Yemenite Jews

Yemenite Jews (תֵּימָנִי, Standard Hebrew Temani, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānî; plural תֵּימָנִים, Standard Hebrew Temanim, Tiberian Hebrew Têmānîm) are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen (תֵּימָן "far south", Standard Hebrew Teman, Tiberian Hebrew Têmān), on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. They are sometimes considered to be Mizrahi.

Religious Traditions

The Yemenite Jews are the only Jewish community who maintain the tradition of reading the Torah in the synagogue in both Hebrew and the Aramaic Targum (translation). Most synagogoues have a hired or specified person called a Baal Koreh, who reads from the Torah scroll when congregants are called to the Torah scroll for an aliyah. In the Yemenite tradition each person called to the Torah scroll for an aliyah reads for himself. Children under the age of Bar Mitzvah are often given the sixth aliyah. Each line of the Torah read in Hebrew is followed by the Aramaic translation.

Related Topics:
Targum - Aliyah - Bar Mitzvah

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The Yemenite Jews practice a special chant when reading from the Torah, a different chant when reading from the Prophets (Haftara), and yet another melody or chant when reading from the Psalms. Likewise is there a special chant for readings from Megillath Aicha (Lamentations), and yet still a different chant for readings from Mishle (Proverbs), and another melody for Koheleth (Ecclesiastes), which latter is read during the Sukkoth holidays. So too, there is a totally different chant taken up by them when reading from the Zohar. Megillath Esther (the Scroll of Esther) which is read on Purim also differs in its reading from all the rest. Only by repetitive hearing of these different melodies, year in and year out, can one become accustomed to their sounds, and automatically associate oneself with the book which is being read. For the mood of the book is characterized by its chant. This tradition finds its source in the Talmud (Tractate Megillah 32.a), which says: "Anyone who reads without a melody, or who recites without a chant, the scripture says of him, 'I have also given unto thee precepts which are not good.' " ? cf. Ezek. 20:25

Related Topics:
Psalms - Lamentations - Zohar - Esther

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In larger Jewish communities, such as Sana'a and Sad'a, boys were sent to the Ma'lameh at the age of three to begin their religious learning. They attended the Ma'lameh from early dawn to to sunset Sunday through Thursday and until noon on Friday. Women were often illiterate in Yemen, but Jewish women were required to have a thorough knowledge of the laws pertaining to Kashrut and Taharat Mishpachah (family purity) i.e. Niddah. Some women even mastered the laws of Shechita, thereby acting as ritual slaughterers.

Related Topics:
Kashrut - Niddah

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