# Religious ritual with doorway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921 "2017-05-05T16:08:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/41 "2017-05-22T13:57:21Z")
That’s exactly it. He could well have been (almost) touching his lips instead of (not quite) touching his forehead. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/42 "2017-05-22T14:43:22Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I have to nitpick a bit here: Mizrachim are Jews originating from Muslim countries; Sephardim are Jews whose ancestors were from medieval Spain. Portugal as well, or not? I’ve heard both opinions and the one time they happened to share a room the two people looked at each other like “I think we better not try to solve this now. Or maybe in the next three or four thousand years.” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/43 "2017-05-22T14:55:50Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > That’s exactly it. He could well have been (almost) touching his lips instead of (not quite) touching his forehead. Ignorance fought! Let’s take the rest of the day off! 😃 Where do you want to have lunch? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/44 "2017-05-22T15:20:46Z")
Coincidentally, just last night I met a Christian man who grew up with one: his mother is a Congregationalist minister (? Does that sound right? can’t quite remember) who put one up up because it suited her spirituality. I asked specifically because I know Jews are supposed to remove any mezuzahs when they move out–I don’t if this is halachic or customary (and yes, custom becomes halacha under certain conditions)–so as not to risk desecrating the Torah portions contained within them. Which, by the way, must be checked by a Rabbinically trained scribe every few (seven?) years to be sure they have not become un Kosher due to damage. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/45 "2017-05-22T16:03:01Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Sephardic Jews of Iberian origin relocated in Bosnia, Greece, and Turkey, among other countries, but those in particular because they were Ottoman realms in 1492 when Ferdinand & Isabella kicked out the Jews, over in Turkey Sultan Bayezid was all “Hey, guys, we like Jews, come on over here!” In 1992, when everybody else was paying attention to the 500th anniversary of Columbus, I was running a library where all kinds of religious studies pamphlets came through, including one from the Jews of Istanbul celebrating the 500th anniversary of being invited in by the Ottomans, who valued their contributions to society; if not for that chance find, I don’t think I would have ever known of this. > > I once read an anecdote of an old Jewish woman in Sarajevo who overheard a priest visiting from Spain; she thought he was a rabbi because the only people she’d ever heard speak Spanish were Jews. I believe the Spanish government, in a quite moving if bizarre gesture, “apologized” and made to re-instate the citizenship of all the expelled Jews with provisions for a speedier granting of citizenship if they applied. How that would be ascertained I imagine is quite problematic, as even Israel goes into conniptions sometimes on their intake of all Jews by a minimum of two “proven” generations. (The generational time-line agreed-to after (and continuing) huge debate as, ironically, a follow-through of the Nazi punitive ethnic “responsibility.” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/46 "2017-05-22T16:12:38Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Sephardic Jews of Iberian origin relocated in Bosnia, Greece, and Turkey, among other countries, but those in particular because they were Ottoman realms in 1492 when Ferdinand & Isabella kicked out the Jews, over in Turkey Sultan Bayezid was all “Hey, guys, we like Jews, come on over here!” … Although I have not studied the topic, the by ways of such a cataclysmic Diaspora are many. Cities in the Netherlands are as Sephardic in culture (for the Jews :)) as NYC is Ashkenazic.\* Which accounts for the first arrival of Jews and the first synagogue in the US being Sephardic. (I think it’s in Rhode Island, and I think it was later the one to which George Washington addressed his magnificent letter on the US ethos.) As to one more eddy of the Diaspora, I’ve been meaning to learn about what I _think_ is one smack dab in the middle of Ashkenaz itself: Frankfurt. Somewhere I was told that there was one, when discussing the fact that my _echt_ German mother distantly from there had jet-black hair and brown eyes. \*And for non-Jews, by now. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921/47 "2017-05-22T17:06:56Z")
[QUOTE=Leo Bloom;20224552…] Cities in the Netherlands are as Sephardic in culture (for the Jews :)) as NYC is Ashkenazic.\* Which accounts for the first arrival of Jews and the first synagogue in the US being Sephardic. (I think it’s in Rhode Island, and I think it was later the one to which George Washington addressed his magnificent letter on the US ethos.) … [/QUOTE] [Wiki list of oldest synagogues in US:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_synagogues_in_the_United_States) Until 1795, all congregations in the United States were Sephardic, although many or even most of the members of these congregations were descended from Eastern European Jews… Which I find surprising. …Congregation Shearith Israel, America’s first Jewish congregation, founded in 1654 by 23 Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent…[Cite: Shearith Israeltheir website."](http://www.shearithisrael.org) Their name, which has the words Spanish and Portuguese, can be cited to hassle **Nava** ’s two acquaintances next time the three of them are together. Plus, on Washington’s " Letter to the Hebrew Congregations of Newport, Rhode Island: he visited Touro synagogue (with Jefferson!) in 1790 (Touro synagogue is in fact the oldest synagogue building still standing: In 340 well-chosen words, the Letter reassures those who had fled religious tyranny that life in their new nation would be different, that religious “toleration” would give way to religious liberty, and that the government would not interfere with individuals in matters of conscience and belief. Quoting the Bible’s Old Testament, Washington writes, “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” He continues: For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. [Cite: Touro website.](http://tourosynagogue.org/?view=featured) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-ritual-with-doorway/785921.md?page=2)