COVENANT · COMMUNITY · JERUSALEM
Explore the Ethiopian Jewish tradition of reflection, covenant renewal and community, with Jerusalem at its heart.
REFLECTION & RENEWAL
You may know Yom Kippur. Now encounter how a familiar Jewish idea—reflection, return and renewed commitment—took another form in a Jewish community that lived for centuries at a great geographic distance from other major centres of Jewish life.
Sigd is observed on 29 Heshvan, fifty days after Yom Kippur—echoing the fifty-day relationship between Passover and Shavuot. It is a day of fasting, purification, prayer and renewal of the covenant between the people, God and the Torah.
Where Yom Kippur centres personal and communal repentance, Sigd gives special form to the community gathering as one to renew its covenant. The name is connected with prostration and worship; the day is also known as Mahalala, associated with supplication and seeking forgiveness.
A COMMUNITY GATHERING AS ONE
From preparation and ascent to prayer and a shared meal, the day brought the community together in renewal.
In Ethiopia, people prepared through reconciliation and purification, dressed in festive white clothing and gathered before dawn. Led by the Qessim—the community’s spiritual leaders—they carried the Orit from the place of prayer and ascended a high mountain.
The ascent recalled Mount Sinai and created a physical and spiritual movement away from everyday life toward prayer, reflection and renewed commitment.
At the summit, the community fasted, bowed in prayer and listened to passages concerning the giving of the Torah, covenant, blessing and repentance.
The public reading and renewal described in Ezra and Nehemiah provide an important biblical model for the day.
When the solemn service ended, participants descended in song and dance, broke the fast and shared a festive communal meal.
AN ENDURING CONNECTION TO JERUSALEM
Jerusalem stood at the heart of Sigd long before most members of Beta Israel reached Israel. After aliyah, longing for Jerusalem gained another layer: gratitude for arrival, together with responsibility to preserve the tradition and pass it to the next generation. In 2008, the Knesset recognized Sigd as a national holiday.
Today the best-known public gathering takes place on the Armon Hanatziv promenade, overlooking the Old City and the Temple Mount. This is not the only Jerusalem observance: prayers and a Sigd ceremony are also held at the Western Wall Plaza, and official educational materials describe the two sites side by side.
The gatherings express the same enduring themes—covenant, repentance, communal unity and connection to Jerusalem.
These resources are linked in the original Celebrating Sigd project.
FREE COMMUNITY EVENT
A Community Encounter with
Ethiopian Jewish Heritage
Sun., Nov. 8 3:00–6:00 p.m.
RSVP Now
