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NEXTBOOK FEATURE
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The "Normal" Mysticism of Jewish Meal Rituals
Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, professor of religion at Wheaton College
“There are certain kinds of religious experiences you can have through eating rituals,” says Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, whose paper examines several mystical components of eating, including the Hillel sandwich from the Passover Seder. By putting bitter herbs on matzo, “you have in a single ritual experience things that if left alone as ideas are dissonant. You can't be exiled and redeemed at the same time. But when you eat the Hillel sandwich, you're actually physically combining both sides of that experience. You make a unity, an intuitive awareness of a unity of things that go together.” 19th-century Hasidic thought, which comes long after Hillel, plays up this idea of a temporary gustatory harmony between exile and redemption.
Brumberg-Kraus also looks at the Shulhan shel Arba, a manual on eating by Spanish medieval kabbalist Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, who advised holding Torah discussion at meals in order to infuse a sense of the Divine Presence. “He's really concerned about mind-body dualism—real eating is eating for the soul—and then there's physical eating to make our bodies healthy.” Ben Asher also discusses the importance of prayers before and after meals to distinguish ourselves from animals.
More from the AJS Conference:
American Jews and Marriage Counseling, 1920-1945
"Based on a True Story": Popular Imaginings among American Jews of Gender
in Ultra-Orthodox Society
Bi'ur Hametz and the Ancient Semitic Magic
Confronting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Jewish Studies Classroom"
Gefilte Fish and Beautiful Shoes: Soviet Jews Describe the Ideal Jewish Woman
Jewish Identity at Work
Lekhu ve-nelekhah (Come Ye and Let Us Walk): The Jewish Students of
Kazimir Malevich
Money in Jewish Eyes: Object of Desire or Derision?
Mothers' Dreams, Daughters' Choices: Envisioning Mothers of Ba'alot Teshuvah
and their Daughters
Piracy, Politics, and Product Placement: Hasidic Book and Magazine
Publishing Today
The Rise of the Ladino Theater in the Ottoman Empire
About the Conference
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