Grigorescu, Felicia: Forme de artă în cimitire evreieşti din nord-vestul Romaniei (Satu Mare, 2013)
Glosar de termeni
high metal pillars, which announce in written (Hebrew, Romanian and Hungarian-2010) the presence of the cemetery (Pic .51). The space of a Jewish cemetery has developed according to regulations which placed the graves in rows, at certain established distances between the graves and the rows, hence resulting their neat aspect. Most cemeteries from the studied area are between one to three centuries old , but even today the arranging of the graves is visible, although the tomb stones are in a precarious state. Where the communities afforded to buy a big enough piece of land, the cemeteries have been projected with large alleys. Gradually, the places in the cemetery have been filled and the areas between the alleys have been divided and numbered for better orientation and identification (Pic. 52, The Orthodox Cemetery from Satu Mare). A mandatory condition for a cemetery to be operational is the source of water, both for the ritual bath of the deceased and for the purifying of the participants, at the end of the funerals. This request applies to synagogues too. Ever since the Talmudic period it has been recommended not to frequently visit the cemeteries, except on certain fasting days , during which prayers are uttered and psalms are read. Women weren’t allowed to enter the cemeteries in the Middle Ages. In the same period, it was forbidden to visit a cemetery at night - this interdiction was connected to a strong belief in demons' . Over time, in the Jewish cemetery it became a custom to bury the sacred books which wore off and turned useless. This was done on the day of Lag-ba Omer at O 1 the Sephardi communities. The Jews have had a great respect for the written word since antiquity, the worn off sacred scrolls couldn’t be burnt or thrown away. These were buried and built. This seems to be the origins of the genesis, based on the assumption that the manuscripts from Kumram are an old genesis28 29 30 31 32 33. II.A.2. Funeral Chapels Over time, an array of constructions and utilities have been brought into place for better funeral ceremonies in the cemeteries - a place for carrying out deep spiritual rituals, according to the rigid norms of the rabbi teachings. We can find out information about these well known proceedings from old documents: In front of the cemetery there is an oil (mortuary) with its necessary secondary house parts, all divided by walls' Thus, the cemeteries had rooms for preparing the dead for the funeral, a bath for the ritual wash, one or more baths for purifying the persons who are responsible for the funeral service, chapels-o/tc/- for the funeral ceremony, other rooms, all forming a cemeterial assembly. There used to be chapels which were only used as an extension for other cemeterial needs, of much smaller dimensions. 280ral information from the president of the Jewish community from Sighetu Marinadéi, Hary Markus. 29 MSzL, p. 890 30 Ibidem, p. 891 31 FCER, Memoria ..., p. 86 32 Rai T„ Bevezetés... 33 Iosif Kaufmann, Evrei luptători în revoluţia românilor din anul 1848 sau o pagină din istoria evreilor români, cap. Numele, întemeierea, vechimea şi istoricul târgului Buhuşi, V. Cimitirul, în Evreii din România în texte istoriografice. Antologie, FCER, Centrul pentru studierea istoriei evreilor din România, Ed Hasefer, Bucureşti, 2002, p. 346. (From now on: Evreii) 99
