Raj Tamás: A nagyhalászi Hevra-könyv - A Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Megyei Levéltár Kiadványai II. Közlemények 37. (Nyíregyháza, 2009)

The small community (now raised to the rank of town) of Nagyhalász (once known as Halász) in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County is located on the Tisza to the north of Nyíregyháza. There were many craftsmen among the Jews who settled here in the 18th century, and when the Tisza was in flood, the tradesmen would travel 60-70 kilometres in their boats to transport their goods to Szeged. Following the Jewish emancipation, the Jewish population had already exceeded 200 in 1869, and attained over 300 between the two World Wars. A total of sixty two of them survived the deportation and the holocaust. (As far as we know, not a single Jew lives in the town today.) The Jewry of the locality was highly educated in religion, as attested by this surviving book. Besides Hungarian and a number of foreign languages, almost all of them knew Hebrew well, they spoke Yiddish amongst themselves, and the demand was made of every member of the Holy Association, that they "be familiar with all the religious laws and customs." In the entries in our book Hebrew and Yiddish text is often mixed, with the laws of grammar being disregarded at such times, though when signatures are required, these are all performed with calligraphic, Rabbinic Hebrew script. The first reference to the Holy Association (Hevrah Kadishah in the Hebrew-Aramaic language) is found in the Talmud. A famous craftsman was on a visit to Yemen in the 4th century, and he was just standing in a smithy when he heard the sorrowful sound of the shofar. (At one time, this indicated that someone in the community had died). He saw that the blacksmith just carried on working, so he asked him why he did not hurry to help the mourners. He explained to the rabbi that there was a holy association there which undertook to carry out all the duties necessary for dealing with the dead. Beginning in the Middle Ages, everywhere in the world where Jewish communities were in operation, associations like this were established, the members of which offered assistance with the paying of final respects: they prayed alongside the dying, they took turns in attending the bodies of the deceased, they helped with ritual bathing, dug the graves, accompanied the dead either raised on their shoulders or on a carriage, and they comforted the mourners. The duties were divided among themselves by the drawing of lots: surviving ballot papers of this type, on which were written the names of the members, can be seen in the Budapest Jewish Museum. Being a member of the Hevrah was considered a kind of position in the traditional Jewish community; if need be they were effective in helping one another, as well as the poor of the village. Furthermore, besides paying final respects and taking care of the cemetery, an important duty of the Holy Association in former times was the practice of charity. This duty is referred to by the Hebrew expression gemilut hesed, the precise translation of the concept being: the recompense of practical love. The way this is to be understood is that the practical love, which - according to Jewish tradition - is provided by God to man by keeping him alive, and helping him in every way, is to be reciprocated by the believer towards other men and towards the needy. So we should not be surprised that one or two Holy Associations refer to themselves primarily as charity associations (Hebrew: Hevrah Gemilut Hesed, or Hevrah Tsedakot). It is under the latter name that the recently discovered, hand-written Jewish holy association register (produced between 1831 and 1861) from the village of Cece (Fejér County) features, on the inside cover of which the name of CECE can be picked out from the colourful Hebrew acrostic verse ornamented with columns, lions, flowers and griffons. At one time, Holy Associations of this kind were in operation within almost all Jewish communities of faith in Hungary, and the majority of them produced or had produced for themselves hand-written record books, often with hand painted ornamentation. Perhaps the finest, most highly crafted of the Hevrah books, that of the Nagykanizsa Holy Association, is kept in the Budapest Jewish Museum (dee on 6page). This, however, is a relic of urban Jewry (which had become bourgeois), and is considered a significant work of art (dated much earlier). In contrast, the Nagyhalász Hevrah book which is presented here comes from a small village, and in it we can gain insight into the world of a Jewish community comprising simple people living rustic lives (even immediately preceding the holocaust). This book is special because it