ስግድ ✡︎ סיגד
Our next ambition in connection with the holiday is to claim a worthy place for it among the Jewish holidays of the Hebrew calendar, and to thus impart to the month of Marḥeshvan, which is otherwise devoid of holidays, our own festive contribution.
Qes Semai Elias, 2 November 2009
I once again call and turn in our name from every possible platform to the Chief Rabbis with a request to add the Sigd to the Hebrew calendar on the 29th day of the month of Ḥeshvan.
Qes Avihu Azariah, 24 November 2011
Just as this holiday guarded us in Ethiopia, we will continue to guard it in Israel, where there is no religious persecution and each person follows his religion… The Sigd should be a holiday of the entire nation of Israel.
Qes Mula Zerihoon, 13 November 2012
We now want the entire nation of Israel to preserve this heritage: that it be a yom shabbaton [i.e., religious day of rest] for the entire nation of Israel. The heritage of the Beta Yisrael comes from the Torah and Judaism, and it is important to us that it will not vanish at some point.
Qes Emaha Negat of blessed memory, 3 November 2013
The Wisdom Daily, 8 December 2022
Jewish religious and communal leaders of all ethnicities and denominations would do well to embrace the qessotch and Beta Israel rabbis’ dream for the month of Heshvan, fifty days after Yom Kippur: a “worthy and honorable” pan-Judaic holiday of fasting, prayer, Torah study, and collective repentance; of renewing the Jewish covenant with God; of commemorating the return from the Babylonian exile to Jerusalem; and of yearning for the full ingathering of Jews into the land of Israel and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple.
The Sigd: From Ethiopia to Israel
Reform Jewish Quarterly 61:4 (Fall 2014), pp. 149–168
More Jews celebrating the Sigd could help mitigate the long-standing imbalance of Jews from Ethiopia taking on the practices of Rabbinic Judaism while not being able to offer any of their own unique traditional practices and perspectives in return. In addition, since the qessotch are central to the holiday in a way that rabbis presently are not, the Sigd’s integration into the Hebrew calendar would convey the message that qessotch — though small in number — are significant Jewish religious leaders and that the support offered to them by Israeli institutions should not fall short of support accorded to rabbis.
CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism 7:1 (Autumn 2013), pp. 30–33
The Jews of Ethiopia would like all Jews to observe the Sigd, a celebration of Jewish unity, reflection, and prayer.
Jewish Quarterly 59:4 (Winter 2012), pp. 10–12
A dispatch on the 2012 celebration of Ethiopian Jewry’s Sigd holiday in Jerusalem.
Ami Magazine, 5 December 2012, pp. 78–85
See also shaiafsai.com