Jewish Practices Research Articles

Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America by Shari Rabin

Reviewed by: Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America by Shari Rabin Dianne Ashton (bio) Jews on the Frontier: Religion and Mobility in Nineteenth-Century America. By Shari Rabin. New York University Press, 2017. viii + 192 pp. In her new book, which won a National Jewish Book Award, Shari Rabin poses the question of how the frontier affected American Jewish life. She analyzes frontier conditions from several perspectives: mobility, scarcity, self-confidence, and a desire to remake Judaism into something suited for frontier life. It is difficult to overstate the influence of the frontier experience upon American history, and Rabin explains how that experience also influenced American Jewish history. She begins by identifying exactly what it was that made America a frontier for nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants. Frontiers were areas where Jews could find few, if any, of the resources with which to construct a Jewish life: no minyan, Torah scroll, school, mohel, kosher butcher, matzah, cemetery, or community from which to draw friends, companions, and, often, brides (most of the individuals on the frontier were men). It was a difficult life, and those who lived it moved frequently in search of better opportunities for both success and companionship. Rabin points out that America's vaunted religious freedom had a much larger impact upon Jews' lives than simply allowing them to organize congregations, charities, schools, and cemeteries at will. By refusing to craft laws that separated Jews from the general Christian public, legislatures created an American Jewry that wore no special identifying clothing; that engaged in any labor, craft, or career it chose; that married according to its members' desires; and that built homes unconfined to any particular locale and therefore paid no special tax or fee to move beyond government-designated parameters. In the U.S., Jews became mobile because no laws confined them. After setting that groundwork, Rabin examines how Jews responded to the isolation of frontier life and how they sought out other Jews for "companionship, sociability, and economic assistance" (34). In part [End Page 109] this was due to difficulty in discerning an American's "true intention and character" (35). Jews, like many other Americans, looked to clubs and associations for trustworthy associates, and several historians have explained the nineteenth century's boom in fraternities by pointing to the era's social mobility that created a world of strangers. Jewish men also turned to boardinghouses, especially those run by Jewish women, to achieve similar goals, and looked to the few Jewish newspapers in order to learn about compatriots around the country. Frontier conditions also necessarily complicated the creation of Jewish families. If a man were lucky enough to find a bride, the next question became how to legalize their union. Rabin explains that "U.S. law and the exigencies of mobility elevated" the importance of congregations because congregations could legalize marriages (63). But so also could a justice of the peace. Thus, both marriage and divorce provoked decisions "made by individual couples" but which had ramifications for their relationships to congregations (64). Rabin adds to our understanding of the rise of Reform Judaism in her discussion of how the life of scarcity and mobility generated an understanding of God that was "increasingly expansive and universal." Frontier Jews "responded to scarcity and uncertainty by transforming their understandings of Jewish objects and of the Jewish God" (95). Intention became more important than ritual acts. Her argument is certainly persuasive, but this reader expected the author to also discuss the pervasive influence of Protestant Christianity, which dominated American culture in the nineteenth century even more than it did in the twentieth century. Key elements of Protestantism, particularly in the forms that thrived on the American frontier, also valued spirit over form, and for Protestants, too, scarcity played a role in shaping their religious perspective. American Jews did not develop a language of spirit over form by themselves; rather, this language should be understood as part of their general acculturation to American life. Rabin notes that Rebecca Gratz, an urban, wealthy Jew, was also adept at the language of spirituality and emotion in describing her approach to Jewish practice. Here, too, Rabin could have deepened her...

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

Removing an Arrow from the Supersessionist Quiver: A Post-Supersessionist Reading of Colossians 2:16–17

ABSTRACT When constructing the occasion in Col 2:16–17, the prevailing interpretation presumes that the Colossians were being criticized for noncompliance to dietary instructions and the Jewish calendar and that Paul disparages Jewish practices by identifying them as a “shadow” juxtaposed to the “substance” of Messiah. Through a broad survey of recent scholarship, New Testament texts, the Didache, and grammatical analysis, this study challenges traditional readings by changing the scenario: the Colossians were being criticized for living in accordance with the Jewish calendar.

The ballad of Leah and Amanda: Ritual and history at the wedding of a Jewish lesbian couple in Melbourne, Australia

At the beginning of 2014, Leah and Amanda became one of the first pairs of Jewish lesbians to have a Jewish wedding in Melbourne, Australia. Held in a secular reception venue and officiated by a Reform rabbi, this ceremony was a Jewish religious ceremony that had no relationship to the Australian state. In this ceremonial search for a ritual that would be true to themselves, would express their love, and would engage with communal and familial cultures and histories, dominant discourses of both Jewish and Australian weddings were simultaneously challenged and reinforced.In this article, utilizing oral history methodologies, I will explore some of the ways that Leah and Amanda articulated and enacted their relationships, histories and futures. In particular, I suggest that their utterances make visible the production of historically specific iterations of normativity. Through an exploration of this intimate relationship, this article thus works to come to an understanding of some of the ways in which Australian Jewish lesbian practices and ideas of assimilation, normativity and difference, come to exist. How can these relationships be both normative and transgressive, as lesbian relationships and as Jewish ones? By inquiring into the Jewish character, as well as the lesbian character, of this wedding and this intimate relationship between these two women, this article proposes an intervention into historical understandings of homonormativity.

Tefillin use induces remote ischemic preconditioning pathways in healthy men.

The present study assessed whether tefillin use (tight, nonocclusive, wrapping of the arm) elicits a remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC)-like effect in subjects with both acute and chronic use. RIPC, created by short bursts of ischemia-reperfusion, has not been successfully taken to the bedside. Several large population studies have found that Orthodox Jewish men (who wear tefillin almost daily) have decreased cardiovascular mortality compared with non-Orthodox counterparts. We hypothesized that tefillin use is a relevant component in triggering a preconditioning effect. Jewish men ( n = 20) were enrolled; 9 men were daily tefillin users (conditioned) and 11 men were nonusers of tefillin as controls (naïve). Subjects were evaluated for adherence to traditional Jewish practice, had vital signs measured, blood drawn for analysis of circulating cytokines and monocyte function, and underwent brachial flow-mediated dilation to evaluate vascular reactivity at baseline (basal) and after 30 min of using tefillin (acute treatment). Under basal conditions, both groups had similar peak systolic velocity (SV), diameter, and flow volume, although the conditioned group had higher SV at 120 s postdeflation ( P = 0.05). Acute tefillin use augmented artery diameter and flow volume in both groups, with conditioned subjects experiencing higher SV than control subjects at 90 and 120 s postdeflation ( P = 0.03 and P = 0.02, respectively). Conditioned subjects had decreased inflammation, monocyte migration and adhesion, and endothelial activation compared with control subjects at baseline. Acute use of tefillin did not significantly alter monocyte function in either group. In this pilot study, acute tefillin use improves vascular function, whereas chronic tefillin use is associated with an anti-inflammatory RIPC-like phenotype. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We hypothesized that tefillin use among Orthodox Jewish men (who practice a nonocclusive leather banding of their nondominant arm) will induce a remote ischemic preconditioning phenotype. Chronic use of tefillin in Orthodox Jewish men was associated with increased systolic velocity and attenuated inflammation and monocyte chemotaxis and adhesion versus Jewish men who do not wear tefillin. Acute use of tefillin in both populations augmented brachial artery diameter and blood flow but not inflammatory profiles compared with baseline.

Appropriation and Differentiation: Jewish Identity in Medieval Ashkenaz

This article discusses the ways scholars have outlined the process of Jewish adaptation (or lack of it) from their Christian surroundings in northern Europe during the High Middle Ages. Using the example of penitential fasting, the first two sections of the article describe medieval Jewish practices and some of the approaches that have been used to explain the similarity between medieval Jewish and contemporary Christian customs. The last two sections of the article suggest that in addition to looking for texts that connect between Jewish and Christian thought and beliefs behind these customs, it is useful to examine what medieval Jews and Christians saw of each other's customs living in close urban quarters. Finally, the article suggests that when shaping medieval Jewish and Christian identity, the differences emphasized in shared everyday actions and visible practice were no less important than theological distinctions. As part of the discussion throughout the article, the terminology used by scholars to describe the process of Jewish appropriation from the local surroundings is described, focusing on terms such as “influence” and “inward acculturation,” as well as “appropriation.”

Education as ethics: Emmanuel Levinas on Jewish schooling

For Levinas, the moment of real meaning is in the relation sustained with alterity. This relation is difficult or impossible to characterize philosophically, however, because to render it in comprehensive or objective terms would reduce the relation to one of comprehension and make it commensurate with the ego. Thus philosophy has an ambivalent status with respect to transcendence and ethics; but Levinas is convinced of the essentially transcendent or ethical meaning of Judaic practice: Talmudic exegesis, but also Jewish ritual and the keeping of the sabbath; and these elements are included within a conception of Jewish educational practices. Thus to what extent transcendent meaning can be discussed in philosophical terms and evinced in philosophical work (theoretical and practical)—or rather, to what extent transcendent meaning is possible at all—may be clarified by a sketch of Levinas’ broad approach to Jewish practice, particularly in terms of education. This essay shows how Jewish education is essential for transcendence and ethics for Levinas. Reference is made to several untranslated texts that Levinas published for intellectual but nonacademic French-Jewish journals, in which he explains his own pedagogical vocation. This offers an invaluable perspective on his philosophical and Judaic writings; and above all it gives an indication of his vision of the quotidian and life-long educational practices through which ethics and the transcendent relation between human beings are possible. Finally it raises the question of whether a secular or philosophical education could offer this as well.

Profaning Jewish Mores in Chochana Boukhobza's Un été à Jérusalem

As a transnational Israeli writer, Chochana Boukhobza delves into the complex problem of crossing borders in Un été à Jérusalem (1986), a text which focuses on the unnamed protagonist's trip from Paris to visit her family during the summer months in Jerusalem. Although the narrator had resided in Israel previously, she is forced to grapple with her ‘Otherness’ in Jerusalem, especially as a Jew originally from Tunisia. The narrator's crisis of exile is defined by her sense of disconnection to her family, the city, Israeli politics, and women's traditional roles. In this essay, particular emphasis will be placed on the protagonist's penchant for profaning Jewish cultural and religious practices, which is articulated through a series of corporeal transgressions. To launch this revolt against the patriarchal structure of the nation in Israel, the narrator rejects the submissive role assigned to Jewish-Tunisian women, and, in so doing, dismantles traditional gender roles.

"The Whole Air of Exile Is Yours": Modern Inquisitorial Fiction and the Facts of the Early (Latin) American Jewish Experience

"The Whole Air of Exile Is Yours":Modern Inquisitorial Fiction and the Facts of the Early (Latin) American Jewish Experience Matthew D. Warshawsky (bio) During the past thirty years, multiple works of literary fiction by Latin American authors have helped recover the marginalized history of Iberian "New Christians," or conversos, whom Inquisition tribunals prosecuted as secret Jews in colonial Latin America. In prose, poetry, and drama, these works imagine how a silenced people—Spanish and Portuguese Catholic converts of Jewish origin who tried to practice Judaism despite their baptism—thought, spoke, and acted. Why have contemporary Latin American writers chosen to resuscitate this relatively unknown history, and how does their treatment of it through fiction broaden our understanding of an era of American Judaism that often feels outside the bounds of the Jewish experience on these shores?2 Addressing such questions, this essay aims to show that texts of Homero Aridjis, Moacyr Scliar, Sabina Berman, and Nora Glickman rewrite the "official" story of Latin American history; represent the depth of faith of forgotten Jews living in settings of eclipse; and describe the complexities of this faith, particularly its isolating and divisive aspects. Through this approach, the article also argues for the ability of fiction to transport readers credibly into the minds of secret Jews of the early modern period and the descendants of such individuals today. In so doing, these works testify to two historical realities about the reach and limits of Jewish identity: the unwavering faith of Iberian crypto-Jews and, concomitantly, the fact that converso status did not always imply a secret adherence to Judaism. New Christians were Spanish or Portuguese Catholics who themselves had converted from Judaism or who were the descendants of [End Page 351] such converts. Several conversos accompanied Christopher Columbus on his first voyage of encounter with the "Indies" in 1492, and larger numbers traveled to Latin America during the next century and a half, despite the ban that the Spanish crown had imposed on their doing so.3 From the late 1500s through the mid-1600s, tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico City, Lima, and Cartagena de Indias prosecuted a series of trials partially in response to the crypto-Jewish practices of a number of these conversos, effectively uprooting many, albeit not all, roots of their secret Judaism.4 The presence today of descendants of secret Jews, from northeast Brazil to the American Southwest, testifies to the endurance of an identity that has blurred the distinction between religion and ethnicity. Members of these groups have responded variously to greater opportunities to live in an openly Jewish way: while some have become normative Jews, others, feeling irrevocably distinct from the rest of society, have maintained a hybrid identity built on Catholic and Jewish practices. The fact that various authors today have written fiction rooted in this historical reality reflects in part their effort to broaden contemporary awareness of the Iberian origin and legacy of Jewish identity in the Americas, well before the establishment of Ashkenazim on these shores.5 The works discussed in this essay confront the conflation of religion and ethnicity by depicting reactions to the otherness of conversos that originated in late medieval Iberia and accompanied them to colonial Latin America, from martyrdom-inducing embrace of Judaism to disdainful rejection of it. Thus, in the novel 1492: Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla (1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezón of Castile, 1983) and the poem "Sefarad, 1492" (1990), the Mexican writer Homero Aridjis establishes the transatlantic roots of the early Latin American Jewish experience by representing the degradation of Jews and New Christians in Iberia in the century before the final expulsion and forced [End Page 352] conversions of the former during the 1490s.6 Likewise, several chapters of the novel A estranha nação de Rafael Mendes (The Strange Nation of Rafael Mendes, 1986) by Moacyr Scliar examine from a Brazilian perspective the experience of Portuguese conversos in colonial Brazil in a way that both complements and differs from the experiences of New Christians in Spanish territories.7 The play Herejía (Heresy, 1983), by the Mexican playwright Sabina Berman, conveys the clandestinity and...

A Possible Reference to the Jewish Sabbath in the Numbering of Chapters Six and Seven in Part II of Don Quijote

A Possible Reference to the Jewish Sabbath in the Numbering of Chapters Six and Seven in Part II of Don Quijote1 Emily G. Foss The original manuscript of Don Quijote, Part II, was missing a chapter seven. Perhaps better said, it had two consecutive chapters numbered "six." This numbering, 6-6-8, was quickly corrected to 6-7-8, which most editions use today. It has been suggested that these types of "errors" are not really errors, but rather Cervantes's way of parodying the incongruences that characterize the chivalric genre (Lathrop xvii). In this study, I similarly propose that we not be too quick to dismiss the extra chapter six and absence of chapter seven as a mistake. Working within the framework of research on the converso legacy in Early Modern Spain and the novel's multicultural context, I examine a possible reference to the Jewish Sabbath in its original chapter numbering. A familiar aspect of Jewish practice, the Sabbath formed an integral part of life for this community in Spain's history prior to 1492, and likewise contributed to the converso reality of Cervantes's day. Its Biblical source and associated practices both help to inform our understanding. Briefly, the seventh day, identified as Saturday in Jewish tradition (Shabbat in Hebrew, Sabbath in English), is a day of rest and abstaining from work. Perhaps best known as one of the Ten Commandments, it is also referenced elsewhere in the Bible. For the present study, I will focus on the episode of the manna, or bread that fell from heaven to sustain the Israelites in the desert after they left Egypt. A double portion fell on Friday, the sixth day, and none fell on the Sabbath. Customs and practices developed to keep and honor the Sabbath, such as cooking extra food on Friday to allow for abstention of work on Saturday. The inquisitional documents (specifically edicts and testimonies concerning [End Page 357] the conversos) of Cervantes's time reflect these practices. In the remainder of this study, I propose that the preparation on the sixth day to allow for rest on the seventh in Jewish tradition (with attention to both the Biblical source and associated customs) is mirrored in Cervantes's original numbering of the chapters, namely an extra chapter six and the absence of a chapter seven. Converso heritage of Cervantes and Portrayal of don Quijote Over the past decades, Spanish literary criticism has sought to discover new levels of meaning in literary works attributable to the known or hypothesized converso identity of their authors.2 In the case of Cervantes, Jean Canavaggio details a multi-generational pattern typical of the life circumstances of this socio-cultural group on the author's paternal side: First Juan, the great instigator of law suits, related on his wife's side to a family of Andalusian physicians, then Rodrigo, the itinerant surgeon . . . and finally Miguel, whose war services no one will recompense and who, having become an agent of the royal Treasury, will have to travel through towns and villages in pursuit of recalcitrant debtors. Three professions, three wanderings, three destinies that, in view of the positions of new Christians in Spain of the sixteenth century, all appear to suggest secret membership in converso society. (24-25) It was likely his converso status that prevented Cervantes from immigrating to America (Lokos 117). In an effort to broaden his prospects, he procured a document attesting to his Old Christian origins, which "tries to give the appearance of an expediente de limpieza without actually constituting one" (Lokos 119). His marriage to Catalina de Salazar in 1584 marked a union with one of the many families in Esquivias of "hidalgos who counted conversos among their ancestors" (Canavaggio 139). Among scholars who suggest a reflection of Cervantes's own converso status in his portrayal of Don Quijote, Samuel G. Armistead affirms, "there can be little doubt at all that Cervantes thought of his protagonist as a New Christian," and sees the struggles of Don Quijote's life as paralleling those of his creator, describing "an intimate relationship to the limitations, the frustrations, the undeserved failures of his [Cervantes's...

Finding the voice of Judaism within practical theological research

ABSTRACTWhile adapting to the changing realities of pluralism and globalisation, it is imperative the field of practical theology consider the unheard voice of the religious other as an indispensable theological interlocutor. In this article, I argue for the examination of contemporary Jewish practice as one potential starting point. In order to engage in such inquiries, I first propose the necessity of post-Shoah theology as an indispensable conceptual lens that gives credence to the damaging effects of Christian supersessionism. Second, I offer my own research on how Jewish rabbis practice Shabbat as a working case study. In this regard, I propose the use of phenomenological research as a methodology that gives voice to how Jews describe their own experience. In conclusion, I offer reflexive gleanings for the enterprise of practical theology.

‘Retaining the Tradition – but with an Open Mind’ – Change and Choice in Jewish Musical Practices

This article focuses on religion and change in relation to music. Its starting point is the argument that music plays a central role as a driving force for religious change, as has recently been suggested by several researchers of religion. Music is seen to comprise elements that are central to contemporary religiosity in general: participation, embodiment, experience, emotions, and creativity. This article approaches the discussion from a Jewish point of view, connecting the theoretical perspective to an ethnographic case study conducted among progressive Jews in London with special focus on music, religious practice, and change. The article outlines the ongoing discussion on religion and change by focusing on features of individualism, personal choice, and processes of bricolage, critically assessing them from an inclusive point of view, focusing on individuals as simultaneously both personal and socially as well as culturally embedded agents. The analysis highlights a visible trend among the interviewees of wanting to combine a radically liberal theology with an increasingly traditional practice. In these accounts musical practices play a pivotal yet ambiguous role as instigators and insignia of religious change. As a conclusion, insights into more ‘sonically aware religious studies’ are suggested.

Collective memory in the making of religious change: the case of ‘emerging Jews’ followers of Jesus

ABSTRACTThis study explores a facet of the construction of a new worldwide religious tradition that fuses the beliefs, rituals, and identity claims of both Judaism and Christianity. The Brazilian ‘Messianic Anussim’ comprise former Charismatic Evangelicals that adhere to a variety of Jewish practices. Unlike Messianic Judaism, where Jewish-born people identify themselves as believers in Jesus, or Christian Zionism, where Evangelicals emphasise the eschatological importance of the Jews and Israel this particular community maintains the veneration of Jesus and calls for a purification of Charismatic Evangelicalism while observing Jewish laws. Their calls for a ‘pious restoration’ are guided by a recovered Jewish identity that is inspired by the historical figure of the Bnei Anussim. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2013 and 2015, this study explores the formation of a new hybrid religious group.

Family Rupture amongConversosand the Inquisition Tribunal in 1640s New Spain

This article examines the lives of two Portuguese conversos, Gaspar Robles and Francisco Home, a nephew and his uncle, both tried by the Inquisition tribunal in seventeenth-century colonial Mexico during the decade leading up to the Gran auto de fe of 1649. However, their trajectories were vastly different. Gaspar Robles voluntarily approached the Inquisition tribunal confessing his own and his family's secret Jewish practices. He incriminated his father, his three uncles, and many other acquaintances who formed part of the converso community in New Spain precipitating the mass prosecutions of many in the converso community. In contrast, his uncle Francisco Home was also arrested soon after Gaspar's confession. He was tried and tortured, and he eventually confessed to his own crypto-Judaism. However, he protected some in the converso community in sharp contrast with his nephew's voluntary confession. Through close examination, this article explores the role of individual and community identity among conversos in New Spain to explain why the nephew confessed to the tribunal sealing the fate of his immediate family and that of a whole community. It argues that in cases such as that of Gaspar Robles familial ties proved more a liability than a protection and the final outcome was contingent on a combination of religious and ethnic identity, the process of migration, and individual circumstances.

Moroccan Jewish first-places: contraction, fabrication, dissipation

The idea of first places is inevitably linked with diasporas. At the heart of this idea and since the very start, there has always been the Jewish case. The diaspora of the Jews of Morocco, in the periphery, was presented by some authors, as a good case with which to relativize the theoretical pertinence and conceptual inspiration of the Jewish model. Focusing on Jewish history, heritage, and travelling in Morocco, I will continue to question the paradigm of social studies based on the bi-polar center-diaspora model. I will testify to the emergence and fabrication of new Jewish ‘first-places’, a process attending the aging and departure of the last Jews of Morocco and with the support of the Kingdom, while following current, and disruptive trends of contraction, commutation and dissipation of ‘first-places’ in different Jewish practices and narratives. The individualization of religious practice in post-secular societies allows and includes – and often merges – secular, ethnic and political approaches of what once was purely designated as religious identity. Heritage Moroccan landscape (and landscaping) allows different approaches and thus probably why one can think of it as an emerging ‘first-place’ for some.

Una noche de luces y festejo en Cartagena de Indias, 1690

En la segunda mitad del siglo xvii, la tripulación de las flotas y galeones de España a las Indias y viceversa se vio obligada a contratar capitanes, pilotos y marineros extranjeros, a pesar de su prohibición. Cierto número de ellos provenían de naciones enemigas y religiones heréticas. Quienes arribaban a Cartagena estuvieron expuestos a caer en manos del Tribunal de la Inquisición. El artículo tiene como propósito aprovechar varios documentos inquisitoriales que relatan la realización de una fiesta en 1690, un viernes en la noche, cuyos partícipes fueron acusados de reunirse a celebrar prácticas judías. Gracias a sus biografías fue posible recorrer con ellos sus experiencias de vida, aventuras, formas de pensar, creencias, diversiones e infortunios.

African Judaizing movements and the question of polygamy: Perspectives from Cameroon

ABSTRACTThis article examines the theological, cultural, and socio-historical underpinnings of the custom of polygamy as it is practiced among so-called “Judaizing” movements in rural Cameroon. As a case study of one of the rarely discussed ideological points of contention between such Sub-Saharan African communities and the Global Northern Jewish communities that sponsor, support, or encourage them, this essay analyzes how neo-Jewish perspectives surrounding the practice of polygamy can help to illustrate the myriad ways in which normative, modern-day Jewish practices are sometimes inherently contradictory to accepted notions of propriety held by members of emerging Jewish communities from the Global South.

"All Will Be Fine, Jewish and Promptly Attended": Tradition and the Rise of New York Jewish Undertakers, 1890-1950

This article traces the rise of twentieth-century private Jewish funeral homes in New York City. It argues that as Jewish New Yorkers accepted modern American standards of death, most did not lose sight of key Jewish funeral customs. Instead they reimagined them, retaining certain core traditions while addressing new legal, medical, or professional demands reshaping the city's funeral industry. Although some long-standing Jewish practices faced new obstacles, a new class of professional Jewish undertakers emerged at the turn of the century to help navigate that process. Some specialized in the performance of the Jewish funeral rite, while others commoditized their willingness to offer mortuary services as Jews without imposing religious practice. Looking to a broad array of Jewish New Yorkers, including immigrants, native-born, traditionally inclined, or adamantly secular, this article argues that most typically honored core Jewish practices as they aspired to modern American funeral sensibilities. Together, Jewish funeral directors and their clients forged new ways for Jews to deal with death in America. At the same time, they created a framework that not only preserved aspects of Jewish funeral practice into the future, but also did so, perhaps ironically, through that most modern of American ideals: market consumerism.

Adapting the Jewish Spiritual Practice of Mussar to Develop Business Students’ Character

Business ethics educators have been encouraged to cultivate students' character, but have received meager instructions for doing so. Additionally, there has been insufficient focus on equipping students with the tools they need to foster their ethical development after completing our courses. In this paper, it is argued that the Jewish spiritual practice of Mussar, whose premise is that individuals can become better versions of themselves by repairing their character traits, can inform business ethics instruction. After presenting the tenets and historical background of Mussar, we provide specific information that will enable business ethics instructors to adapt its tools and techniques in order to put their students on a personalized path of lifelong character improvement.

At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds: Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity among the Jews of Roman Galilee by Stuart S. Miller

Reviewed by: At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds: Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity among the Jews of Roman Galilee by Stuart S. Miller Eyal Regev At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds: Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity among the Jews of Roman Galilee Stuart S. Miller Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplement 16. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015. Pp. 342. ISBN 978-3-525-55069-4 Miller's book discusses the literary and archeological aspects of purity practices, mainly bodily immersion and ritual baths (miqva'ot). It focuses on the Galilee in Late Antiquity, particularly on the city of Sepphoris. Chapters One ("Misleading Use of Terminology: The "miqveh", "bet tevilah" and other "Ritual Baths"") and Two ("The Evolving, Non-Monolithic "Ritual Bath"") deal with the terminology of miqveh and the problem of identifying a miqveh in the material record. It is argued that the rabbinic miqveh is not always a manmade stepped pool since it is also possible to bathe in natural waters. Chapter Three ("Pre-Rabbinic, Non-Rabbinic, and Rabbinic Ritual Immersion Practices in the Making") explores the different types of ritual baths [End Page 517] and modern scholarly attempts to relate them to specific groups, sects, and movements. Miller includes ritual baths with a split staircase, which elsewhere this reviewer has identified with priests or priestly maintenance of purity, and ritual baths with an adjacent pool (o'tzar), which I have identified with the halakhah of the Pharisees ("Ritual Baths of Jewish Groups and Sects in the Second Temple Period," Cathedra 79 (1996): 3–21 and Cathedra 83 (1997): 169–76 [Hebrew]). Chapter Four ("Did the Author of P. Oxyrhynchus 840 Know What a "Miqveh" Was?") deals with the so-called uncanonical gospel (P. Oxy. 840), which is dated to the third or fourth century ce(?). Miller compares its references to immersion with rabbinic notions of purity and favors the view that the priest's reproach of Jesus' immersion-purification is directed not against rabbinic purity practices but rather against Jewish-Christian purity practices. Miller also demonstrates that Jews and Christians alike understood and appreciated the life-giving properties of water and regarded them as a divinely bestowed. Chapter Five ("Further Observations on Stone Vessel Finds and Ritual Purity in Light of Talmudic Sources") diverges from the main theme of ritual baths to stone vessels, which, according to rabbinic halakhah (rules), were not susceptible to impurity. These vessels are found in large numbers in Jewish sites throughout the Israel from the early first century ce to the mid-second century. Miller reviews rabbinic legal texts and criticizes the view that stone vessels were used mainly because they are not defiled. Rather he regards these vessels as an outcome of a functional development of the stone vessels industry, which also produced ossuaries for burial. To support this view Miller refers to stone vessels found in Khirbet Qumran, even though several Qumran scrolls insist that stones or vessels made of stone are capable of impurity. Chapter Six ("The Stepped Pools of the Western Acropolis at Sepphoris") is a survey of the findings of ritual baths in Sepphoris, a city that Miller treated in a separate study (Studies in the History and Traditions of Sepphoris, 1984). He now concludes that the construction and arrangement of the Sepphoris baths did not follow rabbinic prescriptions. Chapter Seven ("Understanding the Pools: Biblical Perceptions of Purity and Habitus of the Jews of 'Eres Israel") discusses biblical perceptions of purity and their impact on Jewish practices. Miller maintains that Jews observed purity laws not because they were regulated by priests or rabbis but because they were biblically derived. Chapter Eight ("Domestic Judaism and the 'Well-Ordered Bayit': Who bathed/Immersed in the Stepped Pools at Sepphoris and Why?") is perhaps the most important chapter in this book. Miller shows that rabbinic laws of purity mainly concern household practices, such as hand washing before eating and immersion related to sexual halakhic practices. In other words, the domestic environment, rather than the synagogue, was the space most affected by the spiritual properties of water. The domestic aspect of purity laws and practices corresponds well with the fact that most of...