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Dr. M. Handel

The work tradition helped the Jews in their Diaspora, and the silk workers, for example, in Greece and Sicily belonged to the famous artisans throughout the Mediterranean. And like the example of the countries to the west of Eretz Yisrael, so it was in the countries of the Muslim world east of the Eretz Yisrael and in Eretz Yisrael proper. Here, in Israel, the textile industry was a kind of a monopoly in the hands of the Jews for generations, until the 16^th century when Safed became a large industrial center. In the 15^th century we have been told in one of the letters from the Israel: “the people earn their living in this place from carpentry, many engage in gold craft and leather craft, and a few in silk craft. ” And from the first half of the 16^th century we have information, which even seems exaggerated! “All the times many Jews come, and the craft of clothing multiplies every day, and some make them like those that come from Venice. ” In the geographical area of the Mediterranean, the value of the Jewish artisans in Spain especially rose, in which they arrived, out of a struggle with the affluent and wealthy strata, also to the position of leadership in several communities. The artisans' class was so prominent in Spain that (according to the testimony of one of the sources) every group of Jews that happened to be on the street was mostly made up of craftsmen. In England and France the Jews lived like on a volcano, and in the 13^th-14^th centuries they were expelled from them. In Germany the Jewish craftsman met with vigorous opposition from the Christian craftsmen, and in the end they were overpowered and reluctantly rejected from this field of economic activity. On the other hand, the Jewish craft flourished in Central Europe - in Czechoslovakia and Moravia, and Poland-Lithuania in Eastern Europe.

The war that the Christian artisans in Germany waged on the Jewish craftsman is a good example, and to better understand the history of the Jewish craft in Poland-Lithuania, we must pay attention to this war in more details. The weakness of the rule in the Middle Ages, in combination with other socio-political factors - in Germany and Western Europe as a whole - led to the fact that the craftsmen took their matters into their own hands, and when they organize in special Cechy^[2] they became the only determining and decisive factor in all matters concerning the craft - the supply of raw materials, the methods of work and quality supervision, the sale of the products and their price, the methods of training to fulfill the duties of a craftsman, the relationship between the owner of the workshop and his workers etc. The Cech was also an important social cell - an institution for social life and the cultivation of cultural values, a body that takes care for those who have lost their assets and also to the widows and orphans of its members (a kind of mutual insurance institute). By virtue of their economic and social status, the Cechy also achieved an important political status in the municipal administration. The character of the Cech was - in the spirit of the times - a distinct religious character, every Cech had a define place in the church and in its rituals. This religious character bore a Catholic seal until the 16^th century. With

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the split in the church special Cechy were established according to different religious lines. In Poland-Lithuania, where the orders of the Cechy from the west were accepted, and where people of different nationalities and religions lived, the Cechy were also divided according to this line: a Polish-Catholic Cech, German-Protestant Cech, Ruthenian-Catholic-Greek Cech, a Catholic Cech with autonomous sections for members of other religions. It is possible to suggest, that the Cech acquired an exclusive position of authority on all the artisans in the profession, which means coercive power on everyone to belong to the Cech. Therefore, the artisan was not free to join the Cech or not, he had to do it legally. The individual artisan had no choice: if he did not want to join the Cech, or for one reason or another was not accepted to the Cech (or was deleted from its membership list), his economic and social status was involved with great difficulties. The Cech pursued him in various ways until he was forced to close his workshop. In the end, he was forced to compromise with the Cech, usually in the form of a fixed tax payment, a kind of tax for the right to work and sell his produce. Members of the second tier are called by different names. The most suitable name for them is the name found in the Hebrew sources “outsiders, ” meaning, craftsmen outside the frame of the Cech. And the known Polish name is, partacz, meaning: a craftsman inferior in value and in his product, and its literal meaning - “a man from the outside. ”

Under these circumstances, the question of the Jews came up even more strongly. In the eyes of the Christian craftsman the Jewish craftsman was a stranger to be fought to the bitter end, because he could be a serious competitor and, all the more so, if the Jew's produce was better and, in different cases, also cheaper. The Cechy war against the Jews was one of the most important chapters in the war front of the Christian society against the Jews. The Cechy's orders, which were formed over the generations, were one of the most effective instruments of war in the hands of the Christian artisans: there is no legal work except in the framework of the Cech, and the Jew, on account of being a Jew, cannot be admitted to the Cech. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that there was no place for Jewish craftsmen. This was the state of things according to the logic of the law and practice, but next to it, and above it, was the logic of life. The Jew did not want, and could not give up the right to work because it was the source of his livelihood. In professions such as tailoring and all the needle professions in general, and also in baking and preparing the meat - for the Jew the craft was also an essential necessity for religious reasons - because of the shatnez^[3] prohibition and kashrut laws. In Germany, in which the power of the craftsmen was very great, and on the other hand the economic and social position of the Jews was weak, the Jewish craftsman was forced to lay down his weapon and surrender. In Poland and Lithuania, things were fundamentally different. The position of the Christian townspeople, and the craftsmen among them, was weak. In contrast, the situation of the Jews was more stable, and more than once they were supported by the kings and members of the nobility who determined the main social power. The Christian craftsmen, of them those who brought the tradition of war against the Jewish from Germany, went against the Jewish craftsmen with a weapon that had proven its effectiveness in Germany - economic-organizational-religious. The Jews defended themselves, and their line of retreat is this: if there is no complete success in their efforts to be accepted as members with full rights in the Cech, they must accept at least the rights of “outsiders, ” with as much expansion as possible, of the scope of these rights and their types, with setting the compensation and compromise tax at a minimum. The area of rights that the Jews fought for was due to the restrictions that the Cech was interested to impose on the Jews also after it recognized them as “outsiders, ” by fact or only by law: are the Jews allowed to engage in all professions, are the Jews allowed to appear in the market immediately in the morning when the stock of raw material presented to the seller is large and varied, or only in the later hours, when the Christian artisans have already bought the best and at the affordable prices, is the Jew allowed to keep an open shop with a sign during all days of the week or only on certain days, to whom the Jew is allowed to sell his products - to a Jew only or to anyone who asks. In what place is it permissible for a Jew to display his products at the public fair - in a central place in the city center, or in a remote corner where many customers do not come. In what cases will the Jews be allowed to sell their products; to what extent will the Jewish artisans be allowed to attract customers to their homes to order a product, and this is the main thing - how many artisans will be included in the concessions of the Jews, what would be the rights of the Jews regarding the employment of wage laborers, and what would be their number. The “delicate ” question of the representation rights of the Jews in the Cech was also brought up: are the Jews allowed to participate in the Cech meetings? Will they be given the right to vote actively and passively?

Against this background, the Jews waged a long struggle for the existence of the Jewish craft in Poland-Lithuania from the end of the 15^th century to the end of the 18^th century. The Jewish craftsmen wrote several important pages in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Jewry - regarding the political and economic establishment and in the area of cultivating social life in general. In the last area, the craftsmen stratum appears as an organizational force of great weight, which manifests itself in the establishment and development of an organizational framework of independent Jewish Cechy, such as the other Jewish societies for educational needs and social help, which struck deep roots in the cities of Poland and Lithuania and their towns to an extent worthy of mention.

We talked above about the struggle with the local Cechy for the “outsiders ” rights. Occasionally they obtained the right of representation in general and the right to participate in the audit of the budget and the fund in particular. In Kovel, for example, the Jewish furriers were granted the status of an autonomous division within the city's Cech, and in Wegrow ten special sections were included in the regulations book of the local Cech discussing the Jews as members of the Cech. Simultaneously with that struggle, the idea of self-organization arose among the Jewish craftsmen, to their professions and their cities, and Jewish craftsmen's associations began to appear in Poland in the 16^th century and grew in number in the following centuries.

The craftsmen association has an ancient tradition among the Jews. Although we do not have a lot of explicit material there are a few hints in the Bible, the aforementioned information about the ancient synagogue in Alexandria during the Second Temple, and also some additional information in the Talmud that clearly indicates the existence of professional unions. Part of the material of the association of shoemakers in the community of Zaragoza Spain from the 14^th century has been preserved. In Poland remained the regulations of the association of furriers in Krakow from the beginning of the seventeenth century. So far no new material has been discovered (and after the Holocaust there is not much hope for that), therefore this regulation can serve as a prototype for the regulations of other associations. The aforementioned regulation Kraków was approved by the community in 1613, but there is no doubt

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that the organization is from an earlier period. The same is true of the tailors association in Lwow [Lviv] which appears in the documents only in 1627, and regarding the Jewish tailors in Lublin that in 1615 the Supreme Court ruled that they could continue their trade only on the condition that they were accepted by the municipal Cech. The regulation of the tailors and furriers association in Lutsk is from 1721, but it is permissible to assume that it is from an earlier period since also the “old regulations ” are mentioned in the title.

The Jewish craftsmen association was organized on foundations similar to those of the general Cech. It came to fill a need for economic consolidation, hence the principle of authority on all the artisans in the profession, and determining the type of “outsiders ” as in the general Cech. It also fulfills the function of a social cell - organizing mitzvah meals, mutual aid and, in time of need, also preparing for a struggle to obtain more rights in the community - against the rulers and the big and tough merchants who concentrated all the power in their hands. As a Jewish society it takes care of religious life, the study of the Torah, the observance of mitzvoth and good moral standards. It is permissible to suggest that one of its functions - and sometimes the main function - is the representation of the profession before the general Cech and the authorities, and the war for the protection of the economic interests of its members. Among the association known to us most are of the needle workers in general and to the tailors in particular. There were also other craftsmen, but tailors had the majority everywhere. Therefore, they showed the most essential organizational power. In places, where there were only a small number of other craftsmen, too small for the possibility of having their own association, they joined the tailors association. The name “Tailors Association ” indicates that there were only tailors in the association, or tailors and furriers, or besides them also other professionals.

Lutsk was one of the main cities in the Duchy of Lithuania. After 1569, in which the Polish-Lithuanian Union was established, Lutsk moved together with all of Wolyn to Poland (the monarchy). The Jewish craft in Lithuania had not only an old tradition, but also a clear legal basis. At the end of the 14^th century, the Jews were given a privilege that allowed them to trade in any craft. However, the right to engage in a craft on behalf of the ruler does not solve the important, question yet, how the Christian craftsmen in Lithuania will relate to this right in general and to the topic of our discussion in Lutsk in particular. And indeed, an echo came to us from 1539 about a serious conflict in Lutsk between the Christian craftsmen and the Jews: the Christian shoemakers and tailors claimed that the Jewish craft is illegal, because they have a privilege from the government stating that the Jews cannot be admitted to the Cech, and we know that a craftsman is not a legal worker outside the Cech, and they cannot agree that the Jewish craftsmen will sell their products to gentile customers. The dispute got worse and worse, the two sides stood their ground, and finally discovered that they should come to a mutual understanding. And indeed, a compromise was reached, and it stipulated that the Jews of Lutsk, Klevan, Torchyn, and Olyka were allowed to come to the fairs and to sell their products to all customers, but in exchange for a waiver that they have to pay compensation to the Cechy funds in the form of an annual tax. As with any compromise, this last one also did not stand up to reality. It was difficult for the Jews to come to terms with the fact that their work and livelihood would depend on the grace of their Christian opponents, and it was difficult for the Christians to give the Jews a free hand at the fairs. The shoemakers entered the arena of struggle and both of them - the Christians and the Jews - wanted to obtain the best conditions. The shoemakers were lucky, the Jews achieved quite a feat and it is the right to two shops in the city center for the sale of boots and shoes. And if there was still room for disputes regarding the practical interpretation of the matter - shops will open on all days of the week or on market days - it was quite an achievement.

For thirty years they lived in the city, despite various disturbances, according to the aforementioned compromises. It seems that during this period the Jews tried to expand their rights as “outsiders, ” so that they will not only bear the burden but also enjoy rights. On the other hand, the Christians stood on guard, and in 1546 they obtained in writing from the king “the Jews cannot break into this association, only the Christians alone. ” In 1569, the dispute was renewed, this time in a general conflict between the townspeople and the community. The matter reached the royal court, a committee was appointed to investigate the issues, and it ruled in everything in favor of the Jews. The shoemakers and tailors' right to work and earn a living was not extended, but it remained as before and that's for the better, and that's the main thing. The community obtained the right to participate in the audit of the city's budget, and this right brought relief to the craftsmen. There was only one restriction in the king's privilege and it is - on Sundays and Easter days, the Jews (and the Karaites), the merchants and the craftsmen, should behave according to what is customary among Christians, meaning, they also had the obligation not to work and trade in those days. Despite the intervention of the supreme authority the issues have not yet reached their full resolution. Both parties stood firm for their rights. In time of need, they looked for shelter and support in the institutions of government and justice, but life worked out according to the circumstances of the time. Once the gentiles had the upper hand, and once the Jews won. The situation worsened in particular during times of economic distress, such as after the Cossack Wars and the Decrees of 5408 (1648), when the state as a whole was depleted, and the economic situation of the Jews decreased dramatically. From the same period after 1648 we received information indirectly that Christian apprentices preferred to work for the Jews - a sign that the Jewish craft had recovered from the crisis and the Jews were able to expand their workshops. From official documents it is known about the extension of the shoemakers' rights. Instead of two open stores, they were allowed to have three stores. The struggle went on and on, and ended in the complete victory of the Jews. The Jewish craftsmen entered additional professions (carpentry, construction, blacksmithing, candle making, weaving), freed themselves completely from their dependence on the Cech, and at the end of the 18^th century the entire city enter was occupied by the Jews, their workshops and shops.

During the struggle that we described above, the association of tailors and furriers was formed. We have no information about the organization of other craftsmen. There is no indication of their connection to the existing association, but it is permissible to assume that there was also an association of shoemakers in every place. We do not know when the tailors' association was founded. The regulations

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kept in our hands are from 1721, but it can be assumed that the organization was established for managing the struggles since 1539, and it undertook the burden of the war together with the representation of all the Jews of the community of Lutsk. We do not have material that would allow us to bring to light a full description of the history of the association. Each association maintained a pinkas [ledger] in which was the list of members and changes that took place in it - admitting new members and expelling old members, a yearly financial report, and important events in the life of the association such as the annual elections with the names of the elected. From the history of the association in Lutsk we only have the regulations, and also this important material was only preserved in a copy and not in an original manuscript. We must be content - with no choice - with what we have, and acknowledge the favor of Mr. Elisha Hayak, who submitted these regulations for printing in the Yearly Journal Measef from 1902 (pages 286-290).

Below I will first give the text and in the next chapter we will try to analyze the regulations according to their subject matter, and in this manner a picture - if dim - of the lives of the craftsmen in Lutsk will unfold before us^[a].

This is written for remembrance in the book of new and old regulations that were decided by the holy association with the consent of all.

(The shatnez prohibition and the concentration of hemp yarn sales)
1) After all, Hazal^[4] wrote the shatnez prohibition in their book of severe prohibitions when they said: “They do not share respect and meet even in the marketplace, and on this the honorable leaders opened their eyes to approve and signed together with the honorable rabbi and preacher of our community to fence the lawlessness and remove this obstacle from under the hands of our brothers. ” Because it was agreed that every year, right after the end of the year and the Ten Days of Repentance, the Seven are obliged to assemble and choose a man that all of them will testify and say that this is a kosher and honest man who will hold the hemp threads that he will buy from Jews who wove with their own hands, or that he will hold by lease or by trust. And no one will buy hemp threads except from that man, and whoever buys from another source, if he's a member of our association we must remove him from his trade and push and push him until he will accept his judgment, repent and be healed. And if this man is outside of our association, then the duty of the gabbaim [administrators] is to bring him before the table of the leaders with the honorable rabbis, ask for judgment on that man and punish him for violating the prohibition. Because the honorable leaders took it upon themselves to announce a boycott every year in the small synagogue on those who will not buy hemp threads from the man who would lease them. And even on this we opened our eyes in the matter of the lining that is sewn under a woolen garment. The craftsman is not allowed accept the fabric until it is fully inspected by two expert craftsmen who will determine that it contains hemp threads, and the ribbons and the decorations will also be inspected by the aforementioned test. And when it is found, and most of them as a whole do not know about the great prohibition, and this failure is under the hand of those who sew ribbons and decorations on linen in a woolen garment, and put something kosher under the linen and sew the thread in a knot to the garment with one stitch only at a break. This is a great prohibition, because one must watch over all those who sew ribbons and decorations on a kosher thing, and then the kosher thing is sewn on the kosher garment and the thread does not go from the ribbon to the garment, and the gabbaim must watch over the aforementioned obligation with a huge fine.

(Weekly and monthly tax)
2) The pinkas is open, ancient regulations, that everyone in the association must give charity - on every Shabbat eve 1 big (a thirtieth part of a Polish zloty), and on the eve of each Rosh Chodesh^[5] 2 big for the needs of the association. On all of the above the pinkas will be open and the hand is writing. Whoever doesn't pay half before Passover then the gabbaim are obliged to collect from him with all kinds of methods and approaches.

(Time to stop work on Sabbath eve)
3) To keep a man away from the offense - it was agreed that the gabbaim would give frequent warnings to stop working two hours after noon every Shabbat eve, and if it happens that it would be necessary to engage in work after the above time, he will give a redemption of 2 big Polish for charity, and the man who will do it maliciously, God forbid, will be punished by the Seven as they see fit. He has permission to engage in his work if he needs to finish a garment for a Jew before the entrance of the Shabbat.

(Preventing unfair competition)
4) These will be the commandments when a man behaves disrespectfully in the matter of unfair competition with his fellow craftsman because of our manifold iniquities, and we set restrictions to this matter, if a craftsman will take something to fix

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and record it in his list both with a Jew and with gentile, it is forbidden for another craftsman to touch the first with a huge fine and other punishments. And if it was by necessity, which will be determined with complete clarity that he had to go and fix it, then he is exempt from a fine and he will only give half a wage to the first craftsman. And the man who will do it, God forbid, with malice, then he will give all the wages to the first craftsman, apart from a fine at the discretion of the Seven, so they shall listen and fear, and they shall no longer, God forbid, act wantonly.

(All engaged in the craft of tailoring or furriery must be subordinate to the association)
5) Many are the new outlaws who have come from nearby, they are young laborers who engage in on their own work, and because of this they deprive the livelihood of the homeowners who take care of their children and pay the burden of taxes and property taxes. The aforementioned youth are an obstacle and a problem for every class and the condition of our community. That's why it has been ruled ever since, that a craftsman is not allowed to engage in the craft of tailors or furriers unless he comes before the Seven. The gabbaim must do to them all kinds of methods and approaches, and persecute them until they come before the Seven [members of the board] and fulfill what came out of the Seven's mouth.

(The obligation of praying in public at the association's prayer house)
6) “I considered my ways, and I returned my feet to Your testimonies ” (Psalms 119:59), this is what King David said: every day I thought about going to so-and-so and ran my feet to synagogues and Batei Midrash, and in several places we found that great is the prayer in public, and therefore we got up and decided to have a special place for our prayer, to do and fulfill that everyone in our association is obliged to go to Beit HaMidrash to pray in public in the evening and in the morning, and whoever does not go is obliged to give a ransom, and whoever commits a crime against his will - God exempts him from punishment.

(Mandatory participation in a lesson on the Shabbat and a holiday)
7) Because the study the Torah is equal for everyone, and on the Shabbat and holiday everyone is free from work and crafts, and these days were set to meet in groups and ask questions and seek guidance on topical subjects, to know wisdom and morality, and so we took upon ourselves that each of our association will go to listen to a lesson on the Sabbath and on a holiday and, hear and your soul shall live, will exist in us.

(Torah reading on the Shabbat and holidays in the association's small synagogue)
8) On the Shabbat and holiday they will pray in the Great Synagogue, and after the Torah scroll is taken out they will go to their small synagogue and to call readers on the Sabbath and no more, their preacher will be the third, and he is allowed to give the honor to whoever he wants to be in his place, and they are not allowed to add to seven readers on the Shabbat unless there would be some kind of obligation, a guest, women giving birth or a memorial day for the deceased, then they are allowed to add. And on holidays and Days of Awe they will call all seven to the Torah as was the custom since then.

(The reading of the Torah on Rosh Chodesh and Chol Hamoed^[6])
9) On Rosh Chodesh and Chol Hamoed, it is allowed to call whoever wants to if no one bought a mitzvah, but not on the Shabbat and holiday.

(The election of arbitrators)
10) The ballot will take place on Chol Hamoed of Passover and will be done in this order: at first they will make three ballot boxes, meaning, from the tailors they will take two notes from the first, and then one note from the furriers' ballot box, and then one note from the outsiders' ballot box, and then everything will be put into one ballot box and they will take one note from all of them, and these are the four (a mistake, it should be five) arbitrators who choose the Seven. This is how they will behave every year.

(The method of appointing the association's management)
11) The arbitrators, [whose names] will come out of the ballot box, will gather in a special room and will not come out from there until they are done. And so they will behave: they will make four gabbaim, three collectors, two trustees and three combinations, and they are allowed to add and make another as the leader. And how they will do it? They must make two gabbaim from the tailors and a third gabbai from the furriers. They are allowed to make a fourth gabbai either from the tailors or from the outsiders who are in the association. If the fourth gabbai will be from the outsiders, then they will make the collectors from two tailors and one furrier. And if they will make the fourth gabbai from the tailors, then they must make one collector from the outsiders, one collector from the furriers, and the third collector they are allowed to make from the tailors or from the outsiders. This is the rule: from the tailors they will make no less than two gabbaim and two collectors, or three gabbaim. No more than three gabbaim.

(The settlement of the accounts before the elections)
12) Before the elections, the Seven are obliged to gather at the place where the voting will take place and collect everything that is owed, both from the weekly payment and advance payment. Everyone must pay what he owes or he will give a guarantee, and then the whole group will gather around them to vote as above.

(An arbitrator cannot be a gabbai or a collector)
13) This matter starts with large and noticeable dimensions in all the sacred holy associations. An arbitrator, who was not appointed until now, is not allowed to appoint himself to the Seven, but he is allowed to be a combination or a trustee. We also agreed on a huge fine for those who will violate it. They will only act according to this regulation, and those who violate it will not be accepted into the Seven. He will also be rejected from the association if he behaves arbitrarily against the Seven regarding this regulation.

(Maintaining the honor rank)
14) And also to do to others according to ranks from bottom to top, and if they break the law they will be punished with a huge fine.

15) (The fifteenth regulation was deleted from the page).

(Two partners cannot be together in the management)
16) Two partners cannot be appointed to the Seven, but it is allowed to include one in the Seven and the second either a combination or a trustee.

(The history of the association: hence the obligation to pay the association by everyone involved in the profession)
17) The kindnesses of the Lord never cease, who has not forsaken His loving kindness from us, because in the past the hand of the nations was against us, in other words, under the distress of the Chec. And our livelihood was difficult for us because of the greatness of the heaviness and the harsh conditions that they imposed upon us. Every day they had risen up against us to destroy us, until God

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poured a spirit on us from on high and He gave in the heart of our honest ministers and we obtained from them rights, He brought us out of slavery to freedom. While it is not written, it is appropriate to write that anyone who wants to engage in the craft of tailors or furriers must pay the value of the aforementioned expenses. And it was agreed upon that anyone who wants to engage in the aforementioned work and will not compromise with the association to be one of us, he will give the association a total of 4 zloty each year until he agrees with the association to become one of the members. And three joiners and four collectors will watch over all the collections in all force and spiteful proceedings.

(The remainder of the fabric must be returned to its owner - remnant prohibition)
18) Because precious in the sight of the Lord is the man who enjoys the labor of his hands more than the man who fears the Lord, and many tell themselves, this is a fabric remnant and fail in this, and this is a great prohibition, therefore, whoever makes light of this matter will be punished with a huge fine.

(The obligation to pay an “advance fee ” which applies to every new member)
19) An individual who wants to join the association must come before the Seven to compromise and to give an advance fee, and will only sign in front of the entire association before the elections.

(Whoever leaves the association will not be re-admitted except for a special payment)
20) It is good to a man to bear the brunt within the association, and later he changes his mind and wants to separate himself from the community, then he is obliged to pay a fine of 2 zloty, his sin will be written in the pinkas that he will no longer be accepted into the association until he will reconciles it.

(The right to keep apprentices and laborers, prevention of cheating in these matters)
21) Because this failure undermines the craftsmen, since every craftsman has far more workers than he can afford, and because of this it damage is done to the homeowners, and so it was agreed upon to make the correct order: whoever has a large amount, meaning the amount of 150, then he is allowed to keep two laborers and an apprentice, and whoever does not have the aforementioned amount must not have workers, and anyone who has two of the above two amounts is allowed to have three laborers and one apprentice and no more, with a huge fine.

P.S. And it must not be done by deception, to take some work and let someone else to fix it from his home, both per week and per unit of produce, he will only hire a laborer, in any case no less than for a quarter of a year. Indeed, this regulation did not say which homeowner must hire a worker.

(The law for the one who leaves Lutsk and later returns to it)
22) A member who will move to another place, and later returns to live here, is obligated to pay for the transfer, that is, weekly and Rosh Chodesh fees, and if not - he lost his possession.

(Incomes related to Torah reading)
23) Other income, such as payment for aliyah^[7] to the Torah, will be based on a lease for an entire year, and if a lessee is not found, everything will be according to the monthly leader and the gabbaim lists.

(Laws of altercations and quarrels)
24) If there is dispute and trespassing in the association that will cause altercations and quarrels they will bring their case before the Seven, and if one wants to bring his case before the community together with the honorable rabbi president of the court, he is allowed to do so, but he must give 4 zloty to the association fund.

(Monetary law)
25) There is to be one law and one ordinance for you, in monetary law they will bring their case before the honorable rabbi, president of the court and the local judge, may God protect and preserve him, like other members of our community, may God protect and preserve them.

26) (Delivery of financial report by the monthly leader, expenses for a mitzvah meal)
Fixed order, every month the monthly leader is obliged to give an account to the trustees of all income and expenses, and the leader of the month is not allowed to spend more than 1 zloty at the time, and only in the knowledge of all Seven.

P.S. and for a mitzvah meal, circumcision or a wedding, he shouldn't pay more than one for the meal even if all Seven were there.

(Registration of contracts with laborers in the association's pinkas)
27) Laborers, who will rent themselves, must come with the homeowner at the time of renting and write all the details in the pinkas. And every quarter of a year the homeowner is obliged to pay the rent also to register the total amount in the pinkas, so that there will be no denial of it. Every Jewish law will be according to the record in the pinkas.

(The salary to be paid to the worker)
28) Also in this matter they were aware that they waste a lot of money in hiring laborers, and one pays more than the other, and that's why there are altercations and arguments and many obstacles. And so it was agreed that a furrier, or a tailor, shouldn't pay a laborers more than 40 zloty, and whoever gives more than the aforementioned sum will be punished with a heavy fine by the Seven.

(Audit of the fund)
29) Before the ballot the Seven are obliged to check and pay all the bills in full, and be guiltless before the God, and before Israel, and the account will be written in the pinkas.

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D. The life of the craftsmen in Lutsk and their organization

The Articles of Association was not written by a modern lawyer, therefore its structure seems somewhat strange to us. Apparently it has two chapters: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom ” (meaning, religious matters), and the chapter “The order of appointing, ” but the issues contained in these chapters are different and varied and do not overlap the meaning of the titles. A modern drafter would arrange things in a different order. However, it is allowed to state that the drafter wrote down the matters according to his psychological approach, the approach of a Jew in the 17^th century, a Jew who acquired knowledge and knew how to express this. If he placed the matters of Shatnez in the first section, then there is no doubt that this issue was very important to him. And it can also be said that if he included in the last section the matter of checking the cash register, he must have done so because when he finished the work he remembered that this matter was extremely important, therefore there is room to highlight it in the term of last-last-important. There are several matters that should have been concentrated in one section and they appear in several sections, and on the other hand there are sections that include more than one matter. The two sections to which a supplement was added (21-22), say who demanded me, who added and when, why did he add, and if these additions are from the regulations from the year 1721 or were added later because of an incident that happened. We have no answer for that. The question also arises, what was included in the deleted section 15: who deleted it - the draftsman of the regulations or someone else, why and when the content of the section was deleted, who wrote the comment about the deletion? After these comments we will try to summarize a picture from the organizational patterns of the tailors and the furriers in Lutsk according to logical order - on the basis of the various sections - according to their explicit content and according to the assumptions that we are allowed to assume based on what we know from the regulations of other associations. In the analysis before us we will go according to the following order: 1) The history of the association. 2) Financial arrangements. 3) The composition of the association and the members' rights and duties. 5) The relationship with the community administration and the judicial system. 7) The religious way of life. 8) Conclusion.

1. The history of the association: section 17 introduces us to the details of this matter. Its main concern is the order of accepting new members and supervision on the matters of the fund. From this section we hear that in the past the tailors and furriers suffered from the pressure of the Cechy (“Hand of Nations ”) which from time to time renewed new decrees, until they managed to obtain a bill of rights from the ruler. The content of this bill of rights is not known to us, nor is it clear when and by whom it was given. On the basis of the words, “honest ministers ” (in plural), it can be assumed that it was given by the king and the local rulers. It is possible that this bill of rights served as a basis for the legal establishment of the association, which had already existed without a legal basis.

2. Financial arrangements: The main thing is included in section 4: whoever received a certain work and registered it in his notepad (a hint to the management of notepads by the craftsmen) is his, and if someone dares to take his work (maybe by lowering the price), will be punished with a “huge fine, ” and, on top of that, he will give all the salary to the first craftsman, unless it turns out that there was some objective necessity for this but, in this case he must give half the salary to his friend. This regulation derives from the concept of “possession ” which was developed in Israel in previous generations. An individual acquired “possession ” of an apartment, of a business, of his own customers, and it was a sort of his monopoly. An important arrangement is also determined in section 21. There were also craftsmen who employed quite a few boys and laborers, and by this they were able to lower the price and prepare a large stock for the fair. Having a large workshop was also to raise its owner in the level of social importance, something that the society wanted - out of an ambition to curb it, and perhaps also complicate him with “unsmooth ” businesses that could bring harm to all the professionals. The aforementioned regulation, which was accepted at the request of the wealthy craftsmen, came to regulate the matter, and it establishes a waiver and a priority right only for those craftsmen who pay a tax (“sum ”) at the amount of 150-300 zloty. These were allowed to employ 2-3 apprentices and laborers. Others had no right to employ boys and laborers. Presumably, the meaning here is the “amount ” in the overall sense, that is, the tax to cover all the community expenses, including the government tax. From the establishment of this regulation we learn that there were also rich people among the members. The appendix to this regulation also prohibits cheating by giving work from the workshop by way of contracting. If the craftsman has a lot of work, he is allowed to hire a worker for a quarter of a year, and no less than that. And maybe there is a mistake here, and the reference to the period “no more than a quarter of a year ”? It is not clear if the reference is to all members, also outside of the aforementioned rich, and what is the meaning of the last sentence. It is possible, that there is a discount here for economically poor members who are forced to give up an independent workshop by hiring themselves as laborers, and the above-mentioned time limit does not apply to them. If we had additional material, which tells about cases of hiring laborers, we could be more certain about the meaning of this section, but - as mentioned - such material is not available. Sections 27-28, which regulate the matters of hiring workers and their wages, are of particular importance. An association of craftsmen, who own houses is not interested in paying a high salary, therefore the regulations set the maximum salary at 40 zloty (per quarter) and state that the lease (“details of methods ”) and its regular payment) should be recorded in a register together with the owner's statement on the amount of the “amount ” that he is paying. By setting a maximum wage and ensuring that it is paid on time, the regulation protects the laborer, but also disadvantages him - in order to maintain the principle of equality - since allowing a higher salary to be paid might prevent a mediocre artisan from hiring a good laborer, since he would prefer to hire himself from the artisan who pays more. And we will return to a financial matter in connection with work on Saturday evenings (according to section 2). It should be noted that in the registers of many other companies the financial arrangements occupy a more extensive place, in particular regarding the prevention of unfair expropriation.

3. The composition of the association and the members' rights and duties. The association was made up of three divisions: tailors, furriers and outsiders from among the members of the two professions (and it is possible that there were also other professions among the outsiders). From the wording of the regulations we can learned that the founders were considered the first members, and that many craftsmen remained outside the association. Several regulations are aimed at them, all of which emphasize the principle of the association's exclusivity and its coercive power: section 5 talks about “working youth ” who work for themselves, who “burst ” into the profession, and being bachelors the obligation to pay taxes

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does not apply to them and the burden of a family is not imposed on them. Therefore, they have the ability to lower the price of their products, and in doing so they may undermine the “rule of status and condition ” of the profession and the community. The regulation imposes on them an obligation to appear before the management in order to regulate their affiliation with the association by paying a certain tax. It was not explicitly stated that they should join the association, and it can be assumed that the association was not interested in making them members with full rights. In other associations, several clauses were also specified regarding the increase in the level of professional authority (youth - worker - craftsman) and regarding the restrictions applicable to bachelors. There is no trace of that here. It is possible that this issue was also regulated in Lutsk with additional regulations. To this point the arrangement regarding the employees who have become self-employed of their own accord. Section 17 deals with craftsmen who have not yet joined the association. They are entitled to pay an annual tax of 4 zloty if they wish to remain outside the association, or to join the association and pay the fixed tax applicable to members, and it is smaller, only 2.5 zloty (see below). The reason is that the members of the association incurred multiple expenses in connection with the legal procedures with the Chec and for obtaining the bill of rights and therefore all the workers benefiting from the rights have to bear some of the expenses in retrospect. And this is the rule: each new member who joins the association pays a kind of a registration tax (“advance fee ”), which is assessed according to the financial situation of the candidate, therefore it was not determined on a fixed amount and it was said that it is a matter for “compromise ” (19). The membership is forever. If a member wants “to separate from the community ” (and the reasons can be different), then he must pay a withdrawal fine at the rate of 2 zloty, and will be re-admitted to the association only after clearing a payment that will be imposed on him. The very act of leaving is considered a moral and social defect (“a sin, ” section 20). A member who leaves the association due to his transfer to another place - if he wishes to rejoin the association upon his return to Lutsk, he must pay the full amount of tax that he did not pay on the occasion of his absence from the city, if not - he has lost his membership, that is, he is considered a new member who is obligated to pay “advance fees. ” Some associations included in their regulations details of cases in which the association is allowed to remove a member. Two cases of “removal from a profession ” are mentioned here: if a member bought hemp yarn not from the owner of the monopoly for the sale of the yarn on behalf of the association, and the second case - if an “arbitrator, ” meaning, the member tasked with appointing the management (see below) misappropriated his duty.

Members' rights are not usually specified in the regulations, being self-evident. For the most part, the rights are discussed in the various sections for their matters: the right to work without dependence on the Chec, the right to protection against unfair competition, the right to keep youth and workers with certain restrictions, payment of salary with certain restrictions, right for honors at the association's synagogue, right to receive gifts for family celebrations, active and passive right in elections (see below). Additional rights were specified in several associations: the priority of a veteran member over a young member, the priority the members' sons and sons-in-law, the rights of the members' widows and orphans, additional rights for married members over the bachelors.

The members' obligations are of three types: payment of taxes, obligations of an economic nature, and obligations of a religious nature. In certain associations there is also a fourth category of obligations - the services apply to the young, in particular when a member needs help, for example in case of illness. The fixed rate is 76 big, which is 2.5 zloty and 1e big. The tax is divided into a weekly fee - every Sabbath eve 1 big, and the monthly fee - every Rosh Chodesh eve 2 big. The way of collecting the tax seems strange to us, but we must not forget that every matter of taxes - their definition, their imposition, their distribution, their collection - stood at that time on a basis that was different in purpose from the modern basis. It should be noted, that the collection mechanism probably did not work properly, because it was heavy on both the amount and the payer. From the wording of section 2, it appears that the members were usually late in paying their taxes, and that the association was content with demanding that at least half of the quota (38 big) be paid in the month of Nisan, before the elections held during the intermediate days of Passover. Indeed, there is a certain contradiction to this in section 12, speaking about the obligation to pay all debts before the election date (“making a ballot ”), but it is possible that this restriction only applies - as literally stated in this section - for the advance and weekly fees and not for the monthly fee. The obligations of an economic nature are detailed above in our discussion of the economic arrangements. In the area between economic and religious obligations is the matter of working hours on the eve of the Sabbath and the holidays. The rule is that work must be stopped two hours after noon, and only in special cases, and in return for a payment of 2 big, is allowed to extend (3). The case detailed in the last sentence of section 3 probably comes to interpret that the finishing of the sewing of a garment for a Jew before the beginning of Shabbat has a special law and it is allowed to extend it without the obligation to pay. The number of religious obligations is not small: adherence to the prohibition of Shatnez with the exact details to the law of the lining and additional decoration (2). Prohibition of buying yarns not from special person who received the exclusive right of sale on behalf of the association (in rent and payment of the lease fee in advance, or “in trust, ” that is, by paying the lease in installments from a security deposit) in the validity of a contract that is renewed every year (1). The obligation to pray in public, evening and morning, at the association's synagogue (6), the obligation to study in classes given on Saturdays and holidays from the association's preacher (4,8), and the prohibition of taking “remnant ” from a fabric that was given for sewing (18). Every violation of an obligation entails a punishment - “a huge punishment ” and “coercions and oppression. ”

4. The association management. The management appears in three forms: the permanent body called by the name “Seven, ” the broad body in which the aforementioned Seven are joined by two trustees, and three “combinations. ” One person among the Seven alternates every month, and his name - as is customary in the community organization - leader of the month. It is possible that the duty of the “leader of the month ” was only reserved to one of the divisions of the Seven - the gabbaim. The paragraph about choosing “one for the leadership ” (11) is not clear. In the permanent management of the Seven the tailors secured themselves precedence, as the following table shows (according to section 11):

	Possibility A		Possibility B		Possibility C
	gabbaim	collectors	gabbaim	collectors	gabbaim	collectors
Tailors	2	2	3	0	3	1
Furriers	1	1	1	1	1	1
Outsiders	1	0	0	2	0	1
Total	4	3	4	3	4	3

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According to the first and third options the tailors are guaranteed an absolute majority. According to the second option the tailors have a majority in the most important division, which is the gabbaim division. The restriction at the end of section 16 in the matter of two partners also applies to them, and this is certainly the case of three or more partners. It is worth noting, that the outsiders won a respectable position in Lutsk since they were allowed to reach the position of a gabbai, or the status of a representative by two collectors. No restrictions were set regarding the election of trustees and combinations.

According to the practice in communities and association, the leaders are elected according to a two-tier “elections ” order that takes place every year. The term “elections ” is marked with quotation marks, since in practice these were not elections but appointment, when the appointees (“the arbitrators ”) also receive their position not by election, but by taking of their name out of the ballot box. Section 10, which discusses the arbitrators, shows again the priority of the tailors. They are guaranteed two arbitrators from their special ballot box, and they have a high probability, since they are the majority, that the fifth arbitrator from the common ballot box will be theirs. Therefore, they will have a representation of three members in the five-member arbitrator body. The rule is that in the rank of positions, the arbitrators must maintain the ascending order “from bottom to top. ” Therefore, a member cannot serve as a gabbai if he has not previously served as a collector, and no one will be able to reach the level of a collector, if he was not once a trustee or a combination (14). And another rule, the arbitrators cannot appoint themselves to the Seven, but they can be appointed to a combination or a trustee. This rule was followed very carefully, as an action contrary to this rule entails a great punishment to the point of removing the person from the association. All these calculated arrangements, which were not invented in Lutsk (they were customary in all communities and societies, and sometimes even more severely), were to give the elections a distinctly democratic tone. In Lutsk, unlike some communities, the names of all members, without exception, were placed in the ballot boxes. We don't know how this practice actually worked in Lutsk. From the pinkasim of various communities and associations we earn that despite the democratic spirit a limited number of individuals actually ruled, and in the ranks of arbitrators and the holders of the various representative positions we find, year after year, the same members. To emphasize the spirit of kashrut “in the order of appointment ” it is appropriate to mention the meaning of the words at the beginning of section 11: during the work of the arbitrators' committee, they are locked in a special room and do not leave it until they have completed their work. The intention is that they will not be influenced by people from the outside.

As for the division of roles between the 7 or between the 12 - we cannot determine exactly the areas of authority. In any case, it is clear that the Seven, or mainly the gabbaim, are the management that operates all year round as a representative-legislator-judge-executive body. The gabbaim together with the combinations (17) are authorized to handle the matter of the craftsmen who do not wish to join the company. The trustees check and approve the financial report of the monthly leader in his month (26), and all Seven do it every year before the elections (29). The members of the management fulfill their duties as a matter of honor (although this is not explicitly stated). One of the honors they are promised in advance is aliyah to the Torah on holidays and Days of Awe [High Holydays].

5. The relationship with the community administration and the judicial system. There were communities in which the mutual relations between the association and the community were tense. The community management intervened in the association's affairs and also secured for itself influence within the association's management. One of the areas where the contrasts emerged was the synagogue. For more social establishment and for the sake of unity the associations aspired to have their own special synagogue, and the communities showed no willingness to agree to this. A fair compromise has been found in Lutsk and there is no echo to the struggles in this matter. It is possible to conclude from this that this social stratum - namely, wealthy Jews - dominated the community and the society as one, and in other words, there was no room for friction? The association had its own house of prayer, except that the association's members had the obligation to pray Shacharit (and possibly Mussaf) on the Sabbath and holidays at the Great Synagogue of the entire community. The harmony between the association and the community was also revealed by the fact that the matter of the purchase of yarn by the people outside of the association from the official lessee, on behalf of the association. was brought to his attention and for the decision before the community's management (“the table of the leaders with the honor of the rabbis ”), and they also announce every year a boycott regarding the purchase of yarn according to the arrangements established by the association (1). In matters of judgment in monetary laws the authority is reserved to the community's spiritual leadership (the rabbi and the judge), and only in matters of quarrels and fights the litigants have the authority to bring the matter before the Seven, or before the community leaders together with the rabbi - for a payment to the association's fund.

6. The association's finances. The association's income came from various sources: advance fees, settlement fees, weekly and monthly tax, penalties and fines, leasing the sale of the yarn, the synagogue and redemption fees due to various concessions. The expenditure items included: maintaining the synagogue, paying salaries to the preacher and to the shamash, gifts from the company to the members on their celebrations. It can be assumed that there were two more items of expenses: legal management with the municipality and in the event of conflicts with the Chec, and contributions (as in all communities and societies) to poor members of the local community and the poor of other communities. The control over the fund was quite strict: a new report, an annual report, management of lists and notebooks, and above all - the limitation of the monthly income of the employee at his own discretion and the amount of the labor The above is one; Any larger expenditure required the approval of the Seven (26).

7. The religious way of life. We have already talked about this way of life and detailed the members' obligations in this area. It is worth noting that the strict regulations of the observance of the Shatnez prohibition to the point of concentrating the supply of threads to a reliable “kosher and honest ” person(1) should not be excluded from the religious authority, but we are allowed to see the matter also as a general economic matter: by the lease of the sale of the yarns, the association kept for itself the source of a good income, and also promised a permanent livelihood for the man whom the society wanted to help- a member of the association or a men outside the ranks of the tailors and furriers.

We will add some more details in the matter of the synagogue. In the association's house of prayer, the members, and certainly also the other craftsmen, met several times a day for prayer and conversation, and in addition to that - on the Sabbath and holidays - for the reading the Torah and studying. It can be assumed, that the management meetings were also held in this house of prayer, and there was in

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all that an important social factor. It is interesting to note that in some communities there were mixed associations of craftsmen from different backgrounds, and the associations' synagogue was also a matter of frictions and disputes. What will be the name of the synagogue, which division will determine the ownership of the Torah scroll, how to divide the honors and the calling to the reading of the Torah. There is an impression that in Lutsk the synagogue was used as an additional factor for unity, despite the difference in the professional composition, since there is no hint that there was any kind of discrimination between profession to profession. The repeated stipulation in sections 8-9, not to add to seven readers is definitely directed against both tailors and furriers as one, and its tendency is to avoid conflicts. The aliyot on the Sabbath and the holidays were divided according to a certain cycle (“and so forth, ” section 9), with one stipulation - that the third reader always belongs to the association's preacher or to whom he will give the honor, and an additional stipulation - that on the holidays all seven members of the board should be called for the reading of the Torah (8). On Rosh Chodesh and the intermediate days of Sukkot and Passover, the right for the aliyah is usually sold to any applicant, and this is not to affect the fixed periodicity (9). The honors associated with the removal of the Torah scroll, its scrolling, and putting it in the Ark, were sold for a whole year, and if a buyer was not found - the monthly leader determined according to a special list (“list of gabbaim, ” section 23).

8. Conclusion. The reading of the various sections of the regulation, and their substantive analysis in order to assert their meaning, raises several questions that do not have an answer and I addressed some of these questions. The regret over the lack of additional material is especially great, since we must complete with the fact that we cannot describe the continued development of association until the end of the independent existence of Poland, and the transfer of Wolyn to Russian rule, and in particular the fate of the association during the days of Russian rule in the 19^th century, when Russia established a new policy regarding the organization of the craft and its organization. Cases are known even after the Jews were allowed in Russia to join the official Cechy. They also preserved the organizational framework of the ancient society and even preferred it over the Cechy although it carried some advantages for the Jewish craftsman. We will not know how things turned out in Lutsk. From the fact that until the tragic destruction of the community in the Second World War the tailors special house of the prayer continued to exist, it is permissible to assume that the association also continued to exist, in this and other form.

The history that we revealed above is a modest contribution to the nature of the common people in Lutsk, who knew how to properly protect the honor of their profession, which was also their honor. Their personal dignity as Jews who make a living from the toil of their hands, and in the regime of their organizational life they insisted on democratic patterns of friendship, brotherhood and equality. Today we also know all the flaws that were involved in the orders of the Cechy and the association - such as: economic problems and isolation, hence the taste for denigration in the term “Cechy, ” but at the time they filled a very important role, and the regulations of the tailors in Lutsk were also included in order to add dignity to the community as a whole.

Many memories of interesting types of tailors, and their way of life, are surely preserved in the hearts of the townspeople and the community. To conclude, I would like to bring up an instructive anecdote, which was probably told in different cities about their tailors, that I remember from my days working at the Lutsk gymnasium in the 1920s: A tailor has difficulty with a complicated matter of size and shape for a garment he is about to sew and cannot find a solution. He sighs and rules: The Torah is deep, deep, but apparently the Torah of tailoring is much deeper...

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The Karaites settled in several places in Lithuania, and Lutsk among them, already in the period when Lutsk was considered an integral part of Lithuania, in the days of its Great Princes: Gediminas (1316-1341), Vytautas or Witold (1338-1430).

The Karaites are remnants of the Israelite Sect whose founder was Anan ben David. They set out to dispute the Oral Torah and its interpretations and rules accepted by the Talmud sages, and in this war against the entire oral tradition endangered the very existence of Judaism. Of the entire Karaite community, which in the past was important and large in the number of its members, nowadays only small and scattered communities remain in the entire world and their weight in the Jewish reality is very little^[a].

The Karaite sect was founded in the second half of the eighth century AD. They called themselves “Karaim” because they dealt only with the Mikrah [Bible] unlike the rabbis who studied the Talmud, and therefore they used to call every Jew (who is not of their sect) by the name “Rabbinite^[b].” In the days of the Rambam [Moses ben Maimon], many Karaites in Egypt returned to the Rabbinite religion, and also in the days of the Rambam's son, R' Avraham HaNagid. After the Karaites lost their high status in the Kingdom of Byzantium, their status rose in the countries of Poland, Lithuania and Russia. From Lithuania they also moved to the city of Lutsk, but here, because of the distance from the seat of their sect, they were immersed in ignorance more than their brothers in Egypt and Kushta [Constantinople] where the Karaites' sages lived.

The Karaite communities were always small, and also in Lutsk they were considered a small island in the middle of a large sea of Jewish-Rabbinite and Christian population, and expected to be assimilated in times of peace and exterminated in times of war. The census of the Polish Republic in 1765 revealed 126 Karaites in Lutsk, and 99 in Halych, Galicia, and in 1775, the first Austrian officials found 19 Karaite families in Halych, and 12 families in Kukizów near Lwów [Lviv]. In 1910, the number of Karaites in Halych only reached 170 people. In 1897, their number in the entire country of Russia was 12,894 and of that 6,166 in the Tabaristan region. The rest were in the Moscow region and only a few of them in Trakai, Panevezys and Lutsk (1,383 people).

To this day, the Karaites, especially the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites, don't have a history book. So far, no historical documents have been published to a sufficient extent that it would be possible to build on them the history of this interesting Jewish tribe in these countries. For several generations the Karaites loved to prove that they are the real Jews, and that they are entitled to the rights and freedoms granted by the kings, and that the Rabbinites are an inferior tribe of the great Jewish race. Here is the origin of their historical forgeries made by several of them in good faith and honest belief, and by others - with forethought and with a clear intention. In a book published in 1920, Dr. S. A. Poznanski^[c] proved how these forgeries were made, and how far they have gone in the history of the Jews. Already in the Middle Ages

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The Holy Ark		The building from outside		The Western Wall with the balcony for the choir

The estrangement of the Karaites often caused suffering, pain and disgrace to the Jews, only recently has the feeling of belonging to the Jewish people been strengthened among the Karaites. In contrast to the historical tradition that was accepted among them. The Karaites of Poland and Lithuania hardly differed in their outward appearance from the non-Jewish rural population, although they spoke a language similar to the Georgian language. They lived the life of an independent religious community and this is how they appeared to the non-Jews. Here it is also worth noting, that anti-Semitic feelings of hostility were not usually directed towards the Karaites, and therefore, for example, the Karaites were not exiled from their place of residence in Lithuania when the Jews were exiled from there by the Russian authorities at the beginning of the First World War. Here, it is worth noting that in Lutsk also lived a large number of Jesuits and “Subbotniks” - Christian farmers who observe the Sabbath.

The Karaite community in Lutsk is ancient and equal to other communities in Poland and Lithuania. It attributes its beginnings to the days of Witold's second departure to Crimea. In those days, Witold settled a hundred Karaite families, who were brought from the Crimea, in a place called Krasna-Gora on the right bank of the Styr River across from the Lutsk fortress. Sultansky (see below) tells that they lived there until the days of Khmelnytsky the tyrant. Shultansky's story did not stand up to the criticism of some researchers, and also the matter of the bills of rights concerning the Lutsk Karaites was unacceptable.

From the certificates it can be clarified that the first article regarding the Karaite community in Lutsk is not before 1506. In the past there was no difference in the bills of rights between the Jews and the Karaites. On that year, the Karaites, together with the Rabbinite Jews, received from King Sigismund I the Old a bill of right, and were exempt from paying a heavy annual tax for the synagogues that the local Starosta used to collect from them. The distinction between the Jews and the Karaites begins in 1503, and only after the Jews returned from exile to Lithuania. In 1506, Sigismund I exempted the “Rabbinite and Karaite communities” from paying the annual tax of 12 groschen. From that time the two communities are walking arm in arm in the legal sense, together they are striving to expand their rights and freedoms, and together they are defending themselves in common matters where they are expected to be in danger of losing their rights. In 1528 and 1529 they received discounts on taxes, and in 1545 they both rose together to defend the common cemetery, because that year Prince Chatvortinsky blocked the road leading to the single cemetery and prevented them from burying their dead. When he was invited to the Starosta, he justified himself that in the past he made a contract with the two communities regarding the cemetery, and the Jews (the Karaites) occupied a larger area of land than was stipulated in the contract. Sigismund Augustus promised to investigate the matter, and in the meantime ordered Czetwertyński not to hinder the Jews from burying their dead. Also in the days of Unia Lubelska [The Union of Lublin], when the countries of Wolyn and Podolia were passed from Lithuania to Poland, including the city of Lutsk, the joint work of the two communities continued. On 23 June 1569, both, together with the rest of the inhabitants of this city, swore an oath of allegiance to the Polish Republic. The elders who swore in the name

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of the Rabbinite community: Plucka, Eliya, Moshko, Shenki and Mordecha, and the elders who swore in the name of the Karaite community: Betko, Hoshva, Misin, Shenko and Wolchko.

In the first census in Lutsk in 1552, the number of Rabbinite families was 33, and the Karaites 27. But already in1648, the number of Rabbinite families was 84, and the number of Karaite families 20. The Karaite community in Lutsk dwindled more and more. In the second half of the 17^th century, the Karaite community dwindled to such an extent that it could not be considered a real force in the eyes of the Christian merchants, and the full force of the economic war was directed exclusively against the Rabbinite community.

The situation of the Karaites was particularly severe during the pogroms of the oppressor Khmelnytsky, may his name be blotted out, in the years 5408 - 5409[1648-1649]. Karaites were also murdered in Lutsk when the community of Lutsk suffered badly from the Cossacks' massacre, from epidemics, fires and drought. Out of the twenty Karaite families only three remained. The names of the murdered were recorded in their “Book of Remembrance.^[d]” During a visit to Lutsk in 1650, immediately after this holocaust period, only 28 Rabbinite families were found there. It is understood that the three remaining Karaite families in the city no longer had any influence. Since then, their community has been a shadow on the side of the Rabbinite community which, despite its poverty and troubles, continued, as a united and organized group, to fight together with other communities for its rights, to recover more quickly from the ravages of fate and rebuild its ruins. Only with the restoration of peace in the country, Lutsk's Jewish elders turned to King Jan Kazimierz with a request to confirm their bills of rights, and in August 1649, he signed the collection of bills of rights of the Jewish community in Lutsk, which were given exclusively to the Rabbinite community.

From the census in the years 1677-79, the exact number of the Jewish residents of Lutsk was obtained - 193 Rabbinites and 16 Karaites. In the 18^th century, the number of Jews and Karaites increased at the same rate. The number of Jews increased every ten years, while the number of Karaites decreased in relation to the rest of the inhabitants. In 1765, in Lutsk itself, there were 1112 Rabbinites in 178 houses, and the number of Karaites in the city reached 104 in 19 houses. In 1784 there were 105 Karaites, and in 1787 - 131 people in 36 houses in the city. There were 1331 Rabbinites. During the visit in 1789, they found three synagogues and 68 houses in the Jewish quarter in Lutsk, and only 6 houses and one synagogue in the Karaite Street.

In the last decades of the 17^th century interest in the Karaites arose in Western Europe. The Swedish king, Carl XI, sent Gustav Peringer, professor of the Hebrew language at the University of Uppsala, to Poland to study the origins of the Karaites and especially their religion. Several years later (1696/7), two researchers left Riga and started to collect Karaite manuscripts in the Lithuanian communities and in Lutsk. During the Great Northern War, the victorious Swedish king, Carl XII, came to Lutsk and took an interest in the Karaites. Mordechai ben Nissan of Kukizów wrote studies to explain the origin of the Karaites: Dor Mordechai [Mordechai's uncle] and Levush Malchut [Royal Vestments], in which the author praises the ancient legends of the Karaites and their ancient origins. Later, Simḥah Yitchak Luzki repeated in detail Mordechai's investigations and claims in his book, Orah Tzadikim [Light of the Righteous].

Lutsk's Karaites had a connection with Jerusalem. Yosef Shlomo, the cantor of the Lutsk community, immigrated to visit to the Holy Land, and in his place served as cantor Nisan David ben Mordechai of Kukizów. The only Karaite emissary, who arrived in Lutsk in 5407 (1647), died and was buried there. The impression that this emissary made on the Karaite communities in Lithuania is evident from the obituary and lamentations of the Karaite cantors in Lutsk, Trakai and Derazhnia. In his letter, David ben Yehoshua (1642), the emissary of the Karaites of Jerusalem, appeals to the Karaite community, and also to those in Lutsk, to come to the aid of the Karaites in Jerusalem and asks to send at least six families to Eretz Yisrael to strengthen the Karaite settlement in Jerusalem which does not exceed three families. The Karaites of Lutsk are included in the letter of complaint sent by the heads of the Karaites in Damascus to their brothers in Poland who stopped their donations to Jerusalem, unlike the Karaites in Crimea who were careful to fulfill this duty.

In the Karaite synagogue

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to explain the state of affairs, we bring herewith the memorandum as written in its main parts:

“Exalted delegation! Enlightened and exalted masters and the most merciful men of kindness!

Your righteousness, masters and men of kindness, and your diligence for the good of the whole country give a foundation for our hope in this auspicious hour, in which the guardianship of the supreme government agreed to provide happiness to all classes, and also agreed not to forget the affairs of the Jewish people. Therefore, all fear is far from our hearts and we rely on your feelings of justice, our masters the men of kindness, we drop at your feet our requests that are expressed in the signs below:

1. We are Karaite Jews, which means in the Polish language: the people of the Bible, and we are different, from the days of the destruction of Jerusalem^[e], in all religious customs from the Rabbinites. We do not go to their synagogues since we have our own synagogues, our own religion priests who are special to the customs of our religion, meaning, only one cantor who is both the religion priest and the slaughterer that we choose him ourselves. Matters of food ritually unfit for eating are not known to us, except for a pregnant cow that we are not allowed to slaughter, and the meat of such a slaughtered cow is not for us to eat. We wear our clothes according to the customs of the Poles. We drink all the same drinks and use all the same utensils as the Christians. We work in the factories, in the cities of Yelets and Kukizów across the border^[f]. We sow and cultivate the land. Work for the Christians. We use the Hebrew script only for the matters of our religion^[g] and speak Turkish^[h] among ourselves. We establish special cemeteries and bury our dead in coffins. In short: we are different from the Jews in everything. Therefore, our most vigorous request is, that we will not be included with the Rabbinites Jews even in any small matter, that we will not be attached to them and that we will not be considered similar to them, because, according to our religious duty we shouldn't unite with the Rabbinites Jews. And we even pay the public and poll taxes separately and receive special vouchers for us^[i].

…5 And since we were brought to Lithuania in the days of Witold and in the days of Jagiełło to Poland, and for several hundred years we are in Wolyn in the capital city of Lutsk, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Trakai, Ponevitch [Ponevezh]. and Nowe Miasto^[j], and we are proud that for tor the entire time we have been living in Poland - even though our property is small, and many of us live from the labor of their hands - no one can prove to us that one of us has been punished for the crime of fraud or theft, and our loyalty and affection for the Polish people is well known. Most of our people engage in the horse trade, and with our good knowledge of the Turkish language we were useful the Polish army many times during the Republic's wars with the Turks, and it used us both for reconnaissance and for espionage. Therefore, we hope that the superior delegation, which is full of spirit of patriotism and honesty of the Sejm^[1] that appointed it. If it will not agree to make our fate better, at least it wouldn't make it worse and punish us for being loyal and wanted the good of the country, and also because of our honest behavior during this time. Because, any kind of association and fraternity with the Jews will be considered the greatest punishment in our eyes, and this thing compels us to move, with great heartache, to the country of Turkey, from where our forefathers were brought, and with a heart full of trust in the righteousness of the noble delegation, we humbly submit these demands of ours and we hope for mercy and forgiveness.

And we sign in our name and in the name of the entire Karaite synagogue in Lutsk: Shmuel ben Yosef, Mordechai ben Yitzchak.

The Karaites were not added to the Rabbinite community, and therefore they did not fulfill their threat and did not leave for Turkey.

In the 20s of the 19^th century, a migration movement began among the Polish-Lithuanian Karaites to Yevpatorya and Feodosiya in Crimea. Among the immigrants we find sages from Lutsk who inspired a literary movement in their new homeland. Some of the Karaite authors were named after their city, Lutsk, such as: Yosef Shlomo ben Moshe Lutzky (known as YaShaR), Yitzchak ben Moshe Lutzky and Simḥah Yitzchak ben Moshe Lutzky. YaShaR, of the important sages and the last Karaite's writers, who was born in 1770 in Kukizów near Lwow [Lviv] and died in Koslov [Göslöw] in 1844, lived in Lutsk and hence his nickname “Lutzky.” In 1861, he immigrated to Eretz Yisrael, returned from there, and lived in Koslov to the day of his death. He published several books: The Education Books for Petah Tikva, Tirat Kesef [Silver Battlement], Igerat Tehua'at Yisrael (about his trip to Petersburg to try to free the Karaites from military service), Piyyutim and Tachanunim (liturgical poems and supplications for the cantor, circumcision meal, the birth of twins, the birth of a daughter, the Jewish people, in honor of the Holy City, songs for the Sukkah and more), and “Tables to the year 5661.” Simḥah Yitzchak Lutzky, born at the end of the 17^th century, became one of the spiritual leaders of the Karaites in Crimea. He published there poems and studies as well as two books: commentary on Aharon's second book, Etz Hayyim [Tree of Life] under the name Or Haim [Light of Life], and Orach Tzadikim [Path of the Righteous]. The latter is the history of the Karaite sect and a list of Karaite books which contains

The shamash of the Karaite synagogue

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many errors, but first in this profession. He also wrote the books Reshit Chochmah [The Beginning of Wisdom] and Halichot Olam [Laws of the World]. The Karaites of Lutsk and Trakai, who came to Crimea, established a fund for the purpose of publishing the Karaites' old religious books. And indeed, they published manuscripts or reprinted several books. Their publisher was David ben Mordechai of Kukizów, author of the book Tzemach David [Shoot of David].

Mordechai ben Yosef Sultansky, author of the book Zekher Ẓaddikim, was in the group that left Lutsk. He was born in Lutsk in 1772 and his father served as a cantor in the Karaite community in Lutsk. At the age of forty he moved to the Crimea where he first served as a teacher and later as the community's first cantor. He died in Kherson in 1862. He was a scholar, knew the Rabbinite literature and wrote several books: Petah Tikvah, Hebrew grammar, Göslöw Press^[2] 1857, Tetiv Da'at, Göslöw Press 1859 (on God, the soul, the study of religion and its opponents). Sultansky knew the Kuzari^[3] written by Yehudah HaLevi, the Rambam, the RaDak [Rabbi David Kimhi], and Chovot HaLevavot [Duties of the Hearts] by Bahya ibn Paquda. He also knew the knew the literature and, besides his printed books, he also left several manuscripts and among them the book Zekher Ẓaddikim which was published by Dr. Poznansky in 1920. He composed his last essay at the initiative of the Polish authority that found interest in the origin of the Karaites.

A native of Lutsk was also the Karaite sage, Avraham ben Samuel Firkovich, or Aben ReSheF (1784-1874). He was educated as a Karaite sage, also studied the Rabbinites books and knew how to write in their style. In 1818, he served as cantor and rabbi of the Karaites in Lutsk. In 1828, he argued with the rabbis in Berdychev and declared a war against them in his book Masah u-Meribah [Proving and Strife] (Göslöw Press, 1838). In 1830, he visited Jerusalem where he collected many Karaite and Rabbinite manuscripts. In Crimea he founded a company to publish the ancient Karaite books. In Odessa he met the sage R' Simḥah Pinsker and R' Bezalel Stern, in Vilna R' Shmuel Yosef Fuenn and others. He publish his book Abne Zikkaron [Stones of Memory] that provoked criticism from many sages who proved that the inscriptions he discovered on the gravestones in Crimea, and were published in his book, are fake. In1847, he died in Chufut-Kale (“Jewish Fortress”) in Crimea.

One of the streets in Lutsk is called “Karaite Street” and in it their synagogue. During the previous generations there was a sort of secret boycott on the synagogue by the Rabbinite Jews. The number of Karaites in the city gradually decreased, and after their houses emptied of their inhabitants, the Jews began to live in them and only then the “boycott” was lifted on its own. The Karaites' last cantor was a “Rabbinite” in his views and debated with Rabbi Sorotzkin on matters of beliefs and opinions.

During the First World War most of the Karaites living in Lithuania were forced to flee to the interior of Russia, to Crimea and Siberia. Between the two world wars, the Karaite center moved to Vilna [Vilnius]. In 1932, the number of Karaites in Lutsk reached 70-80. The Karaites in Poland had their own journal in the Polish language, Myśl Karaimska that was published in Vilna. They also had a monthly in the Karaite language, Karai Avarti that was published in Lutsk. In Vilna they had an Ethnographic Historical Museum.

Very little is known about the Karaites in Eastern Europe during and after the Second World War. After the war, and especially with the establishment of the State of Israel, many Karaites from the Eastern countries (Babylon and Egypt) emigrated to Eretz Yisrael, but not a single Karaite emigrated from Eastern Europe (Poland and Lithuania).

Translator's footnotes:

1. The Sejm, officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. Return
2. The Hebrew Karaite press, Göslöw Press, was established in Yevatoriya, the Tatar name of the city of Göslöw (Koslov), in the 1830s and functioned until the 1860s. Return
3. The Kuzari, full title Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion, also known as the Book of the Khazar, is one of the most famous works of the medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet Judah HaLevi, completed in the Hebrew year 4900 (1139-40 CE). Return

Bibliography:

1. A. Firkovich: Abne Zikkaron, Vilna, 1872.
2. Mordechai Nathanson: “The Karaites,” Dvir press, Vilna, 1846.
3. Prof.Meir Balaban: “The Karaites in Poland and Lithuania,” HaTekufah [The Period, a Hebrew literary collection] 17, 21, 28.
4. The communities of Lithuania and the Karaites, Ha'avar [The Past] A.
5. “The Karaites in Lita” by Dov Lipschitz, literary collection Yahadut Lita [Lithuanian Jewry] Vol. A, published by Am HaSefer, 5720.
6. Avrom Ber Gotlober: Bikoret le-Toledot ha-Kara'im [a critical investigation of the history of the Karaites].
7. Güdemann: Ha'asif, Booklet 1 page 152.

[Page 91]

The horrific events that took place in the lives of the Jews during the uprising of the oppressor Khmelnytsky^[1], may his name be blotted out, the events known as the “Decrees of 5408-5409” [1648-1649], did not skip the Jewish settlement in Lutsk. In the period of 5408 - 5409, also our brothers in the city of Lutsk were subjected to plunder and prey like in all other cities near and far, and many of them were killed in various and strange deaths for the sanctification of God's name, they, their wives and sons.

The story of the act is found in an objective lecture in the book, Yeven Mezulah^[2], written by one of the Jewish refugee who was an eyewitness to the event. The acts and the events of the years 5408 - 5409 are a tragic chapter not only in Jewish history, but also in human history in general. We had to make a great effort to distract ourselves from them and erase their memory from our consciousness, so as not to despair of a good ending and hope for the future to come. And in the meantime, even before we could forget those years of murder, came upon us the Holocaust of the German Nazis, who were worst than their teachers, the Haidamakas^[3], and turned the Decrees of 5408-5409 into a minor edition of what had happened in our generation. Nevertheless, we are not free to draw a line on what happened a little over three hundred years ago. The lecture of the event comes as an eternal historical indictment on the part of our people for what their oppressors had done to them, and continue to do to them without a break for two thousand years. The voice of the blood of our ancestors, and our forefathers, cries out from the earth, and this voice should continue to be heard from the end of the world to the end, until the tyrants' stone heart will melt.

The horrific years of 5408-5409 are a period of horrors in the history of the Jewish people. These years were a time of trouble for the Jews in Poland, Wolyn and Ukraine by Khmelnytsky's Haidamakas, and from there the decree spread across the communities of Lithuania. Tens and hundreds of thousands of Jews perished without a trial, and the cruelty of beasts of prey in human form, and complete peace of mind prevailed in the civilized world.

Many reasons led to the Haidamakas uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Chamil HaRasha [the wicked] in our people's mouth), which shortly after was joined by the majority of the Ukrainian people. The uprising shocked the Polish State in the middle of the 17^th century, and caused a holocaust on all the Jews within it, especially on those in its eastern districts. There was a sharp national contrast between the oppressed Ukrainian and the ruling Poles, economic and social contrast between the serf farmer and the land owner, religious contrast between the Parvoslav and the Catholic. The special power of the outbreak was based on the fact that the Ukrainian was usually a Parvoslav peasant, and the Pole was mainly a Catholic noble. The Jews in Ukraine were economically connected to the Polish nobility. The Jews in Ukraine were financially connected to the Polish aristocracy, but this connection did not make them an independent factor in this struggle. However, the blow hit the Jews with all its force more than any other group or class in the State of Poland. The uprising began in the Dnieper. But before Khmelnytsky managed to organize the Cossacks for a military campaign, the uprising of the serf peasants broke out in all areas across the San River to the east. The farmers organized themselves into gangs, attacked estates and cities, murdered and robbed. Maksym Kryvonis'^[4] gangs of, who ran rampant mainly in the Wolyn territories and Podolia until the arrival of Khmelnytsky and his army, excelled in their cruelty.

The surge of events reached Wolyn at breakneck speed, after the Polish army was defeated on May 26, 1648 near Kherson and, with the withdrawal of the Polish army to the west and all of Eastern Wolyn was given to the gangs to which Khmelnytsky's Cossacks later joined. These bloody years also left their traces in Lutsk, although no direct certificates of the tragic events remained in Lutsk, and the reason is probably because the pinkasim [ledgers] from that period have been lost.

However, there is no doubt that Lutsk Jews felt the murderous hand of the oppressor's gangs. It is known to us that he, and his gangs, visited Lutsk and its neighboring cities. The holocaust against the Jews of the country came in a terrible and terrifying manner, and this is no place here to repeat the details of these terrible acts of cruelty, which the generation's writers recorded for eternal memory.

Two books contain articles on “those days.” The book, Yeven Mezulah [Abyss of Despair] by Rabbi Nathan Nata Hannover, was written in an impulsive and emotional style that depresses the soul to the core, and the reader seems to be inside the terrifying sights: the persecuted Jews who are in mortal danger when they are attacked by the enemies who seek their blood, women and children seeking escape and refuge, the cruel death is getting closer and closer and there is no savior, a terrible slaughter and blood spills like water, the last sigh from the heart of the slain and their lips whisper! “We will avenge the spilled blood of your servants” [Psalms 79:10].

The book, Tit Hayavan [“Place of Suffering”] (Venice 5410 - 1650), written by the Viennese Jew, R' Shmuel Faibisch son of R' Nathan Feidel, has historical value even though it is not properly established and it should not be placed on an equal step with the first book. In any case, the material in it is not fictitious or imaginative. This book is also based on various sources and hearsay. The cities mentioned are real because they existed then. In both books the tragedy of Lutsk is described in a few words, and the words make a strong impression on us, being a first-hand account of the riots.

It is not known why the historians and witnesses of “those days” were content to include the name of the city of Lutz among the names of all the Jewish settlements in Wolyn and neighboring countries, who suffered then, without giving more details about the actual extermination of the Jewish population. While they describe in detail what had happened in the cities of Kremenets, Ostroh, Dubno and other places, they skipped the details of the killings in Lutsk and contented themselves with stating the fact of the extermination of the Jews in Lutsk. And also this detail - that the hidden in it is greater than the visible. The fact itself comes in different versions, and the equal side of them, that they all come in the purpose of brevity. Here, Rabbi Natan Neta Hannover^[5] summarizes in his book the murders in Wolyn in a short sentence: “Also in the country of Wolyn, in the Holy Community of Ludmir [Volodymyr Volynskyy], and in the Holy Community of Lubomla [Lyuboml], and in the Holy Community of Lutsk, and in the Holy Community of Kremenets and their branches, they made large

[Page 92]

killings of several thousand Jews,” without specifying how many Jews were killed in each location. While the Viennese, R' Shmuel Faibisch, describes the killings in a different way by dedicating a special sentence to each place. From him we find a few more details about Lutsk when he said: “And from there he went to the Holy Community of Lutsk where there were two hundred homeowners and great rich men, and there was a President of the Court and his name the honorable Master and Teacher Rabbi Man (Menachem), and almost all of them were killed.” It is not known whether some of Lutsk Jews managed to escape from the city and only those who remained were killed, or the Jews, who “were very rich,” protected their property and preferred to remain in the city, or stayed for another reason. However, there is no doubt that the description of the members of the generation requires an objective approach. The eyewitness of the destruction of the communities, and the mass murder of their people, do not need a special investigation into the details of the events and the number of the slaughtered. They want to give a vigorous expression of the size of the crisis as a whole in their articles. The sights of the horror, and the rumors of the horrors, join in their imagination to one catastrophic picture.

The Lutsk community that was destroyed was only one community out of hundreds. It is impossible to accurately determine the number of communities that were destroyed, and the number of murdered in those terrible years. HaGaon Rabbi Shabbatai HaKohen^[6] (the Shakh), wrote that more than three hundreds of important communities were destroyed and more than one hundred thousand people were killed. According to another article, seven hundred and forty-four communities were destroyed and approximately six hundred and fifty thousand people were killed in severe torture. The destruction was total. The Jewish community in Polish states, which excelled in the study of the Torah and important political order, was severely hit by these events and did not recover quickly.

In the stories of the events of the Decrees of 5408-5409, we find many revelations of courage of those who were tortured in a horrific way, stood the test and did not abandon their religion and faith. The martyrs, who converted out of fear, were few in number and after the days of forced conversion returned to their Judaism with the king's consent. Women and virgins, as well as boys and girls, sanctified the name of God and stretched out their necks for the slaughter, or they preceded their cruel enemies and killed themselves so as not to be handed over to their pursuers. Besides the historical records that provided us with the memory of the events, there are also some legends about soft and gentle virgins who gave their lives for the sanctification of God's name and the protection of their honor. From lamentations, Selichot^[7] and variations of El Male Rachamim^[8] or Yizkor^[9] we hear the sighs of the tortured and persecuted, and share ourselves in the grief of a painful nation.

According to the assumption of the historian Balinski-Lipinski, the Haidamakas gangs entered Lutsk on 22 August. The Karaites were also murdered by the gangs.

Slowly, slowly the Jews of Lutsk recovered from their disaster, rebuilt the ruins, and began to redevelop the trade. The authorities treated the Jews kindly and reduced their tax payment to a third of the general tax.

Translator's footnotes:

1. Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Ukrainian Cossacks. Return
2. Yeven Mezulah (lit. “Abyss of Despair”) is a 17^th century book by Nathan ben Moses Hannover. It describes the course of the Khmelnytsky Uprising in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from a Jewish perspective. Return
3. The Haidamakas, were Ukrainian paramilitary outfits composed of commoners (peasants, craftsmen), and impoverished noblemen in the eastern part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Return
4. Maksym Kryvonis (a.k.a. “Crooked-nose”) was one of the Cossack leaders of Khmelnytsky uprising. Return
5. Rabbi Nathan Nata Hannover was a Ruthenian Jewish historian, Talmudist, and kabbalist. Return
6. Rabbi Shabbatai HaKohen (1621–1662) was known as the Shakh, which is an abbreviation of his most important work, Siftei Kohen (lit.“Lips of the Priest”). Return
7. Selichot (lit.“Forgiveness”) are penitential prayers recited before and during the High Holidays and other fast days throughout the year. Return
8. El Male Rachamim (lit. “God full of compassion”) is a prayer for the departed that is recited at funeral services and at visiting the graves of relatives. Return
9. Yizkor (lit.“May God remember”) is a prayer service in memory of the dead. Return

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