Abstract
This chapter examines patterns of collective memory in a variety of Jewish wedding rituals in contemporary Israeli society, referring to the symbolic content of these rituals. I focus on one particular component of the wedding ritual, the sheva berakhot intoned under the Orthodox huppa (canopy) vis-à-vis the blessings recited at alternative wedding rituals. My principal assertion is that the alternative wedding rituals manifest a process of individualization, by contrast to the Orthodox rituals, which remain within the province of the Jewish collective and are replete with collective meanings (although here too, one may find a measure of individualization). Most alternative wedding rituals focus on the individuals’ biographical memory, and this memory joins or replaces collective Jewish memory. The findings may contribute to the understanding of the process of transformation in the area of ritual activity, and to an understanding of the manner in which new post-modern Jewish ritual is emerging.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Adler, P., & Adler, P. (2002). Observational techniques. In J. F. Gubrium & J. A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research: Context and method (pp. 377–394). London: Sage.
Alexander, J. (2004). Cultural pragmatics: Social performance between ritual and strategy. Sociological Theory, 22(4), 527–573.
Almog, O. (2004). Farewell to Srulik: Changing values among the Israeli Elite [in Hebrew]. Haifa: Haifa University Press.
Azulay, N., & Tabory, E. (2008). “A house of prayer for all nations”: UnOrthodox prayer houses for nonreligious Israeli Jews. Sociological Papers, 13, 22–41.
Bakhtin, M. (2007). Forms of time and chronotope in the novel [in Hebrew]. Israel: Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan.
Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization. London: Sage.
Beck, R., & Metrick, S. B. (1990). The art of ritual. Berkeley: Celestial Arts.
Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ben-Ami, S. (1996). On short time and long time [in Hebrew]. Zmanim, 55, 14–27.
Ben-Porat, G. (2013). Between state and synagogue: The secularization of contemporary Israel. Cambridge: University Press.
Ben-Tzadok, S. (1951). Tashbetz [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Levin-Epstein Press.
Berkovitch, N. (1997). Motherhood as a national mission: The construction of womanhood in the legal discourse in Israel. Women’s Studies International Forum, 20(5–6), 605–619.
Braudel, F. (1980). On history. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Casanova, J. (1994). Public religions in the modern world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Connerton, P. (1989). How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dobrin, N. (2006). Israelis marrying abroad: With special reference to immigrants from the Former Soviet Union [in Hebrew]. Megamot, 44(3), 477–506.
Douglas, M. (1970). Natural symbols. New York: Pantheon Books.
Eliade, M. (1991). The myth of the eternal return or cosmos and history. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Filz, O. (1999). Before the wedding [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Yedioth Aharonot.
Fischer, S. (2009). Religious Zionism at the threshold of the third millennium: Two radical religious Zionist cultures [in Hebrew]. Akdamot, 22, 9–38.
Fischer, S. (2012). Fundamentalist or romantic nationalist? Israeli modern orthodoxy. In H. Goldberg, S. Cohen, & E. Kopelowitz (Eds.), Dynamic belonging: Contemporary Jewish collective identities (pp. 91–111). New York: Berghahn Books.
Fogiel-Bijaoui, S. (2002). Familism, postmodernity and the state: The case of Israel. Journal of Israeli History, 21, 38–62.
Fogiel-Bijaoui, S. (2003). Why won’t there be civil marriage any time soon in Israel? or: Personal Law: The silenced issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nashim, 6, 28–34.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books.
Goldberg, H. (2012). Conceptual and pragmatic aspects of binarism: Examples from Israeli society. In H. Goldberg, S. Cohen, & E. Kopelowitz (Eds.), Dynamic belonging: Contemporary Jewish collective identities (pp. 46–64). New York: Berghahn Books.
Goldberg, H., Cohen, S., & Kopelowitz, E. (Eds.). (2012). Dynamic belonging: Contemporary Jewish collective identities. New York: Berghahn Books.
Goldman, G. (2001). The structure of the seven blessings [in Hebrew]. Zohar, 6, 101–110.
Grimes, R. L. (1990). Ritual criticism. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Grimes, R. L. (2000). Deeply into the bone: Re-inventing rites of passage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gurevich, Z., & Aran, G. (1991). About the place (Israeli anthropology) [in Hebrew]. Alpaim, 4, 9–44.
Halbwachs, M. (1980). The collective memory. New York: Harper & Row.
Hervieu-Leger, D. (2000). Religion as a chain of memory. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Ihnold, D. (Ed.). (2007). Life’s cycles: Ceremonies of Jewish life [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Mishkal Yedioth Aharonot Books and Chemed Books.
Liebman, C. (1982). The rise of neo-traditionalism among moderate religious circles in Israel [in Hebrew]. Megamot, 27(3), 231–250.
Mahdi, L. C., Foster, S., & Little, M. (Eds.). (1987). Betwixt and between: Patterns of masculine and feminine initiation. La Salle: Open Court.
Mahdi, L. C., Christopher, N. G., & Meade, M. (Eds.). (1996). Crossroads: The quest for contemporary rites of passage. La Salle: Open Court.
McLennan, G. (2007). Towards postsecular sociology. Sociology, 41(5), 857–870.
Mead, M. (1973). Ritual: Reconciliation in change. Paper presented at a symposium at Burg Wartenstein, Austria, Wenner-Gren Foundation, New-York City.
Myerhoff, B. G. (1982). Rites of passage: Process and paradox. In V. Turner (Ed.), Celebration (pp. 109–135). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Neeman, R. (2011). Tel-Aviv prayer: An Israeli prayer house in Tel-Aviv [in Hebrew]. Israeli Sociology, 12(2), 403–432.
Nora, P. (1989). Between memory and history: Les Lieux de Memoire. Representations, 26, 7–25.
Orbach, U. (2002). My grandfather was a Rabbi: Religious-secular lexicon [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Keter.
Prashizky, A. (2006). Wedding rituals in Israeli society: A comparative study of ritualization and performativity [in Hebrew], PhD dissertation. Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University.
Roniger, L. (1999). Individualization in Israel [in Hebrew]. In A. Bishara (Ed.), Between I and We: The construction of identities and Israel identity (pp. 109–127). Jerusalem: Van Leer and Hakibbutz Hameuhad.
Roniger, L., & Feige, M. (1992). The culture of Freier and Israeli identity [in Hebrew]. Alpaim, 7, 118–136.
Rubin, N. (1995). The beginning of life: Rites of birth, circumcision and redemption of the first-born in the Talmud and Medrash [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad.
Rubin, N. (2004). The joy of life: Rites of betrothal and marriage in the Talmud and Midrash [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad.
Rubin, N., & Kosman, A. (1997). The clothing of the prrimordial Adam as a symbol of apocalyptic time in the midrashic sources. Harvard Theological Review, 90(2), 155–174.
Schwartz, B. (1991). Social change and collective memory: The democratization of George Washington. American Sociological Review, 56, 221–236.
Schweid, E. (1984). The cycle of appointed times: The meaning of Jewish holidays [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Am Oved.
Sheleg, Y. (2000). The new religious jews: recent developments among observan jews in Israel [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House.
Sheleg, Y. (2010). The Jewish renaissance in Israeli society: The emergence of a New Jew [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: The Israeli Institute for Democracy.
Shenhav, Y. (2008). An invitation to a post-secular sociology [in Hebrew]. Israeli Sociology, 10(1), 161–188.
Shkedi, A. (2004). Words of meaning: Qualitative research theory and practice [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Ramot.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research. London: Sage.
Sznaider, N., & Levy, D. (2002). Memory unbound: The holocaust and the formation of cosmopolitan memory. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(1), 87–106.
Tabory, E., & Shalev Lev-Tzur, S. (2009). Crossing the threshold: State, religion and opposition to legally-imposed religious weddings. Review of Religious Research, 50, 261–276.
Tavory, I. (2007). Dancing in a thorn field: The new age spirituality in Israel [in Hebrew]. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad.
The Rabbinical Courts Jurisdiction (Marriage and Divorce) Law. (5713–1953). The Codex of Law 134. (Hebrew). Retrieved from: http://www.knesset.gov.il/review/data/heb/law/kns2_rabbiniccourts.pdf. Data accessed 19 Oct 2015.
Turner, V. (1967). The forests of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu rituals. New York: Cornell University Press.
Weiss-Goldman, R., & Brandes, Y. (1996). To dance at several weddings: Complete guidebook for registration of marriage and the arrangement of alternative wedding rituals [in Hebrew]. Jerusalem: Hidush.
Werczberger, R. (2012). Dynamic belongings of younger Jews and the transformation of the Jewish self. In H. Goldberg, S. Cohen, & E. Kopelowitz (Eds.), Dynamic belonging: Contemporary Jewish collective identities (pp. 165–170). New York: Berghahn Books.
Yonah, Y., & Goodman, Y. (Eds.). (2004). Maelstrom of identities: A critical look at religion and secularity in Israel [in Hebrew]. Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
Zerubavel, Y. (1995). Recovered roots: Collective memory and the making of Israeli national tradition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Zinner, G. (1987). Nataei Gabriel: Marriage rules [in Hebrew]. Brooklyn: Moriah Offset.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prashizky, A. (2017). Individualization of Jewish UnOrthodox (Alternative) Wedding Rituals in Israel. In: Feraro, S., Lewis, J. (eds) Contemporary Alternative Spiritualities in Israel. Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53913-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53913-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54741-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53913-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)