Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance

Elisheva Baumgarten

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2015

Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz

Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance

Elisheva Baumgarten

In the series Jewish Culture and Contexts

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812290127

Overview
Contents

About this book

Elisheva Baumgarten offers a fresh assessment of Jewish daily practices in medieval Ashkenaz. The first study to address the practices of men and women together, Baumgarten explores how Jews who were not learned alongside those who were expressed their convictions and reinforced their identities as Jews within a Christian world.

Author / Editor information

Elisheva Baumgarten is Professor Yitzhak Becker Chair of Jewish Studies and Professor of Jewish History and History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and coeditor of Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press..

Reviews

"Elisheva Baumgarten assesses the presence, development, and extent of Jewish piety in northern Europe, from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries. Her emphasis on women's issues and the attempts to isolate the practices of the Jewish layman, rather than the rabbinic elite, are in many ways pioneering."—Ephraim Kanarfogel, Yeshiva University

"Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz . . . displays an excellent use of Jewish and Christian sources, both ancient and medieval, as well as a mastery of contemporary research that deals with both Jewish and Christian European medieval communities. . . . Elisheva Baumgarten . . . provides the reader with an astute gendered analysis in her presentation of piety in the high Middle Ages."—Speculum

"This fascinating and persuasive book will play an important bridging role as the study of medieval Christianity focuses more on lay piety, and as medievalists seek more and more to integrate material on diverse cultures into their scholarship and teaching."—Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota

"Baumgarten argues that as practices changed in Ashkenaz scholarly authorities reacted by seeking out the appropriate ancient texts that supported their decisions to curb or foster these practices. Her approach yields a vivid picture of this medieval Jewish community that makes a great contribution to Medieval studies. It also lends itself more readily to comparison and even understanding by those outside of Jewish studies. I encourage all those interested in high medieval culture, social history, gender, and inter-religious entanglement to read this important book."—The Medieval Review

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Standing Before God: Purity and Impurity in the Synagogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2. Jewish Fasting and Atonement in a Christian Context Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
Chapter 3. Communal Charity: Evidence from Medieval Nürnberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Chapter 4. Positive Time-Bound Commandments: Class, Gender, and Transformation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Chapter 5. Conspicuous in the City: Medieval Jews in Urban Centers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
Chapter 6. Feigning Piety: Tracing Two Tales of Pious Pretenders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Chapter 7. Practicing Piety: Social and Comparative Perspectives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 344
Illustrations
- Other: 17 illus.
Keywords: Religion; History; Jewish Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Religious Studies

eBook

Published: October 1, 2014
ISBN: 9780812290127