Economic Transformation of “Hakhnasat Kala” Custom: a Case of Moscow Choral Synagogue Community

Abstract

This paper deals with the question of transformations experienced by a custom named “hakhnasat kala” in modern Russian Jewish community. The commandment to fulfill “hakhnasat kala” was first mentioned in Talmudic literature as a precept to glorify the groom and the bride, but later, in 17th– 18th centuries in Ashkenaz, it obtained a new interpretation: the community should provide a poor bride with dowry, so that she could get married – and thus needy girls were prevented from becoming socially marginalized or baptized. In modern Russian Jewish community (and, as it turned out later, among Russian-speaking ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel) the term “hakhnasat kala” is applied to a completely new practice – crowdfunding for wedding ceremony of a couple who have already chosen each other as partners or have been living in a civil marriage and who have returned or converted to Judaism. Unlike the traditional situation, in which the wedding costs were covered by donations of guests, in this case Internet users who feel empathic for the couple become sponsors of the wedding, and its beneficiaries are high-ranked community members. Thus, organizing an expensive wedding ceremony becomes for the couple a kind of confirmation of their status within the community. One such case which took place in Moscow choral synagogue community in 2019 is analyzed in detail. Conclusions about the structure and hierarchy in the community, its economics, and the role of crowdfunding in modern Russian Orthodox Judaism are made.