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Living Spaces, Communal Places: Early Modern Jewish Homes and Religious Devotions

In* the seventeenth century, Juspe Schammes, the sexton of the Worms synagogue, composed a book documenting the various customs of his community, including the details of the synagogue service. On the days when the Torah was read aloud in the synagogue, a set number of men from the community were individually called up by name. Once called up, the man would recite a blessing over the Torah, and remain present next to the Torah scroll at the centre of the synagogue as a section was read aloud. The custom book includes a section listing the occasions on which specific male members of the community were honoured with being called up to the Torah. Communal officials, for example, were honoured with being called to the Torah on particular dates, while other community members celebrating life-cycle events such as marriage or the anniversary of a close relative’s death were called to the Torah on the relevant dates. Included in this list of honourees was a man who moved into a new house.1 This same practice was also observed in Frankfurt am Main, as is reported in the eighteenth-century custom book Minhag ka-tzon Yosef. The author records that: ‘According to the custom in the holy community of Frankfurt, anyone who moves to a different house is obligated [to be called to the Torah] on the first Sabbath [after the move]’.2 This honour may have had roots in the Bible, which exempted a man who had moved into a new home and had not yet dedicated it from serving as a soldier in wartime.3 Nevertheless, the early modern practice demonstrates that moving into a new home was actively considered a momentous event marked by a sacred ritual. This ritual was a public performance that acknowledged a change in domestic life in the space of the larger community. It underscores that rather than constituting two discrete categories, domestic and communal places overlapped, with religious devotion playing a role in both. Being called to the Torah