Menahem Schmelzer, widely recognized for his expertise in Jewish manuscripts and piyyut, has also influenced Jewish liturgical research of the past half century. This collection of sixteen academic studies, by Israeli, European, and American scholars, honors Schmelzer's contribution. The contributors represent three generations, and their topics and methods testify to the vast subject area that Jewish liturgy has become. The articles explore a wide variety of texts and ritual occasions, the relationship between text and worship experience, and implications for related areas such as mysticism; most apply the methods of other subject areas such as liguistics to liturgical study and its implications for related fields.
"...this volume, as a whole, is as much a testimony to the enduring centrality of the librarian in scholarship as it is a collection of essays on "the experience of Jewish liturgy." Wide ranging in scope, these essays are an accurate snapshot of the state of research, illustrating the wealth of material awaiting publication, the need for revisiting prior assumptions, and also the limits of our scholarship."
Yoel Kahn, Congregation Beth El, Berkeley
Debra Reed Blank, Ph.D. (Rabbinics and Jewish Liturgy, Jewish Theological Seminary), is a Visiting Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University.
Table of contents
Introduction
Debra Reed Blank The Curious Theological Grammar of
Ga’al Yisra’elDebra Reed Blank Seder Foods and Customs in Illuminated Medieval Haggadot
Evelyn Cohen “In the Last Benedictions He Resembles a Servant Who Has Received a Largess from His Master and Takes His Leave” (b. Ber. 34a)
Uri Ehrlich Moses Rimos: Poems and Recipes of a Jewish Physician in Italy
Susan L. Einbinder The Impact of Theology on Liturgical Change
Neil Gillman Hallel: A Liturgical Composition Celebrating The Exodus
Reuven Hammer U-n’taneh Tokef as a Midrashic Poem
Reuven Kimelman The Censorship of Aleinu in Ashkenaz and Its Aftermath
Ruth Langer Dew of Rest: The World of Nature in Qallir’s
G’vurot shel Tal Laura Lieber Iyun t’fila Dalia Marx Qillirian Compositions for Double Liturgical Occasions: Linguistic and Iconic Aspects (Including an Appendix with Editions of Two New Shivatot for Shabbat and Pesah)
Michael Rand Shabbethai Sofer of Przemysl on the Text of
Mah nishtanah Stefan Reif The Ascension of Moses in a Poem by Amittai ben Shephatiah
Raymond P. Scheindlin Piyut and Heikhalot: Recent Research and Its Implications for the History of Ancient Jewish Liturgy and Mysticism
Michael D. Swartz The Early History of the Liturgy of Yom Kippur
Joseph Tabory How Music Articulates Liturgical Structure, Meaning, and Perception: The Kaddish
Boaz Tarsi
Readership
Readers interested in Jewish liturgy, Ritual Studies, Rabbinics, Jewish History, medieval religious poetry, and medieval manuscripts.