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The Jewish cemetery is to be found on
the road to Padubysys. So far, I haven’t found any documentation telling me
when this cemetery was laid out and what the names were of the people who are
buried there. According to Stefa, one of our eye-witnesses, the cemetery was
laid out as soon as the Jewish community had settled in Rozalimas (in the 19th
century). According to Vanda (the author of the book ‘Rozalimas’) the names
of the Jewish people who were buried at the cemetery were: Noskis and Vilpkis
Machatas. Lapida and Judelis (the tailor) died just before the big tragedy and
were buried at the Jewish cemetery of Rozalimas in 1941.
There is a memorial stone on the edge
of the cemetery, erected in the 1980th. The epitaph on the memorial stone reads:
This is the old Jewish cemetery from Rozalimas. ‘Let them rest in peace’.
The plaque (reading this text) was stolen recently. Up till now it’s only the
picture that remains ...
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Eye-witnesses told me men and women
walked together behind the bier, but at the end of the communityborder of
Rozalimas/Padubysys the women returned home. I was told that when the mourners
went home, they took sand from the cemetery with them.
Let’s ponder a bit on how the Jewish
people take care of their dead and of their burying according to the laws of
their religion. When a person has died, members of the Jewish undertaker’s
business, called the ‘Chevrah Kadiesjah’ take care of the dead body and
treat it with respect. The body is dead, but the soul of this dead human being
isn’t. His/her soul goes back to God and the human body has served as a
dwelling place for his/her soul. The Jewish men take care of the male corpse and
the Jewish women take care of the female corpse. They wash, clean, dress it in
white graveclothes and put it in a coffin which is without any luxury: The wood
is plain and pure.
Before screwing down the coffin the
members of the ‘Chevrah Kadiesjah’ throw some soil from ‘Erets-Israel’
into the coffin. Finally they light a candle or another light and put it next to
the head of the dead body. This light serves as a symbol of the soul that has
left the dead body already, and has gone back to God. People, friends, relatives,
neighbours and members of the ‘Chevrah Kediesjah’ keep watch over the corpse.
They quote the Psalms, they read passages from the Holy Scripture and they
‘lern’ while keeping watch over the dead body. Then the coffin is carried to
the cemetery, where a grave was dug. The Hebrew name for cemetery is:
‘Beth-Hagajjiem’ which means dwelling of the living. The coffin is laid down
in the grave and the closest relation to the deceased person throws three spades
full of earth into the grave. The other mourners follow his example. In the end,
when the grave is covered completely with earth, and one has quoted a passage
from Ecclesiastes, one says the ‘Kaddiesj’ through which one praises and
honours God and pronounces his/her trust in God and knows that God’s Kingdom
will come for ever and ever. Then people leave the cemetery, but before they do
so, they comfort the mourners by saying: “May the Holy One blessed be He
comfort you amongst all the people who mourn Zion and Jerusalem”. After
returning home they sit down and eat a very light meal together like bread and
eggs. For the relatives the ‘Sjivah’ has begun, the 7 days of mourning. On
the last day of the ‘Sjivah’ one of the members of the ‘Chevrah Kediesjah’
visits the mourning family for the last time. He/She quotes Jesaja 60:20 in
which comfort and the ultimate trust in God is pronounced.
The ‘Sjivah’ is finished and
normal life starts again.
The relatives who had lost one of
their dearest still have to consider a period of mourning of one year for their
father or mother, counted from the day of death. For other relatives there is a
30 days period of mourning, counted from the day of burial. During the whole
year of mourning the relatives keep the ner-tamied (the light of either a candle
or a small lamp) burning for the deceased, in this way expressing their piety.
After a certain period of time members of the ‘Chevrah Kediesjah’ laid the
commemorative stone upon the grave. Very soon afterwards the relatives of the
deceased, accompanied by friends and neighbours go to the cemetery to attend the
ceremony of the revelation of the gravestone or the headstone. Jewish attendants
quote some Psalms and read some passages from the Misjnah (which is a part of
the oral Torah). Finally, people go home leaving the deceased in peace.
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| In the picture of the headstone above
the ‘Magen David’, the star of David, is clearly visible. Unfortunately the
text can’t be read anymore , but at the top two letters in Hebrew can be read
clearly, the P and the N, PN, which means: either Po Niqbar
or Po Nitman (
either buried or put away here). I just wondered: Could it be the headstone of
Irshkis’ grave who was shot dead in the forest of Rozalimas? Could it be
Simse
Machatas’ headstone who was shot dead next to an oak-tree outside Rozalimas. |
| The picture above shows the remains of
either a gravestone or a headstone. At this Jewish cemetery we saw more remains
of gravestones, but we couldn’t read the epitaphs on them anymore. Normally,
on such a gravestone one can find a lot of information concerning the person who
is buried, but now we can only guess. The text on the gravestone is written in
Hebrew, sometimes together with a translation in the native language of the
country where one is buried. Sometimes, on the gravestone, a pair of blessing
hands (referring to the Cohens; the priests), sometimes a jug with a washbowl (referring
to the Levites, the servants of the Temple) can be distinguished. On gravestones,
one can also find the image of a shofar, ram’s horn trumpet, (referring to the
person who blew the shofar at the various religious occasions) or the image of
the instruments of the mohel (the person who does the circumcision when the
baby-boy aged eight days enters into the convenant with God, ordered by God
since the days of Abraham). |
