Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
been preserved, at Târgu Lăpuş (MM), Tăşnad (SM), Copalnic Mănăştur (MM), Certeze (SM) and in many other places. The opening of the cemetery has always been primordial" for the Jewish community when settling into a specific area and purchasing the land for the cemetery was the most urgent task. According to the example of the first Jew, Abraham15 16, the Jews took care to be the owners17 of the lands of the cemeteries. After the acquisition, there is a religious ceremony in order to sanctify the lands as cemeteries. Nevertheless, for the Jews the cemetery is at the same time a source of impurity ritual18, like the corpses19 20 21 22 23. It is forbidden for the cohanimi or priests" to enter or even get close. According to Talmudic prescriptions the cemeteries had to be out of the village at 100 metres from the last house , this meant their isolation, due to the fact that they were considered source of impurity. Since ancient times, according to examples from the Bible, the Jews used as burial grounds: caves, hollows, cavers, or they put the sepulchers under the rocks in isolated places. However, several times the post-pogromic pilgrimages made impossible the compliance with the tradition. The cemetery did not have to be close to the synagogue, because of the impurity factor -tuma. Similar to the setting of the cemetery around the church, a Christian custom practiced during the Middle Ages , these situations exist in the Jewish world, for example the cemetery close to the Remuh synagogue from Krakow, situations which the Jews conditions had to put up with. In the studied area we did not find this adjacent situation. In the European Middle Ages the lots which were given to Jewish cemeteries were often of small dimension and were not enough with the increase of the population. Consequently, the sepulchers were overlapped and the organization of the cemetery and the setting of sepulchers were reconsidered. One cemetery often stretched over wide territories or even several towns" . They usually bury only Jews in the Jewish cemetery, who belong to the same group, rite or origin. The Abrahamic family (except for Rachel's) was buried together, in 15 FCER, Memoria .... p. 84 16 Bible, Genesis 23:4, ...lam a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”..., 23:8, If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son ofZohar on my behalf, 23:9, so he will sell me the cave ofMachpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.... 17 Bible, Genesis 23:8,... If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede... on my behalf..., 23:13, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there”, 23:16,... Abraham agreed to Ephron ’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants, 23:17, So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded..., 23:18, to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites..., 23:19, Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, which is at Hebron, in the land of Canaan. IK FCER, Memoria ..., p. 84 19 Bible, Numbers 5: 2,... any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. 20 Ibidem 21 MZsL, p. 890 22 loan Albu, Influenţe..., p. 53 23 MZSL, p. 890. Almost half of the Jews from Bavary were burned in a single cemetery, at Regensburg, and in 1177 Englan had a single Jewish cemetery. 97
