Academic literature on the topic 'Judaism – Liturgy – History'

The present article deals with the literary and theological analysis of Neh 9. This passage reveals striking connection between penance and prayer of post-exilic community. The liturgy of the day of penance puts special emphasis for the religious and national identity of Judaism after Babylonian exile. The people are looking forward remembering all main events from the history of salvation. The author of the present article shows the originality and maturity of many theological ideas of post-exilic community which form the fundaments for Judaism of the Second Temple.

Abstract This article explores the performance of Jewish sacred textual traditions. Performance, as we define it, is both textual and oral and works dynamically between the two. In the Second Temple period, we show the variety of performance which embodies the vitality of the texts. Performance is a feature of scribal practice and liturgy (e.g., Hodayot). It draws on existing text to create something new (e.g., Apostrophe to Zion). From the Second Temple period into the Middle Ages, we see continued pluriformity in the oral performance of the written text of the Hebrew Bible. Creativity is evident across oral and material representation. The texts discussed throughout this article remained dynamic and diverse. The focus and scope of this article also prepares for many of the ideas picked up by the essays which follow in this volume.

Abstract In this article I demonstrate how a careful reading of the text of Midrash Tehillim 22 reveals a clear distinction between its different developmental layers. While we do find the identification of particular verses with Esther in the early stages of the midrash’s development, there is no reason to assume that this identification was rooted in an anti-Christian polemic. On the other hand, in the later layers of the midrash, we find clear echoes of the systematic creation of a continuous exegesis that focuses on identifying the entire Psalm with Esther. The background for this trend was a polemical confrontation with the Christian interpretation which viewed the Psalm as a prefiguration for Jesus’s crucifixion. The midrash also serves as a Jewish counter to the Christian liturgy created in the wake of the Christological reading.

Outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence in late medieval cities were hardly rare. For that reason, among others, surviving records are often frustratingly brief and formulaic. Yet, in the case of the pogrom that devastated Prague's Jewish community on Easter 1389, we have an extraordinary source that has yet to receive a close reading. This account, supplementing numerous chronicle entries and a Hebrew poem of lament, is thePassio Iudeorum Pragensium, orPassion of the Jews of Prague—a polished literary text that parodies the gospel of Christ's Passion to celebrate the atrocity. In this article I will first reconstruct the history, background, and aftermath of the pogrom as far as possible, then interrogate thePassioas a scriptural and liturgical parody, for it has a great deal to teach us about the inner workings of medieval anti-Judaism. By “parody” I mean not a humorous work, but a virtuosic pastiche of authoritative texts, such as the Gospels and the Easter liturgy, that would have been known by heart to much of the intended audience. We may like to think of religious parodies as “daring” or “audacious,” seeing in them a progressive ideological force that challenges corrupt institutions, ridicules absurd beliefs, and pokes holes in the pious and the pompous. ButThe Passion of the Jews of Pragueshows that this was by no means always the case.

AbstractContemporary Christian construals of the Eucharist, both in doctrine and in practice, generally tend to subordinate, de-emphasise or omit theological reference to the Jewish Passover meal. And yet the key New Testament texts in which the Eucharist's institution is variously narrated – the very texts and institution allegedly ‘remembered’ in eucharistic rites – are virtually unintelligible apart from Passover. Thus, at the heart of Christian doctrine and practical life sits a particular theological problem: namely, precisely how to relate the distinctively Jewish character of the Eucharist's origins as narrated in the New Testament to the distinctively Christian character of eucharistic doctrine and liturgy. Drawing on two Jewish thinkers, Michael Fishbane and Yair Zakovitch, in this article I offer one model for understanding the Eucharist–Passover relationship in particular, and the Christian–Jewish relationship generally, as fundamentally typological, performative and ‘subsessionist’. That is, I propose a subsessionist (as opposed to supersessionist) typological understanding of the Eucharist as a Christian rendition of Passover, at once distinct from its Jewish counterparts today and utterly dependent on the ancient Israelite festival for its intelligibility and force. From Fishbane, I draw the idea that throughout the Hebrew Bible, the exodus narrative provides a crucial interpretative key applicable to both prior and anticipated redemptions. From Zakovitch, I draw the idea that the ubiquity of exodus typology in Hebrew scripture may function to create an impression of periodic repetition in salvation history, in effect reassuring Israel that future deliverance will conform to the essential patterns of the prestigious past. The typology at play here, then, so far from being a triumphalist ‘prophecy-fulfilment’ arrangement in which the ‘old’ is valuable only insofar as it serves as a signpost pointing to the ‘new’, is rather a ‘paradigm-rendition’ typology in which the new performance is clarified and authenticated precisely insofar as it corresponds to the old, exalted original. At stake here, I contend, is not only a more fruitful framework for conceiving the relationship between Eucharist and Passover (or indeed between Christianity and Judaism), but also a crucial theological strategy for resisting what amounts to ade factoMarcionism in contemporary Christian communities.

RESUMENEl objetivo principal de este trabajo consiste en sacar a la luz elementos que permitan confirmar un sincretismo cristiano-judío inconsciente, no voluntario, en las creencias y prácticas religiosas de los judeoconversos castellanos en el momento de tránsito de la Edad Media a la Moderna. El trabajo se sustenta en la consulta y análisis de numerosos procesos inquisitoriales incoados a judeoconversos castellanos a fines del siglo XV y comienzos del XVI, así como en otra diversa documentación inquisitorial. A través de las fuentes estudiadas es posible detectar rasgos que evidencian una progresiva confusión entre creencias, expresiones y manifestaciones religiosas cristianas y judías, como expresión más patente de que las transferencias religiosas y la aculturación era una realidad a la que en ese tiempo estaban sujetos los conversos, incluso quienes, como los criptojudíos, se aferraban al judaísmo y manifestaban un firme convencimiento en la superioridad de la religión judía sobre la cristiana. La conclusión principal es que esta situación era el reflejo de una realidad en la que, rotas las conexiones con el judaísmo oficial, la “religión” de los criptojudíosse diluía paulatina y progresivamente en el seno del cristianismo.PALABRAS CLAVE: Judeoconversos, Castilla, fines del siglo XV y comienzos del XVI,sincretismo religioso, procesos inquisitoriales.ABSTRACTThe main objective of this study is to identify certain elements that may confirm an unconscious Christian-Jewish syncretism in the religious beliefs and practices of Castilian Conversos in the transition from the Medieval to the Modern Age. The research is based on consultation and analysis of numerous inquisitorial trials of Castilian Conversos at the end Inquisitorial records. The selected sources allow us to discern certain traits that point to a progressive confusion between Christian and Jewish religious beliefs, expressions and manifestations. This is a clear indication that religious transfer and acculturation constituted a reality to which Conversos were exposed. This was the case even among those who, like Crypto-Jews, clung on to Judaism and expressed a firm conviction of the superiority of the Jewish over the Christian religion. The main conclusion is that, once the connections with official Judaism were broken, the religion of the Crypto-Jews slowly but progressively dissolved into the mainstream of Christianity.KEY WORDS: Conversos, Castile, End of the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries, Religious Syncretism, Inquisitorial Trials. BIBLIOGRAFÍAAusejo, S., Diccionario de la Biblia, Barcelona, Editorial Herder, 1964.Baer, F., Die Juden im Christlichen Spanien. I/2. Kastilien/Inquisitionakten, Berlín, 1936.Beinart, H., Records of the Trials of the Spanish Inquisition in Ciudad Real, Jerusalem, The Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1974-1985, 4 vols.Beinart, H., “A Prophesyng Movement in Cordova in 1499-1502” (en hebreo), en I.F.Baer Memorial Volume, Zion, 44 (1979), pp. 190-200.Beinart, H., “Tenu’at ha-nebi ah Inés be-Puebla de Alcocer u-be Talarrubias we-anusehen sel ayyarot elleh”, en Tarbiz, 51 (1982), pp. 633-658.Beinart, H., Los conversos ante el tribunal de la Inquisición, Barcelona, Riopiedras Ediciones, 1983.Beinart, H., “Conversos of Chillón and Siruela and the Prophecies of Mari Gómez and Inés, the Daughter of Juan Esteban” (en hebreo), en Zion, 48 (1983), pp. 241-272.Beinart, H., “Anuse Alia (Halia) u-tenu’atah sel ha-nebi’ah Inés” (= “Los judeoconversos de Alía y el movimiento de la profetisa Inés”), en Zion, 53/I (1988), pp. 13-52.Bover, J. Mª, S. I., y Cantera Burgos, F., Sagrada Biblia. Versión crítica sobre los textos hebreo y griego, Madrid, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1961 (6ª ed.).Carrete Parrondo, C., Fontes Iudaeorum Regni Castellae. II. El Tribunal de la Inquisición en el Obispado de Soria (1486-1502), Salamanca, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca-Universidad de Granada, 1985.Carrete Parrondo, C., Fontes iudaeorum Regni Castellae. III. Proceso inquisitorial contra los Arias Dávila segovianos: un enfrentamiento social entre judíos y conversos, Salamanca, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca-Universidad de Granada, 1986.Carrete Parrondo, C. y Fraile Conde, C., Fontes Iudaeorum Regni Castellae. IV. Los judeoconversos de Almazán. 1501-1505. Origen familiar de los Laínez, Salamanca, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca-Universidad de Granada, 1987.Christian, W. A., Jr., Apariciones en Castilla y Cataluña (siglos XIV-XVI), Madrid, Nerea, 1990.Edwards, J., “Elijah and the Inquisition: Messianic Profhecy among Conversos in Spain, C. 1500”, en Nottingham Medieval Studies, 28 (Nottingham University, 1984), pp. 79-94.Garrido Bonaño, M., O.S.B., Curso de Liturgia Romana, Madrid, Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1961.Gitlitz, D. M., Secreto y engaño. La religión de los criptojudíos, Salamanca, Junta de Castilla y León, 2003.Gracia Boix, R., Colección de documentos para la historia de la Inquisición de Córdoba, Córdoba, Publicaciones del Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Córdoba, 1982.Le Goff, J., La naissance du Purgatoire, Paris, Gallimard, 1981.Maier, J. y Schäfer, P., Diccionario del judaísmo, Estella, Editorial Verbo Divino, 1996.Rábade Obradó, M. P., “Expresiones de la religiosidad cristiana en los procesos contra los judaizantes del tribunal de Ciudad Real/Toledo, 1483-1507”, En la España Medieval, 13 (1990), pp. 303-330.Rábade Obradó, M. P., “Religiosidad y práctica religiosa entre los conversos castellanos (1483-1507)”, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, tomo CXCIV, Cuaderno I (Enero-Abril, 1997), pp. 83-141.Rábade Obradó, M. P., “La instrucción cristiana de los conversos en la Castilla del siglo XV”, En la España Medieval, 22 (1999), pp. 369-393.Rábade Obradó, M. P., “Herejía y utopía en la Castilla de los Reyes Católicos. Los conversos y la esperanza mesiánica”, en Contreras Contreras, J., Alvar Ezquerra, J. yRábade Obradó, M. P., “Dos voces femeninas en la Castilla del siglo XV: sueños y visiones de los criptojudíos”, en Alvira Cabrer, M. y Díaz Ibáñez, J., Medievo utópico: sueños, ideales y utopías en el mundo imaginario medieval, Madrid, Sílex ediciones, 2011, pp. 53-66.Ruiz Rodríguez, J. I. (coords.), Política y cultura en la época Moderna. (Cambios dinásticos, milenarismos, mesianismos y utopías), Universidad de Alcalá, 2004, pp. 535-544.Scholem. G., The Messianic Idea in Judaism, New York, Schockem, 1971.Trebolle Barrera, J., “Apocalipticismo y mesianismo en el mundo judío”, en Mangas, J. y Montero, S., (Coords.), El Milenarismo. La percepción del tiempo en las culturas antiguas, Madrid, Editorial Complutense, 2001.

À partir d’une interrogation initiale sur l’Esther de Racine, cette étude repart de la Bible, analyse les sources puis suit le parcours du Livre d’Esther, son devenir religieux, littéraire et artistique au cours des siècles et à travers l’Europe. Cette démarche génétique a permis de dresser un immense tableau des créations les plus diverses. Il s’avère que cette composition biblique doit être comptée parmi les textes fondateurs ayant contribué à créer une culture commune. Rédigée quatre siècles avant notre ère, elle ne s’est pas limitée à alimenter la liturgie. Rapidement, la figure d’Esther a été vue comme un archétype de la Fidèle : on en a fait l’apologie en l’associant par analogie à Marie la médiatrice, et en reconnaissant en cette reine un exemplum édificateur. Plus largement, Esther et Assuérus représentent le modèle parfait d’un couple de souverains. Le Livre d’Esther a inspiré jusqu’à nos jours de multiples artistes et d’écrivains. Parmi l’énorme corpus de réécritures, c’est l’art dramatique qui a été privilégié, proposant des tragédies mais aussi des parodies : si Mardochée y reste digne d’éloges, Aman devient objet de blâme ou de risée. Parce qu’il abolit les frontières géographiques, historiques, politiques et sociales, ce texte appartient à la source d’une grande partie du patrimoine de l’Europe
Starting with a study of Racine's Esther, this thesis analyses the biblical story and its sources and follows its literary, artistic and religious becoming through the centuries and across Europe. This "genetic" approach results in a tableau portraying a wide variety of artistic creations. The biblical story appears to have been counted among a number of founding texts which contributed to a common (European) culture. Composed four centuries before our era, its uses and applications go beyond the religious and the liturgical. The figure of Esther quickly came to be seen as an archetype of the faithful: she is associated by analogy with Mary the mediator and recognised as an exemplary queen. More broadly, Esther and Ahasuerus represent the perfect model of the royal couple. Through the ages, the Book of Esther has inspired many artists and writers. Amidst the huge corpus of re-writings, theatrical adaptations hold a prominent place, made up of both tragedies and parodies. If Mordecai remains worthy of praise, Haman is generally portrayed as an object of rebuke or ridicule. Because it abolishes geographical, historical, political and social borders, this text is at the source of an important part of European heritage

This thesis argues that the Feast of the Discovery of the Cross offered an occasion to refute religious opposition to the cross and crucifixion in the diverse socio-political contexts encountered by Syriac Christians between the fourth and the ninth centuries. At its inception, the Feast of the Cross promoted the cult of the True Cross, Old Testament typology, and the expansion of the Christian faith, and these features were sufficiently malleable to meet new religious challenges and political contexts. John of Dara's ninth-century homily On the Cross is a lengthy exposition on the veneration of the cross, and it showcases how the feast could be used for apologetic ends. The first chapter focuses on the relic of the True Cross and the theologies of the cross of Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Ephrem the Syrian, which shaped later festal celebrations. The second chapter traces the development of the legend of Helena's Invention of the Cross and introduces the most popular Syriac invention legends, the Protonike and Judah Kyriakos legends. The third chapter analyses themes in pre-Arab Conquest Syriac homilies for the Feast of the Cross by Narsai, David Eskolaya, Jacob of Serugh, Severus of Antioch, and Pseudo-Chrysostom. The fourth chapter provides an overview of the dramatic changes of the seventh century during the reign of Heraclius and following the Arab Conquest. Chapter five compares inter-religious debate concerning the cross and crucifixion between Christians and Jews and between Christians and Muslims between the seventh and ninth centuries. Chapter six introduces John of Dara's homily for the Feast of the Cross, which uses the traditional themes, together with apologetic topics, to defend the veneration of the cross. Chapter seven explores the influence of John of Dara's homily on later Syrian Orthodox writers, Moshe bar Kepha and Dionysius bar Ṣalībī.

Partant de la vie et de l'oeuvre de leopold zunz (1794-1886) nous avons analyse la wissenschaft des judentums (science du judaisme), dont il est considere comme le fondateur, en tant que chapitre de l'histoire culturelle des juifs allemands. C'est a ce titre que nous avons montre les liens de la wissenschaft des judentums avec les debuts de l'emancipation et de l'acculturation juives, en tentant de l'integrer dans les conceptualisations les plus recentes de ces dernieres. Nous avons cherche ainsi a mettre en evidence combien la wissenschaft des judentums peut etre consideree comme une etape primordiale a bien des developpements ulterieurs de tendances ideologiques ou religieuses certes opposees mais methodologiquement proches. Ceci est vrai tout particulierement pour la wissenschaft des judentums telle que la concevait zunz, qui redefinit la tradition juive comme litterature nationale en abandonnant la notion de texte revele et en supprimant les differences entre textes canoniques et textes non canoniques pour insister sur le caractere poetique des textes, meme religieux. Nous avons pu montrer que chez zunz cette volonte de definir les textes de la tradition juive par rapport a l'histoire du peuple juif et comme expression de ce peuple, est particulierement forte, parce qu'il construit la wissenschaft des judentums, contrairement a d'autres representants de cette derniere, par opposition a la theologie. L'histoire juive apparait en filigrane dans ses etudes de philologie juive comme l'histoire d'une nation culturelle centree sur la religion et dont l'evolution serait rythmee par
Taking the life and works of leopold zunz (1794-1886) as example we analyzed wissenschaft des judentums (science of judaism), of which he is considered the founder, as a chapter of the cultural history of german jews. That enabled us to show the links between wissenschaft des judentums and the beginnings of jewish emancipation and acculturation and to integrate this science to the latest conceptualizations of those two. We tried thus to show how wissenschaft des judentums can be considered as a primordial stage leading to a lot of later developments, ideologically or religiously opposed but close in regard to their methods. This is true especially of wissenschaft des judentums as zunz conceived it, who defined jewish tradition as a national literature by giving up the notion of revealed text and by suppressing the differences between canonical and noncanonical texts to insist on the poetical character of texts, be they religious. We were able to show that in the case of zunz this will to define the texts of jewish traditioin by relating them to the history of the jewish people and by seeing in them an expression of this people, is particularly strong because he builds wissenschaft des judentums, unlike other representatives of this science, in opposition to theology

For sixty-five years hardly anyone in the English-speaking world was aware of the anthropological theories of Marcel Jousse, a twentieth century Jesuit scholar. In 1990, Jousse's seminal work, Le style oral rythmique et mnemotechnique chez les verbo-moteurs. (The rhythmic and mnemotechnique oral style of the verbo-motors), was translated into English and given the name The Oral Style. His anthropologie du geste, called in this study the anthropology of geste, presented his discovery of the universal anthropological laws governing human expression: mimism, bilateralism and formulism. Jousse had sought to understand the anthropological roots of oral style, in particular the phenomenal memory of oral style peoples. In this dissertation, Jousse's theories are summarised and his anthropological laws are used to determine whether three eucharistic prayers of the Roman rite contain elements of oral style expression. The Roman Canon, Eucharistic Prayer 1 and Eucharistic Prayer for Children 1 are set out in binary and ternary balancings. An attempt is made to show that written style expression, an inheritance from the Greeks, houses in its extraordinary complexity the very oral style elements it appears to have superseded. The assertion made is that written style, with its predilection for subordination, actually conserves, preserves and perpetuates oral style balancings, not only in the simple sentence (what Jousse calls the propositional geste), but also in clauses, phrases, words, and sound devices. Support is given to T. J. Talley's view that the Jewish nodeh lekah (thanksgiving) and not the berakah (blessing) is the prayer source that influenced the structure of the early Christians' eucharist (thanksgiving in Greek). The expressions of thanksgiving that are a distinguishing feature of anaphoras from the 1st century AD onwards, continue to shape the eucharistic prayers today. This is offered as one reason why, in a reconstruction of Eucharistic Prayer for Children 1 presented at the end of Chapter 5, it is possible to balance one recitative with another, and the recitation of one prayer component with another. The dissertation concludes by recommending that oral studies of the Christian liturgies of East and West be pursued as they have much to contribute to the orality-literacy debate not only in the matter of liturgical language but also in gaining an appreciation of other gestes of worship.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1994.

This chapter demonstrates the formative role dance played in the Christianization of the liturgy and the sacralization of time. Using evidence from liturgical manuals, musical notation, and rituals, it traces how devotional choreography recuperated pagan motifs, impressed itself onto the regular rhythms of the liturgical calendar, and partook in the dance of the cosmos. In church dramas, dance exerted a didactic function, reinforcing the theme of Christian salvation alongside anti-Judaic rhetoric. The first section traces the authorization of liturgical dance in the Western Middle Ages. Through its ritualization of dance, the Western Church reinvented ancient rites within the discipline of the Latin liturgy. The second section illuminates the use of dance in liturgical drama. On the liturgical stage, the reenactment of Christian history offered a space for the ambivalence of dance to be worked out and re-signified. The third section offers a close reading of one specific liturgical dance ritual in Auxerre. This rite reconciled a pre-Christian myth with medieval eschatology and the Christian ordo.