Beth Kevaroth: House of the dead: Jewish mourning rites

Abstract

The Jewish Diaspora has begun back in the classical era with the conquests of the Roman Empire, and has never finished. Since this period, Jews have been populating the Balkan countries. In Serbia, this is particularly characteristic of a later period - the Middle Ages and the New Age, when Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews began to inhabit Serbian cities and towns. Jews were a peaceful urban population, skilled tradesmen and craftsmen, educated people with relatively developed business relationships overseas. Although they have lived for centuries in a different environment, Jews preserved their specific ethnic and religious identity. The Jewish religion is Judaism, and their unconditional respect for the Torah and the Talmud has resulted in preserving essential foundations of the whole system of Jewish customs, rules and regulations, which defined their life in the broadest sense. Therefore Jewish religious and traditional beliefs are universal for all Jews, wherever they live. In Serbia, as in all other countries, Jews have fitted into the environment and shared the fate of their neighbors, but in cultural, religious and traditional terms, they have been a world in itself. The Jewish mourning rites represent a very complex ritual system with a special place in human minds. The 'Beth Kevaroth - House of The Dead' is an article about Jewish customs regarding death and burial, based on which one can look at a specific, essentially different culture than the culture of Serbs and other Christian communities, despite some similarities in procedures and even some ideas.