Table of Contents

Princeton Readings in Religions vii Note on Transliteration and Acknowledgments ix Contributors xv Introduction by Lawrence Fine 1 Rituals of Daily and Festival Practice 1. Communal Prayer and Liturgical Poetry by Raymond P. Scheindlin 39 2. Italian Jewish Women at Prayer by Howard Tzvi Adelman 52 3. Measuring Graves and Laying Wicks by Chava Weissler 61 4. Adorning the "Bride" on the Eve of the Feast of Weeks by Daniel C. Matt 74 5. New Year's Day for Fruit of the Tree by Miles Krassen 81 Rituals of the Life Cycle 6. The Role of Women at Rituals of Their Infant Children by Lawrence A. Hoffman 99 7. Honey Cakes and Torah: A Jewish Boy Learns His Letters by Ivan G. Marcus 115 8. Women and Ritual Immersion in Medieval Ashkenaz: The Sexual Politics of Piety by Judith R. Baskin 131 9. Life-Cycle Rituals of Spanish Crypto Jewish Women by Renee Levine Melammed 143 10. Ritualizing Death and Dying: The Ethical Will of Naphtali Ha-Kohen Katz by Avriel Bar-Levav 155 Torah, Learning, and Ethics 11. Moses Maimonides' Laws of the Study of Torah by Lawrence Kaplan 171 12. An Egyptian Woman Seeks to Rescue Her Husband from a Sufi Monastery by S. D. Goitein 186 13. A Monastic-like Setting for the Study of Torah by Ephraim Kanarfogel 191 14. Religious Practice among Italian Jewish Women by Howard Tzvi Adelman 203 15. A Mystical Fellowship in Jerusalem by Lawrence Fine 210 16. The Love of Learning among Polish Jews by Gershon David Hundert 215 Religious Sectarianism and Communities on the Margins 17. Jewish Sectarianism in the Near East: A Muslim's Account by Steven M. Wasserstrom 229 18. Travel in the Land of Israel by Lawrence Fine 237 19. Karaite Ritual by Daniel Frank 24E 20. Living Judaism in Confucian Culture: Being Jewish and Being Chinese by Jonathan N. Lipman 265 Art and Aesthetics 21. Defending, Enjoying, and Regulating the Visual by Kalman P. Bland 281 22. Illustrating History and Illluminating Identity in the Art of the Passover Haggadah by Marc Michael Epstein 298 23. The Arts of Calligraphy and Composition, and the Love of Books Lawrence Fine 318 24. Jewish Preaching in Fifteenth-Century Spain by Marc Saperstein 325 Magic and Mysticism 25. The Book of the Great Name by Michael D. Swartz 341 26. Visionary Experiences among Spanish Crypto Jewish Women by Renee Levine Melammed 348 27. Mystical Eating and Food Practices in the Zohar by Joel Hecker 353 28. Devotional Rites in a Sufi Mode by Paul B. Fenton 364 29. Pietistic Customs from Safed by Lawrence Fine 375 30. Jewish Exorcism: Early Modem Traditions and Transformations by J. H. Chajes 386 31. Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl: Personal Practices of a Hasdic Master by Arthur Green 399 Remarkable Lives 32. The Life of Moses ben Maimon by Joel L. Kraemer 413 33. Dolce of Worms: The Lives and Deaths of an Exemplary Medieval Jewish Woman and Her Daughters by Judith R. Baskin 429 34. The Earliest Hebrew First-Crusade Narrative by Robert Chazan 438 35. Leon Modena's Autobiography by Mark R. Cohen 453 36. The Early Messianic Career of Shabbatai Zvi by Matt Goldish 470 37. The Life of Glikl of Hameln by Paula E. Hyman 483 38. Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov by Dan Ben-Amos 498 39. The Scholarly Life of the Gaon of Vilna by Allan Nadler 513 Appendix. The Jewish Holidays 521 Index 523

Promotional Information

This is a rich collection. Fine has secured contributions, introductions, and a selection of materials from accomplished scholars in each area covered. There is no other volume like it. The book is well suited for an undergraduate readership in Jewish studies, and Fine's introduction is appropriate for readers encountering the study of Judaism for the first time. -- Robert S. Schine, Middlebury College, author of "Jewish Thought Adrift: Max Wiener"

About the Author

Lawrence Fine is the Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor of Jewish Studies at Mount Holyoke College, and a member of the Religion Department. He is the editor of Essential Papers on Kabbalah, the translator of Safed Spiritulality: Rules of Mystical Piety. The Beginning of Wisdom, and author of Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos - Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship.

Reviews

"Lawrence Fine ... has assembled an impressive array of writings that explore the variegated ways in which Jews have practiced their religion... By giving us a variety of texts and materials that go beyond the boundaries of conventional sources, Fine has opened up ways of thinking about the Jewish experience that are likely to challenge readers' expectations. In doing so, he and his contributors raise essential questions about the nature of Judaism as a religion and a culture, shake readers out of complacency and leave us to wonder at the marvelous scope of the Jewish people's history."--Barry W. Holtz, The Forward