Anyone of Jewish faith, question?

[LDove]

I recently went to a cache on the perimeter of a cemetary. I noticed in this particular cemetary many of the deceased were of Jewish faith and had various rocks and shells on their headstones from I assume family members. Our family got in a discussion as to what that could mean, we came up blank. I even googled it, nothing. So, for educational purposes what do these rocks and shells mean? ❓

[marc_54140]

It is a Jewish custom to leave a stone or something when you visit a grave. Therefore, it is very important NOT TO TAKE them!

[LDove]

Thank you Marc. It was so beautiful to see how these stones were laid on each headstone, it really intrigued me to know their significance. Some were obvious – heart shaped, etc… and some looked just plain. I thought maybe family members had brought them back from maybe various travels or something like that to share with their loved one. Thank you for replying and increasing my knowledge of other faiths/traditions. I find that extremely interesting. By the way, this cemetary is located in Brookfield and is adjacent to the It Hinges On Excitement cache.

[elfdoctors]

To see a demonstration of this, watch the ending of the movie “Schindler’s List”. The actual survivors left stones at the grave of Schindler.

[zuma]

I saw something similiar when my daughter and I biked the Camino de Santigo a few years ago, a fairly well known pilgramage route across northern Spain, though this custom is Catholic in origin.

One of the memorable stops along the Camino de Santigo is the Cruz de Ferro (the Iron Cross), which is at the top of a mountain pass deserted of people, except for a small emergency shack in the two-man town of Manjarín. (The two men being one who serves hot coffee from inside the junk-filled building, and another who hangs around outside to ring a bell announcing the arrival of each pilgrim.)

Arriving to the Cruz de Ferro is one of the most important symbolic rites of the entire Camino. The pilgrim tradition is to bring a small rock from your homeland to leave at the foot of the cross and ensure your arrival in Santiago. Today, the pile of rocks is so large that pilgrims have to climb a winding path on the hill of rocks to leave their offering at the foot of the cross.

Anyway, despite not being Catholic, when we biked the camino de Santigo, we added our rock to the growing pile.

zuma

[LDove]

Zuma what a lovely story! 😀 Thank you so much for sharing that, and what a sight to see I bet! Shindler’s List is a movie I know I should watch and have been meaning to for years, but I cannot get up the courage to do it. ED -Thanks for telling me about the references in the movie, another cacher who wrote to me also said they saw this regarding the movie.

[Author]

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