"Sefer Hasidim" and the Ashkenazic Book in Medieval Europe

Nonfiction, History, Medieval, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book "Sefer Hasidim" and the Ashkenazic Book in Medieval Europe by Ivan G. Marcus, University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ivan G. Marcus ISBN: 9780812295009
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. Publication: May 24, 2018
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Language: English
Author: Ivan G. Marcus
ISBN: 9780812295009
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication: May 24, 2018
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English

Composed in Germany in the early thirteenth century by Judah ben Samuel he-hasid, Sefer Hasidim, or "Book of the Pietists," is a compendium of religious instruction that portrays the everyday life of Jews as they lived together with and apart from Christians in towns such as Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and Regensburg. A charismatic religious teacher who recorded hundreds of original stories that mirrored situations in medieval social living, Judah's messages advocated praying slowly and avoiding honor, pleasure, wealth, and the lures of unmarried sex. Although he failed to enact his utopian vision of a pietist Jewish society, his collected writings would help shape the religious culture of Ashkenazic Judaism for centuries.

In "Sefer Hasidim" and the Ashkenazic Book in Medieval Europe, Ivan G. Marcus proposes a new paradigm for understanding how this particular book was composed. The work, he contends, was an open text written by a single author in hundreds of disjunctive, yet self-contained, segments, which were then combined into multiple alternative versions, each equally authoritative. While Sefer Hasidim offers the clearest example of this model of composition, Marcus argues that it was not unique: the production of Ashkenazic books in small and easily rearranged paragraphs is a literary and cultural phenomenon quite distinct from anything practiced by the Christian authors of northern Europe or the Sephardic Jews of the south. According to Marcus, Judah, in authoring Sefer Hasidim in this manner, not only resisted Greco-Roman influences on Ashkenazic literary form but also extended an earlier Byzantine rabbinic tradition of authorship into medieval European Jewish culture.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Composed in Germany in the early thirteenth century by Judah ben Samuel he-hasid, Sefer Hasidim, or "Book of the Pietists," is a compendium of religious instruction that portrays the everyday life of Jews as they lived together with and apart from Christians in towns such as Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and Regensburg. A charismatic religious teacher who recorded hundreds of original stories that mirrored situations in medieval social living, Judah's messages advocated praying slowly and avoiding honor, pleasure, wealth, and the lures of unmarried sex. Although he failed to enact his utopian vision of a pietist Jewish society, his collected writings would help shape the religious culture of Ashkenazic Judaism for centuries.

In "Sefer Hasidim" and the Ashkenazic Book in Medieval Europe, Ivan G. Marcus proposes a new paradigm for understanding how this particular book was composed. The work, he contends, was an open text written by a single author in hundreds of disjunctive, yet self-contained, segments, which were then combined into multiple alternative versions, each equally authoritative. While Sefer Hasidim offers the clearest example of this model of composition, Marcus argues that it was not unique: the production of Ashkenazic books in small and easily rearranged paragraphs is a literary and cultural phenomenon quite distinct from anything practiced by the Christian authors of northern Europe or the Sephardic Jews of the south. According to Marcus, Judah, in authoring Sefer Hasidim in this manner, not only resisted Greco-Roman influences on Ashkenazic literary form but also extended an earlier Byzantine rabbinic tradition of authorship into medieval European Jewish culture.

More books from University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

Cover of the book Fictions of Conversion by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1 by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book "Hamlet" After Q1 by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book The Socratic Turn by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Gender, Genre, and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Gender and Christianity in Medieval Europe by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Monsters by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Through the History of the Cold War by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Architects of Delusion by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book The Historical Austen by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Universal Human Rights and Extraterritorial Obligations by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Frontier Cities by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book Forgotten Genocides by Ivan G. Marcus
Cover of the book The Garden of Delights by Ivan G. Marcus
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy