Judeo Talk

Jewish Weddings

The modern Jewish wedding is a combination of ancient traditions and culture-wide secular practices, a proper reflection of how Jews fit into modern society. Many elements of a Jewish wedding would be familiar to anyone who grew up in Western culture. Men wear tuxedos, the bride wears a white dress with a veil and train, the ceremony is most often followed by a formal reception. Little about the ceremony itself would seem esoteric to an outsider, though there are some symbols and rituals that are unique to the Jewish wedding that bear some explaining.

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A Synagogue Guide for Non-Jewish Visitors

On any given Friday night, most if not all the people in a synagogue are Jewish. They either grew up experiencing the rituals and traditions of the faith or they were diligently taught about them during the process of conversion. Occasionally non-Jewish visitors go to a synagogue as guests of congregants or as curious outsiders of a different faith who want to participate in a cultural exchange. For these newcomers the experience of services at a Jewish house of worship can be strange or jarring. This is a quick guide to demystify some of the unique aspects of ritual at the average synagogue for those who have never visited one before.

Mysticism Demystified: 10 Sephirot

Jewish mysticism, commonly referred to by the name of its collected text Kabbalah, is a subject of contention and much misunderstanding. Much of it came out of the teachings of Judaic scholars in the Middle Ages who attempted to create a deeply spiritual component of Judaism in conjunction with the daily rituals of Halakha and the rabbinic law of Talmud. These scholars were travelers and students of many different modes of thought throughout Europe, North Africa and Muslim-controlled Asia, so their mystical concepts often reflect those influences. It is most important to remember that Kabbalah was never intended to be a system of magic or an explanation of natural phenomena. Rather, it is a deeply metaphorical set of concepts that require an understanding of many Jewish topics and texts in order to apply properly. One of the central concepts in Kabbalah is the Ten Sephirot.

A Brief Introduction to Talmud

In the modern day we take the practice of non-geographic religion for granted. While there are still a few so-called "holy cities" left in the world, there is no such thing as a religion that is bound to any one locus. In ancient times, the inverse was true. Few religions that existed two to three thousand years ago could be fully observed in literally any location. Polytheistic faiths, like those practiced by the Greeks and Romans, were dependent on temples and the priests who were bound to them, mobile only insofar as an individual's ability to properly build an altar or in the form of quasi-religious Mystery cults. This was even further pronounced in the earliest Near Eastern cities where the worship of a particular god came and went with the city itself. It's not entirely certain how mobile the earliest incarnations of Judaism were, but by the time the Judaic kingdoms in Canaan were established, Judaism was solidly anchored to the Temple in Jerusalem. It was only after two periods of exile that Judaism became a traveler's religion.

The Song of Songs (part nine)

The eighth and final chapter of The Song of Songs is also the most opaque. Its language is removed and full of stacked metaphors, a nigh-exhausted conclusion to the emotional rollercoaster of Rayati's fight for love and personal liberty. It is at once sad and hopeful, finding our heroine having learned the complexity of the world and fully coming of age as a result.

The Song of Songs (part eight)

Chapter Seven, the penultimate chapter of The Song of Songs, is generally considered the moment in which the two lovers physically consummate their relationship. As with the rest of the poem, it isn't entirely clear whether or not the events therein actually occur. All we really see is Dodi and Rayati making plans together. That, however ambiguous, is actually a major development.

The Song of Songs (part seven)

Sometimes it seems powerfully geeky to get excited about the clever intellectual flourishes of biblical texts, but when a particularly stunning turn of phrase or layered reference pops up in a reading it's just too interesting to ignore. In chapter six of the Song of Songs there is an amazing reference. It's impressive not just because it has a many-layered implication for the poem and the time in which it was written, but also because it's remarkably easy to miss.

The Song of Songs (part six)

After The Song of Songs passes its halfway point, it takes on a certain air of melancholy. The language which began the poem as luxurious and exuberant slowly becomes desperate and oppressive. The most shocking turn happens in Chapter 5 when the narrative strays from the disconnected dialogue between the two lovers and starts to include an entreaty to outsiders for help, sympathy and understanding. Most tragically, the story's protagonists, especially Rayati, find none of those things.

The Song of Songs (part five)

In Chapter 4 of The Song of Songs we learn a lot more about Rayati, specifically that she lives in Lebanon. We must remember the era in which The Song was written before we can understand the implications of this. Modern scholars have dated the text to approximately 900 BCE, though its exact date would determine much of its influence. If it was written prior to 875 BCE, The Song would have come from the height of the Phoenician Empire when the region known as Lebanon was a cultural powerhouse. If it came after 875, it would have been born in a highly contentious period when Assyrian Greeks conquered much of the region and began oppressing the local population considerably. The city of Tyre, then a major sea port and the most important economic city in southern Lebanon, was one of two to rebel against the Assyrians and would have been the closest major city to Rayati's home, provided she didn't live in Tyre itself (or possibly the city of Dor which was nearest to the Israeli border).

The Song of Songs (part four)

The third chapter of The Song of Songs is perhaps the strangest of the entire book. It has two distinct parts divided by the quasi-chorus ("do not stir up love until it pleases") that appears in some form or another throughout the entire poem. The first half details Rayati's search for Dodi, or perhaps a dream of her search for him, while the second half pulls away from the lovers entirely to describe a procession of King Solomon. These two segments at first seem entirely disconnected, but there is a tenuous narrative strand between the two.