Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2016
Titel der Quelle:
תיאוריה וביקורת; במה ישראלית
Angaben zur Quelle:
46 (2016) 13-39
Keywords:
Sacrifice Judaism
;
Sacrifice in rabbinical literature
;
Religious Zionism Philosophy
Abstract:
In the Hebrew Bible and in rabbinic literature, animal and vegetable sacrifices are presented as the quintessential mode of religious worship, as was the case throughout the ancient world. Religious, political, and cultural changes starting at the end of the first century CE led to the effective demise of this practice and to the emergence of a common perception that sacrifices had been superseded by more “modern” and refined religious practices such as prayer and Torah study. Nevertheless, sacrificial practices and language dominate the Bible and halakhah – which are taken by Orthodox Jewish circles to be eternal and unchanging – forcing Orthodox individuals today to confront the incongruity between their binding textual tradition and contemporary values and sensibilities. The article focuses on current sacrifice-related discursive practices in question-and-answer Internet websites aimed at National-Religious communities in Israel, and it presents the ways in which rabbis and other authoritative figures attempt to tackle this incongruity. My main argument is that the rabbis who respond to the sacrifice-related difficulties and qualms of inquirers attempt to give this practice new sensory, sensual, and emotional meanings that emphasize the worshiper’s subjective experience and try to reconstruct sacrifices as a fantasy of unencumbered spiritual certainty. In so doing, these rabbis are pursuing an interpretive direction that is diametrically opposed to the direction developed by the creators of rabbinic literature approximately 1,700 years ago.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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