Psalm

Old Jews gather in Prague's Old Synagogue to attend mass. The men sit separately from the women. During the service, they wear a gold-quilted scarf and pray intensively. An old rabbi presides over the service and reads from the Psalter. The cantor begins singing psalms and hymns, his voice echoing through the small space of the synagogue. The participants in the service contemplate life and death. Far from the synagogue, thousands of the dead are buried in old Jewish cemeteries, now often forgotten, and abandoned, yet beautiful in their own way, especially in their antiquity. Although the ancient Jewish cemetery in the Old City part of Prague is near the bustling city life, its quiet atmosphere is even more contradictory. The synagogue is also deeply quiet, punctuated only by the monotonous chants of the cantor. The old rabbi ascends to the altar to pick up the precious prayer scrolls - the Torah, carefully wrapped in precious fabric. He picks it up to pass it around the praying men. Each of them touches his hands to his lips and the Torah in a gesture that, by kissing it, he is paying respect to ancient traditions and beliefs. It is not only in Prague that there are still various Jewish cemeteries and graveyards scattered about, which are rarely visited anymore.