PRAYER AND PIETY

IN the days of religious conflict and intensifying polemics in matters of faith and practice, some individual Jews found religious and spiritual comfort in joining fellow Jews in acts of piety and dedication. Groups were formed in and around the synagogue for the purpose of meticulous observance of certain precepts or performance of certain prayers. Jews who decided to be extra careful in prayer joined together to form a brotherhood in which they expected to be stronger than in isolation. This type of fraternity was consonant with the spirit of repentance prevalent in some circles.

Many groups left no records behind, as their activity in the synagogue was informal and necessitated no special act. This was not so, however, with those fraternities that were involved in financial and organizational transactions. Such was the society called Ashmoret ha-Boqer (confradria de la Maytinal, or d'Azmuro) which was established in Saragossa in 1378. The members of the fraternity undertook to rise before dawn and pray at sunrise. Their purpose was also to distribute charity and perform good deeds among their fellow Jews. The existence of the fraternity is known because of the property and funds it possessed. Other such fraternities with no assets remain unknown to posterity.

SYNAGOGAL FRATERNITIES

Groups were also formed to take care of the synagogue or of particular aspects of synagogal life. They were known in various parts of the Iberian peninsula as the cofadria de la sinoga or confraria de la teba. The ma'or society took care of the supply of oil and the lighting of the synagogue. A ma'or society existed in Perpignan in the first half of the fourteenth century. In Santa Coloma de Queralt, too, a special society was responsible for the synagogue lights.

Scrolls of the Torah, prayer books and other books required for study and prayer were expensive. The rich could afford their own books, which they kept at home for private use and the tuition of their children but brought to synagogue for the services. Some wealthy Jews, indeed, possessed impressive libraries. The establishment of public libraries and the provision of liturgical books in synagogues proved to be a very difficult task. The community did not always come up with the necessary funds to purchase books for public use.