Pilgrimages in Jewish Folk Religion in Hungary - from the Chassidic Courts to the Virtual Communities
Pilgrimages in Jewish Folk Religion in Hungary - from the Chassidic Courts to the Virtual Communities

Summary/Abstract: The Jewish pilgrimages in Hungary belong in the context of expansion of the 18th century Chassidic movement of the Ashkenazic Jews of Poland. The differing forms are connected to the charismatic figures of the communities, to the so-called righteous men. Pilgrims visited them at the time of individual crises or at major feasts. The news of their travels attracted thousands of pilgrims. This pilgrimage could be repeated for their funeral and on the anniversaries of their death. Places of pilgrimage with very large areas of attraction arose. Societies and Talmudic schools were often associated with these persons, which became the germs for the organization of virtual communities forming again after the Holocaust. Today these graves are important mnemotechnical places for the Chassidic virtual communities, and the pilgrimages are mnemotechnical occasions and compensatory rites. They can provide new knowledge for history of mentality studies of the religious practice of rural Jewry, and for research on sacral communication, the organisation of virtual communities and on pilgrimages.

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