A schulklopfer (or shulklopfer; from Yiddish 'synagogue knocker'[1]) is the person who calls a Jewish community to prayer in the local synagogue.[2][3] In modern times, the custom has more or less died out due to the creation of alarm clocks and technology, but it was historically common.

The schulklopfer was usually a beadle, who would perform the task by wandering around the community, knocking on each household's door early in the morning.[2] In Neustadt, he would knock four times, in the pattern KNOCK…pause…KNOCK, KNOCK…pause…KNOCK. Israel Isserlein, a famous rabbi from Neustadt, argued that this pattern encoded the biblical phrase, I shall come to thee and bless thee[4] (in gematria, the letters of the first word of this phrase have the values 1, 2, and 1, respectively).[2] In the Rhine, the custom was to strike merely thrice, in the pattern KNOCK…pause…KNOCK, KNOCK.[2]

In mediaeval Eastern Europe, the schulklopfer also had the role of individually inviting people to marriage ceremonies (nissuin); the invitations were made to the entire community by the schulklopfer on the morning of the marriage ceremony itself (such ceremonies were usually an evening affair).[5]

The name stems from the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) in the middle ages.[2] Christians in nearby communities sometimes referred to schulklopfers as campanatores (a Latin term meaning bell-strikers) or as Glöckner (German for bell-striker).[2]

See also

Reference Notes

  1. ↑ Wexler, Paul (2006). Jewish and Non-Jewish Creators of "Jewish" Languages: With Special Attention to Judaized Arabic, Chinese, German, Greek, Persian, Portuguese, Slavic (modern Hebrew/Yiddish), Spanish, and Karaite, and Semitic Hebrew/Ladino ; a Collection of Reprinted Articles from Across Four Decades with a Reassessment. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3447054042. (page 587, footnote 8).
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Singer, Isidore & Adler,Cyrus (Eds.) (1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11. New York: Funk and Wagnalls. p. 114. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Alt URL
  3. ↑ Rose, Emily C. (2001). Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-8276-0706-4.
  4. ↑ Exodus 20:24
  5. ↑ Singer, Isidore & Adler,Cyrus (Eds.) (1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 8. New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 340ff.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Alt URL
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