Ritual and practice are some of the most defining features of religion, linked with its central beliefs. Discussing the wide range of Jewish ritual and practice, this volume provides a contemporary guide to this significant aspect of religious life and experience.
Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, this volume describes not only what takes place, but the reasons behind this and the implications both the theory and practice have for our understanding of Judaism. Organized in terms of texts, periods, practices, languages and relationships with the other, the book includes accounts of prayer, food, history, synagogues and the various legal and ideological debates that exist within Judaism with the focus on how they influence practice. Coming at a time of renewed interest in the role of the body in religion, this book aims to bring the theoretical and scriptural issues which arise in this area of Jewish life and culture up to date.
This volume is aimed at students and researchers working in Jewish studies specifically, and religious studies in general. Designed to be helpful to those on courses in relevant areas, especially in the United States, this book includes substantial bibliographical material.
Part 1: Texts
1. The Jewish Bible
Oliver Leaman
2. Midrash
Rachel S. Mikva
3. Talmud
Gail Labovitz
4. Ambiguity and Notation: Jewish Law and Legal Pluralism
Adam Seligman
Part 2: Periods
5. Archaeology
Benjamin Gordon
6. See and Sanctify: Ceremonies and Ceremonial Art in Medieval
Medieval Ashkenaz and Italy
Shalom Sabar
7. Visualizations of Ritual in Medieval Book Culture
Katrin Kogman-Appel
8. Material Culture in the Jewish Medieval World of Islam
Miriam Frenkel
9. The Ritual Turn in the Early Modern Period
Roni Weinstein
10. Jewish Material Culture in the Modern Age
Jeffrey Shandler
Part 3: Groups
11. A Study of Two Traditions: Sephardi and Ashkenazi
Yamin Levy
12. Karaite Judaisim
Shawn Lichaa
13. The Modern Orthodox in America
Samuel Heilman
14. Haskalah
Olga Litvak
15. Ritual and Practice in Hasidim
Gadi Sagiv
16. Conservative Judaism
David Golinkin
17. Reform
Oliver Leaman
18. Jewish Ritual and Social Justice in America
Eric Caplan
19. The American Jewish Family
David C. Dollahite, Trevan G. Hatch, and Loren D. Marks
20. A Jewish Family on TV
Oliver Leaman
Part 4: Practices
21. Circumcision
Oliver Leaman
22. Body Image and Jewish Rituals and Practices
Jonathan Handelzalts and Shulamit Geller
23. Hair
Amy Milligan
24. Clothes
Oliver Leaman
25. Food
Maria Diemling
26. Sanctuary in Time: Shabbat as the Soul of Modern Jewry and the
Essence of “Doing” Judaism
Trevan G. Hatch & Loren D. Marks
27. Sometimes God Sneaks Back In: Jewish Secular Rituals
Avner Dinur
28. “For the Amen Meal, You Don’t Have to Keep the Religious Duties”: Amen Meals as a New Age Phenomenon
Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar
29. Models of Sexuality (and Marriage) in the Jewish Tradition
Michael J. Broyde
30. Music and the Experience of Jewish Ritual and Practice
Gordon Dale
31. The Theological Implications of the State of Israel
Vernon H. Kurtz
32. Death and Dying
Simcha Paull Raphael
33. Alternative Funerals in Israel
Ana Prashizky
Part 5: Languages
34. The Hebrew Language as a Source of Ritual and Practice
Stefan Reif
35. The Role of Judezmo/ Ladino in ‘Ottoman Sephardic’ Jewish Religious Ritual and Practice
David M. Bunis
36. Yiddish
Jan Schwarz
Part 6: Others
37. Jewish Magical Practices
Ortal-Paz Saar
38. Disabilities and Inclusion
Abigail Uhrman
39. The Early Christian Reception of Jewish Rituals During the
“Parting of the Ways”
Paul A. Hartog
40. Christianity
Ruth Langer
41. Samaritans
Reinhard Pummer
42. Interfaith Rituals
Jonathan Romain
Biography
Oliver Leaman teaches at the University of Kentucky and his books include Evil and Suffering in Jewish Philosophy (1995); History of Jewish Philosophy, ed. D. Frank & O. Leaman (Routledge, 1996); Moses Maimonides (Routledge, 1997); A Reader in Jewish Philosophy, ed. D. Frank, O. Leaman & C. Manekin (Routledge, 2000); Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, ed. D. Frank & O. Leaman; Lost in Translation: Essays in Islamic and Jewish Philosophy (2004); Jewish Thought: An Introduction (Routledge, 2006); Judaism: An Introduction (2011). He is editor of the Routledge Jewish Studies Series.
