Book about Jews. Their way of life, religion, customs. Different traditions of different Jews Jewish traditions
Despite the fact that almost all Jewish traditions have religious origins, most of the inhabitants of Israel try to observe them.
If the whole country on the same day, hour, minute does the same thing, not obeying any decree, but of its own free will, then this speaks of the super-strong unity of the nation. You can talk as much as you like about the religious component of all Jewish traditions, but one cannot fail to note the fact that Israel is a free state, and no one can force people to believe or not to believe, to pray or not to pray, to observe traditions or not to observe them.
1. Drink yourself unconscious
Once a year, on the holiday of Purim, one should get drunk so that it is impossible to distinguish enemy from friend. On this day, on Jewish tables you can always find a variety of alcoholic drinks, because the holiday of Purim tells the Jews to free themselves from common sense. Even on this day, all schoolchildren and many adults dress up in costumes, all for the same reason, so as not to distinguish enemies from friends.
2. Live in a hut and eat under the stars
A few days before the celebration of Sukkot, Israelis build huts near their houses (and sometimes on balconies), which are called sukkahs (emphasis on i). According to tradition, on this holiday one should live in a built hut in order to remember how our ancestors lived for 40 years in the desert. The most interesting thing is that if you have not built a sukkah, then you can go into any already built one, spend the night, drink water, and sometimes even eat there.
3. Don't drive on Yom Kippur
There is no such law prohibiting driving on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), but 99.9% of all cars in Israel are in their parking lots on this day. The most interesting thing is that the roads are not empty, but filled with children on scooters and bicycles. On this day, there is an entry in the Book of Life, so many believers do not eat or drink anything, but only pray for the whole day.
4. Celebrate the holiday in the evening of the previous day
O! It's just unique! “And there was evening and there was morning: one day” - so it is written in the Torah. This means that the day begins in the evening, and, therefore, the holiday begins in the evening, as soon as the sun sets, and this is very convenient. Imagine, you ate, drank, celebrated until midnight, and in the morning you don’t have to go to work, beauty.
5. Eating matzah with chocolate spread
During the 7-day period of the Pesach holiday, you can’t eat anything yeasty (leavened), and you can eat only matzo from flour. Matzah is oven-dried water with flour without salt or other additives. Not very tasty, to be honest, but if you spread it with chocolate paste, then it is impossible to resist such a delicacy.
6. Hang the flag of Israel on your car
Israel's Independence Day is celebrated every year on a grand scale. It was on this day that the fate of millions of Jews was decided, who were able to return to the homeland of their ancestors. A few days before the holiday, people start decorating their homes and cars with Israeli flags. Without exaggeration, more than 50% of the cars on the roads develop blue and white flags with the Star of David.
7. The whole country freezes for 2 minutes
On Holocaust Day at 10:00 a.m., a siren sounds throughout the country. Everything freezes. People quit their business, stop who was walking or driving, get out of cars and buses and freeze for 2 minutes. This is the most powerful two minutes in the world. People remember those who died in the Holocaust, in terrorist attacks and in wars...
Most Jewish customs are associated with religious holidays. The people who have experienced many sorrows and hardships know how not only to cry and grieve, but also to rejoice.
The whole history of the Jewish people is closely connected with religion. Holidays are dedicated to the events described in the Holy Books, and many customs originate from there.
In Israel, it is customary to celebrate as many as 4 New Years a year, and none of them falls on January 1st. According to Jewish customs, holidays are also the last day of the week and the beginning of each month.
Holiday Saturday
No one is allowed to work on Saturday, not even animals. Shabbat is a time of rest and communication with friends and relatives. On this holiday, you can’t even turn on the lights; candles are lit by women on Friday evening and placed on the festive table. Prayers are read over wine and refreshments before the meal. It is customary to pour wine for everyone present.
On Friday, according to tradition, cholent is prepared - a national dish of beans or beans with spices and meat. The dish stays in the oven all the time before serving, which gives it a special taste. On Saturday they also eat stuffed fish.
Holidays and customs
New Year
The Jewish New Year begins to be celebrated in September-October, this period is a time of good intentions and repentance for past bad deeds. During the New Year holidays, it is customary to reflect on past events and your relationship with God and others. It is customary to eat symbolic dishes on New Year's Eve. To make the coming year sweet and generous, apples with honey are served on the table. The fish head is eaten in order to be guided in actions by the head, and not by feelings, and a pomegranate with numerous grains symbolically means a lot of expected good deeds and merits.
Yom Kippur
The holiest day of the year is Yom Kippur. Believing Jews fast for 25 hours, do not wear leather shoes and do not wash. At this time, it is customary to pray fervently in the synagogue. The “day of atonement” ends with the lingering sound of the “shofar” - a ram's horn.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah is celebrated in November-December. When evening comes, a lamp (hanukkiah) is lit on the windowsill or at the entrance to the house. A new light is added daily until their total number reaches 8. On Hanukkah, potato pancakes and donuts are traditionally prepared. Children are allowed to go on vacation.
Purim
Purim is the most joyful holiday, which is celebrated at the end of February. At this time, they have fun, dance and arrange carnivals. Cakes, wine and sweets are placed on the festive table, the main dish of the holiday is gomentashen - triangular-shaped pies with raisins and poppy seeds.
Passover (Easter)
In March-April, Jews celebrate Pesach (Easter), for which they prepare in advance. Dishes made from sour dough are taken out of the house. Matzo (unleavened flatbread) is served on the table, which is eaten for 7 days.
Weddings and funerals
A wedding in Israel is called "kidushin", which translates as "initiation". This means that the bride during the celebration devotes herself to the groom. It is customary to celebrate the wedding in the open air, over the bride and groom they hold a hula - a special canopy, symbolizing their common home. The feast lasts 7 days.
In the old days, funerals were a very complicated procedure. All furniture had to be removed from the house of the deceased, relatives tore their clothes, and neighbors poured out the water they had. At present, everything is greatly simplified - prayers are simply read over the deceased in the synagogue and at home, and an incision is made on the lapel. It is not customary to wear flowers on the grave; according to custom, a pebble is placed on it.
The history of the Jewish people is closely connected with religion. Holidays are dedicated to the events described in the sacred books. They have certain customs associated with them.
Israel celebrates four New Years, and not all of them are on the first of January. The beginning of each month and the last day of the week, according to tradition, are also holidays. Everything happens according to Jewish customs.
Holiday Saturday
Shabbat is a time of rest, a time for family and friendship. Nobody works on Saturday, not even the animals.
On Shabbat you can not turn on the light, in the evening a woman candles. They are put on the festive table. Before the meal, prayers are read over wine and bread. Wine is poured for everyone present.
On Friday they prepare cholent - a dish of beans or beans with meat and spices. Before serving, the dish stays in the oven all the time, which makes it especially tasty. They also eat stuffed fish on Saturday.
Holidays and customs
On the New Year, which Jews begin to celebrate in September-October, it is customary to think about the past, about their attitude to others and to God. This is a time of repentance and good intentions.
Usually symbolic meals are eaten. Apples with honey New Year became generous and sweet. A fish head to be a head. Pomegranate, so that merits become numerous, like pomegranate seeds.
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. For twenty-five hours believing Jews fast, do not wash, do not wear leather shoes. They pray in the synagogue. The "Day of Atonement" ends with the lingering sound of the ram's horn - the shofar.
In November - December in Israel, Hanukkah. When evening comes, lamps (chanukiah) are lit above the entrance to the house or on the windowsill. Every day a new light is added until there are eight.
According to the custom, donuts and potato pancakes are prepared at this time. The kids are on vacation.
The most fun holiday - Purim - is celebrated at the end of February. Arrange carnivals, dance, have fun. On the holiday table sweets, wines, cakes and the most important dish of Purim - gomentashen (triangular pies with poppy seeds and raisins).
In March - April Passover (Easter). They prepare for the holiday in advance: all dishes from sour dough are taken out of the house. Matzo (unleavened flatbread) is served on the table and is eaten for seven days.
Weddings and funerals
A wedding in Israel is called Kiddushin. The bride dedicates herself to the groom. The wedding is usually celebrated outdoors. Above the heads of the bride and groom they hold a special canopy - hula. It symbolizes their common home. Guests and hosts feast for seven days.
The funeral process used to be very complicated. Furniture was removed from the house of the deceased. Neighbors poured out all the water. And relatives tore their clothes. Now they just read prayers, over the deceased and in the synagogue, and make an incision on the lapel. Jews do not bring flowers to the cemetery. According to custom, a stone is placed on the grave.
“If children are happiness, why should there be little happiness?” - say Jewish parents with many children, with the same enthusiasm inventing a name for both the first child and the ninth.
Previously, every traditional Jewish family had many children. Sometimes it was even incomprehensible how mother could distinguish between the twins Golda and Rivka and manage to make sure that Shloymik did not take the typewriter away from Dodik. A Jewish woman can do it all! And why? Yes, because the Jews have always paid a lot of attention to education.
How nice it is to be the youngest... But if you were born into a traditional Jewish family, this pleasure would not last long. As soon as mom begins to conspiratorially exchange glances with dad, eat more cottage cheese and gently stroke her stomach, “tinok hadash” - “a new baby” will soon appear in the house. And this means that older children will have new responsibilities: warm up a bottle of milk, wash a rattle, read a fairy tale in the evening.
While others walk the dogs and feed the cats, Jewish children learn responsibility by becoming older brothers or sisters.
Yes, youngest child- king and king in a traditional Jewish family. He is the most important person in the house, but only after his parents.
During dinner, mom gives the first plate to dad - and in the plate, of course, is the tastiest morsel; then he pours soup for himself and only after that - for the children. And this, of course, is not because the mother does not love them enough. It’s just that from a very young age, children must learn to respect their elders, and first of all, their parents. After all, it is not for nothing that this is one of the ten main commandments received by Moshe (Moses) on Mount Sinai.
“Love your father and fear your mother,” the Torah says. The Holy Book never says anything for granted. Agree, it would be much more natural and simpler if the commandment sounded like this: "Love your mother and fear your father." Everyone loves mom, and everyone respects dad and is afraid to disappoint him. But no, the Torah requires you to be afraid of a weak mother and love even the most strict father!
According to the sages, one should not say to the father: “Dad, you are right!” You ask: what's wrong with agreeing with your father? Of course, nothing! But if you say: “Dad, you are right,” it turns out that dad could be wrong. And this, according to Jewish tradition, is absolutely impossible.
A Jewish child should not call his parents by their first names - this is considered disrespectful. There is even a famous song about how a girl chooses her groom. She finally finds the one she likes. But his mother's name is the same as her own - Sarah! Which means the guy can't marry her. After all, if he calls his wife Sarah in the presence of his mother, his mother may think that he calls her by her name.
By the way, the problem can be solved if the bride changes her name or takes another one. It is enough to say a special prayer on Saturday evening - bracha, and Sarah-Rivka will appear instead of Sarah. Jewish girls often have more than one name. However, according to tradition, the name can affect fate. Therefore, the second name is usually given only if something goes wrong - for example, the child is very sick.
... All children sooner or later grow up. And mom and dad are starting to get old, nothing can be done about it. And even if their character eventually deteriorates, we must help them, endure them and love them. In a Jewish family, adult children take care of their parents not only out of a sense of duty, but with joy and love, just as mom and dad once took care of them.
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 of 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 set out 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 Vizhnitsa 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.
