Ge'ez
An ancient Semitic liturgical language used for prayer and scripture by Beta Israel. No longer spoken, but alive in liturgy.
What is Ge'ez?
Ge'ez (ግዕዝ) is an ancient Semitic language of the Ethiopian-Semitic family. It was the spoken language of the ancient Aksumite kingdom and later became a sacred liturgical language — comparable to the role of Latin in Christianity or Classical Hebrew.
Relationship to Ethiopian Judaism
For Beta Israel, Ge'ez is the language of the sacred:
- The Orit (Torah) is written in Ge'ez
- Prayers and blessings are recited in Ge'ez
- The Kessim train to read and pray in it
Ge'ez was not the everyday language of the community — at home people spoke Amharic or Tigrinya — but prayer was preserved in Ge'ez.
The Ge'ez script (Fidel)
Ge'ez is written in a syllabic alphabet called Fidel, where each character represents a consonant + vowel. The same script is used for Amharic and Tigrinya.
Status today
Ge'ez is virtually no longer anyone's native tongue. In Israel it survives mainly in the Kessim's prayers and at festivals such as Sigd. Preserving Ge'ez is considered an important part of preserving heritage.
See also
Related terms
- Beta IsraelThe traditional name of the Ethiopian-Jewish community. Today numbers approximately 160,000 in Israel.
- KessimThe traditional religious leaders of Beta Israel. In Israel today they are recognized as religious-cultural authorities but are not integrated into the official Chief Rabbinate.
- OritThe sacred scripture of Ethiopian Jewry — the Pentateuch (and more) in the Ge'ez language, the core text the Kessim read from.