What
is a Shtibl
Shtibl: (yiddish for “small room”). It’s a small
room used by communities belonging to Chasidism, who prefer it for
its informal look. A shtibl is usually a house changed into synagogue,
in which is raised the Aaron and an improvised Bimah is, but in
which people gather around a table, as there are no benches. People
have ritual meals as seudah shlishit on Shabbat afternoon, and groups
meet to study the Torah. Liturgical services are taken by laymen,
since there are no salaried officers and tone of prayers is emotional,
with songs, dances and clapping. Every chassidic group, if its members
can put together a minyan, has usually its own shtibl in which they
rule the liturgical service according their own habits. The shtibl
is much less expensive than a real synagogue and it’s within the
reach of a small and often poor community.
Liten: in Swedish "little, small". A liten small room is then a small small room, a smallest one.
Small shtibl: A very small group of so called "free Jews", some of them born after the Shoah, meet for the very first time in Sweden in a small modern very informal shtibl. There they tell one other about their own sad facts, put together their own traditions, celebrate Jewish holidays. No longer alone, at last.