“Daily Burnt-Offering” and “Financial Offering”: The Understanding of Service in the Hevrat Shomerim la-Boker

At first sight, the charter of Venetian Hevrat Shomerim la-Boker (active circa 16–17th century) mirrors the conflict between the religious aim of the fraternity’s creation and the attention its compilers gave to the procedural and administrative issues. However, the in-depth examination of the data presented in the charter reveals the deep connection between various payments and the religious character of the fraternity. This connection dwells on the range of dual meanings indicative of the payments imposed on the fraternity members. The present paper discusses the dual meanings, connotations, and symbolic dimensions of several aspects of the fraternity’s activities. Two fraternity charters accessed through its minute book (pinkas) provide the necessary data. The first section examines the terminology used to designate payments; the second highlights the connection between the charter and the “last days” before the coming of the Messiah; the third section analyzes the connotations of the “new moon evening” when one of the key fraternity procedures occurred. The data at hand suggests that the fraternity aimed to restore the Temple sacrifice in a symbolic form. The “new sacrifice” took the form of various payments, primarily the monthly payment – tamid, which corresponds to the daily Temple sacrifice. The other aspects of the fraternity’s activities have a symbolic dimension, too. For example, the afternoon prayer on the new moon day, which corresponds to the additional sacrifice in the Temple, turns into one of the central events in the fraternity’s life. Understanding the symbolic contexts of the association’s charter gives way to at least partial reconstruction of the worldviews, mentality, and identity of the fraternity’s members and broadly the early modern Venetian Jews.