Slichot In Mazkeret Moshe

By: Anessa Cohen

When my husband Haim was growing up before the Six-Day War, when life in Jerusalem was like a small, sleepy Jewish town, his neighborhood, Mazkeret Moshe, was comprised of housing made up in the form of a rectangle, with one side backing Agrippas Street and the shuk, and the other side ending with a small entrance from Bezalel. There were many shechunot like this, layered one after the other, that were originally built in the late 1800s by Moses Montefiore for the Jews who were spreading out of the Old City and needed new housing.

In the middle of this square in Mazkeret Moshe was a soccer field with a dirt floor and markings made by the kids who used it. There was also a little maadone (recreation building), which was for the kids, but I have no idea if they ever really used it since I only remember them using the outside as a meeting place, as in “Let’s meet at 3 o’clock in front of the maadone,” or something like that.

Today, some modernization has come to the shechunah.  The soccer field is now split in two and paved, many of the stone buildings are being renovated into luxury properties even as they retain the outside charm of the area. The old well in the middle of the square where people once drew water is now sealed, and sewers and modern plumbing were introduced sometime in the 1950s.

Encircling the maadone and soccer field were paved walking areas that I hesitate to call sidewalks because they were not on the side and they actually looked more like little streets paved with asphalt on which no cars traveled since they had no access there.

Opposite the maadone and backing Agrippas Street was the shul they called, Chessed V’Rachamim, which was founded by Sephardim whose families had lived in the Old City for centuries, but had left. Many of these Sephardim came directly after the Inquisition.

Inside the shul is an old sign in Hebrew that said: “Only pure Sephardim can enter here.” When I first saw that sign, I was a little offended until someone explained to me that the sign was placed there originally to keep out those Jews from Spain who had converted during the Inquisition in order not to leave, but later left to join their old Spanish communities in the diaspora.

Those who refused to convert to Christianity and stayed true to Judaism considered these converts turncoats and would not allow them to enter their shuls.

As the years pass and so many things change, this shul seems to be almost frozen in time. Sephardim (who daven Selichot from the first of Elul through Yom Kippur) in these shechunot and particularly in this shul Chessed V’Rachamim start selichot each morning at 3:30 a.m. Starting at 3 a.m., you can hear the crier screaming “selichot” from even a mile away as he walks from shechunah to shechunah making sure everyone is awake and getting ready for Selichot. These days tourists flock here from all over Israel and beyond in the middle of the night to try and experience this special activity buzzing all over the old shechunot.

Sometimes the tourists are making so much noise that they have to be told to be quiet so the Selichot davening can be heard.

In Chessed V’ Rachamim, an interesting phenomenon has occurred as the children who grew up in the shechunah come back year after year for Selichot whether they live out of the country or out of Jerusalem. One by one, they come in and either re-take the jobs that were theirs as children or the jobs that were previously their fathers’ and grandfathers’.

One man is in charge of the keys to the shul, and he’s supposed to open and close the building each morning and evening. There’s another man in charge of making sure the guy with the key comes on time. Each member has some kind of job, whether it’s laying out the siddurim or checking that the pushkas are in place.

A man named Nissim is in charge of tea, because davening is a thirsty business! The shul though has only six glasses, so Nissim gives out six glasses of tea, and then when those men are finished, he takes the glasses back to the kitchen, washes them, and gives the next six guys tea and so on. Selichot go on for at least an hour and a half so by six, everyone eventually gets a cup of tea.

There is even one man in charge of chasing away noisy tourists, so they do not interfere with the davening.

After the davening is over, one guy is in charge of giving each person bourekas, and another guy is in charge of cleaning up. It is not unusual to see many of the now grown-up kids (most of whom are now grandfathers) sitting while the cleaning is going on, singing old songs, and re-living the memories of how much better everything was all those years back!

A footnote to all of this is that the shuk in recent years has been selling something new: seedless rimonim(pomegranates). So, for those who have tasted them already, what is the consensus? Are they good or not as good as pomegranates of years past? I’ve heard they’re sweet, refreshing, and mellow, with much less of the sharp tartness or dry bitterness found in the other varieties. Let’s hope our new year is like those sweet pomegranates! 

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering residential, commercial and management real estate services. You are invited to visit AVCRealty.com. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 and readers are encouraged to send any questions or comments by email to [email protected].