Everyday Ritual Reform

Abstract

Chapter Six narrates how the late imperial period witnessed a decline in Jewish religious practice alongside widespread traditionalism. Beyond the ardently secular and ideologically Orthodox who vaunted rabbinic authority and Jewish law, many Jews were traditional yet changed their behavior due to shifting times and, later, the circumstances of war. This chapter uses ritual as a framework for analyzing changing Jewish behavior and religious identities—from the secularization of Jewish names to decreased consumption of kosher meat to refusal to circumcise newborn sons. Rituals and practices discussed here include circumcision, naming, family purity laws and women’s immersion in the mikveh (ritual bath), kosher diet and kosher slaughter, calendars and life-cycle events, and death and dying. The early twentieth century saw an increase in explanatory synagogue materials and ritual guides as a product of changing Jewish behavior. The language of science and citizenship camp to dominate discourses on acceptable religion.