Safed Old Jewish Cemetery | |
---|---|
בית העלמין היהודי העתיק בצפת | |
Details | |
Established | 14th century |
Location | |
Country | Israel |
Coordinates | 32°58′06″N35°29′20″E / 32.9683°N 35.4890°E |
Type | Jewish |
Size | 150 dunams |
The ancient Jewish cemetery in Safed is one of the oldest cemeteries in Israel. It has served for many centuries as a burial place for the local residents, including prominent and important figures in the heritage of Israel. The cemetery is located along the western slope of the city of Safed, at the end of Ari Street, down Mount Canaan, facing the Amud Stream and overlooking the Sea of Galilee. [1]
Every year, more than 700,000 people visit the graves of the righteous at the site, which according to tradition includes the graves of Tannaim, Amoraim, Kabbalists, and many Rebbes. [1]
Near the ancient cemetery is the "new cemetery of Safed". On its northern side is the military cemetery of Safed, located on the mountainside, and nearby is the monument in memory of the seven martyrs of the gallows. At the entrance to the cemetery is the Ari's mikveh. [1]
The earliest mention is by a student of Obadiah of Bertinoro in 1495, who mentions the cemetery and the grave of the prophet Hosea son of Beeri. Around 1635, Gershon ben Eliezer Segal describes the village of Ein Zeitun: "Ein Zeitun has a built and closed synagogue with a Torah scroll. And to the north of the village, Beit Chaim." [2]
The old cemetery spans an area estimated at one hundred and fifty dunams. Due to earthquakes and soil erosion, it is sometimes possible to find graves above graves in the cemetery. [3]
From the 18th century, a separation in burial was created between the members of the Ashkenazi community and the members of the Sephardic community. Most of the Sephardim were buried in the northern part of the cemetery. Occasionally, Sephardic burials can be found in burial caves in the southern part. In the year 5776 (2015), Dr. Nissan Sharifi, a lawyer and law lecturer, discovered the exact burial place of the Radbaz, following an in-depth research in which Dr. Sharifi reviewed many sources that indicated that the Radbaz was buried to the right of the grave of Rabbi Moshe Mitrani (the Mabit), in the Ari's burial plot, who was his student in Egypt. [4] Thus, on the 21st of Cheshvan 5776, the first celebration was held at the grave of the Radbaz, after more than a hundred years of the grave's disappearance due to natural forces (earthquakes and soil erosion) combined with poor preservation of the ancient cemetery in Safed. [5] [3] [6]
Most of the members of the Ashkenazi community in the city were buried in the southern part of the cemetery. [6]
Most of the graves in this section are from the 20th century and are very crowded. Among others, the section includes the graves of those who fell during the siege of Acre in the War of Independence. [7]
After the establishment of the state, two new sections were established for Ashkenazim and Sephardim. [7]
Name | Period | Source of Tradition | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Hosea ben Beeri | 8th century BCE | Student of Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro (1495 CE) | Biblical figure, prophet |
Beeri | Rabbi Moshe Basola (1522 CE) | ||
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah | 2nd century CE | Rabbi Chaim Vital (1570 CE) | Tanna |
Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta | |||
Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair | Rabbi Naftali Hertz Bachrach (1648 CE) | ||
The Child from Kfar Sakhin | Rabbi Avraham Yishmael Chai Sanguinetti (1742 CE) | Figure from the Zohar literature | |
Descendants of the Child from Kfar Sakhin | |||
Rabbi Yossi bar Yaakov | |||
Rabbi Chiya from the Zohar | |||
Rabbi Abba from the Zohar | |||
Rabbi Yehuda from the Zohar | |||
Rabbi Hezekiah bar Rav | |||
Rabbi Yossi from the Zohar | |||
Rav Saadia Gaon | 9th century CE | Gaon | |
Rabbi Bahya ibn Paquda | 11th century CE | First, exact location unknown | |
Rabbi Elazar ben Arach | 1st century CE | Rabbi Yosef Sofer (circa 1760) | Tanna, exact location unknown |
Martyrs of the Court | 1st century CE | Rabbi Simcha ben Yehoshua of Zalazitz (1764 CE) | Before the destruction |
Mother of the Child from Kfar Sakhin | 2nd century CE | Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kaminetz (1838 CE) | Figure from the Zohar literature |
Hannah and her seven sons | 2nd century BCE / 1st century CE | Rabbi Moshe Reisher (1850 CE) | Exact location unknown |
The Shulchan Aruch, sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Ottoman Syria by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later. Together with its commentaries, it is the most widely accepted compilation of halakha or Jewish law ever written.
Sephardic law and customs are the law and customs of Judaism which are practiced by Sephardim or Sephardic Jews ; the descendants of the historic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula, what is now Spain and Portugal. Many definitions of "Sephardic" also include Mizrahi Jews, most of whom follow the same traditions of worship as those which are followed by Sephardic Jews. The Sephardi Rite is not a denomination nor is it a movement like Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, and other Ashkenazi Rite worship traditions. Thus, Sephardim comprise a community with distinct cultural, juridical and philosophical traditions.
Ovadia Yosef was an Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, a posek, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983, and a founder and long-time spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party. Yosef's responsa were highly regarded within Haredi circles, particularly among Mizrahi communities, among whom he was regarded as "the most important living halakhic authority".
In Jewish law and history, Acharonim are the leading rabbis and poskim living from roughly the 16th century to the present, and more specifically since the writing of the Shulchan Aruch in 1563 CE.
In Judaism, Nusach is the exact text of a prayer service; sometimes the English word "rite" is used to refer to the same thing. Nusakh means "formulate" or "wording".
Bereavement in Judaism is a combination of minhag (traditions) and mitzvah (commandments) derived from the Torah and Judaism's classical rabbinic literature. The details of observance and practice vary according to each Jewish community.
David ben Solomon ibn (Abi) Zimra (1479–1573) also called Radbaz (רַדְבָּ"ז) after the initials of his name, Rabbi David ben Zimra, was an early Acharon of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries who was a leading posek, rosh yeshiva, chief rabbi, and author of more than 3,000 responsa as well as several scholarly works.
Har HaMenuchot is the largest cemetery in Jerusalem. The hilltop burial ground lies at the western edge of the city adjacent to the neighborhood of Givat Shaul, with commanding views of Mevaseret Zion to the north, Motza to the west, and Har Nof to the south. Opened in 1951 on 300 dunams of land, it has continually expanded into new sections on the northern and western slopes of the hill. As of 2008, the cemetery encompasses 580 dunams in which over 150,000 people are buried.
The Ohr ha-Chaim Synagogue, is a Kabbalistic Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Ohr ha-Chaim Street, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. The synagogue was named in honour of Chaim ibn Attar.
The Ashkenazi Ari Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Israel Najara Street, in Safed, in the Northern District of Israel.
Nusach Sefard, Nusach Sepharad, or Nusach Sfard is the name for various forms of the Jewish siddurim, designed to reconcile Ashkenazi customs with the kabbalistic customs of Isaac Luria. To this end it has incorporated the wording of Nusach Edot haMizrach, the prayer book of Sephardi Jews, into certain prayers. Nusach Sefard is used nearly universally by Hasidim, as well as by some other Ashkenazi Jews but has not gained significant acceptance by Sephardi Jews. Some Hasidic dynasties use their own version of the Nusach Sefard siddur, sometimes with notable divergence between different versions.
The History of the Jews in Amsterdam focuses on the historical center of the Dutch Jewish community, comprising both Portuguese Jews originally from both Spain and Portugal and Ashkenazi Jews, originally from central Europe. The two separate groups have had a continuing presence since the seventeenth century. Amsterdam has been called a Jerusalem of the West and the "Dutch Jerusalem". The Holocaust in the Netherlands devastated the Jewish community, with the Nazis murdering some 75% of the approximately 80,000 Jews at time present in Amsterdam, but the community has managed to rebuild a vibrant and living Jewish life for its approximately 15,000 present members.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah waves, and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. Unlike the New Yishuv, characterized by secular and Zionist ideologies promoting labor and self-sufficiency, the Old Yishuv primarily consisted of religious Jews who relied on external donations (halukka) for support.
From about 1590 on, there had been a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg, whose qehilla existed until its compulsory merger with the Ashkenazi congregation in July 1939. The first Sephardic settlers were Portuguese Marranos, who had fled their country under Philip II and Philip III, at first concealing their religion in their new place of residence. Many of them had emigrated from Spain in the belief that they had found refuge in Portugal.
Nusach Ashkenaz is a style of Jewish liturgy conducted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is primarily a way to order and include prayers, and differs from Nusach Sefard and Baladi-rite prayer, and still more from the Sephardic rite proper, in the placement and presence of certain prayers.
The history of the Jews in Kyrgyzstan is linked directly to the history of the Bukharan Jews of Uzbekistan. Until the 20th century, most Jews living in the Kyrgyz areas were of the Bukharian Jewish community. However, during the 20th century, large amounts of European Jews began to emigrate to Kyrgyzstan which was then part of the Soviet Union, and a small amount of them still live in the country.
Sanhedria Cemetery is a 27-dunam (6.67-acre) Jewish burial ground in the Sanhedria neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the intersection of Levi Eshkol Boulevard, Shmuel HaNavi Street, and Bar-Ilan Street. Unlike the Mount of Olives and Har HaMenuchot cemeteries that are located on the outer edges of the city, Sanhedria Cemetery is situated in the heart of western Jerusalem, in proximity to residential housing. It is operated under the jurisdiction of the Kehilat Yerushalayim chevra kadisha and accepts Jews from all religious communities. As of the 2000s, the cemetery is nearly filled to capacity.
The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives is the oldest and most important Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives has been a traditional Hebrew/Jewish burial location since antiquity, and the main present-day cemetery portion is approximately five centuries old, having been first leased from the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf in the sixteenth century. The cemetery contains anywhere between 70,000 and 150,000 tombs, including the tombs of famous figures in early modern Jewish history. It is considered to be the largest and holiest historical Jewish cemetery on earth.
The OId Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located on the slopes of Trebević mountain, in the Kovačići-Debelo Brdo area, in the south-western part of the city. It is the largest Jewish cemetery in Southeast Europe, and second largest sepulchral complex in Europe after the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. It was in use for approximately four hundred years from the beginning of the 16th or 17th century, but most likely from 1630 until 1966.
The Filantropia Israelite Cemetery in Bucharest is an Ashkenazi Jews cemetery located in Sector 1, Bucharest. It is one of three active Jewish cemeteries still in existence in Bucharest.