Crypto Jewish Customs

During our trip and our research, we either read about or were told about various customs that developed within the Crypto Jewish communities that existed in Spain, Portugal, parts of Central America and in New Mexico. 

The motivation for these customs was to a) keep the Jewish tradition alive or b) to make it appear to the Christian neighbour that the Crypto Jew was following non Jewish behaviour so that he/she not be discovered and reported to the Church authorities. 

As a result of b) above, essential Jewish practices like "brit milah" (circumcision), "mikvah" (ritual baths) and "shechitah" (ritual slaughter of animals) were not practiced since the Inquisition. They were too visible to the general public and you risked burning at the cross for performing these halachic rituals. 

But where possible, the Crypto Jews secretly or quietly observed Judaism inwardly while appearing to be full Christians in public.

Marriages took place in the Church, but if the one performing the ceremony was likewise a Crypto Jew, he would quietly say "Em nome de Deus de Abrahao, Isaac e Jacob, eu vos uno, Cumpri vos a Sua bencao";  "in the name of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I unite you with His blessing".

The Hebrew language disappeared except for the name for God "A-Do-Nai". 

Entering a church, Crypto Jews were known to have quietly whispered preceding Mass,  "I do not worship wood and stone, only the God of Israel". 

The men and women prayed separately, generally in services held in the open air out of town. The services were generally led by the women.

One of our guides told us that his great grandmother would always cover her eyes when passing a church, not wanting to recognize the church that had taken away her religion.

The same guide told us about a curious cleaning custom. When sweeping the dust on the floor, you always swept toward the centre of the room and then carried the collected dirt out of the room in a dustpan, so as to not disrespect the location of a mezuza. It was bad enough that you could not proudly have a mezuza adorning your doorpost, to sweep dust past the location where the mezuza should have been would have been adding insult to injury.

Candles were lit on Friday nights but were usually lit out of sight, away from windows. There were special clay or metal candle holders that had shields around the flame with a slot to allow oxygen to keep the flame alive. A large replica of this candle holder is now the "ner tamid" (eternal light) in the synagogue in Belmonte.

There are also stories about lighting 8 candles during the period around Chanukah or Xmas, again in the cellar of the home hidden away from sight.

There is a popular toy called "rapa" (the "r" is a harsh Hebrew "chet" sound) which is exactly like a dreidel except for the English letters RTDP on the four sides. We had read about this before going to Portugal and were determined to find someone selling these ultimate Portuguese Jewish souvenirs. We found a store called "A Vida Portuguese" which has a number of branches in Lisbon and Porto. They specialize in specific Portuguese traditional items. The branch we visited in Lisbon had a good supply. We then found another similar store (not the same chain) in Porto with a good supply. So we asked the salespeople in the store if they knew the rules for playing with this toy. They said that it is played around Xmas time by children and it is a pretend gambling game with very similar rules to ours. Everyone is given a supply of beads or candy. They spin the "rapa"; the R means take all, the D means leave everything in, the T means take one, etc. When I suggested to her that we have a similar game called dreidel, she said that she did not know that but that it did not surprise her because of the long history of Jews in Portugal. As an aside, we did not meet anyone in Portugal who questioned or made light of the Jewish history of Portugal. Everyone seemed to have this warm fuzzy feeling, almost to the point of making it feel cool to have Jewish blood in their DNA. 

There is a traditional Portuguese sausage that is made from pork. A "Jewish version" of this sausage called Alheira using chicken or lamb developed so that it would appear to the Christians that the secret Jews were eating pork, and therefore fully converted. That version is still available in the meat stores in Portugal.

They only ate fish that had scales. 

We heard a number of different versions of how Crypto Jews observed mezuza. They obviously could not have mezuzot on their doorposts. So instead, they carried the mezuza in their pocket in a small wooden holder. When approaching the door, they would take the mezuza holder in the palm of their hand and touch it to the doorpost and then kiss their hand. Another version of this story was the "flute" that held the mezuza scroll 
and it would be then touched to the doorpost.

To the left is a picture of a pocket mezuza.

Many stories abound about Crypto Jews who had the custom of wearing special clothing on Friday nights and Saturdays, or women who remembered their grandmothers who had designated Friday as the day to clean their homes or do the wash, "l'kovod Shabbat", in honour of Shabbat. 

Pesach was observed annually as Santa Festa Day and when we went to Castel Da Vide, we were told by the former mayor of the city (who has definite Jewish ancestry) about the annual slaughtering of sheep and baking of unleavened bread that had been going on for years at the time of Pesach. He described it as a Christian - Pagan - Jewish ritual which takes place in the town square every year. Last year 4000 sheep were slaughtered and the festivities go on for 7 days. Rabbi Raphy Garson, who led our group from JRoots joked that these people don't keep a second day Yom Tov (only seven days) and they have matzah and schwarma as their seudah ...what could be better?

In Belmonte we were told how they would bake matzot on the roof of their homes, as clay tiles were good as a base for baking; they would then lift up the tiles and hide the matzot under the Spanish tiles where they would stay until Pesach.

When it came to Yom Kippur, they would observe it on the 11th day of Tishrei, so as not to alert the Christians that they were observing Yom Kippur. 

One guide told us that his family even today breaks the fast at the end of Yom Kippur with a festive meal and with a deck of cards at everyone's place setting. This was done because in times past, the church's secret police would raid suspected Secret Jews' homes to see if they were having a meal to break the fast. Just below everyone's place setting was a drawer, and if they heard the knock on the door, they quickly shoved their dishes and cutlery into the drawer and pulled out the cards so that it would appear that they were just assembled for a friendly game of cards.

In Belmonte, there is a special celebration of Queen Esther who is a heroine to Crypto Jews for two reasons. First, because her history of observing Judaism in secret in Achashverosh's palace mirrored theirs; and second because as a woman figurehead, honouring Esther honours all the women who over the years were responsible for passing down the traditions and customs to the next generation. 

Marranos practiced Judaism privately in their own homes, however, they abandoned any obvious identifying Jewish practice, such as circumcision, mikveh and the celebration of any public holiday. The celebration of Yom Kippur and Passover were done a couple days late to confuse the Inquisitors. Shabbat lamps were hidden inside clay pots, so those outside could not see the light burning. Jewish women also led prayer services, since this was the job normally performed by males.

If a community member died, a minyan gathered at the home of the families members, but made it appear as if their attendance was just done to consol the mourners and they lit candles for 7 days as a remembrance of shiva. 

We are sure that there are many more customs and different versions, but it was a fascinating study of just what lengths people would go to preserve their belief in their Jewish heritage.

All the best

Fran and David