Letter from Lhasa, number 159. (Ochs 2007): Inventing Jewish Ritual
by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi
Ochs, V. L., Inventing Jewish Ritual, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A., 2007.
(Ochs 2007).
Vanessa L. Ochs
(Ochs 2007) is about Jewish rituals. All rituals are invented. Basically, rituals need to reassure and to satisfy people. New rituals generally seem invented while old ones appear as natural, as always existed, only because people are accustomed to them. In Judaism, there are more than one thousand practices or customs.
In creating new rituals, what is essential is their justification and self-justification. In a culture founded on tradition, as Judaism is, essential is to found new rituals on some orthodoxy.
(Ochs 2007) deals with all these aspects and it includes also some useful study cases.
Ochs, V. L., Inventing Jewish Ritual, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A., 2007.
