Death in Jewish Life: Burial and Mourning Customs Among Jews of Europe and Nearby Communities

Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2014

Death in Jewish Life

Burial and Mourning Customs Among Jews of Europe and Nearby Communities

Edited by: Stefan C. Reif , Andreas Lehnardt and Avriel Bar-Levav

Volume 1 in the series Rethinking Diaspora

Volume 78 in the series Studia Judaica

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110339185

Overview
Contents

About this book

Jewish customs and traditions about death, burial and mourning are numerous, diverse and intriguing. They are considered by many to have a respectable pedigree that goes back to the earliest rabbinic period. In order to examine the accurate historical origins of many of them, an international conference was held at Tel Aviv University in 2010 and experts dealt with many aspects of the topic. This volume includes most of the papers given then, as well as a few added later. What emerges are a wealth of fresh material and perspectives, as well as the realization that the high Middle Ages saw a set of exceptional innovations, some of which later became central to traditional Judaism while others were gradually abandoned. Were these innovations influenced by Christian practice? Which prayers and poems reflect these innovations? What do the sources tell us about changing attitudes to death and life-after death? Are tombstones an important guide to historical developments? Answers to these questions are to be found in this unusual, illuminating and readable collection of essays that have been well documented, carefully edited and well indexed.

Author / Editor information

Stefan C. Reif, St John’s College, Cambridge, UK; Andreas Lehnardt, Mainz University; Avriel Bar-Levav, Open University, Israel.

Reviews

"Der von Reif, Lehnardt und Bar-Levav herausgegebene Band bietet einen umfassenden und sehr anregenden Einblick in ein Forschungsfeld, das innerhalb der Judaistik zu Unrecht (noch) ein Randphänomen darstellt."
Susanne Talabardon in: Theologische Literaturzeitung 5/2016

Supplementary Materials

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	i
Editors’ Foreword Open Access Download PDF	vii
List of Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	ix
Contents Open Access Download PDF	xi
Details of the Contributors, with Summaries of their Essays Open Access Download PDF	xiii
Section 1: On Death in Life
Jewish Attitudes towards Death: A Society between Time, Space and Texts Avriel Bar-Levav Open Access Download PDF	3
The Early Growth of the Medieval Economy of Salvation in Latin Christianity Frederick S. Paxton Open Access Download PDF	17
A Response to Professor Paxton’s Paper Stefan C. Reif Open Access Download PDF	43
From Here to the Hereafter: The Ashkenazi Concept of the Afterlife in a Crusading Milieu Shmuel Shepkaru Open Access Download PDF	51
Section 2: Texts in Society: Liturgy and Ritual
Christian Influences on the Yahrzeit Qaddish Andreas Lehnardt Open Access Download PDF	65
Investigation into the Early European Forms of the Ṣidduq ha-Din Ruth Langer Open Access Download PDF	79
Ha-Ṣur Tamim be-khol Po‘al: On some Italian roots of the Poetic Ṣidduq Ha-Din in the Early Ashkenazi rite Peter Sh. Lehnardt Open Access Download PDF	99
Av ha-raḥamim: On the ‘Father of Mercy’ Prayer Joseph Isaac Lifshitz Open Access Download PDF	141
Liturgy as Personal Memorial for the Victims in 1096 Abraham Gross Open Access Download PDF	155
When the Grave was Searched, the Bones of the Deceased were not Found’: Corporeal Revenants in Medieval Ashkenaz Yechiel Y. Schur Open Access Download PDF	171
The Early Ashkenazi Practice of Burial with Religious Paraphernalia Nati Barak Open Access Download PDF	187
Section 3: Re-Placing the Dead
The Dead as Living History: On the publication of Die Grabsteine vom jüdischen Friedhof in Würzburg 1147–1346 Avraham (Rami) Reiner Open Access Download PDF	199
Newly Found Medieval Gravestones from Magenza Nathanja Hüttenmeister and Andreas Lehnardt Open Access Download PDF	213
The Structures of Hebrew Epitaph Poetry in Padua David Malkiel Open Access Download PDF	225
The Corpus Epitaphiorum Hebraicorum Italiae (CEHI): A Project to Publish a Complete Corpus of the Epitaphs Preserved in Italian Jewish Cemeteries of the Sixteenth–Nineteenth Centuries Mauro Perani Open Access Download PDF	241
Romans in Istanbul Part 1: Historical and Literary Introduction Minna Rozen Open Access Download PDF	289
Romans in Istanbul Part 2: Texts and Photographs Minna Rozen Open Access Download PDF	327
Indexes Open Access Download PDF	359

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academics, Institutes, Libraries.
Pages
- Front matter: 19
- Main content: 379
Keywords: Judaism; Religion; Liturgy; Folklore

eBook

Published: August 27, 2014
ISBN: 9783110339185

Hardcover

Published: July 14, 2014
ISBN: 9783110338614

Paperback

Published: June 26, 2017
ISBN: 9783110552164