This study traces the origins of Hebrew prayer among the Jews and explains how the first volumes of formal Jewish liturgy emerged. It describes in a lively and thought-provoking manner the leading rites and personalities of medieval Jewish worship and explains how the various interpretations of Judaism in the modern world have responded in their own way to the challenge of dialogue with the divine. Existing theories are challenged and new theories offered, and the result will make liturgical research accessible to modern readers.
This study traces the origins of Hebrew prayer among the Jews and explains how the first volumes of formal Jewish liturgy emerged. It describes in a l...
Much of the primary research summarized here relates to Cambridge Genizah manuscripts, a thousand-year-old source that testifies to liturgical (as well, of course, as non-liturgical) developments that greatly predate other source material. When the research is concerned with pre-Genizah history, the Genizah evidence is also relevant since the historian of religious ideas must ultimately decide how to date, characterize, and conceptualize its contents and how to explain where they vary significantly from what became, or is regarded (rightly or wrongly) as having become, the standard...
Much of the primary research summarized here relates to Cambridge Genizah manuscripts, a thousand-year-old source that testifies to liturgical (as ...
This collection of original contributions by an international group of experts summarizes recent developments in Genizah research. It begins with an overview of a century of work on the famous Taylor-Schechter Collection of Hebrew manuscripts at Cambridge University Library. The essays are an introduction to important intellectual, religious and social developments in the Jewish communities of the medieval Islamic world. They appeal to scholars with interests in Hebrew and Jewish studies, semitics, religious studies and aspects of medieval history.
This collection of original contributions by an international group of experts summarizes recent developments in Genizah research. It begins with an o...
Jewish Prayer Texts from the Cairo Genizah, which sets a new tone for future studies, consists of a selection of transcribed and translated Genizah fragments that contain some of the earliest known texts of rabbinic prayers. Reif describes in detail the physical makeup of each manuscript and assesses the manner in which the scribe has tackled the matter of recording a preferred version. He then places the prayer texts included in the manuscript within the context of Jewish liturgical history, explaining the degree to which they were innovative and whether they established precedents to...
Jewish Prayer Texts from the Cairo Genizah, which sets a new tone for future studies, consists of a selection of transcribed and translated Gen...
