Overview

Scholars tend to call them 'rites of passage'. Most people prefer to speak of them as life cycle events or milestones. Jews like to speak of simchas, when there's something (a birth, bar or bat mitzvah, or wedding, for example) to celebrate. Whatever we call them and however we commemorate them, these are key moments for individuals and for the families and communities of which they are a part. This volume offers new insights into rituals as old as the Hebrew Bible and as new as the twenty-first century in contexts as familiar as the American Midwest and as exotic as Karaism. In the process, they examine and frequently affirm some of the rituals that have traditionally been associated with these events. At the same time, readers are invited to cast a critical eye on the ways in which these customs have developed in recent years. The authors, who include congregational leaders as well as scholars, also affirm the need to expand or enhance existing ceremonies to include groups whose needs have not traditionally been addressed. These groups include women and children with disabilities. In this way, the articles in this volume are of practical value for those seeking to transform their own religious experiences or those of their community.

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9781557535771

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Reviews

The Many Faces of Jewish Ritual<br> Leonard J. Greenspoon has added a thought-provoking anthology to our bookshelves in which the many faces of Jewish rituals (mainly in the United States, England, and Israel) are celebrated. While Jewish feminists, like Debra Orenstein ( Lifecycles Anthology [1994]), paved the way for the revival of interest in Jewish ritual, other anthropological studies and contemporary perspectives on Jewish life evolved into rich anthologies, such as Harvey Goldberg's The Life of Judaism (2001). Jews' interest and creativity in the area of ritual is, as I have suggested elsewhere, an inherent part and extension of the halakhic paradigm in Judaism, which translates theology into action in the material world. Yet it is unfortunate that a number of essays here, on such topics as egalitarian weddings and rituals celebrated with autistic children, overlook discussions of similar topics previously addressed in other anthologies on Jewish ritual. Steven Puzarne's contribution on rites of passage for children with autism, for example, would have benefited from discussing Miri Lawrence's essay exploring the Passover Seder and Jewish education through the lens of her autistic child, an essay that could be useful to any (Jewish) educator anywhere in the world.[1] The absence of this encounter with other research is unfortunate because rather than continue to develop discussions on these topics, the essays offer as new conclusions perspectives reached by earlier scholarship. <br> Although the subtitle of Greenspoon's book makes explicit reference to the celebrations of Today's Jews, what I find refreshing in this volume is the addition of historical dimensions to ritual usually missing in similar anthologies. Of special interest to me were Daniel Lasker's essay Karaism: An Alternate Form of Jewish Celebration, which adds a medieval approach to the question of Jewish pluralism and diversity in ritual as it lays out the main features of the Karaite c

Author Information

Leonard Greenspoon holds the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. On the Creighton faculty since 1995, Dr. Greenspoon is also Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of Theology.

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