Emergence Of Ritual
Book explores the development
of new Jewish practices.
Sue Fishkoff
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
San Francisco
ews who say the birkat
hamazon, the prayer
after a meal, sing the
first few lines to an upbeat mel-
ody recognizable to Jews all over
the world.
It's a well-established ritual
Vanessa Ochs: Inventing Jewish Ritual
that goes back ... well, to when?
Not that far, actually.
emerging, such as Torah yoga and
This singsong way of saying the
alternative uses of the mikvah.
prayer was developed as a teaching
While showing how those that suc-
device by Mordechai Kaplan, the early
ceed manage to find a hook for their
20th century rabbi who broke from
new practices from within Jewish
Orthodoxy to become the founder
tradition, thus giving authenticity
of Reconstructionist Judaism. It was
to innovation, Ochs points out that
adopted by his students and gradually American Judaism is in a particularly
became widespread.
fertile period today. New practices are
"People think it goes back to the
cropping up with increasing speed in
time of Moses:' quipped Jonathan
the synagogue and out in the world.
Sarna, a professor of American Jewish
She attributes that growth to the
history at Brandeis University. "Once
influence of feminism and what she
rituals are around for a while, we
calls "democracy," or the notion that
assume they have been around for-
individuals have the right to develop
eve"
t
their own ways of accessing the
Jewish rituals, like those of any
Divine.
other culture, emerge at specific points
Sarna adds that the idea of ritual
to respond to needs and values that
itself has been rehabilitated, as early
are constantly evolving.
20th century anthropological disdain
Some last and are absorbed into
for rituals as a hallmark of primitive
the general lexicon. Examples are the
cultures slowly mellowed.
Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service,
"Within a century, the idea of a
developed by the 16th century kab-
ritual as something primitive that
balists of Safed and now considered
should be discarded by moderns has
sacrosanct, or mixed gender seating in been transvalued into something that
the synagogue, an innovation of early
makes us human and should be cel-
20th century Reform Judaism.
ebrated:' he explains.
Other rituals do not have the same
While it takes time for a new prac-
staying power and are discarded.
tice to become the norm, Ochs believes
The delicate process of creating
that it happens much faster than it
and integrating new Jewish rituals in
used to, even in the Orthodox com-
America today is explored in the book munity, which traditionally has been
Inventing Jewish Ritual by Vanessa
viewed as the most reluctant to take
Ochs, associate professor of religious
on new practices. Bat mitzvah ceremo-
studies at the University of Virginia in nies, another Kaplan invention, are
Charlottesville.
fairly well the norm today in Orthodox
Ochs examines the genesis and
circles, as are rosh hodesh groups.
adaptation of many well-accepted con-
On the other hand, those who come
temporary rituals in American Jewish
up with new ceremonies or practices
life, such as baby-naming ceremonies
rarely refer to them as rituals either
for girls, adult b'nai mitzvah and rosh
hodesh groups, as well as others just
Ritual on page A30
j
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February 7 • 2008
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