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I remember the Great Synagogue [6]. It was a monument of culture and we didn't visit it often. But there was a midrash, where we regularly went. There was such a spot on Paisii Street. Sometimes they took me along on purpose so that there would be minyan, which means that we would be more than ten men. And I had to pass for a grown-up man, although I still hadn't had my bar mitzvah.
There was a shochet - every bird, which would be cooked, should be prepared by him. This is a very old tradition: not to eat food, which has blood. Even I took the bird to the shochet and then returned it home for my mother to cook it. The shochet prepared the birds, mainly hens. Favorite dishes of our family were hen with rice and the mirindgena [chicken with aubergine and some tomatoes].
When we were twelve years old, we had our bar mitzvah - we were taken to the Great Synagogue. I didn't understand everything they read to us and I don't remember clearly the ritual itself.
There was a shochet - every bird, which would be cooked, should be prepared by him. This is a very old tradition: not to eat food, which has blood. Even I took the bird to the shochet and then returned it home for my mother to cook it. The shochet prepared the birds, mainly hens. Favorite dishes of our family were hen with rice and the mirindgena [chicken with aubergine and some tomatoes].
When we were twelve years old, we had our bar mitzvah - we were taken to the Great Synagogue. I didn't understand everything they read to us and I don't remember clearly the ritual itself.
Period
Location
Sofia
Bulgaria
Interview
David Elazarov