SEPHARDIC FACTS AND LORE (Datos y Saber)

alhambra.jpg (38805 bytes)
Alhambra – Granada, Spain
The Abravanel House In Ostrow Lubelski Poland
Yes, Poland!
gravestone.jpg (54923 bytes) obelisk.jpg (33267 bytes)
Gravestone of Reina Abravanel
Died 04 February 1540 Obelisk at the Jewish Cemetery – Padua, Italy
Honoring Don Isaac Abravanel
For a description of the expulsion of 1492, as written in 1495, make this link.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1492-jews-spain1.html

 

SEPHARDIC POPULATION FIGURES THROUGH HISTORY
(FROM RUFINA-RUFINA@NETACTIVE.CO.ZA )

12TH Century — 90% of the world’s Jewish populaton
1700 — 50% of the world’s Jewish population
1930 — 10% of the world’s Jewery
1990 — 25% of the world’s Jewery — 60% of Israel’s population

 

TO VIEW THE WESTERN WALL LIVE, 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK, CLICK ON ONE OF THESE LINKS:

Link

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Sephardic Expulsion History With An Abravanel RING To It. Click to open.

The Alhambra Decree

The ABRAVANEL Response
(Reputed to be fictional)

The ABRAVANEL Ring

 

 

RITUALS AND PRACTICES AMONG THE SECRET JEWS OF PORTUGAL

This list can also be indicative of Sephardic origins world wide. New indicators sent by readers of this site will be accepted and added to this list. Our thanks to Joe Sanches web master of www.lusaweb.com , from which this list was taken and Professor Eduardo Mayone Dias, UCLA, EMDias@aol.com, the author of the list.

Told one is Jewish explicitly by parents, grandparents or other relatives. “Somos Judios”

Having Jewish names: Duran, Lopez, etc.

Coming from predominantly anusim villages.

Married los muestros

Speaking Ladino

Secret synagogues; secret prayer groups.

“El Sabado see el dia la gloria”

Avoiding church

Churches without icons.

Lighting candles on Friday night.

Clean house and clothes for Shabbat

Not allowed to do anything on Friday night (not even wash hair).

El Dia Puro (Yom Kippur)

Celebrating a spring holiday.

Fasts: 3 days of Taanit Esther; every Monday and Thursday.

Venerating Jewish saints with celebrations: Santa Esterika, Santo Moises, etc

Eight candles for Christmas

Circumcision consecration on the eight day.

Biblical first names, like Esther

Women taught Tanakh and rules on questions.

Married under “huppah”

Rendering of garments: burial within one day; covering mirrors, spigots in cemeteries

Seven days, then one year of mourning.

Tombstones bearing Hebrew names and Jewish symbols.

Possessing talit and tefillin, mezuzot, Tanakh, and other Jewish object.

Sweeping the floor way from the door.

Possessing kabalistic knowledge and practices.

Ritual slaughter (special knives, tested on hair or nails): covering blood, removing sinew.

Purging, soaking, salting meat.

Avoiding pork (called “unclean”, “Marrano”) and shell fish.

 

BIRTH RITUALS

To place a rooster’s head over the door of the room where the birth will occur.

After the birth, the mother must not uncover herself or change clothes for 30 day.

To throw a silver coin in the baby’s first bath water.

To say a prayer eight days after birth in which the baby’s name is included.

 

WEDDING RITUALS

To fast on the wedding day (both bride and groom, as well as two male friends of the groom and two female friends of the bride).

To bind the bride and groom’s hands with a white cloth while a prayer is said.

To follow the the wedding ceremony with a light meal consisting of a glass of wine, salt, bitter herbs, honey, an apple and unleavened bread.

At the wedding ceremony the bride and groom eat and drink out of the same plate and glass.

FUNERAL RITUALS

To have ritual meals to which a beggar is invited and serve the food the deceased liked best.

To throw away all the water in the home of the deceased.

To go to the deceased’s room for eight days and say: “May G-d give you a good night. You were once like us, we will be like you.”

Not to shave for 30 days after the death of a relative.

Not to eat meat for one week after a death in the family, then fast on the third and eight day and once every three months for one year.

To make the deceased’s bed with fresh linen and to burn a light by it for one year.

To keep the deceased’s room lit for one week.

To place flour and food around the deceased’s bed.

To keep the deceased’s place at the table, fill his or her plate and give the food to a beggar.

To purify (desintreflar, from Treph), the house after a death (presumably after a priest had entered it for the last rites)

Female relatives cover their heads with a scarf and hide there faces with a shawl and say the following prayer:

May G-d save you now

that you passed away.

You were alive as we were.

We will be like you.

To heaven where you now are.

Pray to the Lord for us,

In this valley of tears,

We will pray to the Lord for you.

 

To wash the body with water brought from the fountain in a new container and dress it in white clothes.

To pass a gold or silver coin over the mouth of the deceased, and then give the coin to a beggar.

To pass a coin and piece of bread over the eyes of the deceased.

To clip the deceased’s nails (or at least a couple of them) as well as a few hairs and wrap everything in a piece of paper or cloth.

To place a piece of bread on the deceased’s bed and say: “Take it, leave the deceased’s soul alone while it crosses the Jordan River”.

To give alms at every corner before the funeral procession reaches the cemetery.

To give a beggar a complete suit of clothes and a meal at least during the Sabbath for one year.

To have several lights lit on Yom Kippur eve in memory of the deceased.

Never eat pork.

Burning human nails and hair after cut.

“Nuestro padre, Abran.”

Mourning for one year and wearing black.

Covering mirrors or turning them to the wall upon death.

Male baby circumcised within eight days. Mother did not come around for 30 days.

Sweep floor to the middle of the room.

“El Sabado es el dia de Gloria”

“Por los siglos de los siglos Santos, liberanos, Senor Dio de nuestros enemigos.

 

CONTRIBUTED FROM OTHER SOURCES

 

Place a pebble on a tombstone to mark a visit of a loved one.

“I can’t eat pork, it makes me sick.”

Light candles on Friday nights, many times, with the curtains drawn.

Go to the country and have a picnic on Yom Kippur.

Use of Olive oil rather than lard. (23)

Wash and salt meat to draw out blood. (23)

Excess fat trimmed away. (23)

Removal of sciatic vein from the legs of cattle prior to cooking. (23)

Bakers remove a small piece of dough and throw it into the fire prior to baking.(23)

Pour water out of a house where an inhabitant died. (23)

Turn the face of a dying person toward the wall.(23)

Mourners sit at lower than normal heights to include the floor.

Mourners do not wear shoes made of leather.

Male mourners refrain from shaving or cutting hair.

Mourners do not go to work for 7 days.

The following activities of pleasure are to be avoided for 7 days.
Bathing or shower for comfort.
Sexual relations.
Use of new or freshly laundered clothing.

Refusal to pray to the statues of Catholic Saints.

Belief in the Evil Eye.

A woman is unclean for 40 days after child birth.

A complete house cleaning every Friday.

Before every Easter, the home was cleaned. Special foods to include bitter floweres were eaten. (Passover)

Women were buried in a simple wooden case. The body was to be wrapped in a white sheet.

The dead were buried within 24 hours, after which followed a seven day morning period.

 

 

 

A LIST OF FIRSTS

Luis de Torres, interpreter for Columbus, was the first settler of Jewish origin in the New World. He settled in Cuba.

Hernando Alonso, a conquistador who accompanied Cortes to Mexico in 1521, was the first Converso to be burned at the stake in the New World for secretly practicing Judaism.

The first Portuguese landing in Brazil was Gaspar da Gama, in 1500. He was forced to convert in 1497.

Michael Cardoso was the first Jewish lawyer in the Western Hemisphere. He practiced in Reciffe, Brazil, in 1645. (Provided by Ben Nahman.)

The first Jew to be awarded England’s Victoria Cross was Lieutenant Frank Alexander de Pass, 34th Poona Horse. The award was made posthumously on 25 November 1914.

Diego de Padilla was the first crypto Jew executed in Argentina by the inquisition. He was burned at the stake in 1579.

David Camden de Leon was the first Surgeon General of the Army of the Confederate States of America.

Gershem Mendez Sexias – The first native born U.S. rabbi.

Francis Salvador was the first Jew to die in the American Revolutionary War. He died in combat leading 300 troops against indians incited by the British on 1 August 1776.

Uriah P. Levy was the first Jew to obtain the rank of Commodore in the United States Navy.

AND A FEW LASTS

The last known person to be executed by the Mexican inquisition was Father Jose Maria Hildago y Costill. He was accused of both Lutherism and Judaism and shot by the army in 1811. (Halevy)

The last known person to be tired and sentenced to burn at the stake in Mexico was a Franciscan monk in 1795. He was instead jailed and liberated in 1821 during the revolution. (Halevy)

 

 

A VIRTUAL WORLDWIDE SEPHARDIC TOUR

Touro Synagouge, dedicated in 1762, is the oldest synagouge in the United States. It was founded in 1658 by Sephardic descendants of the Marranos who fled the inquisition. It has been designated A National Historic Site.

Sephardic Synagouge, Venice, Italy. Founded in 1541.

Kahal Shalom Synagogue, Rhodes, Greece. Since 1577.

Sephardic Synagogue, Amsterdam, 1675. And still more about the Portuguese Synagouge of Amsterdam.

Bevis Marks Synagogue. London, England, 1701

Mikve Israel-Emanuel, of Curacao, the oldest synagouge in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere, will celebrate their 300 anniversery in the year 2001.

Welcome To Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue (Thanks to Betty Ludlow)

Welcome To Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, Curacao, NL

Click on door to enter
pulse aqui para entrar

 

Link to a 7 part medieval code dealing with the rights and non-rights of Jews in Castile in the 14th century. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/jews-sietepart.html

 

VIRTUAL SEPHARDIC TOUR OF IBERIA

CORDOBA, STATUE OF MAIMONIDES

TOLEDO, SINAGOGA DE SANTA MARIA LA BLANCA

TOLEDO, SPAIN PAGE (Jeff Jarrett)

TOLEDO, SINAGOGA SANTA MARIA LA BLANCA (by Edward Victor)

GIRONE, JUDERIA

LA JUDERIA DE SEVILLA

LA JUDERIA VETULA, TUDELA

JUDERIA PLACENTINA, PLACENCIA

THE HOUSE OF DON MIGUEL DE MANARA, SEVILLE

THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES (Spanish Language version) OF CACERES/CORDOBA/GIRONA/HERVAS/RIBADAVIA/SEGOVIA/TOLEDO/TUDELA.
(English language version (Click on “Routes of Sepharad”)

SINAGOGAS SEGUNTINAS-SIGUENZA’S SYNAGOGUES

THE JEWS OF BIEL

FROM THE SEPHARDIC EDUCATIONAL CENTER, VIEWS OF SEPHARDIC INTEREST IN SEGOVIA, TOLEDO AND XATIVA.

BUILDINGS AND SITES OF JEWISH INTEREST IN SPAIN (IN SPANISH)