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When someone dies, you have to hire an experienced man, who will read prayers and light candle after candle all night, untilthenext day, when the funeral takes place. The funeral was organized according to the Jewish Tradition. If you came at the cemetery after the dead person was burried you hadto eat a hard-boiled egg sprinkled with ash and a pretzel.
We didn’t have any ash at my dad’s funeral, but at mom’s funeral there wassome. My father observed all traditions. When I came hungry at mom’s funeral, and ate the hard-boiled egg and the pretzel I was amazed todiscover that the egg and the pretzel were no different from the usual ones. But my brother couldn’t eatthem. It was like any other boiled egg, the difference is that it is boiled on ash, on embers, the egg is put in coal, and mixedwith the ash.
We sat shivah especially for mom. We sat shivah for dad only the period when people came and consoled us. But when the people left I got up. It is very difficult to sit shivah. You have to sit on the ground – well you can put a pad, but you have to sit for hours, and you go stiff, your legs hurt. You don’t have to sit on Friday and Saturday – more exactly from Friday evening until Saturday evening.
And there is the custom, that every evening, instead of going as usual to the synagogue, ten men go to the house of the deceased person and pray there.
Every evening and every morning. Shivah – shivah means seven in Hebrew – lasts for seven days. After these seven days the ten men come to the house again, say the prayer, take you outside the house, go arround the house – which means that you lead the soul, who is leaving the house.
The mourning is very hard. You are not allowed to wash yourself for a month, for 30 days. That was the most difficult thing for me. And I think you were allowed to change your clothes only on Saturday. The mourning lasts a year – you are not allowed to listen to music, to go to a concert or to a party during this time.
The wearing of mourning clothes is not compulsory – you don’t have to wear black clothes, but have to wear a black apron fastened like a belt, which you can take down Friday evening. You don’t have to wear mourning clothes on Saturdays and on feasts. Kadish is to be said for 11 months.
My brother said it too, but worked and couldn’t go in the morning, so we hired someone, who said it for him. And there was an annual commemoration with prayers at the synagogue and with donationsto poor people.
We didn’t have any ash at my dad’s funeral, but at mom’s funeral there wassome. My father observed all traditions. When I came hungry at mom’s funeral, and ate the hard-boiled egg and the pretzel I was amazed todiscover that the egg and the pretzel were no different from the usual ones. But my brother couldn’t eatthem. It was like any other boiled egg, the difference is that it is boiled on ash, on embers, the egg is put in coal, and mixedwith the ash.
We sat shivah especially for mom. We sat shivah for dad only the period when people came and consoled us. But when the people left I got up. It is very difficult to sit shivah. You have to sit on the ground – well you can put a pad, but you have to sit for hours, and you go stiff, your legs hurt. You don’t have to sit on Friday and Saturday – more exactly from Friday evening until Saturday evening.
And there is the custom, that every evening, instead of going as usual to the synagogue, ten men go to the house of the deceased person and pray there.
Every evening and every morning. Shivah – shivah means seven in Hebrew – lasts for seven days. After these seven days the ten men come to the house again, say the prayer, take you outside the house, go arround the house – which means that you lead the soul, who is leaving the house.
The mourning is very hard. You are not allowed to wash yourself for a month, for 30 days. That was the most difficult thing for me. And I think you were allowed to change your clothes only on Saturday. The mourning lasts a year – you are not allowed to listen to music, to go to a concert or to a party during this time.
The wearing of mourning clothes is not compulsory – you don’t have to wear black clothes, but have to wear a black apron fastened like a belt, which you can take down Friday evening. You don’t have to wear mourning clothes on Saturdays and on feasts. Kadish is to be said for 11 months.
My brother said it too, but worked and couldn’t go in the morning, so we hired someone, who said it for him. And there was an annual commemoration with prayers at the synagogue and with donationsto poor people.
Period
Location
Iasi
Romania
Interview
Rosa Kaiserman