Dismantling a Monopoly: Jews, Christians, and the Production of Shofarot in Fifteenth-Century Germany

This essay presents a case study from Erfurt (Germany) concerning the production of shofarot (i.e., animal horns blown for ritual purposes, primarily on the Jewish New Year). By the early 1420s, Jews from all over the Holy Roman Empire had been purchasing shofarot from one Christian workshop in Erfurt that produced these ritual Jewish objects in cooperation with an unnamed Jewish craftsman. At the same time, two Jews from Erfurt were training in this craft, and started to produce shofarot of their own making. One of these Jewish craftsmen claimed that the Christian workshop had been deceiving the Jews for decades by providing improper shofarot made with materials unsuitable for Jewish ritual use. The local rabbi, Yomtov Lipman, exposed this as a scandal, writing letters to the German Jewish communities about the Christian workshop’s fraud and urging them all to buy new shofarot from the new Jewish craftsmen in Erfurt instead. This article will first examine the fraud attributed to the Christian workshop. Then, after analyzing the historical context of Yomtov Lipman’s letter, it will explore the underlying motivations of this rabbi to expose the Christian workshop’s fraud throughout German Jewish communities at this time. I will argue that, while Yomtov Lipman uses halakhic explanations in his letter, his chief motivation in exposing this fraud was to discredit the Christian workshop, create an artificial demand for shofarot, and promote the new Jewish workshop in Erfurt, whose craftsmen the rabbi himself had likely trained in the art of shofar making.

Table Talk and the Bond of Reading A Jewish Broadsheet for Meals

This chapter talks about Jewish rituals that are considered highly dynamic as they constantly evolve, change, and erode once they emerge. It examines the emergence and spread of Jewish rituals between the mid-seventeenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, detecting numerous changes that have undergone over time. It also cites newly emergent sensibilities, communication technologies, towering personalities, influential books and other printed materials, and the spread of new ideologies as combined factors that modify or alter the course of Jewish ritual practices. The chapter presents an unknown broadsheet that illustrates Jewish domestic table rituals as they developed in eastern Europe during the eighteenth century. This broadsheet comprises of various texts that are studied and performed at mealtimes and is considered an example of the creation of personalized rituals.

Kabbalat Shabbat Services for First-Graders: Recognition of Gender and Motherhood in Reform Jewish Ritual

The Shabbat service is one of the most popular practices in the Jewish liturgy, and over the years it has reflected various social and cultural changes. The service is not only textual prayer but also a performative act, including bodily gestures and using sacred objects and space. In this article, based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Yuval Reform congregation located in Gedera, I analyze special Shabbat services for the first day of school. I argue that the ceremony is constructed by the women in the congregation as a gender performance advocating gender equality and motherhood experiences. Every year, they create a new prayer book, which includes prayers honoring the activities of teachers and mothers, and creatively perform physical rituals by using sacred symbols charged with new interpretations. Thus the congregants are not only undermining both Orthodox rules and the structure of Reform Shabbat services; they are also rejecting patriarchal norms and expressions in the religious space. Although the Reform congregation thereby positions itself as a gender-safe zone, the ethnographic analysis also exposes resistance and tensions – reflecting the difficulty of abolishing heteronormative gender norms and Jewish traditional perceptions in Israeli society.

Implementation of the Jewish Musical Tradition in the Opera “Uriel Akosta” by Valentina Serova

Статья посвящена малоизвестной опере «Уриель Акоста» Валентины Серовой - русского композитора, общественного деятеля, музыкального критика. Определяется идея оперы, очерчивается главный драматургический конфликт, а также рассматривается один из важнейших интонационных пластов оперы, связанный с еврейской народной и синагогальной музыкой. Выявляются особенности их претворения на уровнях ладовой, интонационно-ритмической и фактурной организации музыкального текста. В качестве примера претворения народной песенной традиции анализируется Колыбельная. Принципы речитации и кантилляции, типичные для синагогальной музыки, прослеживаются в Молитве Эсфири и Рахили. Однако наиболее последовательно данная традиция раскрывается в кульминационной Сцене в синагоге, где воспроизводятся структура и характерная лексика иудейского ритуала. The article is devoted to the little-known Opera “Uriel Acosta” by Valentina Serova a Russian composer, public figure, and music critic. The idea of the opera is defined, as well as the main dramaturgical conflict. For the first time, we consider one of the most important intonation layers of the opera associated with Jewish folk and synagogue music. The features of their implementation at the levels of modal, intonation-rhythmic and textural organization of the musical text as a whole are revealed. The Lullaby is analyzed as an example of implementation of Jewish folk tradition. The principles of recitation and cantillation typical of synagogue music are analysed in the Prayer of Esther and Rachel. However, this tradition is most consistently revealed in the culminating Scene in the synagogue, where V. Serova reproduces the structure and characteristic vocabulary of the Jewish ritual service.

Application of Spectroscopic and Hyperspectral Imaging Techniques for Rapid and Nondestructive Investigation of Jewish Ritual Parchment

The article presents a multi-analytic investigation of a severely degraded Jewish ritual parchment coming from a private collection. The main aim of the study was to obtain key information on the parchment manufacturing technique and original materials used, information that could help understand the historical context of the object. To this aim, a series of noninvasive investigations were carried out by means of multi- and hyperspectral imaging, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. Specific degradations and mapping of previous conservation treatments could be highlighted via multispectral imaging. Short-wave infrared images indicated the use of both iron gall and carbon black ink, probably one related to the original writing and the other to a later intervention. To improve the imaging of degraded or partially lost text, a linear spectral unmixing classification of the HSI dataset was proposed that showed promising results, allowing it to be applied to similar objects. XRF analysis offered an in-depth view of the chemical fingerprint of the original iron gall ink and critical findings on the existence of other inorganic compounds originating from the parchment manufacture. Registered FTIR data indicated denaturation of the collagen fibers and the presence of fungal-derived calcium oxalates and zinc carboxylates. In accordance with ancient Jewish parchment preparation techniques, the use of calcium sulfate, vegetable tannins, and oils was also inferred from the registered infrared spectra. The corroborated results offer valuable information on the origin, production technology, and overall degradation state of the parchment manuscript. Not least, the findings could be of great interest for conservators and restorers in the field.