Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

györgy spiró

and been a grammateus. Fortunatus’s eldest son went down with the Torah scroll, tucking his head into his shoulders to pass under the low entrance, the other family members held a lit torch and oil lamps so they could see anything in the underground passages. Joseph made an unexpected request at this point: that Uri only return to the catacomb when he, the father, was buried, but never again. He asked that Sarah and the girls stay outside. He also asked that nothing be put on the sepulchral plaque apart from a menorah; no name, no age, nothing else. Let no bird be painted or engraved on the plaque, nor shofar, nor wine flask, no lulav, no etrog— nothing. Uri was shaken that his father was speaking about death.

Not much later, he realized that his father had marked him to step into Fortunatus’s shoes, and he wanted to prepare him mentally. His father ’s emotional blackmail felt demeaning and sneaky, but he had nothing against a notary’s work. It was a cushy job; there was no need to spend all day, every day in the house of prayer; the only bad thing was that you were the servant of the archisynagogos and could not talk back. An archisynagogos was not a priest but a layperson who had a position of esteem in the congregation, on account of his wealth, for instance, and he was generally elected to look after communal affairs for a five-year term. Annianus, the current archisynagogos, was an uptight, hysterical man, and difficult to get

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