[Avodah] Bene Israel of India

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Joel Rich asked:

> Interesting article in the current issue of Conversations on
> "Learning from the Bene Israel of India".  They have an oral
> tradition which Rabbi Shafner somewhat describes.  My
> questions is how do we know we got it right and they need to
> switch to our understanding of halacha?  If they need to
> switch, why did later deviations (e.g. ashkenaz vs. sfard)
> not have to pick one approach once they rediscovered each
> other?

I have long wondered this very question, especially in regard to the Jews of Ethiopia, but also in regard to the Bene Israel and all similar groups.

The egalitarian in me winces when I smell a presumption that the Mesorah of these other groups is pasul. I wonder what the answer of the gedolim is, as I have never seen them discuss the possiblity that they should just continue in the future as in the past.

But between me and myself (and now I'll share it with Avodah) I have come up with some ideas: RJR's question about the Ashkenaz and Sfard "rediscovering" each other is (it seems to me) not a valid question, as the lack of communication was never so great that the other side was forgotten. Communities were fairly isolated, allowing customs to vary, and psak even more so. But there was always a certain degree of communication, which allowed the rough edges to get smoothened out. The works of the Raavad and Rama are but two examples.

This sort of communication ensured that neither the Ashkenazim nor the Sefaradim would drift too far off center. And it applied just as well to groups like the Romaniotes, who stubbornly [I mean that as a compliment] held on to their own ways, deliberately refusing to assimilate into the Ashkenaz or Sefardi worlds.

But my understanding is that the Indian and Ethiopian communities were far more cut off than that. Contact with other Jews was sometimes limited to just one lone traveler in a few centuries. It is no wonder that some poskim even question their Jewishness, and advise Giyur Lechumra. Under such conditions -- specifically, a lack of checks and balances [shakla v'tarya] -- I can easily imagine a very good chance that some of their practices go too far (or not far enough) in one direction or another.

It is my hope that, rather than assimilating wholesale into modern Judaism, their leaders were able to carefully analyze each difference as carefully as possible, so as to hold on to as much of their Toras Imecha as possible. If anyone knows of any articles on this, I'd love to read them.

Akiva Miller

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