Even those who lavish close attention on talmudic and halakhic writings have rarely studied the Jewish prayer-book. Its dense and apparently impenetrable texts are here subjected to close analysis that exposes the messages and covert concerns implicit in the underlying narrative. The controversial conclusions establish the prayer-book as one of the greatest achievements of Jewish literary creativity.
Traditional Jews encounter the prayer-book-the Siddur-more often in their daily lives than any other text, yet it is mysteriously absent from their otherwise nearly comprehensive curriculum of study. In addition, they tend to recite it mantrically, more for its sound than its meaning. The neglect of meaning is so complete that no edition of the prayer-book has yet appeared with a comprehensive range of commentaries. The present work, the first to examine this paradox, explains it as a reluctance to engage with the intellectual and emotional questions that lie just beneath the surface of the text. An analysis of the opening sequences of the daily ritual reveals that the prayer-book, far from representing one side of a deferential dialogue with an attentive deity, actually challenges God to allow access to the revelation on which human safety depends and to keep his side of the covenant. Confronting the chaotic unpredictability of the human condition, this undercurrent of protest allows Jews to question why God's urgently needed intervention seems absent. Anger at this apparent absence is qualified only by gratitude at being alive. The core of this book consists of a novel examination of the opening sections of the traditional daily morning liturgy according to the Ashkenazi rite. The analysis is based on mostly untranslated medieval and later commentaries identifying the biblical and rabbinic echoes from which the liturgy is woven, and employs analytical methods of the kind traditionally applied to talmudic and midrashic texts. It shows how each citation and echo imports aspects of its original context into the new composition, forming a countertext to the words on the page. It examines each textual layer, as well as the surface meaning that is usually the only one to be noted, and relates these to the speaker's actual location-home and later the synagogue-as well as to the time of day when the prayers are recited, as the worshipper faces the dangers of the day ahead. The resulting chorus of ideas-linking everyday life to the sacred narrative from creation to exile-demonstrates the philosophical sophistication of rabbinic spirituality in offering poetic insight into an ultimately tragic vision of reality.
Why do we pray? On the one hand, prayer offers us a way to meditate on the knowledge of God and have intimate interaction with a personal creator. And for many Jews, it offers a sense of community and fulfils a need for daily connection with a venerable tradition and language. Yet for many modern Jews, prayer is at best old fashioned-or at worst, no longer necessary. In Jewish Prayers to an Evolutionary God: Science in the Siddur, author Dr. Joel Rutman provides a new way of understanding the existing language of Jewish prayer, and he integrates science with Jewish liturgy-all the while striving to preserve the passion that makes prayer matter. The aim is to enable Jews to daven (pray) with kavanna (intent), trusting that science will not pull the rug out from under their prayer. The poems also continue the ancient tradition of hazzanim (cantors) who author new prayer-poems.
Perspectives on Jewish Music presents five unique and engaging explorations of Jewish music. Areas covered include self-expression in contemporary Jewish secular music, the rise of popular music in the American synagogue, the theological requirements of the cantor, the role of women in Sephardic music and society, and the personal reflections of a leading figure in American synagogue music. Its wide-ranging topics and disciplinary approaches give evidence for the centrality of music in Jewish religious and secular life, and demonstrate that Jewish music is as diverse as the Jews themselves. From these studies, readers will gain an appreciation of both what Jewish music is and what it does. This book will be useful for students, practitioners, and scholars of Jewish secular and religious music and Jewish cultural studies, as well as ethnomusicologists specializing in Jewish or religious music.
A biography of Anthonius Margaritha, convert to Christianity and reporter on Jewish life and religious practices. Born in the 1490s, Anthonius Margaritha was the grandson, son, and brother of noted rabbis and was perhaps the best-known Jew of his generation in Germany to convert to Christianity. When he became a Christian in 1521, he began a series of writings that were built on his Jewish life and learning but were intended to reveal the defects of his former faith. These writings, including a translation of the Hebrew prayer book into German and a refutation of the faith, The Entire Jewish Faith (Der gantz Jüdisch glaub), are well known to scholars, but Margaritha himself has been studied largely as an ethnographic type. In Anthonius Margaritha and the Jewish Faith: Jewish Life and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Germany, author Michael T. Walton looks more closely at Margaritha's life with the help of archival research and Margaritha's own writings. To present a full picture of Margaritha, Walton examines his life both before and after conversion. Walton details Margaritha's family history and Jewish life in a Christian Germany, including social customs and worship practices. After conversion, Walton examines Margaritha's time spent as a Hebrew teacher, polemicist, and paterfamilias and analyzes Margaritha's various works for their ethnographic and scholarly-polemical content. One thread that runs through Margaritha's life and writings, detailed here, is the importance to him of his debate with noted rabbi Joseph of Rosheim. Margaritha lost the debate and was imprisoned, but he continually referred to the issues raised and defended the correctness of his position in his treatises. Ultimately, this biography reveals Margaritha as a man who converted out of genuine conviction, but whose life thereafter must have been much different from what he anticipated. Scholars of Jewish and Christian history as well as those interested in German history, Hebrew pedagogy, and religious conversion will appreciate this thorough study.
How do Jews pray and why? What do the prayers mean? From where did this liturgy come and what challenges does it face today? Such questions and many more, spanning the centuries and continents, have driven the study of Jewish liturgy. But just as the liturgy has changed over time, so too have the questions asked, the people asking them, and the methods used to address them. Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Research enables the reader to access the rich bibliography now available in English. In this volume, Ruth Langer, an expert on Jewish liturgy, provides an annotated description of the most important books and articles on topics ranging historically from the liturgy of the Second Temple period and the Dead Sea Scrolls to today, addressing the synagogue itself and those gathered in it; the daily, weekly, and festival liturgies and their components; home rituals and the life cycle; as well as questions of liturgical performance and theology. Introductions to every section orient the reader and provide necessary background. Christians seeking to understand Jewish liturgy, either that of Jesus and the early church or that of their Jewish contemporaries, will find this volume invaluable. It’s also an important reference for anyone seeking to understand how Jews worship God and how that worship has evolved over time.
What happens to the Bible when it is used in worship? What does music, choreography, the stringing together of texts, and the architectural setting itself, do to our sense of what the Bible means—and how does that influence our reading of it outside of worship? In Liturgy and Biblical Interpretation, Sebastian Selvén answers questions concerning how the Hebrew Bible is used in Jewish and Christian liturgical traditions and the impact this then has on biblical studies. This work addresses the neglect of liturgy and ritual in reception studies and makes the case that liturgy is one of the major influential forms of biblical reception. The case text is Isaiah 6:3 and its journey through the history of worship. By looking at the Qedushah liturgies in Ashkenazi Judaism and the Sanctus in three church traditions—(pre-1969) Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism (the Church of England), and Lutheranism (Martin Luther, and the Church of Sweden)—influential lines of reception are followed through history. Because the focus is on lived liturgy, not only are worship manuals and prayer books investigated but also architecture, music, and choreography. With an eye to modern-day uses, Selvén traces the historical developments of liturgical traditions. To do this, he has used methodological frameworks from the realm of anthropology. Liturgy, this study argues, plays a significant role in how scholars, clergy, and lay people receive the Bible, and how we understand the way it is to be read and sometimes even edited. Liturgy and Biblical Interpretation will interest scholars of the Bible, liturgy, and church history, as well as Jewish and Christian clergy.
In August 2007, leading scholars from the world of Genizah Studies assembled in Cambridge for a conference marking the retirement of Stefan Reif, Professor of Medieval Hebrew at the University of Cambridge and founder of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit. This collection of papers demonstrates the breadth and vitality of Genizah Studies today, much of which is due to Reif’s efforts over his thirty-three years as director of the Unit. See a review of the book here.
Social Functions of Synagogue Song: A Durkheimian Approach by Jonathan L. Friedmann paints a detailed picture of the important role sacred music plays in Jewish religious communities. This study explores one possible way to approach the subject of music's intimate connection with public worship: applying sociologist mile Durkeim's understanding of ceremonial ritual to synagogue music. Durkheim observed that religious ceremonies serve disciplinary, cohesive, revitalizing, and euphoric functions within religious communities. Drawing upon musical examples from different composers, regions, periods, rites, and services, Friedmann demonstrates how Jewish sacred music performs these functions.
