Ashkenazi Jew – is a nickname for a Jew from Eastern Europe. Originally Ashkenaz is the country known to us as Germany or the region between Germany and France. Ashkenazi Jews are usually compared to Sephardic Jews, because these are the largest Jewish communities, and they differ in their customs, style of prayers, and more. Some call Ashkenazi Jews The European Jew or European Jews,  although the Jews of Spain also originated in Spain which is also in Europe, however after the deportation from Spain they split mainly into Islamic countries.

One of the well-known customs of Ashkenazi Jews is that they do not eat legumes on Passover, unlike the Jews of Spain, for fear of chametz. The unique characteristic of Ashkenazi Jews is a prayer book called the Ashkenazi version which is different from the Sephardic version. Ashkenazi Jews are also more halakhically strict than Sephardic Jews, because,  along with the halachic compilation “Shulchan Aruch”, which is known in all Israeli communities, Ashkenazis have an additional halakhic compilation “by mouth” added. 

The difference in prayer is also in pronunciation. Unlike the Spanish pronunciation, Ashkenazis usually accentuate the penultimate syllable – penultimate accent – unlike the Sephardim, who usually accentuate the last syllable – ultima accent. The Ashkenazim also pronounce Hebrew punctuations in a different way to Ashkenazim. For example, “Kametz” is pronounced as A by the Sephardim, while in the case of the Ashkenazim it is pronounced O. The Ashkenazim, unlike the Sephardim, also pronounce unstressed letters and the letter t is pronounced that instead of t as in the Sephardic pronunciation. The language associated with Ashkenazi Jews is Yiddish.

The ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jew – Jewish ancestry

One of the questions that arise in both research and the public is whether the Ashkenazi Jew has common ancestors with the rest of the Jews or whether it is a community that has converted to Judaism and therefore may also look different. 

Rabbi Yehuda Halevi wrote in 1139 a book of Jewish thought called the “Book of the Khazars”, in which he describes the king of the Khazars who listens to the arguments of the heads of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religions. In the end, he is convinced by the Jew and decides to convert and with him the whole kingdom. Some have argued that the Ashkenazim are descended from the Khazars and that there is no genetic link between them and the Jews. Today most researchers do not accept this theory.

The more common theory today is that Ashkenazis of today are from a Jewish community that lived on the Rhine River in Germany from the ninth and tenth centuries. One explanation due to genetic studies is that a small genetic group, mixing of European descent with a Mediterranean origin, actually took over the Ashkenazi region thanks to multiple births and low mortality. According to another belief, the origin of the ancestral mothers is European and the origin of the ancestral father is the Mediterranean, meaning many women converted to Judaism and married Jews of Mediterranean descent. Many studies today support this hypothesis that the Ashkenazi origin is the Middle East combined with a Southern European one.

Ashkenazi Jewish diseases

Due to the genetic differences, the Ashkenazi Jew is prone to diseases that are uncommon among other Jewish communities, although other communities may not have been sufficiently researched. Since the Ashkenazi communities were more closed and lived in the ghettos, certain mutations of diseases were preserved among them, while the Sephardim became more involved in the peoples of the region and their diseases were more related to diseases known in the countries of origin. Therefore, in Israel, Ashkenazi couples are advised to perform more genetic tests before pregnancy.

Here are just a few of the Ashkenazi diseases:

T. Zacks – One in thirty Ashkenazi Jews bear this gene. The disease is a deadly and severe one that affects an essential enzyme and causes severe damage to the nervous system, the nerve cells, and the spinal cord

Kenwan disease – a disease that one in every Ashkenazi Jew will carry a mutation of. It is a disease that causes mental retardation, blindness, and premature mortality. It can be identified at two to three months of age.

Family dysautonomia – One in 30 Ashkenazis will carry the gene for this disease. Only fifty percent of them will reach the age of thirty. It is a disease that affects nerve cells. Those who suffer from it hardly feel pain and therefore many of its patients often injure themselves.

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A Sephardic Jewish Jew is someone whose family originated from Spain under Muslim rule in the Middle Ages until the expulsion from Spain in 1942. In the past, the Jews of Sefer enjoyed the golden age – in which they prospered in the Kingdom of Spain and even received key positions, from the ninth century to the 13th century.

After the expulsion from Spain, the Sephardic Jews established thriving communities throughout the Ottoman Empire, in North Africa, the Balkans, the Netherlands, Italy, and South America. Today there is also a large community in North America. The Spaniards who have lived in Israel for several generations tend to call themselves ST, pure Spaniards, in order to distinguish them from the martyrs – who hid their Judaism.

The Sephardic Jewish community has developed its own Siddur, its own dialect of prayer and halakhah – which is binding today on almost all Jewish communities and was signed into the Book of Shulchan Aruch. 

The pronunciation of the Sephardic Jews was chosen to be the pronunciation of modern Hebrew by the reviver of the Hebrew language Eliezer ben Yehuda, even though he was Ashkenazi. Therefore in modern Hebrew, there are only five types of pronunciations and most of the definition is at the end of the word, ultima accent, as in the Spanish pronunciation.

In the State of Israel, most of the Spanish community is from North Africa and mainly from Morocco, from which one of the largest immigrant populations to Israel originates alongside immigration from Russia.

Moroccan Jews – Moroccan Jewish

The Jew of Morocco is a Sephardic Jew – Sephardic Jewish – who came from Morocco and is a descendant of deportees from Spain. Some Moroccan Jews – Jewish morocco – arrived there before the expulsion from Spain in the second century AD. But a massive increase in immigration of Moroccan Jews occurred in 1492 with the expulsion from Spain. So the Jews of Morocco – Moroccan Jews were revived and served in important positions in numbers and diplomacy.

Moroccan Judaism has always maintained an affinity for the Land of Israel and a large part is from the old settlement, the Jewish settlement established in the Land of Israel before the great immigration from Europe in the twentieth century, was composed of Moroccan Jews.

With the establishment of a state, riots against the Jews began in many Islamic countries, this caused an increase in immigration from Morocco to Israel. By 1967 alone, some 200,000 Jews had immigrated from Morocco. Another large community of Jews from Morocco can be found in France, it is one of the largest communities of Jews after Israel and the United States. Moroccan Jews also went to other countries in southern Europe and northern Amaria, however, only about 2,500 Jews remained in Morocco itself. 

Moroccan Jewry is rich in culture and cuisine and special holidays. One of the well-known holidays is the Maimona, which is celebrated after Passover in which Moroccan families host friends and serve delicious pastries like muffuletta, to celebrate the transition from matzah to chametz. Moroccan cuisine is considered one of the richest cuisines in the Jewish communities. The language spoken among the Moroccan Jews were Jewish Moroccan which is Arabic spiced with French, Barbarian, Spanish, and of course Hebrew and like Yiddish, it is written in Hebrew letters. Jewish Moroccan music is Andalusian Moroccan music. Another Moroccan ceremony is the henna ceremony held before the wedding.

In Israel, there was a demand from the late Sephardic Rabbi Ovadia Yosef to unite all the customs of the Sephardic Jews – Sephardic Jews and their way of prayer in a way in which the entire Sephardic Jewish community in the Land of Israel would behave,  for example, they asked the Moroccans to stop saying the blessing of praise on Rosh Chodesh or to bless Shabbat candles after lighting them. However Moroccan rabbis, such as Shalom Ashash, opposed this demand. The Sephardi version of the prayer also has adaptations to the Moroccan community – for example arrangements such as: ‘Prayer of the Month’, ‘Our Fathers’, and ‘Sunrise’.

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This prayer is the longest prayer in Judaism. It begins with the sunrise or the first moments of daylight (at dawn) even before the sun is visible. During prayer it is forbidden to speak, work or eat until the end of the standing prayer. This is an important prayer in Judaism that is prayed every morning by many of the world’s Jewish population world Jewish population There are also various practices in the Jewish diaspora around the world.

According to some opinions, Shacharit, morning prayer, Jewish replaces the dawn/morning sacrifice that was customary in the Temple. If one manages to get up at sunrise to pray, it is considered the best time for the morning prayer – Jewish prayer morning, and this prayer is called the Vatikin prayer. According to the law, the prayer time is up to four hours from sunrise, but those who do not manage within that time frame can complete it by midday. The time is not the usual time known to us but a part of the time out of 12, according to Yemenites and the Sephardi Jewish community – Sephardic Jews divide the time from when it gets light (dawn) to the rising of the stars into 12 parts and each part is considered an hour. According to Ashkenazi Jewish custom – Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jewry divides the time between sunrise and its setting into 12 parts and each part is an hour. However, many Ashkenazi Jews are strict and get up to pray early before sunrise

Jewish prayers morning The morning prayers/morning prayers in Judaism

On weekdays it is customary to divide the morning prayer into seven main prayers or blessings. The first part of this unit is the dawn blessings that are said before the morning prayer and include thanksgiving for the morning activities such as opening eyes and clothing, for example, “Blessed is he who opens the blind,” blessed is he dresses the naked, ” Or during the washing of the hands “Blessed are we who have sanctified in His commandments on the washing of hands.”

Then come the blessings of the Torah. These are blessings that are said before the Torah study. A person is not allowed to study Torah unless he has blessed them. Then passages from the Torah, the Mishnah, and the Talmud are read, for example, Parshas HaTamid or Breita Derabi Ishmael. Some people also read from the Book of Isaac, in the Sephardic sect – Sephardic Jewish there are congregations that insert passages added by Tanna Derabi Eliyahu 19. This part ends with the Kaddish prayer.

The second hour or the second part consists of verses from the verses of Deuteronomy, songs קמ”ה וק”נ from the book of Psalms. Prior to the hymns, they recite “Blessed be He who said and was the world”, “Thank God called in his name”, Psalm ‘ק (“Psalm of thanksgiving”), and “May the glory of God be forever”. After the psalms, they recite “And David shall bless the Lord”, the song of the sea, “May your name be praised forever”. The order before the hymns and the content is slightly different between the different denominations. This section is also closed with the Kaddish prayer.

The third part is the recitation of Shema and the blessings associated with it. The passage of Shema Yisrael consists of a number of things, chapter six, verses 4-9. After that, the passage is read and there was if who heard (Deuteronomy, 11:11, 13-21 and then “And he said” (Book of numbers, ט”ו, ל”ז-מ”א).). These three paragraphs connect together to form the Shema recitation, recited in a whisper by the worshiping public and then aloud by the cantor. According to the custom of the Shema, the eyes are covered with the palm and the tassels are held, and when the word tassel is mentioned, they kiss them. Two blessings are said before reciting Shema, the blessing of ‘the creator of light’ (from Isaiah) and a blessing of love (from the Talmud). There are several versions of this blessing. The shorter one is the Ashkenazi Jewish version of Ashkenazi Jewish. The blessing after the recitation of Shema is a blessing of redemption that ends after the words “Blessed are you, O Lord, the Redeemer of Israel.” Before the first blessings, the cantor says “Bless the blessed God” and the audience responds “Blessed be the world forever and ever.”

The Shmonei Esrei Prayer

The fourth part of the morning prayer Jewish prayer is the Shemonei Esrei prayer. This is a prayer said in each of the great prayers on weekdays: Shacharit, Mincha, Aravit. The prayer is said standing and in a whisper, as the worshiper stands straight with his legs close together.

These consist of 19 blessings, but in the past, there were only eighteen blessings, hence the name of the prayer. Sages only named the Shmonei Esrei prayer. Yemenite Jews recite the prayer with spread legs. The sacred verse is recited before the third blessing in the standing prayer, and the priestly blessing, which the priests recite before the last blessing and bless the public. If there is no priest,  or in some congregations, the blessing is not said by the priests but by a cantor.

Praying and reading the Torah

The fifth part “Supplication” was originally a single prayer not intended for the general public but for each person to address his own personal pleas. Over the years it has become a public prayer and has a variety of verses and regular blessings. The Supplication is not recited on Shabbat, holidays, festivals or Rosh Chodesh.

The sixth part is the reading of the Torah that is done on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Hanukkah, Purim, Rosh Chodesh, and on other fasts.  The reading of the Torah is done before the prayer section called Kadusha Desidra.

End of prayer

The part that ends the Shacharit, after the sacred section of Desidera is called Additions (Tosfot). Additions include the “incense fattening”, “song of the day” and “we must praise” prayers. These additions are said on weekdays. There are different communities with different additions, like putting on tefillin. In some communities, the Haman Story is added. In others, the thirteen principles, are the principles of Judaism. And there are many other additions, each community, and its way. But there is a custom that is common in most Jewish communities and that is to read Psalm 27 from the Book of Psalms “to David, Uri, and Yishai.” This hymn is added from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Hoshana Raba.

Prohibitions before the morning prayer

There are some things that must not be done before we begin the morning prayer, the first being eating and drinking according to the verse “Thou shalt not eat of the blood.” There is controversy as to whether it is permissible to drink water before prayer. Of those who allow water before prayer, there are those who allow even coffee and tea without sugar. And there are those who allow coffee and tea with sugar, provided the sugar is not mixed. There is also controversy as to whether one may greet another before prayer. According to one opinion, it is forbidden to greet in a planned manner, but in a random meeting, it is permissible to greet with shalom. According to another opinion, the word “Shalom” should not be used but one may greet with other blessings such as “good morning” because shalom is one of the names of God. According to another opinion,  those who have planned to meet are not allowed to say hello or greet at all, but if they have met for another purpose, they may greet with “good morning”.

Saturday morning

Shacharit Jewish prayer in the morning of Shabbat is different from the weekday prayer because it includes many passages of poetry (verses of Deuteronomy), additions, and as mentioned reading from the Torah. At the end of the prayer, there is a Shabbat supplement (Mussaf). Another difference is that Shacharit of Shabbat begins later since Shabbat is a day of rest. The “additional sacrifice of Shabbat.” is added to the beginning of the prayer. 

The additional hymns on Shabbat are recited in the Ashkenazi community after the “Baruch Sheamer” blessing but in most of the communities before it.  The psalms “conductor in psalms” and the “psalm in thanksgiving” are not recited on Shabbat. The hymns in the Shema are also different. We will also note that the standing prayer is shorter and after the recitation of the Shatz the Torah scroll is taken out in order to read from it, then there is Haftarah – a passage from the books of the prophets that is usually read on Shabbat and then comes the end of the prayer.  On weekdays, the prayer “Prayer for the Peace of the Kingdom” is also recited. Jews who are looking for a place of prayer and are interested in learning more about Judaism can get help from the various Jewish community organizations in the United States American Jewish committee.

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