Vestibule (synagogue)
Many synagogues are built with an anteroom so that the main room of the synagogue cannot be accessed directly from the street.
The floor of the main room is then often a little lower than the floor of the anteroom, according to Psalm 130:
Designation variants
This vestibule is also known as the porch or vestibule or in Yiddish as Pallisch (פאליש), perhaps from Latin Palas , sometimes also as Polis.
Religious rationale
This porch is supposed to remind of the "Ehara" called forecourt of the Jerusalem temple . The Polish Rabbi Joel Sirkasch referred to the Jerusalem Talmud in the 17th century . This teaches that a synagogue not only needs one door, but two doors in a row. This is intended to promote a dignified transition from the secular outside world to the sacred area of the synagogue.
Function and equipment
In the anteroom there is often a washbasin known as a kijor for ritual cleaning. In addition, this anteroom is used for the inner collection. In it can tallit and tefillin are created. At weddings it serves as a waiting room for the bride and groom. In the event of death, the mourner can stay here. On those feast days when the priest is not allowed to give the blessing on the people or when he is not allowed to appear for the Torah , he can stay in this room.
Occurrence in the synagogues
The medieval Regensburg synagogue already had such a porch. In 1817, after a bitter struggle against the local government, the Jewish community in Floß obtained permission to add a porch to the newly built synagogue . This porch was built, immediately demolished by the local government, then rebuilt after lengthy tough negotiations and finally completely removed by the Nazis in 1938 - the synagogue remained standing. The newly built Munich synagogue also has an anteroom with a kijor.
See also
Narrow, single-storey vestibules at the main entrance of early Christian and Byzantine churches are also called narthexes .
Church vestibules in general are also referred to as signs .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Lucie Hotová: Židovské synagogy 18. a 19. století v západních Čechách Bakalářská práce, Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, Filozofická Faculty, Katedra archeologie, 2013, p. 18
- ↑ a b c d Michael Brenner (ed.), Renate Höpfinger (ed.): Die Juden in der Oberpfalz , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag (December 1, 2008), ISBN 3486586785 , ISBN 978-3486586787 , pp. 35-37
- ↑ http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/floss_synagoge.htm