“when god himself came”
The memories many have of Passover and Sabbath contrast sharply with those of the High Holidays—Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. While some remembered aspects of these holidays and regarded them with
reverence, few spoke of them with the same level of affection and intimacy they reserved for the domestic rites affiliated with Passover or the Sabbath.
The High Holidays represent “the Great Tradition,” the formal dimension of Jewish religion as practiced in the synagogue and formally led by a trained professional rabbinate, in contrast to the Sabbath and Passover, the traditions of which are celebrated in the intimacy of the home and passed down informally within the family. The Kol Nidre ceremony, which ushers in the solemn Day of Atonement, is a public nullification of oaths that must be performed in a highly ritualized public setting, designed to emulate a rabbinical court. In the Soviet context, the observance of these holidays required a deliberate and visible violation of Soviet norms, which eschewed the synagogue and the great traditions of religious observance. Pious Jews continued to observe these holidays for as long as possible, but spoke of them without the intimacy they reserved for the domestic rituals. Beyle Vaisman, who came from a relatively wealthy family in the city of Berdichev, is one of the few who recalls the meaning attached to the Days of Awe. She told us that “on Yom Kippur, when God himself came, the entire city knew Theywould sit in shul for the entire day. The entire day.”
Unable to share in the domestic rituals affiliated with the Sabbath, outsiders commented mostly on synagogue attendance during the holidays. In his memorial book to Bershad, Nahman Huberman writes of the Jews of Bershad during the 1930s: “In obstinacy they observed the holidays of the people of Israel—Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, and observed the commandments and the customs.”15 Reports from the Jewish Sections attest to continued synagogue attendance during the High Holidays among elderly members of the community. But most adults seem to have heeded the warnings and kept their children away out of fear.
Schoolchildren were influenced by extensive social and political pressure to stay away, and often embraced such antireligious sentiments as their own. In any case, these holidays are adult-centered: their focus on forgiveness of sin has little to offer innocent children. Children are exempt from the Yom Kippur fast, and there are none of the holiday games—hiding of the afikoymen, gift giving, dressing up—that appeal to younger children. But some still recalled the rituals associated with these holidays. Arkadii Burshtein told us about tashlikh, in which it is customary to empty one's pockets into a flowing river as a symbolic gesture of casting out one's sins: “On Yom Kippur we would go to the river and we would empty out our pockets.” Others recall the sweet foods and honey cakes customarily eaten on Rosh Hashanah, when food takes on a literal meaning and a sweet or honey cake is said to bring about a sweet year. Sime Geller remembered preparing for the Yom Kippur fast with fish and soup and that “after the fast we also would have honey cake, sugar cake, sweets. There would be jam, tea of course. As you left the synagogue, breaking the fast.” But none recall even the words to the Kol Nidre or Unesane Tokef prayers, among the most powerful of Jewish prayers from the High Holiday liturgy. Once again, foodways remain in the memory longer than abstract principles of faith, or rote ritual drawn from the Great Tradition.