Description: Jewish custom and ritual, or their Hebrew equivalent, "minhag," has intrigued rabbis and scholars for generations. The majority of the rabbinical works devoted to "minhag" primarily encompasses lists of sources and reporting of old and new customs. In this work, Fishbane treats "minhag" from a socio-anthropological perspective.
Brief description: Dr. Simcha Fishbane is a Professor of Jewish Studies in the Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Touro College, New York. He has published extensively on Jewish subjects and texts. Dr. Fishbane's publications include Deviancy in Early Rabbinic Literature (2007); The Boldness of an Halakhist (2008); The Shtiebelization of Modern Jewry (2011); The Impact of Culture and Cultures Upon Jewish Customs and Rituals (2016); The Rabbinic Discussion about Bat Mitzvah Celebrations (2017); and The Jewish Intellectual Tradition: A History of Learning and Achievement (2021), co-authored with Alan Kadish and Michael A. Shmidman.
Review Quotes: In his book, Simcha Fishbane presents the reader with a series of studies that combine an expertise in the textual intricacies of the rabbinical literary tradition and a mastery of the scholarly field of the anthropology of religion to create an interesting and important perspective on custom and ritual in the Judaic tradition. This book is a substantial contribution to our understanding of how and why Jews do what they do in the present as well as in times past.--Ira Robinson