Kayla is one of the names of the
Beta Israel
Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews, is a Jewish group originating from the territory of the Amhara Region, Amhara and Tigray Region, Tigray regions in northern Ethiopia, where they are spread out across more than 500 small villages over a wide ter ...
(Ethiopian Jewish) community among their traditional neighbours, after which the
Kayla dialect is named.
[Haim Rosen, ("Falasha, Kayla or Beta Israel? Ethnographic remarks on the nicknames of Ethiopian Jewry"), published at Pa'amim 22, תשמ"ה 1985, pp. 53–58, a]
JIC project (Jews of Islamic Countries Archiving Project), Tel Aviv University
. Yona Bogale claimed that the name stems from the
Tigrinya word for
artisan
An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...
s, and on the broader sense
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...
people (as
Yeshaq I of Ethiopia
Yeshaq I (), throne name: Gabra Masqal II (Ge'ez: ገብረ መስቀል) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1414 to 1429/1430, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the second son of Emperor Dawit I.
Ancestry
Of Amhara lineage. Yeshaq I wa ...
has denied the right of
inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
of all non-
Christians
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...
).
[Steven Kaplan, "Betä Əsraʾel", in Siegbert Uhlig, ed., ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 553.] Speakers of
Agaw languages
The Agaw or Central Cushitic languages are Afro-Asiatic languages spoken by several groups in Ethiopia and, in one case, Eritrea. They form the main substratum influence on Amharic and other Ethiopian Semitic languages.
Classification
The Cen ...
, such as
Qemant
The Qemant (also known as western Agaws) are a small Cushitic ethnic group in northwestern Ethiopia, specifically in Gondar, Amhara Region. The Qemant people traditionally practiced an early Pagan-Hebraic religion; however, most members of the Qe ...
citizens, told researchers that Kayla means "one who has not crossed the
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
" or "he or they that have not crossed".
This refers to the observance of
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...
rules among Ethiopian Jews, necessitating the avoidance of
activities prohibited on Shabbat
The 39 ''Melakhot'' (, '' lamed-tet avot melakhah'', "39 categories of work") are thirty-nine categories of activity which Jewish law identifies as prohibited by biblical law on Shabbat. These activities are also prohibited on the Jewish holidays ...
.
References
Beta Israel
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