Fabric of Religious Life in Medieval Ashkenaz
Subtitle: Creating Sacred Communities
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
ISBN-13: 9789004300248
Subjects: Judaism, history; Hasidism; Jews, europe; Jews, france; Jews, social life and customs; Jews, germany; Jewish way of life
Description: "In The Fabric of Religious Life in Medieval Ashkenaz, Jeffrey R. Woolf presents the first integrated presentation of the ideals and beliefs that comprised the self-image and worldview of Ashkenazic Jews in the Central and High Middle Ages (900-1300). Through careful examination of a wide range of sources (legal, customal, liturgical, artistic), Woolf shows how religious practice played a dual role in creating and sustaining Jewish life in a hostile environment. They instilled these values, and recast religious traditions to reflect them. The author demonstrates how hitherto underappreciated ideals such as Purity, Sanctity, and a palpable sense of Divine In-Dwelling played a central role in Ashkenazic religiousity and merged to form the texture, or the "Sacred Canopy," of their lives."--