Penitential Prayer for the possible communal sin of not suitably honoring the dead.

(CHEVRA KADISHA).

n.p

n.d

Hebrew manuscript written in large square Ashkenazic hand, partially with Nikud. Undated, apparently very old (see description below).

This is a manuscript of an extraordinary prayer composed for a day of fasting and prayer by a Burial Society. Intended to be recited in the cemetery, it begs pardon from God and the deceased, for all manner of impropriety in dealing with the dead, whether accidental or intentional, such as in accidentally moving bones, speaking forbidden words in a cemetery, dishonoring their wishes by not burying them in the family plot, etc. It appears that the purpose of this prayer of atonement was to seek relief from a plague. It is difficult to date this manuscript definitively, but the prayer pointedly refers to the gezerot (massacres) of (5)856 (1096) and 5147 (1387), with a penciled notation “Taf Taf Kuf Mem Zayin” (i.e. 1187). The prayer uses an archaic term for its burial society “Chevra DeKevarnenu.” The more familiar term “Chevra Kadisha” not coming into common usage until the 16th century (see Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, Hevra Kadisha, Encyclopedia Judaica Vol. 8, col. 443). The prayer also expresses concern with Chibut HaKever, the agonies of the grave suffered by the recently deceased in mystical Jewish thought, suggesting a possible link to Ashkenazic Pietists. This manuscript of an unknown penitential Selichah prayer has rich scholarly potential.