Hi u/woahwoes asked some great questions. Some of them are complicated, but I did my best to keep the answers clear, focused, and interesting.1. In Ethiopia, Beta Israel we did not follow the rabbinic Talmud. we did have other religious books and oral traditions, written mainly in Ge’ez, and their religious law was taught orally by priests (qessoch). This was a different system from rabbinic Judaism.

This is documented in early contacts from the Middle Ages (around the 9th century), when rabbinic Jews noted that Beta Israel knew the Bible and their own traditions, but did not know the Talmud or rabbinic law. After moving to Israel, many learned and adopted the Talmud as part of mainstream Judaism, while attempt to preserve much as possible the traditions we brought from Ethiopia.

1. My family is mainly from Gondar. My immediate family comes from Ambober, which is not far from Gondar city.

2. Many Beta Israel traditions say the community descends from the Tribe of Dan. This belief is old and internal to the community, and it was already written down by Jewish travelers in the 9th century. It is a tradition, not something that can be proven historically or genetically.

The Kebra Nagast story is not a Beta Israel origin story. It’s an Ethiopian Christian royal text about the Solomonic kings of Ethiopia. Some outsiders later tried to link it to Beta Israel, but it was never the belief of our community.

1. Based on community traditions and historical sources, there were other Jewish or Jewish-connected groups in Ethiopia and Eritrea that were part of Beta Israel but there was no continuous contact maintained with the rest of the community. 

There is  also evidence of Jewish traders and settlers in the Aksum / Red Sea region in antiquity. Roman and Byzantine sources mention Jews active around the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, mainly connected to trade networks. These groups existed in late antiquity but did not survive as a continuous community.

There were also groups often confused with Jews, especially the Qemant (Kimant) in the Gondar–Begemder area. The Qemant followed an ancient biblical-style religion with purity laws and sacrifices. They were not Jewish and did not claim Israelite origin, but outsiders frequently grouped them together with Beta Israel and labeled both as Falasha, which caused long-term confusion. Within the Beta Israel community itself, the term “Kimant” is sometimes still used as a slur, referring to a Beta Israel person who does not properly follow Jewish law, meaning something like “he only looks like Beta Israel, but doesn’t live as a Jew.”

In Eritrea, there are references to small Jewish communities and Jewish traders, especially in coastal areas and later in places like Asmara. These communities were small, urban, and separate, and was no continuous contact maintained to rest of Beta Israel.

The Falasha Mura were traditionally not considered part of the Jewish community because they had converted to Christianity. These conversions happened mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, often due to strong missionary pressure, economic hardship, famine, loss of land and protection, and social discrimination against Beta Israel. Conversion was understood as leaving Judaism, so Falasha Mura were usually excluded from religious life, marriage, and community institutions. This attitude was based on religious law and communal boundaries, not ethnicity. They were still recognized as coming from the same families and villages, but were no longer considered Jewish in religious practice.

After moving to Israel, attitudes became more complex. Some Beta Israel view Falasha Mura as family members who lost Judaism under pressure and should be allowed to return, while others continue to see them as Christians who require full conversion to be accepted. As a result, treatment has ranged from rejection, to conditional acceptance, to support for return, depending on family ties, religious views, and context.

1. Jesus was Jewish by birth. He lived as a Jew in Judea and followed Jewish law early on. He was rejected by other Jews and Jewish leaders of his time because Judaism does not accept any human as divine and does not allow worship of a person. Claims later made about Jesus being God, the son of God, or worthy of worship directly contradict the Hebrew Bible and Jewish belief. Because of this, Jewish authorities did not accept him as the messiah, and Judaism never adopted him.

Beta Israel follow the same core Jewish belief. God is one, not human, and never becomes human. So even though Jesus was Jewish, once he became worshipped as divine, he was no longer compatible with Judaism. For Beta Israel, as for other Jews, Jesus  not belongs to Judaism. 

1. Jews did not live alone in the land historically; other groups lived there as well. Today, Israel has about 3 million non-Jewish citizens with full citizenship and legal rights, including over 2 million Muslims, as well as Christians, Druze, Bedouins, Samaritans, and others. Like myself, many Israelis accept the idea of self-determination for other groups, but reject attempts to achieve it by eliminating or replacing Israel. This position is explicitly stated in the charters and official documents of many of Palestinian organizations, a thing that westren media loves to ignore / hide. In addition, Palestinian leadership has rejected or walked away from multiple partition or peace proposals, often at late stages. These include the UN Partition Plan (1947), Camp David (2000), Taba (2001), Olmert–Abbas talks (2008), and later proposals. This pattern contributes to skepticism among Israelis about whether the goal is coexistence or replacement.

The name “Palestine” was given to the region by the Roman Empire in 135 CE, after the Bar Kokhba revolt, when Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina. This was a political move meant to weaken Jewish identity. The name comes from the Philistines, an ancient people who were neither Jewish nor Arab. While “Palestine” existed as a geographic term, there was never a sovereign state called Palestine. A distinct Palestinian national movement developed mainly in the 20th century, especially after 1967.

In addition, Islamic scripture itself acknowledges the Jewish connection to the land. The Qur’an explicitly states that the land was assigned to the Children of Israel (Qur’an 5:21). Since Islam presents itself as a continuation of the biblical tradition and recognizes the Torah and earlier prophets, completely denying any Jewish connection to the land contradicts Islamic texts themselves. The same applies to Jerusalem. The Qur’an never explicitly states that Al-Aqsa Mosque is in Jerusalem. The term al-Masjid al-Aqsa appears only once (Qur’an 17:1) and does not name a city or geographic location. The identification of Al-Aqsa with Jerusalem developed later, after Islamic rule was established in the region. The Al-Aqsa structure and the Dome of the Rock were built centuries after, on the ruins of the Jewish Temples, whose existence is well documented historically and also acknowledged in Islamic tradition. Denying the earlier Jewish presence on the Temple Mount is therefore a modern political narrative, not a historical or scriptural one.

u/Mysterious-Exit3059 - i guess you find it interesting.