4. Hall - 7. view

Wooden balls

Chevra Kadisha, the holy societies of burials, are the elite bodies of the Jewish communities where becoming a member is a voluntery step that comes with great appreciation and serious financial sacrifices. Services around the dead are major good deeds, and in the pre-modern ages they were performed by the members themselves. In traditional communities, besides those who washed the bodies, other members of the community were chosen to pray and be watchers by lottery. The small wooden balls, on which the names of the Pest Chevra Kadisha members are written on parchment, are the reminiscences of this practice.