Life and culture of the Jews. Jewish nostalgia

Like any people, the Jewish people have their own traditions and customs. Israel is an amazing country where peoples live different countries world and nationalities, and where the traditions of the Jewish people are closely intertwined with the traditions of representatives of other nationalities who migrated to Israel. It is because of the mixing of races and mentalities that Jews try to live strictly following the customs and traditions of their people.

Jewish holidays

In Israel, customs and traditions are celebrated that are unique to the Jewish people.

The most famous Jewish traditions.

1. Pesach - Jewish Passover, when instead of traditional Orthodox Easter cakes, Jews bake unleavened flat cakes (matzo).
2. Hanukkah, which is celebrated in November-December. On this holiday, special candles are lit, which are placed in nine-candlesticks (hanukkah or minori).
3. On the holiday of Purim, which is celebrated in February, everyone tries to do charity work and arrange a generous meal with obligatory holiday table pies with poppy seeds and strong alcohol ..
4. Yom Kippur is the holiest holiday for the Jews, when they fast and pray for 25 hours without washing or wearing genuine leather shoes. This day is called the "Day of Atonement" and it ends with a lingering sound from a ram's horn.

This is one of the most ancient Jewish rituals. More recently, the wedding took place with the help of a matchmaker, who, at the request of the parents, looked for and connected suitable candidates for brides and grooms. Today, only members of the ultra-orthodox community use the services of a matchmaker.

Pre-wedding chores and customs

Today it doesn’t matter how the couple was formed, it is important that the potential groom ask the bride’s hands from her father. The groom must confirm the seriousness of his intentions with a solid ransom, which he gives for the bride. The wedding ceremony is preceded by an engagement (tenaim), on which a plate is broken, which means the ruins of the destroyed temples in holy Jerusalem. This tradition encourages everyone to remember the suffering and loss of the Jewish people. They also break a plate at a wedding ceremony.

Jewish wedding time

You can celebrate the wedding on any day, except for the day of Shabbat, which begins on Friday evening and ends on Saturday evening. Weddings are not held on Jewish holidays either.

When is the most auspicious time for Jewish weddings?

The most unfavorable time for a wedding is considered to be between Pesach and Shavuot. During this period, it was the most difficult in the life of the ancient Jews, therefore, no entertainment events are held these days.

Today's Jewish youth do not adhere to this tradition, which Orthodox Jews continue to honor.

The wedding ceremony itself begins a week before the appointed day and is considered the most delightful time for the bride and groom.

A party (ufruf) is organized for the groom, when the groom must go to the synagogue for prayer. After the prayer service, the groom informs his relatives and friends about the upcoming wedding, and they shower the groom with sweets and sweets and offer to drink wine.

For the bride, another ceremony is performed. The bride is taken to a special pool (mikveh), where she undergoes a rite of spiritual purification, according to which she must enter family life spiritually and bodily purified. To do this, the bride must remove all jewelry, remove nail polish, get naked and enter the water, saying a prayer of purification. The rite takes place under the vigilant supervision of older women who monitor the correct execution of the rite.

Advice

According to ancient Jewish tradition, the bride and groom should not see each other before the wedding, but today the majority of Jewish youth neglect this prohibition. If you want to have a real Jewish wedding, keep this in mind.

Husband and wife

The bride and groom are married under a special canopy (chuppah) - this is another ancient wedding tradition. Usually the marriage ceremony is held in the synagogue, but there are no strict rules on this. The marriage ceremony opens with the signing of the ketuba by the bride and groom - a kind of Jewish marriage contract, in which a separate clause (get) spells out the husband's right to give his wife a divorce if she asks him about it. If the couple breaks up, then the man does not have the right to challenge this get. According to the customs of the Jewish people, if a woman was not given a get, then she does not have the right to remarry. Jews are very sensitive to the family, so divorces are very rare among Jews.

Photojournalist Yakov Naumi, who photographs various unusual rituals of Orthodox Jews, grew up in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak and studied at a yeshiva. In his youth, he, like many of his friends and relatives, personally observed or even participated in ceremonies that were strange for an uninitiated person, but quite understandable and familiar to a Jew. Today, he comes from an ultra-Orthodox family and introduces them to the whole world.

The tradition of lying in an open grave

For representatives Western culture lying in an open grave may seem at least strange. But for the ultra-Orthodox, this is quite normal, even useful - they believe that it can prolong life. Naumi photographed a man in a white overalls lying in a grave from which a dead man had just been raised.

Mitzvah dance at a Jewish wedding

An ultra-Orthodox rabbi dances the Mitzvah at his granddaughter's wedding in Bnei Brak. He must not touch his bride.

Another example of dance at a Jewish wedding

The Torah forbids a man to touch a woman unless he is her husband.

The Tish Ceremony

In a ceremony called tish, the Jews celebrate the salvation of their people from destruction in ancient Persia.

Part of the Rite of Kaparot

A Jewish woman leads a chicken on a rope. Then she will roll the bird over her head three times to convey her sins of the past year to it.

On Flash90.com Yakov Naumi writes:

Over time, I learned to look at all this with different eyes - the eyes of a person who is new to these traditions and rituals. If you look from this side, even the simplest ceremonies look strange.

I was born and raised in the Haredi community, which makes it easy for me to understand and follow Hasidic rules appearance and behaviour. Over time, it became clear to me that when Westerners encounter Haredim, the latter seem very strange to the former.

Although Naumi himself belongs to the ultra-Orthodox branch of Judaism, he observed some of the rituals and ceremonies for the first time when he trained as a photojournalist at the Behadrey Haredim newspaper.

This is how the orthodox protest

Hundreds of Orthodox Jews form a serpentine dance in Jerusalem to protest a government decree to make military service compulsory for Haredim.

The ritual of redeeming the first-born from a kohen

Dozens of hands reach out to a newborn baby during the ritual "pidyon haben" - the redemption of the firstborn from a kohen - in Bnei Brak.

Jews perform the Tashlich ritual by throwing leftover food into the water to get rid of sins.

"Redemption of the Original Donkey"

This ceremony is called "Redemption of the original donkey" - the colt and lamb are decorated with blankets embroidered with pearls.

Orthodox Jews

Thousands of Orthodox Jews gathered at the funeral of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in Jerusalem.

Thousands of Jews say goodbye to their rebbe

Tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews attended the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokah and Chana Batya Pener.

Rabbi Shalom Rokah's wedding draws thousands of Orthodox

Jews burn the Israeli flag on Lag B'Omer, which commemorates the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in the 2nd century BC. AD

Burning the flag of Israel by Orthodox

Taking these pictures, I did not aim to make the Haredim look strange, on the contrary, I wanted to show that these rituals have their own meaning.

Naumi says.

Branches of four types of plants - palm, etrog (a kind of citrus), myrtle and willow - are used in a special ritual for the Hosha festival on Rabba.

Raising 4 plants

Orthodox Jewish children from the Nadvornenskaya Hasidic dynasty at the ceremony of receiving their first Torah.

Orthodox Jewish children

The kid stands on the stage, on which Orthodox Jews are located, who came to the wedding of Hanai Yom Tov Lipa, the great-grandson of the rabbi of the Vizhnitskaya Hasidic dynasty, in the city of Bnei Brak.

Jewish baby at the big wedding

Orthodox Jews gathered for the wedding of Hanaya Yom Tov Lipa, the great-grandson of the rabbi of the Vizhnitsa Hasidic dynasty, in the city of Bnei Brak.

Orthodox Jews

The ultra-Orthodox follow the ancient commandments of the Torah and harvest wheat with sickles in a field near the city of Modiin in central Israel. They will store the grain for almost a year, and then they will make flour out of it, from which they will bake unleavened bread - matzah - for Passover.

Harvesting wheat for matzah

One ultra-Orthodox of the Lelov Hasidim during the scourging ceremony - malkot - symbolically beats another with a leather belt for sins committed. It takes place in the synagogue of the city of Beit Shemesh.

Rite of Malkot

Women from the ultra-Orthodox community walk the streets of Mea Shearim, covered from head to toe as a sign of modesty.

Orthodox women

Naumi says that if his photographs made someone distract from everyday worries and think about what is depicted in the pictures, then his mission can be considered completed.

Lazar Freidheim

Nostalgia
(From Jewish life)

They say that all of us, Russian Jews, came from a Jewish shtetl. Some compare this path with victory and celebration, some with Golgotha, and some simply call it life. As long as the Jews are alive, there are shtetls. Where in the soul, and where in reality. A big city - Moscow, for example - is also a place. Just how to look. Once the first Soviet cultural minister (and if you like it better, please call it by the formal name: the first people's commissar of culture) Lunacharsky said that in order to feel like a cultured person, you need to have three diplomas: your own diploma, father's diploma and grandfather's diploma. In reality, both in culture and in customs, changes occur slowly. Maybe, arguing like this, one can say that one can live in the city for a long time, but one cannot yet leave the Jewish town, located somewhere near Yehupets. I was born in Moscow, but my parents, from the middle class by birth - there was such an estate in tsarist Russia, they came here from the Jewish Pale only as adults. According to this score, maybe only my son's kids will be able to flaunt the title of a full citizen, and not to remember the Jewish town. Yes, I also have doubts, maybe they themselves will no longer have this “diploma”, and the account will have to be started again. Or maybe all this is completely different in us arranged. Precisely because the culture of past generations lives in us alive, we can remember the Jewish way of life and the place with kind warmth, not be afraid of philistinism, damned by socialism. Life in the city is already far from the shtetl, but individual moments of communication and life are warmly associated with that environment. You can reach for the heights, but do not give up everyday life and family comfort.

I think that I will not reveal a special secret if I say that there was such a tradition in the old Jewish environment to give silver items to relatives and friends for the holidays. Beautiful, durable, and in the old days not too expensive. For many years, in Jewish families, Sabbath wine glasses were reminded of the old life, inserted into each other, like Russian nesting dolls that later appeared. When silver became noticeably more expensive by the beginning of the 20th century, manufacturers adapted to make only handles of products from silver. And even when, in Soviet times, silver continued to rise in price and wages became scanty, instead of sets, relatives began to give individual items, either a spoon for the first tooth, or a glass holder for the anniversary ... pick up.

Yes, there were different cases. Sometimes they had to sell something from these stocks in order to patch up gaps in the post-war family budget. So my mother somehow decided to sell a few silver things. I don’t remember exactly whether it was impossible to change my mother’s winter coat for 20 years to a third party, or whether my brother and I needed to do some clothes. At that time, silver items could be sold only through buying points with a very low price by weight of silver. Two large Shabbat candlesticks are still standing before my eyes. My brother and I carefully cleaned them before selling (I still can’t understand why it was necessary - to clean, not to sell). In good situations, one could pick up something for a gift from these old stocks. In my opinion, as gifts, it is even more expensive for memory than buying new. A similar situation happened on the eve of my marriage, which I found out only after the wedding. The mother of my bride liked her fiancé, that is, me. She wanted to please him with something unusual. She remembered that in the chest from her mother's youth there was a set for serving a table of a dozen items in a shabby box. She turned over the chest, found the box tied with a string, cleaned the silver lightly with tooth powder and, pleased, showed it to her daughter. And Clara, Haika in Hebrew, her daughter, she is my bride, in tears. “Crazy or something,” she says, “she’s gone. This is philistinism! Nobody needs it! He (this is about me) will run away from me. Mom did not upset her daughter with persuasion. She set the box aside. She waited for the next cozy conversation with the groom-guest, that is, me, and shared her desire for a gift, not the only one, by the way. No, I didn't run away because of it. For many years, these cute items have been used on our table, pleasing to the eye. And almost forty years later, the vigilant Soviet customs considered them such an important accessory of the socialist system that they did not allow them to be taken with them when leaving the country. So they have been waiting in Moscow for 15 years, waiting for the time to reunite with the festive family table.

Quite recently, a photograph of the first decade of the 20th century with a portrait of a young schoolgirl, my mother, was brought to me as a gift from Moscow. On the back is a sentimental inscription addressed to her friend Gita. The photo was taken in Little Russia - in Mogilev, which was part of the Jewish Pale of Settlement, where the girls studied at the gymnasium. At the age of 20, thanks to the thaw of 1917, which abolished the Pale of Settlement, they both ended up in Moscow. If it seemed to you that the right time for such a thaw in 1917 was in the post-October days, then you were mistaken. The thaw, of course, brought February 1917 with the abolition of all regulations that limited the areas of residence of Jews in tsarist Russia. The life of the girlfriends went differently, but they still have a sweet tradition of gifts for the holidays. Gita never had a family life, she lived all her life alone in a small room in a large communal apartment. She usually came to her mother on the eve of Purim and brought traditional homemade gomintash and brushwood. Since it was not easy to find time for cooking in the communal kitchen, Gita usually baked everything ahead of time and stored what was cooked until the right time in the only cupboard in her room. Therefore, the authorship of treats could always be established by the invariably present naphthalene smell. It was so ingrained in everyday life that many years later my son, when he got to his grandmother shortly after the corresponding Jewish holiday, said: “And these are Gitin pies with mothballs.” It has become as stable as the only closet and communal apartment.

Once, on the eve of the next anniversary of our wedding, my mother called, she is also a mother-in-law, and asked if we would mind if she gave us silver dinner forks for this day. I didn’t want to bother the elderly with worries about a gift; it was not customary to give money in the American way. Consent was given. It was not in vain that I told before that about my mother's old friend Gita, her closet and communal apartment. So, this Gita, in her old age, began to be afraid that her neighbors, who did not like her, on some not very fine day in her absence, would climb into her universal-purpose cupboard and take out the silver forks that had been lying there since the beginning of the century without her knowledge. She decided to sell them, as the money is easier to keep track of in a communal apartment. She took them to the shop and found out their price there. But she felt sorry for leaving them there, and she offered them for this price to Hasa. So these forks came into our house. It was a gray time, the apartments were small, the tables were modest, the plates and serving were compact, so that more guests could be seated at the table at the same time. The forks turned out to be not just big, they were very big, mastodons. Year after year, these massive forks lay idle. As Friedman's hero Mendel Marantz used to say, "a suitcase without a handle, it's hard to carry and it's a pity to throw it away."

One day my wife came up with the idea of ​​disposing of stale forks: to exchange them for new ones. If you sell them, then you can’t even buy lemon forks with the proceeds. She decided to make a "gesheft", that is, a business. At work, I offered a friend who was known to be a connoisseur of old silver these giant dinner forks in exchange for new dessert forks: one for one. Tallinn with a Christmas tree on the handle then became fashionable. A friend kept these plugs for a couple of days at home and returned: it won’t work. Again they settled at the bottom of the sideboard drawer.

Times change. The first jewelry commission store appeared in Moscow, right at the exit of the Universitet metro station. There, the payment to the deliverer of the thing was determined by the agreed selling price minus the commission percentage. More came out than in the buying. I decided to take part in this business. I took the forgotten six forks that had grown to the sideboard and without specific plans, having in mind the principle of exchanging bash for bash, I went to explore. The entrance to the store from the side of the yard for deliverers of things did not inspire confidence. Close waiting room - too. The entire valuation and sale section looked more like a cluttered corridor than a trading floor. The deliverer sat on a chair by the glazed window, on the other side of which the receiver was located without much frills of free space. I pulled out a bundle of forks from the diplomat. (A diplomat, you know, is such a versatile type of men's shopping bag, which could hold six bottles of wine or beer, or two bags of potatoes. It is impossible to list all the options for filling this portable one.) that is our democratic pre-communist time. Coldly she took the bundle and, unrolling it, put the forks on the scales with a little more interest. “720 grams at 50 kopecks per gram. Will you submit?" - the receptionist said in one breath. I felt pinned down in a chair. In the store, the cost of six new silver forks was about 35 rubles - this amount was in my head. Dumbfounded by the recalculation options, I looked along the glass fence, showing no reaction from surprise. The receptionist began to show interest: “This is a good price, you have no doubt!” Yes, I had no doubts at that moment. The woman began to write out receipts, and put the forks on the table behind her. Another receptionist, passing by, stretched out her hand to the forks and quietly asked something. "My!" – sharply answered my counterpart. The forks were sold out the same day, apparently before reaching the store counter.

A few days later I was leaving on a business trip to Donetsk. There was another period of shortages for silver and jewelry in Moscow, probably in anticipation of a new increase in prices for these non-essential, luxury goods, as stated in official reports. I decided to take advantage of this trip to buy silver with the proceeds and thus complete the exchange of old forks for new silverware. There was no shortage of silverware in Donetsk. In the capital of the coal miners of Donbass, the general population found more salable goods to spend money on. On Saturday I returned home. The diplomat with his purchases was no easier than with two bags of potatoes. I put it on the corner of my desk and quickly told my wife that I had finally realized her idea to replace the old forks. At the same time, I pulled out six forks and handed them to my wife. She, delighted, licked my cheek and began to say something about the value of her idea of ​​​​exchange. I pulled out the next six forks ... Then on the table appeared table and teaspoons, table knives and cheese forks, a large pouring spoon and salad spoons of various sizes with and without cutouts, two-horned forks for sausage and meat and forks with webs for sprats , ladles for sauces and seasonings and shovels for butter, shovels for pie and scoops for sugar, forks for cake and spoons for jam, forks for lemon and coffee spoons ... The procedure was arranged at the level of a festive salute, and the wife sat with her eyes wide and lamented : “Well done Zaitseva (that is, an employee, a “specialist” in silver), did not take a fork. Well done Zaitseva, did not take a fork”, until the entire table was covered with silver trinkets. Looking around the entire stock, the wife gave birth to the following valuable thought: it will be a gift for her son's wedding. This is almost exactly what happened many, many years later. There are also successful cases among the descendants of Kasrilov's heroes - "For one ruble - one hundred rubles"! And at that moment I thought: “How much should six Gita forks really cost in the hands of a non-loha (not about us)?” (It is especially strange for me to imagine all this now, when I more or less correctly know the prices of old silver items of good Russian firms and at the same time I don’t even know the hallmarks on those forks). But this rhetorical question sounded the same as "How much does this steamer cost?" in the unforgettable Seekers of Happiness.

In the days of our lives, each of us has preferred events, holidays. For some it is to sit with friends, for someone to meet or talk at least on the phone with a nice person, for someone to go to a concert ... A special mood creates a holiday as a "red" day of the calendar. For me, the New Year has always been such a magical feeling of dependence on fate, good God. New Year's winter feast with champagne is traditionally mysteriously enticing. That the coming year? But somehow, many years ago, we were fascinated by the spirit of the Jewish New Year Rosh ha-Shanah, or as they call it in the Litvak jargon - Rosashana. This time stuck in my memory, and I was going to write many times about the impressions of that Sukhumi autumn, when the warmth of relations in the company successfully complemented the atmosphere of the desired vacation. Only now, retirement idleness and a computer that is pliable to the whims of the owner have allowed me to try to tell about it. When I am already writing this story, I still have no idea whether it will be about our Moscow company, the Jewish New Year in the house of the Sukhumi rabbi, about small quirks and joys of Jewish life, or about a little of everything.

That year, from Moscow autumn and slushy expectations, we escaped on vacation to the delicate velvet of September Sukhumi. Back in Moscow, at the Kazansky railway station, while waiting for a late landing, we met Pinkhas, our old friend, who was traveling along our own route. September-October is the time of the Jewish New Year holidays, from which we were usually far away in Moscow life. They knew by hearsay, they congratulated not many friends following the biblical canons, but no more. (About how many of us now perceive American holidays). Pinchas was from a different circle, his choice of vacation time was determined not by the velvet season in the Caucasus, but by the opportunity to spend Jewish holidays outside the bustling restrictions of Moscow life, in a circle, as it turned out, of deeply religious people close to him.

On New Year's Eve, having shortened the traditionally time-consuming beach program, we agreed to meet at the Sukhumi synagogue by the beginning of the service. It was a small wooden structure, not unlike many synagogues in Los Angeles or San Diego. The festive atmosphere was elevated, and when the service ended, young people gathered on the last benches of the synagogue to complete this stage with glasses of vodka in hand with traditional toasts and prepare for the festive evening feast. Nice, relaxed company. A rabbi, who looked somewhat older than us, approached us and invited Pinchas, who was well known to him, and us to share a festive meal in his house. I had some concerns about how we, who are far from traditional, would fit into such an environment. Soon (albeit after difficult trials for some), I realized that these fears were completely unfounded.

All the participants of the festival were seated at a long table. The yarmulkes and kippas on the men's heads were perhaps the only feature of the furnishings. The host introduced everyone at the table with their Jewish names. My wife and I for this evening became Lazer and Haika. Each of the men in turn recited the prayer “Borukh Ato Adey-noy Elei-heinu Meleh Khoelom Asher Kidshon Bemitsveisov Vetsivon Lehadlik Ner Shel Yoim Hazikorein!..” For those who stumbled in the text, the owner prompted the following words. For almost everyone, it was a natural and completely not burdensome procedure. Yes, almost everyone. But not for me... When it was my turn, a kind of stupor seized me. I stood up, humbly bowed my head, and … could not remember a single phrase from the prayer I had just repeated over and over again. I couldn't get out a single word. The Rebbe, like others, recalled the first words to help: “Boruch Ato Adei-noy”… I tried to repeat it. In my life, I have always done everything badly with someone else's voice. The tongue did not obey. Only two sounds doubtfully lingered in my memory. Hiding my eyes, I tried to close the proposed phrase with these two syllables:
- Borah ..., - I said.
“Borukh Ato Adey-noy,” the owner repeated calmly.
- Borukh Ataa, - I could only respond.
“Adei-noy,” the Rebbe added curtly, entering into my position.
From the second or third time I defeated "Adey-noy". But when I had to say "Elei-heinu", it turned out to be beyond my strength. In chorus and alone, I was prompted by the sound of this word. Haika, sitting on the right, was ready to read the entire prayer without hesitation, having come to my aid, but the woman at the table is not supposed to do this. The voice disobeyed me. I successfully passed many exams in my life, but then I felt that my death had come. I have never experienced such helplessness before or since. It seemed that there was no more difficult test than "Elei-heinu". But everything in life somehow ends. This torture too, but I don't even remember how I got through the rest of the prayer. Good relations of all participants smoothed this episode. The traditional toast: “Next year in Jerusalem” (today I’m not afraid to even bring it into line with the Hebrew sound: “Leshana ha-baa bierushalim ha-bnuya”) sounded to us without much subtext. Back then it seemed to us that our Soviet life was predetermined forever and ever. And Pinchas is next New Year met in Israel.

Jewish, folk and synagogue motifs interspersed with stories from Jewish life. Some of the stories you are reading now were also told there. Time passed imperceptibly. The company was divided into groups, then reunited at the table. There were toasts, and after each sounded "Lo Mir ale in einem":
Lo world ale ineynem, hoarfrost
Yount mackable ponem zain,
Yount makabl ponem zain.
Lo world ale hoarfrost, lo world ale hoarfrost
Nemen a bisele vain.

In our American life, the most common drinking song has become
Happy birthday to you. Traditionally, it sounds at the most solemn moment of the removal of the birthday cake. A good, kind tradition, but for some reason it almost completely replaced in our Jewish environment the warm Jewish melody “Lo Mir Ale ...”, which is so easily adapted to any type of celebration and unites all participants in the feast.

Toasts continued vied with each other, everyone sang the common words “Lo mir ale ...”, and Haika soloed in additions praising the next participant: “Rebbe mekabl ponem zain”, “Pinchas, who next year will send us greetings from Jerusalem, makabl ponem zain ". These inserts, instead of the traditional two or three words, sometimes unexpectedly became a short comic novel, readily supported by all the guests:
"Laser macable ponem zain,
Leyzer, who for the first time read the prayer “Borukh Ato” and at the same time even coped with “Elei-heinu”, mekabl understand zain”.

For me, the December-January relay race is still the real New Year, but when the wonderful unity “Lo peace ale hoarfrost” dominates everyone, when “Lechaim” sounds so natural, it seems that nothing can prevent the implementation of each of the wonderful wishes.

Lechaim, Lechaim, Lechaim-Lechaim...

We, young Moscow Jews, far from religious Jewry, felt at home in the warm atmosphere of that evening. It seemed that we had been here all our lives, talking with sweet sing-song intonations; ahead of thoughts, we ask questions about answers that have not yet been sounded. Other words, other names, but their sincere people.

This is a complicated matter - Jewish names in the Soviet environment. Different Khasia, Sarka, Gita, Khaika, Dodik, Nathan, Zayamka, and even double ones, like Shmuel-Note, or David-Slam or even larger layers of names. And the name of the author is also not the easiest. These names are characteristic of the old Jewish way of life, but are somehow unusual for the great-power ear. You see, in addition to the burr-like mocking repetition, a chuckle is heard. Gradually, by the forties of the war years, the Jewish names Abram and Sarah became an everyday anti-Semitic insult, euphemisms for the word kike. (By the way, this sounded no worse than Ilya Ehrenburg's call for the destruction of the Fritz, using a widespread German name that changed the capital letter to a lowercase one and began to denote the German invaders in everyday life). In shtetls, Jewish villages, that is, there was no such problem, of course. But you can't argue with progress in life and hunger in the countryside. Shtetls also fell apart, children left their homes and rushed to seek happiness in big world. Whether this was perceived well or badly by the Soviet authorities is difficult to say unambiguously. But the time has come to streamline this migration process. In the early thirties, passports were introduced. Previously, those in power spoke of them: bourgeois prejudices, a way of enslaving the working people, tying them to one place. Over time, it turned out that this could suit the Soviet government, and even cooler than in other countries. Soviet clerks - passportists have not yet become very adept at the new business, and the citizens themselves have not yet fully realized the importance of this property of theirs - a personal name. Steel in different documents different names skip. Either according to the usual sound, then - to make it easier for the unaccustomed ear to sound, that is, a tribute to assimilation. Yes, they say, every medal has two sides.

My mother-in-law all my life in everyday life and at work was Evgenia Samoilovna Good. (This name is not offensive - mother-in-law. I called her like that with good relations all my life, she liked it). She was born with this surname. With this name, which sounds so good, she received her higher education, defended her Ph.D. thesis, published more than a hundred scientific works– E.S. Good, easy and simple. After the death of her husband, it was necessary to re-register a dacha near Moscow in her name. She picked up the necessary documents and brought them to the First Moscow Notary Office, Muscovites know that at Kirovskaya, Myasnitskaya now, as in the old days, when the winners were not yet determined by party congresses. The queue, waiting, everyday little things, in general. She overcame all this, put daddy on the notary's table. It seems to be a common thing. They lived together all their lives, the eldest son has already knocked over a quarter of a century. The notary shifts the papers left and right, so serious, gloomy. “This is not your husband, according to the documents, it turns out,” says the notary. - According to your passport, you are Good, and according to your marriage certificate, you are Zak-Good. Yes, and the names are not all right. In short, in order to re-register the dacha, it is necessary through the court to establish the identity of the applicant and the ownership of the children by both parents through the testimony of witnesses.

This is where you need to have a little patience. Who is who?

Everything seems to be simple. There are five people in the family: parents and three children. But how many names!?

Father - according to the death certificate Zak Ilya Grigorievich, according to the marriage certificate Zak Elya Girshevich. Mother - according to the passport Horoshaya Fruma-Genya Shmuylovna (in everyday life Evgenia Samoilovna), according to the marriage certificate Zak-Khoroshaya F-G.Sh. The eldest son - according to the passport Zak Grigory Ilyich, according to the birth certificate - Zak Grigory Elich. Everything coincides with the other two children: each with the surname Zak and the patronymic Ilyich (Ilyinichna).

In accordance with these lists of names, an application is submitted to the Moscow Tagansky District Court, in which, on the basis of testimonies, they are asked to establish the correspondence of the identity of each person to all the names recorded in the documents. For the objectivity of the decision - two witnesses are required, but to know the plaintiffs from time immemorial. The witnesses are Lev Solomonovich Bloch, a housemate who lives on the floor below, and a family pediatrician, Yevsey Zelikovich Bokshtein. They are respectable people, each of them has been acquainted with the plaintiffs for almost thirty years, and they know the children from birth. They fit, that is. The court fee has been paid, the meeting has been scheduled, the date has come up, all the necessary participants are present at the hearing. The judge calls the first witness, asks for a passport, asks Bloch, who is hard on both ears, the necessary questions on the correspondence of names and personalities. The witness, nodding his head continuously, says, why not confirm when all this is true. The judge without further delay proceeds to the testimony of the second witness. But suddenly there is an overlay: the witness did not bring his passport. Fortunately, the witness's house is a two-minute walk from the court, and the judge agrees not to stop the hearing until one of the young participants runs away for the witness's passport. The judge does not even have time to fill in the necessary formal data, as the passport is already in the hands of the secretary. The judge, secretary and assessors are whispering in confusion.

A long silent scene follows. The plaintiffs exchange nervous glances, glaring at the judicial staff. They can’t even imagine what the next snag happened to. The judge gets up and asks sternly: “And who do you offer us as witnesses?” In the passport of the witness in the case of establishing the identity of Zakov, instead of Evsey Zelikovich Bokshtein, it is written: Itsik-Evsey Usher-Moses Zelikovich Bokshtein!

The situation is thinned by friendly laughter and the judge's question to the plaintiffs whether they would like to act as witnesses to establish the identity of the witness they brought. But seriously, the judge proposes to amend the statement of claim in accordance with the passport data of the witness. Amen! A few days later, a positive court decision was received. I note, however, that the re-registration of the dacha took place thirty years later already in the names of three children.

Such an enviable surname for the Russian-speaking ear: Good, Good. It is even difficult when pronouncing it to take it for a surname. As a child, Clara, you remember: my wife, when asked for information about her parents, said: “My mother is good.” This was traditionally followed by an immediate response: “All mothers are good!”. I, as a son-in-law, can confirm that Good was very good! With the same surname, the bearer of which was the brother of my mother-in-law Israel Samoilovich Horoshiy, a civil engineer, there was an overlay in the speech of the verbose N.S. Khrushchev. The speechwriter wrote to the speaker: “The timely construction of prefabricated concrete elevators at the suggestion of engineer I.S. Horoshiy is of particular importance for the preservation of the grain harvest.” The General Secretary, going into a rage, casually looking into the text, finishes this phrase: right hand finishes - a good engineer. At the institute where I.S. A good chief engineer, after that he was so jokingly called: a good engineer.

It is pleasant to acquire such a surname, but it is a pity to part with it. Apparently, therefore, women who were part of the family took this surname, as if simply by tradition, and women with this surname did not change it when they got married. The eldest daughter of the “good engineer”, at the very energetic insistence of the groom, received a marriage certificate with a new surname Malevanchik. But somehow it so happened that she “forgot” to change her passport. And the Good remained, as it were, Good. She lived in Moscow for many years without any problems. But everything is for the time being, until the time ... Her son's family began to draw up documents to leave for Israel. It took a receipt from the parents that they have no claims against their son. Maybe there would not have been a problem, but the son’s birth certificate indicates that the mother’s surname is Malevanchik, and in the passport it is Good. Unrest over the edge: the son grumbles, the husband swears, the paper is needed urgently, but there is no person, as it were. Anya Horoshaya, aka Khana Malevanchik, weighed all the pros and cons, and went to change her passport for a new surname a quarter of a century after her marriage. This should happen, - everything went without any problems, not in the tradition of "Jewish happiness". The updated mother signs all the necessary certificates, and everything calms down. Life is slowly getting back to normal. But it was not there. A diploma in the name of Horoshaya, a work book - too, at work in the library everyone knows Horoshaya. Again there were problems. Once again, after weighing all the pros and cons, H.I. Malevanchik to become Good again. Now she, with this old surname in English spelling, lives in the same city with her son's family - in San Diego - and sometimes recalls all these ups and downs with cheerful humor.

It is a pity that this surname of all its bearers has lost its gentle and warm sound with the replacement of documents with American and Israeli ones. And in general, it just so happened that in the next generation there will no longer be owners of such a cute surname, despite all the efforts of its bearers.

Far is near...

The history of the Jewish people, numbering several millennia, is full of dramatic and tragic collisions. For over four millennia, Jews lived (and still live) in the neighborhood of the most different nations. It is not surprising that they willy-nilly adopted other people's customs. Another thing is surprising: in all Jewish communities - from Russia to Australia, from America to China - many ceremonies, rituals and folklore representations are similar. For four millennia, the star of more than one civilization has managed to rise and set. (Remember the school history course: Egypt and Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and Byzantium…) How did this small people scattered all over the world manage to keep their traditions and customs unshakable? Perhaps the point is that the Jewish people from the most ancient times were a people of books. Almost all Jewish culture - including folklore and ritual practice - is based on sacred books common to all Jews, wherever they live.

We want to talk here about the traditions and rituals associated in Judaism with pregnancy, childbirth and the first days of a child's life. However, in such a story, we will inevitably (for the reasons indicated above) have to refer to Jewish sacred books - for example, the Torah and the Talmud. Probably, not everyone knows what kind of books they are, and we considered it possible to preface this article with a small essay that will allow inquisitive readers to orient themselves a little in Jewish religious literature, which serves as the source and basis of all rituals, rituals and traditions of the Jewish people.

Mankind owes to the Jewish people one of the most ancient literary and historical monuments in the history of mankind - the Bible. The Bible is considered their sacred scripture by two religions - Judaism and Christianity. According to Jewish doctrine, the Jewish people entered into a covenant with God - a kind of agreement between God and people. The entire religious life of the Jews is permeated with intense expectation of the coming of the Messiah - God's messenger, who will finally deliver the Jewish people from the severe suffering that has haunted them throughout their history. Christians believe that the Savior - Jesus Christ - has already been sent to mankind (and not only to the Jews). This is what the New Testament, which is not recognized by the Jews, tells about. (That is, the Christian Bible, unlike the Jewish one, consists of two parts - the Old Testament and the New Testament.) The core of the Old Testament is the so-called Pentateuch, which, as you might guess, consists of five books: the Book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Hebrew Pentateuch is the Torah. Ever since Moses made a Covenant with the Lord, the life of an Orthodox Jew has been strictly regulated. What, how and when to eat? How to get married, get married, give birth, bury? Judaists find the answer to all these questions - along with the Torah - in the Talmud. After the flight of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery, during forty years of wandering in the desert, the prophet Moses once ascended Mount Sinai, where he received from God stone tablets with commandments carved on them, given by God to his people. However, it is believed that Moses was also honored with a conversation with God and received from him some oral instructions, which later became the basis of the Talmud.

So, what do Orthodox Jews do and what do not do in connection with pregnancy, childbirth and in the first days of a newborn's life? Let's talk about everything in order.

Pregnancy

There are no magical or mystical rituals associated with pregnancy (as well as with childbirth) in the Bible, but the Talmud abounds with them.

It was believed that a pregnant woman is constantly in wait evil spirits from which they tried to protect her in every possible way. Amulets with verses from the Bible were hung in the house. In Eastern Jewish communities, there was a custom called "hadash" ("new"), when a week before the birth, girl friends came to the pregnant woman and sang special songs in which they asked for a happy fate for the newborn. In the Jewish communities of Germany, it was customary to draw a circle with chalk or charcoal on the walls of the room where the birth was to take place. Here, too, a few days before the birth, a pregnant woman was certainly visited every evening - however, it was not girls who came, but boys - to read the psalms specially prescribed for this occasion. Sometimes the guests stayed overnight and "guarded" the pregnant woman. The fact is that at the bed of a pregnant woman, according to the Talmud, three people must be constantly present, designed to protect her from the machinations of evil demons. Sometimes in the house of the future mother, for the same purpose, they hung strips of paper with the text of one of the psalms - above the windows, the door, the chimney hole and other openings through which, it was believed, evil spirits could enter the house.

childbirth

Already in the Torah - the most ancient of all Jewish sacred books known to us - there is a commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" - the first command given to mankind by God. And it is also said there that birth pangs are a punishment for the fall of mankind. It is interesting that in the future this idea received a logical development: if a difficult birth is a punishment for disobedience, then, accordingly, an easy birth, without pain and torment, is a reward for righteousness. It is no coincidence that the Talmud tells the story that the mother of Moses was delivered from the curse of Eve due to her pious behavior. Midwives are also mentioned in the Bible. After analyzing the biblical descriptions of childbirth, scientists came to the conclusion that in those days, women gave birth sitting on a special chair called “mashber”, or on their husband’s lap, and midwives helped to take birth. In the Talmud, a woman in labor is called “haita” (“revived”) or “mahbalat” (“pledge”): according to Talmudic ideas, at the time of childbirth, she seems to temporarily die and is in the power of death, and then returns to life.

Among the Jews, as well as among many other peoples, in particular among the Slavs, it was believed that the absence of any kind of buttoned and closed items in the clothes of the woman in labor and in the room where the birth takes place contributes to the facilitation of childbirth. The woman was unfastened all the buttons and fasteners on her dress, removed the belt, let her hair down. All windows and doors were opened in the house. In addition, mirrors were hung, as they believed that Satan and other demons were hiding in them. Talmudists believed that the suffering of a woman at the birth of a girl is stronger than at the birth of a boy. During especially difficult childbirth, the key to the synagogue was put into the hand of the woman in labor, and next to it were placed ribbons that encircle the Torah scroll. In some Jewish communities (for example, in Ukraine), in especially difficult cases, the relatives of a woman in labor even specially went to the synagogue and opened the ark in which the Torah scroll is kept - the so-called Aron Kodesh. Probably, the Jews borrowed this custom from their Christian neighbors, since it was universally accepted among the Slavs in such a situation to ask the priest to open the Royal Doors in the altar of the church. Both priests and rabbis for a long time tried (not very successfully) to fight this tradition.

Saturday for Orthodox Jews is a sacred day when any kind of work is prohibited - you can’t even light a fire and turn on / off the electric light. However, for the sake of the birth of the child and the health of the woman in labor, Jewish Law allows the violation of the Sabbath and all other holidays. True, if this or that action is not dictated by an immediate danger to the life and health of a woman in labor or a baby, on Saturday they still tried to refrain from this action. For example, if childbirth took place on a weekday, the “baby place”, or placenta, should immediately be buried in the earth as a guarantee that the person would eventually be returned to the earth. On Saturday, the last was not buried, but who could save it where they could: noble women - in bowls with olive oil, poorer ones - in woolen shreds, and very poor ones - in wadding.

After childbirth

After childbirth, both the woman in labor and the newborn continue to be in a transitional, “borderline” state between life and death, between that world and this one. Within a few days after the birth, it is allowed to break the Sabbath in order to make a fire for the woman in labor, warm up food, etc. Some rabbis believe that this period is calculated in three days, others - seven, and others - thirty. It is characteristic that these numbers - three, seven and thirty - are different stages of mourning for a deceased person.

For some time after giving birth, a woman is considered ritually unclean. According to the biblical commandment, after the birth of a boy, a woman remains unclean for seven days, and then for another 33 days she must “sit in purification” - not touch anything sacred. After the birth of a girl, all terms are doubled: a woman is considered unclean for two weeks, and then “sits in purification” for 66 days. One of the books explains this as follows: although man and woman were created on the same day, Adam was introduced into the Garden of Eden a week later, and Eve only two weeks after birth, so boys have an advantage in timing over girls.

In the case of the birth of a boy, the period from birth to circumcision is considered the most difficult stage for the woman in labor and her son. In one medieval Jewish book of the 10th century, there is an interesting story about the female demon Lilith.
Adam's first wife, Lilith, was, like Adam, created from the earth. They lived in the Garden of Eden and one day decided to make love. Lilith demanded equality - she wanted to lie on top. Adam did not allow her to do this, then she uttered the secret name of God and disappeared. Adam was indignant, called to the Lord, and the Lord created for him from his own rib a second wife - Eve, "flesh of flesh", who was obedient to Adam in everything. And in pursuit of Lilith, the Lord sent three angels - Sanvi, Sansanvi and Samangelof. They found Lilith standing in the middle of the sea and made a pact with her. Lilith promised that she would harm only small children until the day of circumcision and would not touch those children next to whom she saw these three angels or amulets with their names.

Since then, in many communities it is customary to put amulets with the names of these angels in the cradle of the baby before circumcision. The Jews believed that evil spirits become very dangerous on the eve of circumcision, while after this ceremony, the baby can be much less afraid of their power. To avert danger, they used all kinds of amulets and performed magical rites. In European (Ashkenazi) communities, on the night before circumcision, they performed "vakhnacht" - "night vigil" at the bedside of the mother and baby, during which they lit as many candles as possible, and relatives read prayers and arranged a special meal.

Boys: circumcision

The most important milestone in the life of a boy (we will talk about girls a little later) is circumcision. Circumcision is the removal of the "foreskin", i.e. skin at the end of the penis. It has been practiced and practiced by many nations. There are carvings of ancient Egyptian priests at the time of circumcision; among the Romans, singers underwent this operation, believing that it improves the voice. Today, many non-Jewish men are circumcised simply because they believe that the foreskin easily becomes a source of infection if not kept clean. However, Jewish (and Muslim) circumcision is not just a surgical operation. It is done for religious, not medical reasons. Circumcision in Judaism marks the accession of a person to the Covenant between God and the Jewish people. According to Jewish tradition, circumcision must take place on the eighth day - even if that day falls on a Sabbath or a holiday. However, if there are concerns for the health of the child, circumcision is postponed to a later date. Circumcision is a joyful event, many guests are invited to this ceremony, a plentiful meal is arranged, gifts are given to the baby. According to the tradition of European Jews (Ashkenazi), before circumcision, parents must choose a man and a woman, usually spouses, who will be "quatters" ("bringers"). Quatters bring a child to be circumcised. Their participation in the later life of the child resembles the function godparents V Christian world. According to the Law, circumcision can be performed by any person - it does not matter even if it is a man or a woman - but for many centuries the rite of circumcision has traditionally been performed by a person specially trained in this craft. Such a person is called a mohel. When he is ready to proceed with the operation, the Quatterine woman takes the infant from its mother and carries it on a cushion into the room where the men have gathered. There she hands the baby over to her husband, the quatter, who takes him to the mohel.

The child's father is standing next to him. Before the circumcision is performed, the mohel places the child, along with a pillow, on an empty chair, called the chair of Elijah the prophet. There is an ancient belief that the spirit of this prophet is present at every circumcision. Then the baby is placed on the lap of the person chosen for the role of "sandak" ("receiver").

Throughout the procedure, the sandak keeps the baby on his lap. The mission of sandak is considered very honorable. Parents usually ask the child's grandfather or a respected member of the community to become sandak. As soon as the circumcision is done, the father pronounces a blessing, which says that God commanded this to be done so that the child could join the Covenant. Then the mohel takes the boy in his arms, blesses him and calls him the name chosen by the parents in advance.

Girls: naming

Girls are named differently. This usually takes place in the synagogue, on the first Sabbath after the birth of the child. The girl's father is asked to read the text of the Torah.

Sephardic Jews, residents of eastern communities, since ancient times call children the names of their closest relatives: father, mother, grandmother, etc. Among European Jews (Ashkenazi) it is not customary to give a child the name of a person who is still alive. It is a widespread custom to name children by the names of the righteous (tzaddiks). It is believed that the righteousness of a great man helps the one who bears his name to follow the right path in life.

5.4 Jewish way of life and way of life

We can only judge the way of life of the Jews in eastern Belarus from the memoirs of contemporaries and a small number of surviving documents. Here is how the compilers of the military-statistical review for the General Staff of the Russian Empire (5), published in 1847, describe the Jews:

"Jews who have settled in Belarus since the 12th century are a little different from their compatriots in all the western and southern provinces of the empire.

The body build is weak, but stately, of medium height, the hair is dark blond, black, and sometimes red-red. IN Lately many Jews changed their clothes to dresses of Russian or foreign cut. Some men have shaved off their beards and mustaches and wear their hair in the manner of the burghers or the upper class. The well-being of the Jews in the province is very different. There are capitalists in Mogilev, Shklov, and in a few small towns, who are engaged in wholesale trade and take on various articles, deliveries and work. Jews of the middle class are engaged in similar crafts, but on a smaller scale, they maintain inns, distilleries, and so on. Jews of the lowest status are engaged in procurement, trade and supply activities and crafts that do not require physical strength, run small shops and taverns, and occupy public positions.

Rich Jews have clean and spacious houses and healthy food, on the contrary, the poor, who make up the majority of the Jewish population, live crowded, poor and unclean, so that the most accurate description of their miserable condition would seem an exaggeration, but still insufficient to an eyewitness. With the cholera that opened this year in 1847, most of the patients were poor Jews.

A distinctive feature of all Jews is religiosity and strict observance of all rituals. The main vice is their tendency to deceive and, to some extent, laziness, prompting them to avoid activities that require exertion of strength.

Of interest are the descriptions of Jewish life, made around the same time by Gortynsky N.G. and Dembovitsky A. (8, 14). - prominent officials of the Mogilev province, which included Mstislavl, who for a long time observed the life of the Jews of the Mogilev region in the second half of the 19th century. We often have to deal with these names.

A. Dembovitsky was the governor of the Mogilev province and wrote a book in which he highlighted various issues of public life, including relations with Jews. The activity of Alexander Dembovitsky was noted at the local history readings held on October 28, 2001 in Mogilev on the topic: "Mogilev region through the eyes of Alexander Dembovitsky." They were dedicated to the 160th anniversary of the birth of this former Mogilev governor and his main work.

Nikolai Grigoryevich Gortynsky (1799–1887) wrote a large work on the basis of archival research and his own observations, Notes on the Jews in Mogilev on the Dnieper and in general in the Western Territory of Russia, published in St. Petersburg in 1870, and then republished in 1878 .

It seems to me that the attitude of these two officials towards the Jews reflects the public opinion on the Jewish question that prevailed in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Basically, their notes, which claim to be an objective reflection of reality, are imbued, to put it mildly, with a negative attitude towards the Jews, in which they want to find the causes of all Christian troubles. On the other hand, in their notes one can find sketches of Jewish life and life of the 19th century, made by inquisitive contemporaries, which is of undoubted interest.

I will try to quote them with slight deviations from the text. It seems to me that in describing the life of Jews in the 19th century, the authors are quite objective, which cannot be said about their attitude towards the Jews themselves, where there is a clear hostility.

Appearance and clothing

According to Gortynsky, in the period preceding the reign of Nicholas the First, that is, until 1825, Jewish men shaved the middle of their heads, from forehead to nape, leaving beysiks on both sides. The shaved top of the head was always tightly covered with a velvet skufei (kippa), on top of which outside the house, during prayer, and also at the table, a semi-velvet black hat was worn, trimmed at the bottom with marten or sable fur. In the summer, a black hat with wide brim was worn outside the home. Mustaches and beards must be grown. A flannel was worn over the shirt with bundles of hanging laces attached to it at the corners (tsitsele). The Jews wore narrow pantaloons, short to the knees, stockings and coarse shoes with buckles in front, and the poor Jews wore no buckles. Wealthy Jews used a long black zipun as outerwear. The zipun was girded with a black wide silk scarf. Over the zipun, when leaving the house, they put on a black light raincoat without sleeves, and sometimes even in summer large fox fur coats. By order of Nicholas I, the Jews replaced the described costume with a pan-European one, leaving only mustaches and beards, as well as flannel with laces on shirts, hiding them in pantaloons.

men on weekdays morning prayer They wore tefillins, which are rectangular black leather cases in which passages from the Torah written on parchment are stored. Tefillins are attached - one to the head, the other to the left hand.

In synagogues, men cover their heads and shoulders with light woolen shawls made of white fabric with blue borders (tales) at the ends. During the big religious holidays white linen shirts with an embroidered silver collar were worn over the dress.

Jewish girls wore their hair openly on their heads, combing and braiding it above the back of the head into two braids with ribbons at the ends. Earrings were fixed in the ears, and beads with pearls and gold chains with gold coins hung on them were put on the neck. married women shaved the whole head. A narrow muslin with starched ends hanging at the back (shleyer) was imposed on it. On top of the shleyer on the sides above the temples, three small pillows with pearls and expensive pebbles (binds) were tied on each side, and a large scarf was tied around the head, hanging widely over the face. When leaving the house, a wide fox hat covered with brocade was superimposed on all this. A black velvet quilted tie (scarf) was tied around the neck with strings of pearls fastened to it, and sometimes expensive stones (galsband). The top dress of Jewish women was a narrow hood made of colored silk fabric with silk lining, and in winter - on fox fur.

Such a frequent mention of fox fur suggests that such clothes were probably also used by the Mstislav Jews, since there were many foxes in the vicinity of Mstislavl, which was reflected even in the coat of arms of the city.

The described costume was gladly changed by Jewish women to a common one. At the same time, the shaving of the head was preserved, on which wigs were made of hair or silk, and the poor even of dyed linen.

Gortynsky believed that changing the costume did not change either the beliefs or the activities of the Jews. They still consider themselves temporary aliens and expect the coming of the Messiah and departure to the independent kingdom of Israel. And concluded:

"Neither clothing identical with Russian, nor the use of the Russian language introduced among Jews, will make them devoted citizens of Russia, because not costume and language, but religion is the cement that binds every nationality."

Lifestyle

Gortynsky testifies that poor Jews, and they made up the bulk of the Jewish population, are extremely abstinent in everyday life. Poor nutrition often leads them even to exhaustion. Fitting several people in one room, separated by light partitions, screens or simply dirty curtains, they breathe extremely spoiled air, eat mainly onions, cucumbers and other gardening products, herring and rye bread, thin and always of good quality. Only on Saturdays do they eat beef and fish, and then in very small quantities.

With such a lack of food and even poverty, few take up heavy mechanical work, and more are engaged in sedentary crafts, however, without the proper skill and badly. A significant part of the Jews scour the city all day long and, having no skill, are looking for an opportunity to earn something by service or deceit. For the convenience of finding such earnings, they try to live near markets and retail shops. Therefore, their buildings in such places are constrained. The houses are merged with each other, so that in case of fire it is impossible to approach them to extinguish the fire.

Let me digress a little. During my trip in 2004 to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus with a visit to Mstislavl, I had to often use the metro and suburban rail transport. There is a constant movement of sellers in the cars, who immediately lay out their numerous goods and develop a noisy and annoying trade. This is all very annoying, many are unhappy and scold the sellers. But when you think about the described phenomenon, you understand that people go for it out of poverty, hopelessness and the desire to earn a living. At the same time, there were no Jews among the sellers. So nothing depends on nationality, but only on living conditions. When there is nothing to feed a family, people of any nationality begin to "scour" in search of earnings. In Israeli trains, as well as on the streets, you will never meet private and annoying traders.

But let us return to the evidence of Gortynsky. In the middle of the 19th century, wealthy Jews lived richly, sometimes even luxuriously, but at the same time their expenses did not exceed their incomes. If they borrow money, it is not for luxury and panache, but only for commercial transactions, in which they are skillful and cleverly prudent. The success of their enterprise is largely facilitated by family ties in different places.

The main features of the Jewish way of life are abstinence, sobriety, the sly servility of the poor Jews and the clever thrift in the trade of wealthy industrialists.

They keep the orders of their elders in strict confidence and execute them exactly. They do not tell about the crimes of their fellows, hiding them from Christians and government bodies.

Jews render obedience to state laws, authorities and state rabbis approved by the government. In addition, Jewish societies maintain special spiritual rabbis, who are reverently respected, pay their salaries, carry out their religious instructions and litigation decisions in civil cases. Every Jew sacredly and indestructibly fulfills the prohibition (cherim) imposed by them on some object. This separation of Jews from Christians was widespread. The Jews try to resolve all issues at the court of rabbis, which sorts out all litigations according to religious laws. Jews who evade such a trial and demand the decision of cases by civil institutions are suspected of bad faith. There are times when even Christians, in a dispute with a Jew, agree to be judged by a spiritual rabbi. These rabbis do not have sufficient legal and financial competence and serve the Jews as authorities more in religious, ritual and marriage matters than in civil ones.

Jews collect significant amounts for public needs, to help the poor and the proceeds of a fellow believer who has committed a crime. At the end of the prayer, they usually do not leave the prayer house (school), but confer on topical public issues. Significant money is collected into the public Jewish cash desk by agreement of the elders. They come from both donations from wealthy Jews and taxes. You can often see in poor Jewish homes a tin box with a slot in the top nailed to the wall, where the owners put a small coin daily or weekly. From these small donations, a large sum is collected later. In addition to these monetary collections, a significant increase in the public fund is provided by the burial of the dead.

The Jews have special mortuary brotherhoods, which accept solid Jews with a good reputation. They receive decent money for their work on burial and a place in the cemetery, depending on the state of the buried and his heirs. Sometimes even a contribution was assigned in the form of a percentage of the inheritance.

Of great importance for the Jews is burial in a place of honor, which is accessible not to every rich person, but only to those with a different pedigree, especially an honest reputation and charity. The place of burial is taken care of during life. Out of the sums collected, trusted persons, without control from the government, make expenses for helping the poor, buying recruiting receipts and the affairs of the accused Jews, and other needs.

With this money, for example, schools and public baths were built in Mogilev.

Religious law strictly obliges Jews to cohabitate in marriage, as a means of reproduction of the human race indicated by God, and therefore a bachelor life for a young person after a certain age is reprehensible. If the wife cannot bear children, then among the Jews this is accepted as the canonical reason for divorce. For the conclusion of marriage unions, there are special people who trade in matchmaking. They travel to different cities and towns, write down which of the wealthy Jews has a son, and who has a daughter, and with what dowry. According to this information, they try to introduce suitable couples, bring them together and, having agreed on the conditions, connect them. Successful cases are rewarded on both sides.

Jewish women do not take part in social events and are mainly engaged in family affairs. At the same time, Jewish women show great ability in trade, especially petty.

Unfortunately, few materials about the Jewish life of Mogilev and, in particular, Mstislav Jews, which interest me in the first place, have been preserved. Therefore, I return again and again to the memoirs of S. M. Dubnov. This is how he describes the difficult life of his mother. His mother, Sheine, was a typical Jewish woman of the old school. She gave birth to five sons and five daughters, of whom only one son died in childhood. The rest she nurtured and raised, took care of the education of the boys in school and accustoming the girls to housework. Having lost her home after a fire, the mother with babies had to live in other people's rented apartments, which had to be changed frequently as the family grew. Her father's meager salary was not enough to run a huge household, and her mother had to find an auxiliary income: she opened a shop selling glass and porcelain dishes. Early in the morning, when the children are still sleeping, she runs to the market to buy provisions, opens a "bargain" in her china shop, where buyers rarely look. Then he leaves the shop in the care of his daughter. And she hurries home to feed the kids, provide provisions and send the boys to the cheder, cook dinner with the help of the servants and, having a light snack on the go, she again runs to the shop .... I had to live on credit and pay off once a month or two, when I received his salary from my father in the mail. These days, creditors came: melameds had to be paid for the education of boys in heders, a tailor and a shoemaker for mending dresses and shoes for the children, a housewife for an apartment, and then they also had to buy goods for a china shop in a wholesale warehouse in another city.

Goratynsky describes this type of earnings:

“Poor Jewish women, having a few kopecks in their pockets, go to the city on a market day and, meeting peasants going to the market, buy from them chickens, eggs, mushrooms, canvas, etc., give each 10 or 15 kopecks as a deposit and with the purchased products and peasant sellers, bypass the houses known to them, in which they resell what they have purchased. With the money they receive, they pay off the peasants, leaving themselves the bargained profit. Thus, they lead the sellers for several hours. If it is not possible to sell, they return the product, demanding a deposit back. This usually leads to a quarrel."

Jewish women, especially the poor and middle class, are completely dependent on their husbands. They love to dress up, but rarely make their outfits out of new materials. Jewish girls love to dance, but only with each other, without the participation of men.

The chastity of girls is carefully guarded, and if a girl has lost her virginity, then her parents immediately report this to the rabbi, who draws up a special act with an explanation of what happened, so that this circumstance is not imputed to her. If a Jewish woman goes on business to one of the men, then she is usually accompanied by an elderly Jew for supervision and protection.

A sad story happened in the Dubnov family. The eldest daughter Risya, a beautiful, black-eyed girl, was deceived by a visiting paramedic who practiced for some time in Mstislavl. Her tragedy was not only in deceived love, but in painful shame and panic fear of public opinion, which in that patriarchal environment could drive people to madness. She paid dearly for her girlish sin: three years later she got married, but her husband, having learned about his wife's past, left her in the first year of marriage.

With all the attention to the chastity of the Jews, there were also harlots among them, whom others despise. In some disaster, for example, cholera or other epidemic disease and great mortality, they are attacked and severely persecuted. The Jews believe that G-d punishes them with diseases and pestilence for their tolerance of these depraved women.

The Jews, like other peoples, have their own aristocracy and their own plebeians. The former include not only wealthy people who own their fortune in several generations, but also people whose origin comes from the noble families of Kogan and Levi. These people are respected regardless of the size of their fortune - both rich and poor. Many fathers of families dream of marrying off their daughter even to a poor groom, but one who comes from a noble family or is very learned. People belonging to the so-called aristocracy are rarely artisans, considering such an occupation below their dignity. They are more likely to trade or study Torah, receiving material assistance from society. Holidays for Jews always have great importance and have a significant impact on private and public life. On holidays and every Saturday, Jews do not allow themselves to engage in any physical labor, do not cook food, doing this on Friday. In the evening from Friday to Saturday, Jews invite Christians to wipe the candles and move the candlesticks from one place to another. When traveling on Friday, they are always in a hurry to stop for the night before sunset in a place or tavern owned by a Jew, with whom they participate in a joint dinner for a certain fee. Even the poorest Jew always makes sure that there is good food in the house on Shabbat (Saturday). Holidays, postponing all business, Jews spend in prayer schools or at home reading sacred books, visiting their friends. These days, the cities and towns inhabited by Jews seem deserted and empty, all the shops are closed, the bazaars are empty and the streets are completely deserted.

Christians who buy food from Jews try to stock up on them in advance of the Jewish holidays.

Jews exactly fulfill the commandment of the law of Moses about the holiness of the Sabbath. At the end of this section, I would like to give some statistical data characterizing the life of the Jews of the Mogilev region.

According to official data for 1880 (16), the birth rate of people different religions per 100 souls was:

As a rule, there were many children in Jewish families. Therefore, the low birth rate given in official documents can only be explained by the fact that the Jews did not include many of those who were born in the metric lists.

Mortality among Jews was much lower and amounted to:

The low mortality among Jews, despite the unhygienic external environment in which they live and their inherent morbidity, is due to:

Greater purity of morals (Jews are completely free of certain types of contagious diseases, such as syphilis),

Abstinence in food and bodily pleasures,

Unparalleled love for children

Trust in medicine and frequent visits to doctors.

Dubnov in his work on the basis of official sources gives the following explanations for this phenomenon:

“Christian petty bourgeois generally do not like to be treated by doctors, they do not like medicines either. While the poorest Jew, with the slightest illness of a child, brings a doctor with his very last money, even borrowed in a kahal, and buys medicines. child, or calls an old midwife, or asks a neighbor for advice and gives the child everything they advise. Because of this, many children die among the burghers and only the strongest grow up.

Housing and household

The architecture of Jewish houses changed during the 19th century (14).

At the beginning of the century, visiting houses included a large parade ground 12-14 fathoms long and 8-10 fathoms wide, covered with one high roof so that carriages could fit inside the yard. In one of the corners under this roof there was a Jew's dwelling, which consisted of two rooms. In the barn, one gate was near the hut, and the other on the opposite side, so that the carriages could freely enter and exit. Such a shed was called "shopa" and had stalls for placing horses and a place for a Jew's household, which consisted of one horse, one cow and three or four goats. There was never a separate fenced yard. In the 80s of the 19th century, this type of guest house completely disappeared in the Belarusian region. By the end of the century, in appearance, Jewish houses differed little from Christian ones. Differences are observed in the environment around the house, where rubbish always lies. The Jewish dwelling itself always stands bare, without a yard and without a fence. You rarely see a bush or a tree near it, because the Jews do not like to plant plants, which, moreover, are destroyed by goats. Jews do not even know the elementary economy: the wealthy of them have only a cow for milk, and the poor have only goats. A kid is very cheap, and besides, in a year he becomes a goat and already gives milk. Feeding a goat also costs almost nothing: in the summer it goes to pasture, and in the winter it finds food on its own, picking up hay that has fallen from the carts of passing people along the way. This is also confirmed by Jewish artists, for example, Abram Manevich, who was born in Mstislavl, in whose paintings a goat is very often present.

In those places or streets where only Jews live, houses are extremely crowded, do not have any outbuildings and are built without any plan. Entrance doors they open directly from the street into the living room and are usually in the middle of the house, while in Christian houses - from the corner or from the yard.

On the doorframe was always a nailed piece of folded parchment called a mezuzah on which the Hebrew texts were written. It is believed that this custom was introduced with the aim that every Jew should be reminded hourly of the laws bequeathed by Moses. When leaving the house and going to bed, every Jew must venerate the mezuzah with the pronunciation of the appropriate prayer. Jews are also convinced that this talisman prevents evil spirits from entering the dwelling. Those who have some kind of household nail mezuzahs to the gates of the barn, shed, stables or other premises so that evil spirits do not enter there and infect livestock and grain. Inside, at the door, there is a trough with water, and on it is a jug made of red copper or tinplate, with two handles located at a right angle. The washstand serves the Jew in order to pour water over his hands during every prayer before eating. The Jew takes the handle of the jug with one hand and pours it over his free hand or just his fingers, then he takes the other handle with the other hand and pours it over the fingers of the first hand. Water falls on the floor, from this there is dirt and sputum near the doors.

Along the wall facing the street, there is an oblong table and next to it on the sides are two wooden benches, one board wide. The table is always covered with a dirty linen tablecloth, which is replaced by another on Friday. Opposite the table is a wooden partition, behind which there is a bed, and on it even the poorest Jew has downy featherbeds and pillows (bebekhs) made of blue chintz, very rarely covered with pillowcases. Sleeping Jewish women and their husbands literally drown in featherbeds. The stove is located behind the partition, but its side goes into the first hut. The stove is always Russian, because without it on Shabbat the Jews could not have anything warm for dinner; on the side of the stove is usually adjacent a small fireplace, located at an angle. The floor is usually plank, it is washed only twice a year: in the spring for the Passover holiday and in the fall for the holy tabernacles, scraping with a spade and sprinkling with yellow sand. At the same time, Jews wash all their furniture: tables, chairs, beds, wardrobes, benches, and those who live by the river carry the furniture into the river and carefully wash it there.

Behind the partition and behind the stove, on the wall shelves, covered with doors, like a cupboard, dishes are placed: the rich have tinned copper, and the poor have earthenware. All utensils, knives, forks and spoons, in two, and some in four copies. In the middle of the hut on the ceiling beam hangs a heavy yellow copper girondol. Its style is always monotonous: there is a copper ball in the middle, candlesticks from 4 to 12 are built into the sides. On Fridays, when Shabbat comes, greasy penny candles are inserted into them, which on Friday evening should burn out without a trace.

On the room's whitewashed walls, there usually hangs a smoky lithographic image of a revered rabbi, or a crudely drawn picture of a Jew covering a hastily made booth for the Feast of Tabernacles with fir trees. Less often comes across a portrait of Montefeore (a famous Jewish public figure and philanthropist), sitting in a dressing gown and a yarmulke. Sometimes there is a geographic map in frames without glass, on which Jerusalem is indicated in the middle.

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