CJS207H1

The Jewish Life Cycle

This course introduces the events and rituals that demarcate key moments in Jewish lives including birth, coming-of-age, marriage, and death. Through close textual analysis, we will explore the historical development of Jewish life cycle rituals and how they sometimes shifted in meaning over time. We will explore these rituals as they developed among Jewish communities living in both the Christian and Islamic worlds. Special attention will be paid to how these rituals reflect attitudes towards gender and how they have been shaped in response to the presence of the majority non-Jewish culture, so as to adapt and adopt attractive ideas and respond to the threats and temptations the majority culture posed. By the end of the course, students will have developed a rich understanding of the diversity within Jewish traditions and the complex interplay between ritual and interpersonal religious law, and between individual, familial and communal forms of religious practice.