Q&A: Ethiopians
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Ethiopians
Question
Are the Ethiopians Jews? Are they bound by the rulings of the Talmud even though they did not accept it, and did not know of it or hear about it?
Answer
This has come up here before in the responsa section. As I wrote, I haven’t gone into this issue and I don’t know. As for their obligation to follow the rulings of the Talmud, in principle there is room to question that (I think I devoted a column to this), but reason suggests that because they are a minority, when they join the rest of the Jewish people they must accept the binding authority of the Talmud as part of joining the community.
I’m not even sure they need to accept this upon themselves. It is reasonable that they are already bound by it now, like a private individual who did not know about the Talmud and never heard of it, whose obligation is part of the public that accepted it.