Ritual > Funerals in vernacular
Ḥuke ḥayim ḥelek rishon Mayim Tehorim.
Yitshak Aizek Ben Tsadok Weil
France, 1813.
MS X893 J559
X Manuscript Collection
This book contains a manual for a Jewish funeral, with prayers in Hebrew, and instructions in Judeo-Alsatian. Beginning at least a century earlier, printers began producing manuals like this to ensure that dying Jews would have an opportunity for final prayers and last rites, even if death came before a learned rabbi arrived with instructions. These manuals were often written with explanatory text in a vernacular Jewish language so any Jew could utilize them.
This manuscript was also featured in the exhibition: "The People in the Books."