April 25, 2011: Mimouna is a celebration originating among “Maghrebim” [North African Jews] held the day after the Passover Festival ends. Historically it marks the start of spring and the permissibility of eating leavened products after their prohibiition during the holiday.

It is also popularly treated as a celebration of the Rambam, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, the great medieval Torah luminary, for whom many say the festival is named.

Traditionally, the celebration begins after nightfall on the last day of Passover. Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian Jews throw open their homes to visitors, after setting out a lavish spread of post Passover holiday cakes and sweetmeats. It is customary for the feasting table to be laid with attention to the number “5,” such as 5 pieces of gold jewelry or 5 beans arranged on a leaf of pastry.

Mimouna demonstrates the Jewish people’s faith in the coming of the Redemption, one of the Rambam’s 13 Principles of Jewish belief. As Nissan is the month of redemption from Egypt and is said by the Talmud to be the month in which the future redemption will occur, If the Messiah has not arrived by the festival’s end, the celebration emphasises unswerving faith that he will arrive one day, that we are living in a period of emerging redemption. This is in accordance with the Rambam’s 12th principle: “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. And though he may be delayed, I will await his coming every day.”

Mimouna also demonstrates the unity of Israel due to the custom of many not to eat in the homes of their neighbors on Passover because of personal stringencies pertaining to kashrut on the holiday. Hence, Jews visit one another’s homes to celebrate and partake of food at the end of Passover to show that the nation’s hearts are united. Mimouna expresses our hope that the abundance of Passover will continue through the year.

After settling in Israel, Jewish immigrants from North Africa celebrated Mimouna with their families in their communities. In 1966, it was adopted as a national holiday and has since been adopted by other ethnic groups. Mimouna is often celebrated with outdoor parties, picnics, and BBQs.

This year, Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Sephardic Chief Rabbi “Rishon Lezion” Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Jerusalem’s mayor Nir Barkat, Knesset members, and soldiers from the Givati ​​Brigade were present at the annual Mimouna festival in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah are enjoying an open house in Or Akiva, where the traditional Mimouna delicacies will be served.

British scientists have confirmed with DNA testing that an African tribe in northern South Africa that claims Semitic origins is telling the truth. The Lemba, whose oral traditions state that their ancestors were Jews, practice customs that are remarkably similar to those of the House of Israel. They keep one day of the week holy, bless the new moon, circumcise their boys, slaughter meat in a ritual manner, avoid eating food with blood and do not eat pork. Some of the men wear yarmulkas (kippot), they strongly discourage marriage outside the tribe, and the custom of the tribe is to inscribe a Star of David on the gravestone of the deceased.

None of these practices are common among the peoples of Zimbabwe or South Africa. The Lemba are also divided into 12 tribes, and among the Buba, the priestly class, was found the exact same DNA element as among those Jews of the priestly class elsewhere around the world.

A number of genetic studies have confirmed the findings. Initial research in 1996 indicated that more than half of the Lemba Y chromosomes (the male chromosome) are Semitic in origin. That study was followed by another in 2000, that reported more specifically that a significant group of Lemba males carry the “Cohen [Kohen] modal haplotype” (CHM) on the Y chromosome, which indicates the Y-DNA Haplogroup J found among Jews and some other populations across the Middle East.

The Buba clan carried most of the CMH markers among the Lemba, similar to other Jewish groups around the world where the males of the priestly class, the Kohenim, carry the CHM marker. Lemba tradition states that it was the Buba clan that had a “leadership role in bringing the Lemba out of Israel” and into southern Africa.

The oral tradition handed down among the Yemenite Jews is similar, stating that after the expulsion following the destruction of the First Temple, the Levi’im (assistant priests) and Kohenim fled towards Yemen; the group then split, with some continuing on towards the south, in the direction of Africa.

The University of London’s Professor Tudor Parfitt , who spent six months living with the tribe, and 20 years researching their people, expressed his amazement in an interview this week with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Parfitt stated that it appears that the Jewish priesthood continued in the West by people called Cohen, and in the same way it was continued by the priestly clan of the Lemba. They have a common ancestor who geneticists state lived about 3,000 years ago somewhere in north Arabia, which is the time of Moses and Aaron, when the Jewish priesthood started.

The Lemba tradition states that their ancestors fled the Holy Land some 2,500 years ago, traveling first to “Sen’a” and then south to Africa. Their sacred prayer language is comprised of a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic. The tribe, approximately 80,000 strong, lives in central Zimbabwe and the northern part of South Africa, and prizes above all its holiest object: the ngoma lungundu, “the drum that thunders.” According to tribal leaders, it is this, a wooden replica of the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, that connects the Lemba to their Jewish ancestry.

The oral traditions regarding the ngoma lungundu said it had been used in battles, and thus was rebuilt several times, possibly from original remnants, Parfitt explained. He added that the replica that recently went on display at the Harare museum, about 700 years old, is “the closest descendant of the Ark that we know of.”

The Lemba people of today, however, are Christians and Muslims, although many define their ties to Judaism as their “culture.”

Maghrebim are Jews who traditionally lived in the Arab-Berber Maghreb region of North Africa (al-Maghrib, Arabic for “the west”), established Jewish communities long before the arrival of Jews expelled from Spain (Alhambra decree), mainly in the Sherifian kingdom of Morocco.

“Cave-dwelling Jews” of southern Tripolitania, whose fate is uncertain after 1960, were probably an early and isolated offshoot of Maghrebim. The relationship with the Sunni Muslim majority has suffered in recent years as Arab hostilities engendered by the Arab-Israeli conflict have worsened relations between Arabs and Jews throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

The term Maghrebim is formed analogously to Ashkenazim and Sephardim. The Sephardi population in Maghreb was urbanised and wealthier, so most Maghrebim chose to assimilate into the Sephardic Jewish community. Today most of Moroccan Jews consider themselves to be Sephardi.