Cursing the Christians?

A History of the Birkat Haminim
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-978317-5
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 396 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 757 g

Ruth Langer offers an in-depth study of the birkat haminim, a Jewish prayer for the removal of those categories of human being who prevent the messianic redemption and the society envisioned for it. In its earliest form, the prayer cursed Christians, apostates to Christianity, sectarians, and enemies of Israel.

Drawing on the shifting liturgical texts, polemics, and apologetics concerning the prayer, Langer traces the transformation of the birkat haminim from what functioned without question in the medieval world as a Jewish curse of Christians, through its early modern censorship by Christians, to its modern transformation within the Jewish world into a general petition that God remove evil from the world. Christian censorship played a crucial role in this transformation of the prayer; however,
Langer argues that the truest transformation in meaning resulted from Jewish integration into Western culture. Eventually, the prayer shed its references to any specific category of human being and lost its function as a curse.

Reconciliation between Jews and Christians today requires both communities to confront a long history of prejudice. Ruth Langer shows through the birkat haminim how the history of one liturgical text chronicled Jewish thinking about Christians over hundreds of years.

Zielgruppe

Students and scholars of Jewish liturgy, Christian-Jewish relations, early Christianity, medieval history, early modern history

Autoren/Hrsg.

Langer, Ruth

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Heilige & Traditionelle Texte, Mythologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Heilige & Traditionstexte: Torah, Talmud, Mischna, Halacha
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Frühes Christentum, Patristik, Christliche Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Chapter One: Origins and Early History: Late Antiquity
Chapter Two: Under Early Islam: The Period of the Geonim and the Geniza
Chapter Three: The Birkat HaMinim in Europe of the High Middle Ages
Chapter Four: Living with Censorship: Early Modern Realities
Chapter Five: The Modern Period: Changes by Choice to the Text
Afterword

Appendix One: Geniza Texts of the Birkat HaMinim
Appendix Two: Evidence for the Birkat HaMinim in the Pre-Sephardized Rites of the Muslim World
Appendix Three: Uncensored Medieval European Texts of the Birkat HaMinim
Appendix Four: Censored Texts of the Birkat HaMinim, 1550 to the Present
Appendix Five: Texts of the Liberal Movements
Abbreviations
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Indices

Über Autor(innen)

Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Associate Director, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Boston College