03736nam 2200577 a 450 991096962750332120251117005438.00-8276-1118-8(CKB)2670000000033921(OCoLC)647931956(CaPaEBR)ebrary10388527(SSID)ssj0000421078(PQKBManifestationID)11305938(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000421078(PQKBWorkID)10405595(PQKB)11365930(MiAaPQ)EBC3039337(MdBmJHUP)muse12582(Au-PeEL)EBL3039337(CaPaEBR)ebr10388527(BIP)30506096(BIP)13761009(EXLCZ)99267000000003392120060929d2007 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrInventing Jewish ritual /Vanessa L. Ochs ; foreword by Riv-Ellen Prell1st ed.Philadelphia Jewish Publication Society20071 online resource (289 p.) Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-8276-0834-9 Includes bibliographical references and index.Introduction : becoming a ritual innovator -- Democracy, open access, and Jewish feminism -- The narrative approach -- Material culture : new rituals and ritual objects -- Stretched by innovation -- Change : resisting and acclimating -- Case study 1 : Miriam's tambourine -- Case study 2 : the Holocaust Torah -- Case study 3 : the wedding booklet -- Epilogue : inheriting invented traditions.Vanessa Ochs invites her readers to explore how Jewish practice can be more meaningful through renewing, reshaping, and even creating new rituals, such as naming ceremonies for welcoming baby girls, healing services, Miriam's cup, mitzvah days, egalitarian wedding practices, and commitment ceremonies. We think of rituals--the patterned ways of doing things that have shared and often multiple meanings-- as being steeped in tradition and therefore unalterable. But rituals have always been reinvented. When we perform ancient rituals in a particular place and time they are no longer quite the same rituals they once were. Each is a debut, an innovation: this Sabbath meal, this Passover seder, this wedding--firsts in their own unique ways. In the last 30 years there has been a surge of interest in reinventing ritual, in what is called minhag America. Ochs describes the range and diversity of interest in this Jewish American experience and examines how it reflects tradition as it revives Jewish culture and faith. And she shows us how to create our own ritual objects, sacred spaces, ceremonies, and liturgies that can be paths to greater personal connection with history and with holiness: baby-naming ceremonies for girls, divorce rituals, Shabbat practices, homemade haggadahs, ritual baths, healing services. Through these and more, we see that American Judaism is a dynamic cultural process very much open to change and a source of great personal and communal meaning. The ceramic "Tree of Life" spice container that appears on the cover of "Inventing Jewish Ritual" is by Susan Garson of Garson and Pakele Studios, www.garsonpakele.comJudaismCustoms and practicesJewsUnited StatesSocial life and customsJudaismCustoms and practices.JewsSocial life and customs.296.4Ochs Vanessa L1861875MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910969627503321Inventing Jewish ritual4468091UNINA