountain and pray together after purifying themselves and fasting, a symbolic reenactment of the Israelites receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.  

It is notable that, just like Jews around the world celebrate receiving the Torah on Shavuot 50 days after celebrating the Exodus from Egypt on Pesach, Ethiopian Jews celebrate renewing the God’s covenant with the Jewish community on Sigd 50 days after the individual atonement of Yom Kippur. This timing is a recognition that the renewal promised to us each year can take time to come to be.  

Today, the majority of Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, and celebrate Sigd at the Western Wall and on the promenades that overlook the Old City in the southern neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In 2008 the State of Israel began recognizing Sigd as a state holiday; now, it is a day for celebrating the presence of Ethiopian Jews in Israel and their role in Israeli society, in addition to renewing the covenant.  

May we all experience renewal and recommitment – even when it takes time to get there.