Transcript
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okay we're here in the balcony of the
bis Mark synagogue with the esteemed RV
Rabbi Shalom moris and he's going to
share with us some of the Customs man
hug him of this historic synagogue and
Community thank you so the thing that's
that's amazing about bis marks I mean
it's amazing it's a historic building
you know hundreds of years old but the
community that prays here there're
they're the the same Community the
community has been here without
interruption since it was opened in 1701
we think it's probably the only sh in
the world that has maintained
uninterrupted um communal Jewish life
here so you know we've been on during
the week and every Shabbat uh and so on
and so as a result the has been able to
preserve all of its minhagim in terms of
you know specific costumes melodies the
even the sedor we have a slightly
different uh seedor than most than even
most other Safari communities um and so
we actually have to print our own our
own uh sorim you can't just you know get
them at the local uh uh Judea shop um
and so we've been able to preserve
everything from like specific kind of
like classic minhagim in terms of you
know do you stand at this time do you
sit at that time to things that are a
bit more nuanced so for example when we
take out the SRA Torah here so when the
Torah comes out the person taking it out
has to walk extremely fast but when we
return it there's like a a very slow
song which is sng right the mmore and
the person walks I mean like incredibly
slowly to get back and the whole idea is
that it's supposed to represent when we
take out the Torah you're running to to
open it when you take it back you're
you're reluctant so it's just a minog
most people don't necessar even realize
you know that's why they're doing what
they're doing but in fact there's like a
reason behind the minhagim that we have
here another great one I like is fact
what uh here when the uh we call the
right the Aron is
opened in theory you don't have to stand
up it's only when the Torah is actually
moving so most times when it's opened
you're taking the tour out so everybody
is standing up but we have certain times
here on yum kipur where we actually
leave the Aron open the entire doing and
then people are standing and sitting at
different times so it's become practice
that whenever the Aron is open
emotionals everyone is just stands but
here the minhag is kind of the the
original Hala which is only when this
Torah is moving do you have to uh stand
up if it's not moving then there's no uh
there's no you know reason to to
necessarily uh do so um I mean there's
lots there's lots of so this week is Zar
so is there a specific we don't we don't
repeat it twice okay we de say what the
word actually is so um so that's uh
that's one particular uh difference we
have our own specific Melodies that we
have for the reading of the Milla it's
people walk in here and there's always a
bit of a kind of like a moment regular
yes yeah than other Safari communities
so for example our SEF Tor have cloth
covers not hard covers so the Spanish
and Portuguese people often refer to
them as the Western sefarim they they
come from Spain and they've shall we say
preserved the original customs of Spain
obviously many Jews left Spain and went
to North Africa and Middle East and so
the communities have evolved over the
centuries but we've maintained our
original practices so there may be
certain things that fine is sh that we
do differently cuz our community was
existing at the at the same time and so
we've just continued doing what it is
that we've been doing so uh I mean I
I've been doing a lot of research and
and speaking about the minhagim because
they're actually really interesting so I
have I also have a YouTube channel so if
anyone's interested the Western Safar
you can uh learn about kind of all kinds
of varieties of the minhagim but I
always know the best thing to do is is
is come come you know spend a shabat
experience uh it for yourself it's uh
it's an amazing experience ashkan aim
come in here and they say oh this is not
what we used to sarum come in here and
they say this not what we're used to
it's really it's like one of the
remnants of what Jewish life was like if
you would have gone to Europe you know
100 years ago every town would have had
different minhagim you would have had
different Melodies and nowadays
everything is kind of homogenized you
know this is what ashkanazi do this is
what sfarim do this is like one of the
last remnants of what it actually meant
for like a community over centuries to
have preserved a specific way of doing
things so whether it's some somebody's
actual Min hog I find that coming and
experiencing it is really uh quite
powerful experience that kind of sense
of connecting with you know this
authentic Jewish life that dates back
buil in 1701 but the Customs that are
preserved here are Spanish Portuguese
that's right they go back earlier so
even though this community was
established in the middle of 1600s we
know that the MIM here were based on
what they were doing in Amsterdam in
Amsterdam dates back to the early 1600s
what they're doing in Amsterdam was
modeled after what was happening let's
say in Venice right and Venice is
populated by Jews who actually left in
1492 so basically there's like this
relationship between these various what
they call Western Safari communities
that were basically all kind of learning
from each other and preserving so it has
some Italian flare and some it does it
does some from Amsterdam that's right
the the character of the feels very much
like that I the melody sometimes I feel
like walking into Renaissance Italy it
has like a very kind of like uh for lack
of a better term like high Church kind
of feel to it that's an English term you
know like it's it it's very kind of
melodious
everything would you share with us the
opening PK of Milla sester
do they have special melodies for let's
say for specific verses or the melody
carries throughout the entire Migel
beautiful so all of the various kind of
uh uh mot they all have their own
melodies the specific melodies for tiab
every K has its own Melody really it's
different kote than what you'd be used
to each one has its own Melody that's
used for it sh K are they all the same
or each one has a different they're all
different we we don't do cohet that's
not part of the Min Haim here to do that
one but for the other ones we uh we do
so it's a it's a whole it's a whole
world it's a whole world yeah there's a
lot of work to maintain it and it's all
been passed down you know we people in
the community who grew up with this are
there any s
that record yeah there so in the early
to mid 1900s there was the a baon here
who's name was gagin gagin and he
published a work called
kemto and it's a multivolume work which
preserves the minhagim of the spash and
Portuguese but he actually grew up in
Yim so he also records what the Customs
were were you know in the Safari
communities in Yim in Egypt um as well
as what these Western Safari communities
too so it's a great resource to kind of
know what you know what what was
happening and uh I'll often look it up
to to kind of query is something we're
doing now has that changed or are we
still doing what he said we should do
really okay yeah thank you for your time
thank you so much nice to have you thank
you for
