1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787039103321

Autore

Baumgarten Elisheva

Titolo

Practicing piety in medieval Ashkenaz : men, women, and everyday religious observance / / Elisheva Baumgarten

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : , : University of Pennsylvania Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-8122-2370-5

0-8122-9012-7

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (344 p.)

Collana

Jewish Culture and Contexts

Disciplina

296.7094/0902

Soggetti

Judaism - Europe - History - To 1500

Jewish way of life - History - To 1500

Ashkenazim - History - To 1500

Hasidism, Medieval

Jews - Europe - Social life and customs - To 1500

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Standing Before God: Purity and Impurity in the Synagogue -- Chapter 2. Jewish Fasting and Atonement in a Christian Context -- Chapter 3. Communal Charity: Evidence from Medieval Nürnberg -- Chapter 4. Positive Time-Bound Commandments: Class, Gender, and Transformation -- Chapter 5. Conspicuous in the City: Medieval Jews in Urban Centers -- Chapter 6. Feigning Piety: Tracing Two Tales of Pious Pretenders -- Chapter 7. Practicing Piety: Social and Comparative Perspectives -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

In the urban communities of medieval Germany and northern France, the beliefs, observances, and practices of Jews allowed them to create and define their communities on their own terms as well as in relation to the surrounding Christian society. Although medieval Jewish texts were written by a learned elite, the laity also observed many religious rituals as part of their everyday life. In Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz, Elisheva Baumgarten asks how Jews, especially those who were not learned, expressed their belonging to a minority community



and how their convictions and deeds were made apparent to both their Jewish peers and the Christian majority. Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz provides a social history of religious practice in context, particularly with regard to the ways Jews and Christians, separately and jointly, treated their male and female members. Medieval Jews often shared practices and beliefs with their Christian neighbors, and numerous notions and norms were appropriated by one community from the other. By depicting a dynamic interfaith landscape and a diverse representation of believers, Baumgarten offers a fresh assessment of Jewish practice and the shared elements that composed the piety of Jews in relation to their Christian neighbors.