Before entering the cemetery, the Jews go to the mikveh (ritual bath), from where they proceed to the ohel, a structure built around the Tzadik’s grave.
They ask the Tzadik’s spirit to help them with important life issues, placing their requests, inscribed on small pieces of paper, the Tzadik’s grave.
After the prayers, which are accompanied by traditional dances and the singing of psalms, Jews eat a kosher meal consisting of salmon, beef, pancakes, soup, vegetables, and cholent (a traditional Sabbath stew).
Witold Wójcik of the Leżajsk Hasidic Jews Foundation told the PAP Polish Press Agency that for the Hasidim life is God’s greatest gift. “It is therefore a time of joyful celebration, marked by a sense of brotherhood.”
This year, the Foundation has prepared a feast for up to 12, 000 people, he added.
The Jasionka Airport, which is a half-an-hour’s drive from Leżajsk, has handled over the past two days 26 flights from Israel, Belgium, the United States, Britain, Hungary, and Romania. Seventeen planes from Israel alone carried more than 3,000 passengers.
Elimelech Weissblum was one of the founders of the Hasidic movement, whose aim was to revive Judaism in the 18th century. He gained a reputation as a healer of souls and bodies.
Before World War II, Leżajsk was home to some 3, 000 Jews. The town was one of the most important centres of the Hasidic movement in Poland. Its two synagogues were burnt in September 1939.
The tradition of the annual prayers at Elimelech's tomb was revived in the 1970s.
For Hasidic Jews, Leżajsk, a town of some 14,000 inhabitants, is one of the most sacred places in the world. It attracts many Jewish groups on the occasion of various Jewish holidays as well as during private pilgrimages and tours of Poland.
(mk)