Minhagim
Minhagim

Author: Joseph Isaac Lifshitz

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-12-16

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 3110386658

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Parallel to the Halakhic laws, the minhagim (customs) are dependent on local practices and the regional schools of sages and rabbis. The minhagim played a decisive role in the history of the Jewish communities and in the formation of traditions of religious rulings. They gave stability, continuity, and authority to the local institutions. The impact of Jewish custom on daily life cannot be overestimated. Evolving spontaneously as an ascending process, it presents undercurrents that emanate from the folk, gradually bringing about changes that eventually become part of the legislative code. It further reflects influences of social, cultural, and mythological tendencies and local historical elements of every-day life of the period. The aim of this volume is to examine the concept of minhag in the broadest sense of the word. Focusing on the relationship between various types of customs and their impact on every aspect of Jewish life, the volume studies the historical, anthropological, religious, and cultural development and function of rites and rituals in establishing the Jewish self-definition and the identity of the local communities that adhered to them. The volume’s articles cover the subject of custom from three perspectives: an analysis of the theoretical and legal definition of custom, an analysis of the social and historical aspects of custom, and an anecdotal study of several particular customs. Customs are a wonderful historical prism by which to examine fluctuations and changes in Jewish life.

A Collage of Customs
A Collage of Customs

Author: Mark Podwal

Publisher:

Published: 2021-05-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780878205097

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"Modernized illustrations based upon 16th-century mingahim books (books of Jewish customs), with an introduction, and descriptions of each image"--

Picturing Yiddish
Picturing Yiddish

Author: Diane Wolfthal

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 9004139052

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This is the first comprehensive study of the images in five profusely illustrated Yiddish books from sixteenth-century Italy: a manuscript of Jewish customs, and four printed volumes - two books of customs, a chivalric romance, and a book of fables.

Sefer Haminhagim
Sefer Haminhagim

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13:

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Like a friendly elder chasid at one's elbow, this translation of Sefer Haminhagim is a welcome guide to the customs of Chabad with regard to the practice of mitzvot throughout the year.

Rite and Reason
Rite and Reason

Author: Shemuʼel Pinḥas Gelbard

Publisher: Feldheim Publishers

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 740

ISBN-13: 9780873068895

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This fact-filled volume explains 1050 Jewish customs, their reasons, and sources. Why do we make hand matzos round? Why do we eat dairy foods on Shavuos? Why do we stand with our feet together when we recite Shemoneh Esreh? These and hundreds of other practices are explained in this English edition of Otzar Ta'amei ha-Minhagim.

Writing Jewish Culture
Writing Jewish Culture

Author: Andreas Kilcher

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2016-04-04

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0253019648

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“Looks at the ethnographic issues while defining Jewishness in a very fresh, sophisticated way . . . very timely and important.” —Washington Book Review Focusing on Eastern and Central Europe before WWII, this collection explores various genres of “ethnoliterature” across temporal, geographical, and ideological borders as sites of Jewish identity formation and dissemination. Challenging the assumption of cultural uniformity among Ashkenazi Jews, the contributors consider how ethnographic literature defines Jews and Jewishness, the political context of Jewish ethnography, and the question of audience, readers, and listeners. With contributions from leading scholars and an appendix of translated historical ethnographies, this volume presents vivid case studies across linguistic and disciplinary divides, revealing a rich textual history that throws the complexity and diversity of a people into sharp relief.

The Making of a Minhag
The Making of a Minhag

Author: Moshe Walter

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781680253368

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"The Jewish year is filled with all types of minhagim. Did you ever wonder what the source, requirement, and obligation of these classical seasonal customs are? For example: Do you have to dip an apple in honey on Rosh HaShanah? What is the source and reason for masquerading on Purim? What is Lag BaOmer all about? How much do I really have to clean for Pesach? What are the limits on traveling during the Nine Days? In The Making of a Minhag, these questions and many more are addressed clearly and thoroughly with extensive footnotes, revealing the process and development of Jewish customs. In addition, it provides a fundamental understanding of the definition, power, creation, changeability and abolishment of personal, family, and communal customs. Learn about the beauty, richness, and majesty of minhagim we are privileged to practice throughout the year and gain a greater appreciation and deeper feeling toward this important part of our lives."--Cover page 4.

Exploring Sephardic Customs and Traditions
Exploring Sephardic Customs and Traditions

Author: Marc Angel

Publisher: KTAV Publishing House, Inc.

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9780881256758

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Over the centuries, Jewish communities throughout the world adopted customs that enhanced and deepened their religious observances. These customs, or minhagim, became powerful elements in the religious consciousness of the Jewish people. It is important to recognize that minhagim are manifestations of a religious worldview, a philosophy of life. They are not merely quaint or picturesque practices, but expressions of a community's way of enhancing the religious experience. A valuable resource for Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike.

“I have always loved the Holy Tongue”
“I have always loved the Holy Tongue”

Author: Anthony Grafton

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-05-03

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0674058496

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“[An] extraordinary book.” —New Republic Fusing high scholarship with high drama, Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg uncover a secret and extraordinary aspect of a legendary Renaissance scholar’s already celebrated achievement. The French Protestant Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614) is known to us through his pedantic namesake in George Eliot’s Middlemarch. But in this book, the real Casaubon emerges as a genuine literary hero, an intrepid explorer in the world of books. With a flair for storytelling reminiscent of Umberto Eco, Grafton and Weinberg follow Casaubon as he unearths the lost continent of Hebrew learning—and adds this ancient lore to the well-known Renaissance revival of Latin and Greek. The mystery begins with Mark Pattison’s nineteenth-century biography of Casaubon. Here we encounter the Protestant Casaubon embroiled in intellectual quarrels with the Italian and Catholic orator Cesare Baronio. Setting out to understand the nature of this imbroglio, Grafton and Weinberg discover Casaubon’s knowledge of Hebrew. Close reading and sedulous inquiry were Casaubon’s tools in recapturing the lost learning of the ancients—and these are the tools that serve Grafton and Weinberg as they pore through pre-1600 books in Hebrew, and through Casaubon’s own manuscript notebooks. Their search takes them from Oxford to Cambridge, from Dublin to Cambridge, Massachusetts, as they reveal how the scholar discovered the learning of the Hebrews—and at what cost.

The Patrons and Their Poor
The Patrons and Their Poor

Author: Debra Kaplan

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2020-08-14

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 0812297261

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A pregnant mother, a teacher who had fallen ill, a thirty-year-old homeless thief, refugees from war-torn communities, orphans, widows, the mentally disabled and domestic servants. What this diverse group of individuals—mentioned in a wide range of manuscript and print sources in German, Hebrew, and Yiddish—had in common was their appeal to early modern Jewish communities for aid. Poor relief administrators, confronted with multiple requests and a finite communal budget, were forced to decide who would receive support and how much, and who would not. Then as now, observes Debra Kaplan, public charity tells us about both donors and recipients, revealing the values, perceptions, roles in society, and the dynamics of power that existed between those who gave and those who received. In The Patrons and Their Poor, Kaplan offers the first extensive analysis of Jewish poor relief in early modern German cities and towns, focusing on three major urban Ashkenazic Jewish communities from the Western part of the Holy Roman Empire: Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbek, Frankfurt am Main, and Worms. She demonstrates how Jewish charitable institutions became increasingly formalized as Jewish authorities faced a growing number of people seeking aid amid limited resources. Kaplan explores the intersections between various sectors of the population, from wealthy patrons to the homeless and stateless poor, providing an intimate portrait of the early modern Ashkenazic community.