Selected text
My mother used to bake kneaded bread – coilici – for Saturday. [Coilici is a variant for challah, similar to the word “kajlics” used by some Hungarian speaking Jews in Romania. Both words have their origin in the Hungarian word “kalacs.”] She used white flour and eggs. Usually, they made meat dishes for Saturday. Throughout the remaining days of the week, we ate like everybody else, but we had meat dishes on Saturday.
On Sabbath eve my mother would light the candles – she would light a candle for every dead person she prayed for. Usually, she lit two candles for her parents, a candle for a sister who died in Transnistria, and she lit a few more candles, I forget exactly how many.
She would cover her head and recite the prayer for lighting the candles. After that, my father would return from the synagogue and we would sit at the table. Which is to say we welcomed Sabbath – Sabbath is welcomed in the Jewish religion as a queen. My father would bless the bread, the wine, the food; after we ate, he would say a prayer in which we thanked God for giving us the chance to welcome Sabbath and rejoice in it.
On Saturday, my father would wake up early in the morning, put on his good clothes and take his siddur and tallit and he would go to the synagogue. Sometimes we went, too. Everybody wore their good clothes and we would return from the synagogue around noon, we would eat and then go visit our relatives or friends. Nobody did any work. In later years, our parents would light a fire, but in the beginning they didn’t. We had someone who lit the fire for us, we had Christian neighbors who knew it was a holiday, and they would come over: ‘Do you need the fire lit?’ And we called them and they would light the fire for us.
On Sabbath eve my mother would light the candles – she would light a candle for every dead person she prayed for. Usually, she lit two candles for her parents, a candle for a sister who died in Transnistria, and she lit a few more candles, I forget exactly how many.
She would cover her head and recite the prayer for lighting the candles. After that, my father would return from the synagogue and we would sit at the table. Which is to say we welcomed Sabbath – Sabbath is welcomed in the Jewish religion as a queen. My father would bless the bread, the wine, the food; after we ate, he would say a prayer in which we thanked God for giving us the chance to welcome Sabbath and rejoice in it.
On Saturday, my father would wake up early in the morning, put on his good clothes and take his siddur and tallit and he would go to the synagogue. Sometimes we went, too. Everybody wore their good clothes and we would return from the synagogue around noon, we would eat and then go visit our relatives or friends. Nobody did any work. In later years, our parents would light a fire, but in the beginning they didn’t. We had someone who lit the fire for us, we had Christian neighbors who knew it was a holiday, and they would come over: ‘Do you need the fire lit?’ And we called them and they would light the fire for us.
Period
Location
Romania
Interview
Saul Rotariu
Tag(s)