(Conclusion)
The customs of the Ashkenazim of Amsterdam are chiefly those of the old communities of the Rhine lands, Mayence, Worms and others. In certain instances the Jews of Amsterdam preserved the Minhag in its original form, whereas in other Ashkenazi communities it underwent changes.
Rabbi Yehuda Brilleman cites as an example the custom of waiting between the eating of meat and dairy dishes. The early authorities speak of two different customs: to wait between the eating of meat and dairy dishes six hours or to wait only one hour. The latter custom is mentioned by the Maharil as”The general Minhag.” Rabbi Moshe Isserles (Rema) says that it is the general customs “in these lands,” meaning Poland.
With the passage of time the Jews of Eastern Europe accepted the custom of waiting six hours. The Jews of German origin chose a middle course — waiting three or four hours. The Jews of only one country, Holland stuck to the original custom of waiting just one hour.
Here is another example. The Ashkenazim of Holland name children for living relatives (Ashkenazim generally do not name children for living persons, only for people who have died). Some believe that the Ashkenazim of Holland have been influenced in this respect by their neighbors the Sefardim of Amsterdam.
Rabbi Brilleman doesn’t share this view. He quotes Sefer Hasidim which states: “In some places they do not give names after living persons, only after people who have died.” From this statement in Sefer Hasidim it is evident that in the time and country of the composition of the book, only a minority did not name a child after a living person. The general custom was to name children for living persons. In the course of time the custom of the minority spread among all Ashkenazim. The Askenazim of Holland were the only ones to continue calling children after living persons.
In the book before us the customs of the Ashkenazi community are arranged in six sections: 1) Customs which relate to weekdays 2) Customs of the Sabbath and of a Festival which falls on the Sabbath. 3) Customs related to certain days or periods of the year. This sections is subdivided into seven chapters:
A. Customs not tied to any particular month.
B. Customs of the month of Nissan.
C. Customs of the months of Iyyar, Sivan, Tammuz and Av.
D. Customs of Rosh Hashana.
E. Customs of Yom Kippur.
F. Customs of Sukkot.
G. Customs of the months of Heshva, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat and Adar.
The next section (4) is: Customs of weddings and circumcisions. It is followed by (5) the section of customs relating to Kaddish recital and mourning. The last section features customs of the Reading of the Torah.
The sections about the customs of the Amsterdam Ashkenazi community are followed by several appendices, which include, inter alia, customs of certain societies and families, some customs of Amsterdam’s Sefardim, and some customs of Holland’s Ashkenazim who reside outside Amsterdam.
The descriptions of the customs of the Ashkenazi community of Amsterdam are accompanied by two different types of notes. There are notes which indicate the sources from which the customs have been collected: Communal publications, such as Seder Hanhagot Beit HaKnesset, public announcements and others; books and newspaper articles which mention the customs of the Amsterdam Ashkenazim; Alexander Veder’s tract on the customs and Rabbi Aaron Schuster’s and Mr. Y. Presser’s comments on it (we mentioned them in our first article). In these notes mention is made of other individuals who provided the editor, Rabbi Yehuda Brilleman, with information about some of the customs of the Amsterdam community.
The second type of notes which accompany the descriptions of the customs offer explanations. They refer mainly to rabbinic literature and Minhagim books of other communities in which the customs are explained or discussed.
Let us mention here some of the customs described in the book before us:
“It is customary here that boys don a Tallit even before their Bar Mitzva. Boys who are past Bar Mitzva are not permitted to pray in the synagogue witout a Tallit during prayers at which a Tallit is worn.”
“At Kabbalat Shabbt, when saying the verse Bo’i Beshalom, one continues to face the Ark.”
One smells the Havdala candle after it is extinguished.” (The notes say that according to Rabbi Jacob Emden – in his Siddur – this was done to endear the Mitzva).
“During the month of Elul the Shofar is blown both at Shaharit and at Minha.”
Bedore World War II there were Orthodox Jews who didn’t say Tashlikh and there were others who did say it.”
The editor explains in his Notes: When the French occupied the Netherlands in 1795, any public manifestation of religion was prohibited in Amsterdam. In the wake of this prohibition the community’s leaders didn’t let Jews say Tashlikh in groups. They could say it only individually.T hough the prohibition was later rescinded, the custom of Tashlikh has, since then, been somewhat neglected by many members of the community
Last Shabbat was Shabbat Shira. Amsterdam’s Ashkenazim eat Kugel of wheat on that Sabbath.
In his Notes the editor quotes Noheg KaTzon Yosef by R. Joseph Kosman of Frankfurt, who points out that the letters of Beshallach stand for “Beshabbat Shira Le’ekhol Hittin.
(The custom of eating Kashe and feeding fowl and birds with Kashe on Shabbat Shira has recently been written about by Rabbi Yosef Levi in his Minhag Yisrael Torah, vol. 2 p. 124 and Rabbi Elyakum Dvorkes in his Bishevilei HaMinhag. See also the late Rabbi of Lubavitch’s Shaarei Halakha UMinhag, vol. 1. R. Yehiel Goldhaber writes about the Minhag in his forthcoming book on the customs of the Seven Kehillot of Burgenland. The above quoted interpretations of the letters of the word Beshallach is already found in Rabbi Ephraim Solomon’ Luntzchitz’s Olelot Efrayim.
The Jewish Press, Friday, February 1, 2002