’Aśśərtu Qālāt: Oral and Written Beta Israel Traditions on the Decalogue

The Ten Commandments (አሥርቱ ቃላት, ’Aśśərtu Qālāt), considered an identity‑forming text of Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), has become the main text cited orally by Qesočč (priests) and community in their liturgical practice. Recently committed to writing, the oral tradition is here compared to three written versions of Orit‑Exodus (the Book of Exodus). Textual criticism and early translations, interpretive techniques, and oral transmission of interpretative traditions are the methodologies used to illustrate the close (and complicated) relationships between oral and literary phases of liturgical traditions/texts. I argue below that (i) Beta Israel Orit versions have textual (not only oral) traditions that are distinct from those of the Christian Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, represented in the Ethiopic Modern Textus Receptus. (ii) ’Aśśərtu Qālāt oral tradition captures interpretive‑harmonistic traditions unique to Beta Israel. The study showcases the research project carried on within the Orit Guardians program at Tel Aviv University, which aims to investigate the traditions of reading, translating, and interpreting the Bible among Beta Israel religious leaders.