Rites of Passage: How Today's Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and CommiserateLeonard Jay Greenspoon 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 a wedding) to celebrate. 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. This collection examines and frequently affirms some of the rituals that have traditionally been associated with these events, while inviting readers 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. |
Contents
| 1 | |
02_SJC Vol21 Kranson | 9 |
03_SJC Vol21 Ginsparg Klein | 25 |
04_SJC Vol21 Koren | 33 |
05_SJC Vol21 Gross | 57 |
06_SJC Vol21 Ochs | 63 |
07_SJC Vol21 Soltes | 71 |
08_SJC Vol21 Leaman | 127 |
09_SJC Vol21 Lasker | 141 |
10_SJC Vol21 Mandell | 155 |
11_SJC Vol21 Puzarne | 187 |
Common terms and phrases
act of kiddushin American Jewish American Jews artist asked Bais Yaakov Bar Mitzvah parties Bar Mitzvah receptions Beth biblical boys brides calendar candles century ceremony Chanukah Christian commemoration congregation context create culture daughters David discourse event experience feel feminist gender girls grooms halakhah halakhic Hanukkah Havdalah Hebrew holidays Holocaust huppah identity interviews Israel Israeli Jewish community Jewish ritual Jewish tradition Jewish women Joshua Judaism Kaddish Karaite kiddushin Kirksville kosher language leaders lives mamzer marriage minyan Mitzvah ritual modern Modern Orthodox mothers observed Orthodox parents participants Passover postwar practice prayer pre-Bat Mitzvah question Rabbanite rabbis Reform Jews religion rite of passage ritual objects role Rosh Rosh Hodesh Sabbath secular semichah Shabbat Shoah significant social special-needs sukkah Sukkot symbol synagogue Talmud Temple Torah town Truman Truman State University wedding ritual woman yeshiva