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Zusatztext This impressive study brings together almost all we know about the Jewish prayer, which was made famous by being infamous - the Birkat Haminim or 'Blessing' (though it is a curse) 'on the Minim'. ... This work deserves to become a standard starting point for any future studies of this difficult prayer. Informationen zum Autor Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Associate Director, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Boston College Klappentext Ruth Langer offers an in-depth study of the birkat haminim, a Jewish prayer for the removal of those categories of human being who prevent the messianic redemption and the society envisioned for it. In its earliest form, the prayer cursed Christians, apostates to Christianity, sectarians, and enemies of Israel. Drawing on the shifting liturgical texts, polemics, and apologetics concerning the prayer, Langer traces the transformation of the birkat haminim from what functioned without question in the medieval world as a Jewish curse of Christians, through its early modern censorship by Christians, to its modern transformation within the Jewish world into a general petition that God remove evil from the world. Christian censorship played a crucial role in this transformation of the prayer; however, Langer argues that the truest transformation in meaning resulted from Jewish integration into Western culture. Eventually, the prayer shed its references to any specific category of human being and lost its function as a curse. Reconciliation between Jews and Christians today requires both communities to confront a long history of prejudice. Ruth Langer shows through the birkat haminim how the history of one liturgical text chronicled Jewish thinking about Christians over hundreds of years. Zusammenfassung Ruth Langer offers an in-depth study of the birkat haminim, a Jewish prayer for the removal of those categories of human being who prevent the messianic redemption and the society envisioned for it. In its earliest form, the prayer cursed Christians, apostates to Christianity, sectarians, and enemies of Israel. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction Chapter One: Origins and Early History: Late Antiquity Chapter Two: Under Early Islam: The Period of the Geonim and the Geniza Chapter Three: The Birkat HaMinim in Europe of the High Middle Ages Chapter Four: Living with Censorship: Early Modern Realities Chapter Five: The Modern Period: Changes by Choice to the Text Afterword Appendix One: Geniza Texts of the Birkat HaMinim Appendix Two: Evidence for the Birkat HaMinim in the Pre-Sephardized Rites of the Muslim World Appendix Three: Uncensored Medieval European Texts of the Birkat HaMinim Appendix Four: Censored Texts of the Birkat HaMinim, 1550 to the Present Appendix Five: Texts of the Liberal Movements Abbreviations Notes Glossary Bibliography of Secondary Sources Indices ...
