50,000 Jews celebrate the most unknown religious holiday in Spain: "We are not restricted by anything or anyone"
It is a Friday in the year 5874. While the sun sets when the late summer marks it, the sky, already slightly orange, prepares to welcome the night and thus emerge the first star. Everything seems to remain as if a single day had passed since yesterday, a Thursday in 2023. Although, paradoxically, this is. The key: reading it from a Jewish perspective, whose community welcomes Rosh Hashanah or head of the year in Spanish. A first day of the Tishri month – September 15 – that differs from the date marked last year due to the lunar calendar, whose variation provides a unique and unmemorable feature to each celebration.
Precisely, the appearance of the pristine star marks the beginning of the festivity that opens with a very intimate dinner. In it, family and friends attend to culinary matters, in addition to beginning a deep introspective period culminated by Yom Kippur – the tenth day of Tishri or September 25 -. When the almanac marks it, as the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, Isaac Benzaquén, points out, “it will be the most sacred day. It will be the day of forgiveness.”. Likewise, on this date they will ask God to inscribe them in the Book of life.
Yesterday, so present in the Jewish community, is also reflected in the Madrid house of Emilio Abraham, where past traditions remain.. Despite declaring himself a “non-believer”, the host follows, to the letter, the ritual that characterizes the dinner. In this sense, he points out that his position on religion “does not change the issue” to celebrate the holiday, and that is why he goes so far as to bless the bread in Hebrew or put on the kippah during the process.
The banquet is arranged symbolically, a very important word in this culture. The table is filled with typical dishes and the two main Jewish worlds are emulsified: Ashkenazi and Sephardic.. The first is characterized by a sober cuisine, since its origin from Eastern Europe prioritizes the consumption of fish or tubers without additives.. For its part, the Sephardic oozes sweetness due to the adoption of Maghreb and Turkish flavors.. Pomegranates, apples or dates make sweetness the main characteristic of said cuisine.
Emilio celebrating the Jewish new year.
Simultaneously in Torremolinos, Isaac rejoices the arrival of the new year. He focuses his speech on the religious aspect. And as an official representative of the 50,000 Jews in Spain, he indicates that the celebration “reminds us of the creation of the world and that today we are a people with practically the same traditions.”. To which he adds: “It makes you feel very proud of who you are.”. An honor that increases when describing the freedom of worship that they have in the country. “We are not restricted by anything or anyone. “There is total respect for the Jewish people by the society in which we live.”. Furthermore, it denotes that, “happily”, the time in which they were restricted “is now over.”. An allusion without a specific recipient, since he admits “not having experienced any episode of anti-Semitism”; rather it is a reference to the history of its people.
Without deviating from that line, and deepening his faith, he reasons: “These two days are intense prayers to ask God for forgiveness for the incorrect behavior we have had.”. Not only for the eternal, but for society, he emphasizes.. “Because if there is something important for the Jew, it is society: how you behave and what values you bring to it.”
Saturday arrives and the ceremonies continue. Around 8:00 p.m., in the discreet and Madrid Masorti synagogue of Bet-El (House of God), liturgical songs in Hebrew begin the third service of the day. The event is officiated by Rabbi Mario Karpuj, an Argentinean who came from the Promised Land itself.. Symbolically, he guards the four objects that the faithful see during the rite: starting on his right, and left of the adepts, the chair of the prophet Elijah; a crown representing the Torah; in the center, a glass cabinet that shelters the sacred writings covered by a veil and, finally, a lit candelabrum to remember the sanctity of the sabbat to the left.. At specific moments, Gastón Roife, also Argentine and president of Bet-El, helps the religious leader with reading.. For him, everything that surrounds the celebration of Rosh Hashanah “is a special moment wherever you are”. Although, paradoxically, he considers that the “outside world does not know him and probably does not understand him.”
Rabbi Mario Karpuj hugging a person before the religious service.
An hour later the temple lights go out. At the end, many are already thinking about the abundant dinner that follows.. Although to get to the house of Hernán Dobry, the host, you have to walk. A characteristic act because during Saturday and festivities they are prohibited from traveling, whether by car, bicycle, motorcycle, train or plane.. Curiously, it is during the journey when the rabbi and his two companions return to the earthly world, as football becomes a topic of conversation with which to liven up the 60 minutes that the journey lasts.
Upon arriving at Hernán's house, a great banquet is arranged for the diners, just like on Friday.. These are numbered at 20, and their Argentine origin means that these days are when “they miss their loved ones the most”. “That's why we meet with friends, who, in a way, are our new family,” he confesses.. The dinner, surrounded by a religious atmosphere, ends early Sunday morning and is linked, with a brief interruption of sleep, to the morning service.. A moment long awaited by the faithful as the shofar sounds, a horn that acts as a wind instrument whose sound calls to the most human feelings and “produces a lot of emotion,” explains Isaac.. Its function is to awaken or lift up the Jewish people and face the year awake.
It is from then on that prayers spread the most. Today, Saturday, September 23, and after a little more than a week traveling the path of forgiveness, there are two days left for Yom Kippur to symbolically close three Books: the Book of Life – all those that God includes in it will live that year -, that of the deceased – who will perish – and that which welcomes the people who still ask their deity for remission. Along with the latter, “repentance and reconciliation,” Isaac emphasizes, are the words that will lead his actions to continue the life cycle 5874 years later.