Women As Ritual Experts

This book is an ethnographic study of the religious beliefs and rituals of a group of elderly Jewish women, originally from Kurdistan and Yemen, who now live in Jerusalem. Sered visited the women in their homes and accompanied them on trips to holy tombs, local ethnic synagogues, and Judaica classes. Her purpose is to explore the ability of women, within a patriarchal and sexually-segregated religious culture, to shape a religious life that reflects their own concerns and sacralizes their experiences. She finds that though mainly illiterate and excluded from formal religious practices, the women are experts in rituals aimed at safeguarding the well-being of their extended families. By analyzing their rituals, daily experiences, life-stories, and non-verbal gestures, Sered uncovers the strategies these women have used to circumvent the patriarchal institutions of Judaism, the techniques by which they have made their lives meaningful within an androcentric culture, and how they have developed their own "little tradition" within and parallel to the "great tradition" of Torah Judaism.Sered, Susan S. is the author of 'Women As Ritual Experts' with ISBN 9780195071610 and ISBN 0195071611.