Laws and Customs of The Land of Israel in Judaism - Customs

Customs

Besides these legal variations there were many differences, especially in the early periods, between Jewish practices in Israel and Babylon (sometimes called "the East"). The differences are fifty in number according to one authority, and fifty-five according to another. The most important ones are as follows:

• The fast-day after Purim in memory of the persecution of the Jews in Alexandria by the Greek general Nicanor prior to his defeat by the Maccabeans was observed in Israel only.
• The cycle of the Pentateuch reading, which in Israel was completed in three or three and one-half years, was elsewhere completed in one year, on Simchat Torah.
• In Israel one of the congregation was honored in being permitted to take the scroll from the Ark, and another was similarly honored in being permitted to return it to its place ("hotza'ah" and "haknasah"): elsewhere it was considered an honor only to restore the scroll to the Ark.
• In Israel seven persons constituted minyan for kaddish and barakut: elsewhere no less than ten persons were required.
• In Israel the Sabbath was announced every Friday afternoon by three blasts on the shofar: this was not done elsewhere.
• In Israel no one touched money on the Sabbath: elsewhere one might even carry money on that day. Jews who are strictly shomer shabbos will not carry anything except, for this one condition, permitted items for which the eruv allows.
• In Israel the nuptial ceremony was distinguished by the sanctification of the ring given by the groom to the bride. In Babylon the ring "was not in sight" (this phrase is ambiguous, and some interpret it as meaning that the presentation of the ring occurred not in public at the synagogue, but in private ).
• In Israel the law that a widow should not be permitted to marry within twenty-four months after her husband's death if when he died she had a suckling babe, for fear she might commit infanticide, was enforced even if the child died within that period; in Babylon she was permitted to marry within that time if the child died.
• In Israel mourning was observed for any infant: in Babylon, not unless it was older than thirty days.
• In the Land of Israel a pupil was permitted to greet his teacher with "Peace to thee, master": in Babylon, only when the pupil was first recognized by his teacher.

Another difference between the Jerusalem and the Babylonian schools was in the degrees of confidence shown in supernatural remedies and charms; these occur much less frequently in the Jerusalem Talmud than in the Babylonian. In particular, those in the Land of Israel did not believe in the apprehension of danger from the occurrence of even numbers, known as "zugot".