A schulklopfer (or shulklopfer; from Yiddish 'synagogue knocker'[1]) is the person who calls a Jewish community to prayer in the local synagogue.[2][3]
The schulklopfer was usually a beadle, who would perform the task by wandering around the community, knocking on each household's door early in the morning.[2] In Neustadt, he would knock four times. Israel Isserlein, a rabbi from Neustadt, argued that this pattern encoded the biblical phrase "I shall come to thee and bless thee"[4][2] In the Rhine, the custom was to strike thrice.[2]
In mediaeval Eastern Europe, the schulklopfer also had the role of individually inviting people to marriage ceremonies (nissuin); the invitations were made to the entire community by the schulklopfer on the morning of the marriage ceremony itself (such ceremonies were usually an evening affair).[5]
The name stems from the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) in the Middle Ages.[2] Christians in nearby communities sometimes referred to schulklopfers as campanatores (a Latin term meaning bell-strikers) or as Glöckner (German for bell-striker).[2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Wexler, Paul (2006). Jewish and Non-Jewish Creators of "Jewish" Languages: With Special Attention to Judaized Arabic, Chinese, German, Greek, Persian, Portuguese, Slavic (modern Hebrew/Yiddish), Spanish, and Karaite, and Semitic Hebrew/Ladino; a Collection of Reprinted Articles from Across Four Decades with a Reassessment. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3447054042. (page 587, footnote 8).
- ^ a b c d e f Singer, Isidore & Adler, Cyrus (Eds.) (1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11. New York: Funk and Wagnalls. p. 114. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Alt URL - ^ Rose, Emily C. (2001). Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8276-0706-4.
- ^ Exodus 20:24
- ^ Singer, Isidore & Adler, Cyrus (Eds.) (1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8. New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 340ff.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Alt URL
External links
edit- Jewish Encyclopedia: "Schulklopfer" by Cyrus Adler and Max Seligsohn (1906)