Overview

Ruth Langer offers an in-depth study of the birkat haminim, a Jewish prayer for the removal of those categories of human being who prevent the messianic redemption and the society envisioned for it. In its earliest form, the prayer cursed Christians, apostates to Christianity, sectarians, and enemies of Israel. Drawing on the shifting liturgical texts, polemics, and apologetics concerning the prayer, Langer traces the transformation of the birkat haminim from what functioned without question in the medieval world as a Jewish curse of Christians, through its early modern censorship by Christians, to its modern transformation within the Jewish world into a general petition that God remove evil from the world. Christian censorship played a crucial role in this transformation of the prayer; however, Langer argues that the truest transformation in meaning resulted from Jewish integration into Western culture. Eventually, the prayer shed its references to any specific category of human being and lost its function as a curse. Reconciliation between Jews and Christians today requires both communities to confront a long history of prejudice. Ruth Langer shows through the birkat haminim how the history of one liturgical text chronicled Jewish thinking about Christians over hundreds of years.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ruth Langer (Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Associate Director, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Boston College)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 24.10cm
Weight:   0.734kg
ISBN:  

9780199783175

ISBN 10:   0199783179
Pages:   400
Publication Date:   12 January 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter One: Origins and Early History: Late Antiquity Chapter Two: Under Early Islam: The Period of the Geonim and the Geniza Chapter Three: The Birkat HaMinim in Europe of the High Middle Ages Chapter Four: Living with Censorship: Early Modern Realities Chapter Five: The Modern Period: Changes by Choice to the Text Afterword Appendix One: Geniza Texts of the Birkat HaMinim Appendix Two: Evidence for the Birkat HaMinim in the Pre-Sephardized Rites of the Muslim World Appendix Three: Uncensored Medieval European Texts of the Birkat HaMinim Appendix Four: Censored Texts of the Birkat HaMinim, 1550 to the Present Appendix Five: Texts of the Liberal Movements Abbreviations Notes Glossary Bibliography of Secondary Sources Indices

Reviews

a monumental bibliographical study of a component of Jewish liturgy that reveals both internal and external tensions over the span of two millennia. Marc Saperstein, Journal of Jewish Studies

This impressive study brings together almost all we know about the Jewish prayer, which was made famous by being infamous - the Birkat Haminim or 'Blessing' (though it is a curse) 'on the Minim'. ... This work deserves to become a standard starting point for any future studies of this difficult prayer. * David Instone-Brewer, The Expository Times * a monumental bibliographical study of a component of Jewish liturgy that reveals both internal and external tensions over the span of two millennia. * Marc Saperstein, Journal of Jewish Studies *

<br> This is an exhaustive and definitive study of an important Jewish prayer. The author shows a remarkable combination of wide-ranging scholarship and common sense. <br>---John G. Gager, William H. Danforth Professor Emeritus of Religion, Princeton University <br><p><br> Ruth Langer is the pre-eminent American scholar of Jewish liturgy. I highly recommend Cursing the Christians?. It is an example of first-class academic scholarship and will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish-Christian relations. Her examination of the birkat haminim will become the standard academic work against which all future studies will be measured. <br>---Ed Kessler, MBE, Founding Director, Woolf Institute, University of Cambridge <br><br><p><br> As fine a work of liturgical research as one is likely to find in a lifetime: a combination of ferreting out manuscripts, rereading the classics, reengaging with late antiquity, and tracing the evolution of an important prayer from then until now. Beautifully constructed and gracefully written, Cursing the Christians? will remain 'the state of the art' for a very long time to come. <br>---Lawrence A. Hoffman, author of Covenant of Blood: Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism<br><p><br>

Author Information

Ruth Langer is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department at Boston College and Associate Director of its Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. She received her Ph.D. in 1994 from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Her research and writing focuses on Jewish liturgy and Christian-Jewish relations.

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