Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
ceremony (Pic. 84). We find out about the inventories of the Jewish mortuary chapels from contemporary texts used by them: ...the dead people were carried on a bed braided from hawsers or thick ropes'*6. II.A.3. The Burial The kevura burial is a ritual established by the biblical scripture, which involves preparation and placement of the deceased person into the tomb. The burial is prior to any type of activity or institution: for Torah, the celebration of Sabbath or lom Kipur and of the rabbinic institution7, except when a person’s life is saved. According to the Torah, the burial is an obligation and it means return’ of the body to the earth. This return must be done on the day of death4" according to the Bible, being postponed for the second day36 37 * 39 * 41 if the moment of death happened when one cannot find the shroud -tahrihin (tachrichim)42 43 44 - for the burial or the relatives’ arrival from long distances. It is often the case for the orthodox communities to postpone the burial. Torah mentions that it is an obligation for each Jew to bury by body found on the road, even if it is the body of a non- Jew -met mitva- and even if the person who finds it is a rabbi. The most severe curse4' for a Jew is to remain unburied. The funerals in Judaism are very simple . It is forbidden the martyrdom, cremation and suicide. In the Jewish world is highly recommended the burial of the deceased without his/her body mutilation by dissection or autopsy. Likut atzamot is a practice described in Jerusalemian Talmud, and it comprises two phases: first the burial of the body in deep graves mahamorot, then the bones are placed in bone-boxes or special boxes for bones. The use of these bone-boxes can be found in the Bible about the Valley of the dry bones45. As soon as the Romans arrived in Judaea, they accustomed the burial in the earth in public places. In Judaism at the burial one practises - kriyah - the custom of tearing off the clothes4" by the closed relatives of the deceased. This deterioration by tearing of the clothes must be proportional to the degree of kinship with the deceased; the closest ones are compelled to deteriorate heavily their clothes, which will not be sewed afterwards. Men are buried with their prayer scarf- talit. Sometimes he/she is buried with his/her own phylacteries. 36 I. Kaufmann, Evreii.... p. 346 37 Raj Tamas, Bevezetés..., p.87 ' Regine Azria, Iudaismul, Ed. C.N.I. “Coresi” SA, Bucureşti, 2000, pag. 58, (From now on: Iudaismul...). 39 Bible, Genesis 2:7, And The Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground..., Genesis 3:19,... till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 411 Bible, Book of Deuteronomy, 21 ;23, Be sure to bury it that same day,, 22:23his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day 41 FCER, Memoria.... p. 88 42 The linen used for the burial is simple, the same for all the |Jews, no matter what social position the person used to have 43 Bible, Jeremiah 22:19,1 Regi 16:4. Deut. 28, 26 your body will be the food of all birds in the sky and all animals of the earth, and none will be able to bother them. 44 R. Azria, Iudaismul..., pag. 56 45 Bible, Ezekiel 37: 1-13 4<1 Schöner A., A pokol.... p. 59 101
