Hundreds of Hasidic Jews from across Europe, Israel and North America gathered on Mar. 10 in a small southeastern Polish town to honor a 18th century leader of their mystical branch of Judaism.
The pilgrims — the vast majority men sporting beards, side locks, wide-brimmed or fur hats and other traditional black Hasidic garb — assembled for 24 hours of ceremonies marking the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Elimelech in 1787.
The rabbi died in Lezajsk on the 21st day of Adar in the Jewish calendar, which fell this year on March 11.
PHOTO: AFP
The annual event includes a day of prayer which starts at sunset on Saturday — the Jewish Sabbath — marked by the dancing and singing which is the hallmark of Hasidic Jews, whose maxim is "worship God in joy."
The event brings Hasidic Jews back to one of the spiritual homes of their movement more than 60 years after most of its members were wiped out during the Holocaust.
Lezajsk was once a typical part of a swathe of largely Jewish towns and villages across what today are Belarus, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
Before World War II, around half of the town's 6,000-strong population were Jews.
Few survived the German occupation, when the Nazis slaughtered six million Jews, around half of whom were from Poland.
After the war, Poland's Jewish population numbered only 280,000.
Like most of the rest of Lezajsk's Jewish cemetery, Rabbi Elimechel's tomb was destroyed during the war.
It was refurbished in the early 1960s thanks to a rabbi from Vienna, though work continued on it into the 1980s.
(AFP)
數百位來自歐洲、以色列與北美的哈西德派猶太人三月十日齊聚在波蘭東南部一個小鎮，紀念這個猶太神秘教派的一名十八世紀領袖。
朝聖者大多為蓄留鬍鬚與邊髮，戴寬緣帽或毛帽，並穿著傳統哈西德派黑衣的男性。他們為了歷時二十四小時的以利米勒拉比逝世紀念齊聚一堂。以利米勒拉比在一七八七年逝世。
這位拉比於猶太曆亞達月二十一日在列札斯克過世，今年國曆是三月十一日。
年度的活動包括猶太安息日（週六）日落時分展開的禱告日，以格言為「歡喜信奉上帝」的哈西德派猶太人之歌舞為特色。
這個活動帶領哈西德派猶太人重回六十多年前，哈西德運動的心靈歸依處所，當時多數教徒在納粹猶太人大屠殺中慘遭殺害。
列札斯克過去是一長串猶太城鎮與村落中的一個典型小鎮，位於現在的白俄羅斯、波蘭、俄羅斯與烏克蘭一帶。
二次大戰前，這個小鎮的六千人口中，半數為猶太人。
極少數猶太人在德國佔領時倖存。當時納粹屠殺了六百萬猶太人，其中半數來自波蘭。
戰後波蘭的猶太人口只有二十八萬人。
如同列札斯克多數猶太墓園一像，以利米勒拉比的墳墓在戰爭中遭到毀壞。
一名來自維也納的拉比在一九六○年代初期將他的墳墓重新翻修，工程持續到一九八○年代才完工。 （法新社╱翻譯︰賴美君）
★ Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 “Get in. It’s pouring.” She slid into the back seat, drenched and silent. “Tissues?” the driver asked. “No, thank you,” she said. Water beaded off her hair, ran from her coat, and made a small lake on the vinyl. She kept her head down, long black strands clinging to her face. “Where to?” She gave an address. “Funeral?” he asked as they slipped into the Xinhai Tunnel, rain fading to a hollow drum. She glanced up, puzzled. “No. Why?” “Crematorium’s about the only thing here.” He caught her eyes in the mirror.
Have you ever dreamed of hiking Taiwan’s majestic Mt. Jade or visiting Peru’s breathtaking Machu Picchu? These adventures sound amazing, but there’s something you should know about first: “altitude sickness.” This condition strikes when you climb to a higher elevation too quickly. The higher you go, the thinner the air becomes, making it harder for your body to absorb oxygen. The symptoms usually begin within hours of reaching high altitudes — about 2,500 meters or higher. You might experience headaches, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, or extreme fatigue. These symptoms can last for several days. The severity of altitude sickness varies
Week 24 詞法—名詞 1. 人們一致稱讚他。 ˇ People praised him unanimously. χ Peoples praised him unanimously. 註：people 作「人們」（＝ men and women）解時，是單數形式，作複數用。peoples 是「多個民族」、「各國人民」，不是「多數人」，如 the peoples of Asia（亞洲各民族、亞洲人民）。 2. 她為他做了一條新褲子。 ˇ She made him a new pair of trousers. χ She made him a new trousers. 註：scissors 和 trousers 等名詞習慣用複數形式。「一把剪刀」或「一條褲子」正統說法為 a pair of scissors 或 a pair of trousers。 3. 我們提前兩年完成了第二個五年計劃的主要目標。 ˇ We fulfilled the major objectives of the Second Five-Year Plan two years ahead. χ We fulfilled the major objectives of the Second Five-Years Plan two years ahead. 註：five-year 作為一個複合形容詞，year 不用複數。又如 a twelve-year-old boy、a five-dollar note、a one-hundred-meter race 等，也是一樣。 4. 他們決定買一輛新車。 ˇ They have made up their minds to buy a new car. χ
Continued from yesterday（延續自昨日） https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Interestingly, one of the words Collins Dictionary discarded was selected by Oxford University Press (OUP) for its own Word of the Year. On its Web site, the publishing house of the University of Oxford stated it had conducted a public poll in which over 37,000 people participated. The voters, along with OUP’s language experts, settled on the term “brain rot.” One main reason for the decision was the vast amount of interest in the noun during 2023 and 2024, with its usage increasing by 230 percent. In fact, brain rot is not a new term by any
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