ISBN:
9781904113720
,
1904113001
,
9781904113003
Language:
English
Pages:
xx, 394 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
,
24 cm
Edition:
First issued in paperback
Year of publication:
2008
Series Statement:
The Littman library of Jewish civilization
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Schonfield, Jeremy, 1951 - Undercurrents of Jewish prayer
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Schonfield, Jeremy Undercurrents of Jewish prayer
DDC:
296.4/5
Keywords:
Morning benedictions
;
Pesukei de-zimra
;
Judaism Liturgy
;
Judaism ; Liturgy
;
Gebet
;
Morning benedictions
;
Pesukei de-zimra
Abstract:
Introduction -- Incuriousness of the Jewish worshipper -- Reticence of the ideal reader -- Liturgical narrative: Modern and traditional views -- Darkness of waking -- Bonds of freedom -- Silence of language -- Building in Babel -- Scattering -- Imagined temple -- Hope in words -- Liturgical argument encapsulated -- Other versions, other readings.
Abstract:
"Traditional Jews encounter the prayer-book - the Siddur - more often in their daily lives than any other text, yet it is mysteriously absent from their otherwise nearly comprehensive curriculum of study. In addition, they tend to recite it mantrically, more for its sound than its meaning. The neglect of meaning is so complete that no edition of the prayer-book has yet appeared with a comprehensive range of commentaries. The present work, the first to examine this paradox, explains it as a reluctance to engage with the intellectual and emotional questions that lie just beneath the surface of the text." "The core of this book consists of an examination of the opening sections of the traditional daily morning liturgy according to the Ashkenazi rite. The analysis is based on mostly untranslated medieval and later commentaries identifying the biblical and rabbinic echoes from which the liturgy is woven, and employs analytical methods of the kind traditionally applied to talmudie and midrashie texts. It shows how each citation and echo imports aspects of its original context into the new composition, forming a countertext to the words on the page. It examines each textual layer, as well as the surface meaning that is usually the only one to be noted, and relates these to the speaker's actual location - home and later the synagogue - as well as to the time of day when the prayers are recited, as the worshipper faces the dangers of the day ahead. The resulting chorus of ideas - linking everyday life to the sacred narrative from creation to exile - demonstrates the philosophical sophistication of rabbinic spirituality in offering poetic insight into an ultimately tragic vision of reality."--Jacket
Note:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-373) and indexes
,
Text überwiegend englisch, teilweise hebräisch; hebräisch in hebräischer Schrift
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