Authors: Samuel Heilman, Samuel Heilman
ISBN-13: 9780765804334, ISBN-10: 0765804336
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Date Published: April 1998
Edition: New Edition
Via a participant-observer approach, Synagogue Life analyzes the three essential dimensions of synagogue life: the houses of prayer, study, and assembly. In each Heilman documents the rich detail of the synagogue experience while articulating the social and cultural drama inherent in them. He illustrates how people come to the synagogue not only for spiritual purposes but also to find out where and how they fit into life in the neighborhood in which they share. In his new introduction, Heilman discusses what led him to write this book and the process of personal transformation through which he, as an Orthodox Jew, had to go in order to turn a disciplined eye on the world from which he came.
Reprint of the 1976 edition with a new introduction and afterword by Heilman. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Introduction to the Transaction Edition | ||
Preface | ||
1 | Background, Beginnings, and Definitions | 3 |
2 | The Setting | 25 |
3 | The House of Prayer: The Cast of Characters | 63 |
4 | Shifting Involvements | 129 |
5 | Gossip | 151 |
6 | Joking | 193 |
7 | Singing, Swaying, Appeals, and Arguments | 211 |
8 | The House of Study | 221 |
9 | The House of Assembly | 253 |
10 | Final Words | 261 |
Afterword to the Transaction Edition | 269 | |
Notes | 285 | |
Glossary | 301 | |
Bibliography | 307 | |
Index | 313 |