Zarach Zarachowicz i jego wyniesienie na urząd hazzana w Haliczu w 1929 roku. Przyczynek do dziejów liturgii karaimskiej

• Authors: Stefan Gąsiorowski

Title variants

EN

ZARACH ZARACHOWICZ AND HIS ELEVVATION TO THE OFFICE OF HALICZ HAZZAN IN 1929. A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF KARAITE LITURGY

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Zarach Zarachowicz was born in Halicz (now Halych) in 1890. He was the son of Mojsz and Estera neé Eszwowicz, members of the local Karaite community (dzhymat), whose origins reputedly go back to the mid-13th century. In 1915, Zarachowicz left Halicz for Simferopol in the Crimea. This is where he went to a Karaite religious school. After World War II he returned to his home town and, upon securing a source of subsistence (he got a job in the District Court), he engaged in the activity of the Karaite community. In 1919 he was elected member of its board and secretary. He also began to engage in Karaite cultural activities. He was one of the founders, editors and contributors to „Myśl Karaimska”, a scientific, literary and social periodical which appeared in Vilnius from 1924 to 1939. In 1929, Seraj Markowicz Szapszał, the hakham (superior) of the Karaites in Poland, appointed Zarachowicz a junior hazzan in Halicz. The ceremony of presenting the appointment to Karaite clergyman and the new hazzan’s first service took place in the kenesa in Halicz on December 21, 1929. A detailed account of the occasion was preserved in the form of a letter from Halicz hazzan Izaak Abrahamowicz to Szapszał. On this basis it it possible to trace back in detail the course of the solemn, three-hour long service. Many of the actions referred to in it, performed by Karaite clergymen and the faithful gathered in the Halicz house of prayer must have been elements of the liturgy of the Karaite service repeated every Saturday. The solemn service started with a prayer recided by the new hazzan, wearing liturgical dress borrowed from the elder hazzan. Then the elder hazzan ceremoniously took the sacred scrolls of the Torah out of the receptacle called hekhal and read a blessing from them at the request of the new hazzan. Next the young hazzan and his next of kin and the leaders of the local dzhymat were asked to read selected passages from the Scriptures and further blessings. After these readings, which the congregation listened standing up, and after the final blessing of the elder hazzan, the Torah was returned to the hekhal, whereupon the spiritual leader of the Halicz community delivered a sermon focused on this one event, the elevation of a community member to the dignity of hazzan. Next the deed of appointment of Zarach Zarachowicz to the position of hazzan, recorded by the hakham of the Republic of Poland, S. Szapszał, was read out in Hebrew and in Karaim, and was handed to him with a special blessing by the elder hazzan. The congregation next sang religious songs, whereupon a letter of congratulations for the new hazzan was read out, followed by a blessing for Zarachowicz and the whole dzhymat. Finally the elder hazzan read out the usual Saturday blessings. The service was ended by the young hazzan, who took the opportunity to invite the participants to a home reception. Despite his pastoral duties, Zarachowicz continued to be active in the social and cultural field. Among other things, he became a member of the board of the Society of of Friends of Karaite History and Literature, set up in Vilnius, and was also member of the editorial board of the periodical „Myśl Karaimska”. He also published his articles in the Karaim-language periodical „Karaj Awazy” (Głos Karaima) published in Łuck. In 1933 he was elected member of the Board of the Karaim Denominational Group in Halicz and around the end of that year he acted as senior hazzan in Halicz. In 1938, he received a Silver Cross of Merit for his work for the benefit of the Karaite Religious Union of the Republic of Poland. Unfortunately, there are no accounts of hazzan Zarachowicz’s fate during World War II; similarly, little is known about his post-war years, other than that he continued to work in the Halicz court as clerk. However, he was persecuted by the Soviet authorities for holding the office of a Karaite clergyman. The pressure exerted on him proved too strong. On December 11, 1952 he took his life by plunging into the Dniester, leaving a wife and three children, two daughters and a son. Presumably already after her mother’s death, Zarachowicz’s daughter Ada donated his father’s book collection to the Karaite library in Eupatoria in the Crimea. This article is a contribution to the study of the history of Halicz dzhymat, as well as of Karaite religious rites. The fact that Polish hakham decided to appoint a hazzan in Halicz, despite the fact that another cleric was already holding office there, which could attest to the demographic growth of the local community, resulting in a growth of burdens on the officers of the local community.

Keywords

EN

KARAITES; HALICZ; KENESA; RITES; HAZZAN; HAKHAM

• Publisher: Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Żydow
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 4(244)
• Pages: 573-581

Contributors

author

Stefan Gąsiorowski

• Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie