Me'a She'arim

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tradition and modernity (photo from 2006)

Me'a She'arim , also Mea Shearim , in Ashkenazi and Yiddish pronunciation Meye Shorim ( Hebrew מאה שערים, German "a hundred times", often translated as "a hundred gates"), is one of the oldest quarters of Jerusalem outside the old town . It is mainly inhabited by ultra-Orthodox Jews .

history

Construction of the Me'a Sche'arim residential complex designed by the German architect Conrad Schick began in 1874. Pious Jews of Jerusalem wanted to escape the tight conditions in the city and had their own settlement built as a self-sufficient cooperative outside the city gates. It was named after a word from the weekly section of the Torah , which was read at the time the Mea Shearim Society was founded: "And Isaac sowed in his land and reaped a hundredfold in that year, for the Lord blessed him." ( Gen 26:12) In 1880, the first hundred small apartments were ready for occupancy, grouped around an open, planted courtyard, which was later replaced by cow stalls. By the turn of the century, a complex small town of its own with around 300 residential units had emerged within Jerusalem. In addition to Orthodox Jews from other parts of Palestine , mainly halachic Jews from Poland and Hungary settled in Me'a She'arim and its immediate vicinity.

present

Main street in Me'a She'arim, 2012
Shield in Me'a She'arim

Me'a She'arim is now a neighborhood in the western part of Jerusalem, where the everyday language is mainly Yiddish . Its inhabitants, who belong to various ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic or misnagdic communities, adhere to the traditional interpretation of the Torah and the Mitzvah , which has been passed on from teacher to student, father to son and mother to their children for more than 3,300 years. In Mea Shearim strict adherence to the true Sabbath rest , the Jewish holidays , the family purity . It is known that the political opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel predominates here. The anti-Zionist organization Neturei Karta from Me'a She'arim should be mentioned.

Mea Shearim has become a tourist attraction and is increasingly featured in travel guides. Multilingual signs at the entrances to the district point out the rules of conduct and clothing that visitors must also observe. Cars are not allowed to run in the neighborhood on Shabbat, all electrical systems operated by humans are switched off, and the use of cameras, mobile phones, etc. on the street is prohibited. The background to this is the Shabbat rest, in which no fire may be made. With regard to this commandment of the Torah , the electric spark and the started car engine are equated with lighting a fire. This type of observance of the Jewish commandments, the Halacha , was practiced by all Jewish communities until the emergence of Reform Judaism in the 19th century. The "switching" of electrical systems of all kinds, up to switching on the room lighting or the spark of a car's spark plug, is the continuation of this old tradition in the modern age.

literature

Web links

Commons : Me'a She'arim  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See more detailed explanations in: Wolfgang Scheel, Lexicon of biblical local names in modern Israel . 3. Edition. Hammerbrücke 2003, ISBN 3-933750-32-6 , p. 102
  2. ↑ Lili Eylon: Jerusalem: Architecture in the late Ottoman Period JewishVirtualLibrary (English) accessed September 6, 2010

Coordinates: 31 ° 47 '  N , 35 ° 13'  E