IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 638: Custom and Representation: Current Research, II

Tuesday 8 July 2014, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:	Eva Frojmovic, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Leeds
Moderator/Chair:	Talya Fishman, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania
Paper 638-a	Circumcision of the Heart versus Circumcision of the Flesh: Rabbinical Opinions about Iberian Crypto-Jews Forsaking the Precept of Circumcision (Language: English) Dora Zsom, Department of Semitic Philology & Arabic, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Law, Religious Life
Paper 638-b	Elijah the Prophet at Brit Milah and Passover Seder (Language: English) Chana Shacham-Rosby, Department of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Religious Life
Paper 638-c	Images of Circumcision: Representation of Brit Milah in Medieval Jewish Manuscripts (Language: English) Zsófia Buda, Independent Scholar, Oxford Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Religious Life
Abstract	Medieval Minhag (Custom) has been the subject of considerable research since Olam ke-minhago noheg was published in 1996. Recently the interdisciplinary research on minhag has gained momentum (see http://calenda.org/208529?lang=en). Minhag was lived in creative tension with Halakhah, especially in medieval Ashkenaz. Also worthy of consideration is the relationship between minhag and custom in the non-Jewish contemporary cultures, for example as 'usus' or 'ritus'. Minhag was lived experience, but is now only to be studied via representations, be they literary or visual. This session welcomes current research about representations of minhag, both in literary texts and visual image.