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ABSTRACT
Despite its prevalence, the 20th-century communal kiddush ritual in synagogues remains understudied. This article addresses the gap by analyzing its purposes, connection to the prayer service, and impact on religious and social aspects. Drawing on Bakhtin, Gluckman, and Turner, this study explores how its carnivalesque elements challenge norms while reinforcing the synagogue. Additionally, it investigates kiddush’s liminality and significance. The Kiddush ritual is pivotal, encapsulating values, ethos, and processes. Culinary practices within it function as an encrypted language, unveiling insights into the synagogue’s central social role and the significance of food in shaping communities and religious belonging.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. See: Michal Shaul, “Kiddush Club – Fraternity, Authority, Class and Gender challenges in the Modern Orthodox Synagogue,” Contemporary Jewry, (2022) doi:10.1007/s12397-022 09,453-y.
2. Heilman addressed the ritual in a preliminary manner in a few pages of his classic book: Samuel C. Heilman, Synagogue Life: A Study in Symbolic Interaction, second edition (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1998 [1976]), 31, 70, 137–38.
3. The topic has been the subject of an extensive body of research. Some examples to illustrate this point: Mary Douglas, “Deciphering a Meal,” in her Implicit Meanings (London: Routledge, 1975), 249–275; Claude Lévi-Strauss. ‘The Culinary Triangle,’ in Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (eds.). Food and Culture: A Reader, trans. Peter Brooks (New York: Routledge, 2008 [1966]), 36–43; Daniel Sack, Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000); Corrie E. Norman, ‘Food and Religion,’ in: Jeffrey M. Pilcher (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Food History (Oxford: Oxford University, 2012), 409–27; Thematic Issue on ‘Religion and Food,’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63, no. 3 (Autumn 1995). For the Jewish context, see, e.g., John Cooper, Eat and Be Satisfied: A Social History of Jewish Food, New Jersey,1993; Anat Helman (ed.), Jews and their Foodways, Oxford, 2015; Oded Schwartz, In Search of Plenty: A History of Jewish Food, London, 1992; David Kraemer, Jewish Eating and Identity Throughout the Ages, New York, 2007, vol. 29.
4. Marshall Sklare. America’s Jews (New York: Random House, 1971), 129–30.
5. Einat Libel-Hass and Adam S. Ferziger, “A Synagogue Center Grows in Tel Aviv: On Glocalization, Consumerism and Religion,” Modern Judaism – A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience 42, no. 3 (October 2022): 273–304. doi:10.1093/mj/kjac009.
6. On rituals as a ‘methodological window’, see Émile D. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Translated by Carol Cosman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008 [1912]), 322.
7. Nancy T. Ammerman et al., Studying Congregations: A New Handbook (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 79.
8. In the introduction to the second edition of his book, Heilman detailed the advantages and disadvantages of the ‘insider’ and the ‘outsider’ participant-observer. See: Heilman, Synagogue Life, ix-xx.
9. In the dictionary of synagogue terms published by Olitzky and Raphael, they defined the ritual as “social hour.” See: Kerry M. Olitzky and Marc L. Raphael (eds.), “Kiddush,” An Encyclopedia of American Synagogue Ritual (Westport CT and London: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000), 81.
10. Regarding various research approaches to analyzing rituals, see: Jens Kreinath and al. Theorizing Rituals: Issues, Topics, Approaches, Concepts (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2006). See also the bibliography that spans hundreds of pages mentioned in Jens Kreinath and Michael Stausberg. Theorizing Rituals: Annotated Bibliography of Ritual Theory, 1966–2005 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007).
11. This methodological limitation has been pointed out by previous scholars of synagogues. See, e.g.: Aaron Ahrend, “Taqanot Batei Ha-kneset Ba-dorot Ha-aḥronim,” Kenishta: Studies of the Synagogue’s World, 3 (2019): 44 [Hebrew].
12. Heilman saw the level of food served as a measure for evaluating the kiddush donor’s connection to the community. Heilman, Synagogue Life, 138.
13. See: John Goldlust, “Jewish Continuity in Australia,” in Sol Encel and Leslie Stein (eds.), Continuity, Commitment. And Survival: Jewish Communities in the Diaspora (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003), 67–104; Adina L. Bankier‑Karp, “Tongue Ties or Fragments Transformed: Making Sense of Similarities and Differences between the Five Largest EnglishSpeaking Jewish Communities,” Contemporary Jewry (2023): 5–6. doi:10.1007/s12397-023-09477-y.
14. A ‘local wine equivalent’ (ḥemar medina, lit. ‘wine of the province’) is a beverage that is locally considered elegant.
15. See: Talmud Bavli Megillah 28a: ‘[With regard to] synagogues: One may not act inside them with frivolity. [Therefore,] one may not eat in them; nor may one drink in them.’ Exceptions were found to this strict law over the years. See: Eliyahu Emanuel Mariani, “‘Arikhat Iru’im Qehilati’im Be-Veit Ha-Kneset, Ha-Heibet Ha-Hilkhati Veha-Ma’asi” [Hebrew] (Conducting Communal Events in the Synagogue, the Halakhic and the Practical Aspect), in: Boaz Pash (ed.), Beit Ha-Kneset Be-Halakha, Be-Hashqafah, Uve-ḥinukh Ha-Yehudi. Qovetz ‘Avodot U-Ma’amarim shel Lomdei Makhon ‘Amiel (The Synagogue in Halakha, in Theology, and in Jewish Education. A Collection of Works and Articles by Students of Amiel Institute). (Jerusalem, Straus-Amiel Institute, Efrata, 1999), 125–140.
16. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, trans. H. Iswolsky (Bloomington, Ind, 1984). For an overview of the concept and its development, see: Nugit Altschuler, Carnaval Ve-Hipukho: Al ha-qolno’a ha-’amami ha-Yidi ve-ha-yisraeli [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: Resling, 2020).
17. Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World.
18. John Docker, Postmodernism and Popular Culture: A Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 177–186.
19. See, for example: Max Gluckman, Rebellion in South-East Africa (New York: Free Press, 1963); Susanne Schröter, ‘Rituals of Rebellion, Rebellion as Ritual: A Theory Reconsidered,’ in Kreinath Jens, Constance Hartung and Annette Deschner (eds.), The Dynamics of Changing Rituals: The Transformation of Religious Rituals Within Their Social and Cultural Context (New York: Peter Lang, 2014), 41–57.
20. Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (New York: Routledge, 2017 [1969]).
21. Gavin Brown, ‘Theorizing Ritual as Performance: Explorations of Ritual Indeterminacy,’ Journal of Ritual Studies 17, no. 1 (2003): 3–18.
22. Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000 [1961]), 151–155; Heilman, Synagogue Life; Jack Wertheimer, ‘The American Synagogue: Recent Issues and Trends,’ American Jewish Year Book (2005), 3–83; Jack Wertheimer, The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2018); Jonathan D. Sarna, “The Evolution of The American Synagogue.” In Robert M. Seltzer and Norman J. Cohen (eds.), The Americanization of the Jews (New York and London: New York University Press, 1995), 215–229; Marshall Sklare, “The Sociology of the American Synagogue,” In: Jacob Neusner (ed.), Understanding American Judaism: Toward the Description of a Modern Religion I, (1975): 91–102; Riv-Ellen Prell, Prayer and Community: The Havurah in American Judaism (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995 [1989]).
23. See: Anat Sharbat, Mechapsim bait: Batei kneset mikan u-misham (Seeking home: synagogues here and there), Deot 78 (March-April 2017), 28–33 [Hebrew].
24. A seudat mitzvah (obligatory meal) is a meal connected to a mitzvah (religious precept), which strengthens the mitzvah. Meals on Shabbat, festivals, and Rosh Ḥodesh (first of the month) are considered obligatory meals, as well as meals at weddings, circumcisions, ceremonies celebrating the completion of the study of a Talmudic tractate, and other occasions. Since the start of modernity, the definition of obligatory meals has continually expanded. See: Katz, Tradition and Crisis, 138–139.
25. Lee I. Levine, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years. Second Edition. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005).
26. According to the description in the Talmud (B Pesaḥim 100b). See also: Israel Ta-Shma, ‘Qidush shel Leilei Shabbat Be-Veit Ha-Kneset (Friday night kiddush in the synagogue),’ Minhag Ashkenaz Qadmon: Ḥeqer Ve-‘Iyun (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1998), ch. 5 [Hebrew].
27. Lee I. Levine, “Mi-Merkaz Qehilati Le-Mikdash Me’at: Ha-Rihut Veha-Pnim Be-Veit Kneset He-‘atiq’ (”From Community Center to ‘Lesser Sanctuary’: The Furnishings and Interior of the Ancient Synagogue”) [Hebrew], Cathedra: Le-Toldot Eretz Yisrael Ve-Yishuvah (Cathedra: For the History of Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv), 60 (June 1991), 36–84; Menachem Hacohen, “’Miqdash M’at’ – Beit Ha-Kneset Ve-Keilav,” Maḥanayim: Bamah Le-Meḥqar, Le-Hagut, Ule-Tarbut Yehudit 11 (1994) https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/art/yahadut/mikdash.htm.
28. Katz, Tradition and Crisis,154.
Regarding the social aspect of the synagogue’s character, see: Shlomo Zeev Pick, “The Synagogue in Provence: A Social Institution in the High Middle Ages,” Kenishta: Studies of the Synagogue World [3]. Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2007, 11–37.
29. At least in communities that ruled according to Rabbi Yosef Qaro, Shulḥan ‘Arukh, Oraḥ Hayim §269. The practice was maintained in Ashkenazi communities. Ta-Shma, ‘Qidush shel Leilei Shabbat’.
30. Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 8.
31. Yitzhak Alfasi, “Darkhei Ha-Tfilah shel Ha-Ḥasidim,” Maḥanayim 95 (1964/5). https://daat.ac.il/daat/kitveyet/mahanaim/batey-kneset/alfasi.htm
32. Lewis Jacobs, ‘Eating as an Act of Worship in Hasidic Thought,’ in: Siegfried Stein and Raphael Loewe (eds.), Studies in Jewish Religious and Intellectual History (Alabama: Alabama University Press, 1979), 157–66.
On these occasions, kugel became sanctified. See: Allan Nadler, “Holy Kugel: The Sanctification of Ashkenazic Ethnic Foods in Hasidism,” Studies in Jewish Civilization 15, (2005): 193–214.
33. Hasia R. Diner, Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001).
34. David Kaufman, Shul with a Pool: The Synagogue-Center in American Jewish History (University Press of New England, 1999), 47.
35. Regarding the Jews of Egypt, see: Zvi Zohar, Ha’iru Pnei Mizraḥ: Halakha Ve-Hagut Etzel Ḥakhmei Yisrael Be-Mizraḥ Ha-Tikhon (The Eastern Sky Brightened: Halakha and Thought among Jewish Sages in the Middle East) (Ra’anana: HaKibbutz HaMeuhad, 5761–2000/1) [Hebrew], 147–148. The American journalist Hillel Rogoff described the Jews of Italy in the early 1930s as assimilating community characterized by laxity in religious obligation and a demographic shrinking due to the large number of intermarriages. ‘On Shabbat they perform [forbidden] work,’ he described, “but all the Jews come to the synagogue on Shabbat night [Friday night] to hear ‘kiddush’ and at the end of Shabbat for ‘havdalah’ [the ritual marking the transition from Shabbat to the start of a new week]. These two ceremonies – kiddush and Havdalah – are maintained rigorously by the Jews of Italy.” [no author], ‘Ha-yehudim Veha-Yahadut Be-Italia’ (The Jews and Judaism in Italy) [Hebrew], Haaretz April 22, 1931, 2. Among the traditional population in Israel, the word ‘kiddush’ refers to the family meal on Friday night. This ritual has become an inseparable part of the Israeli family experience, regardless of halakhic Shabbat observance. See: Orna Raz, “Yom Shishi Yeish Me-Ain” (Friday Ex Nihilo) [Hebrew], Alakhson, June 26, 2018.
36. Like the concept ‘mitzvah’ (commandment) as pertains bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies celebrated today. These ceremonies are celebrated more than ever but have been emptied of their religious content. See: Hizky Shoham, ‘The Bar and Bat Mitzvah in the Yishuv and Early Israel,’ AJS Review 42 [1] (2018), 133–157.
37. Vanessa L. Ochs. Inventing Jewish Ritual (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2007).
38. Rachel B. Gross, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice (New York: NYU Press, 2021).
39. Kaufman, Shul with a Pool; Marc L. Raphael, The Synagogue in America: A Short History (New York: New York University Press, 2011); Sarna, “The Evolution of the American Synagogue”; Jack Wertheimer, “The Conservative Synagogue,” in: Jack Wertheimer (ed.), The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed (Cambridge University Press, 1987), 111–32, 140–48.
40. Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York’s Jewish Jews: The Orthodox Community in the Interwar Years (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990); Jeffrey S. Gurock, “Jewish Commitment and Continuity in Interwar Brooklyn,” In: Ilana Abramovitch and Sean Galvin (eds.), Jews of Brooklyn (Hanover, N.H. and London, 2002), 237.
41. Lebrecht asserts that kiddush originated in Britain. Norman Lebrecht, “My Worst-Case Scenario? The Cancellation of Kiddush,” The Jewish Chronicle, March 19, 2020. https://www.thejc.com/comment/opinion/my-worst-case-scenario-the-cancellation-of-kiddush-1.498257
42. In early nineteenth-century Britain, a culture of late breakfast (elevenses, second breakfast, brunch, luncheon) started to develop. In the United States, this late breakfast was accompanied by whisky. See: Jane Levi, “A Surreptitious Snack: The Evolution of Elevenses,” Petits Propos Culinaires (PPC) 77 ;(December 2004), 87–99. Regarding the development of cocktail parties, see: Dalia Lamdani, Masa Misaviv La-Shulkhan: Al Tafqidav Ha-Meguvanim shel Ha-Okhel Be-T’ḥumim She-Miḥutz La-Mitbaḥ Uve-‘Itzuv Ha-Tarbut Shelanu ve-shel Qodmeinu (A Journey around the Table: On the Varied Roles of Food in Areas Outside the Kitchen and in Forming Our and Our Predecessors’ Culture) [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: self-published), 2014, 287–95.
43. Adam S. Ferziger, “Between Outreach and ‘Inreach’: Redrawing the Lines of the American Orthodox Rabbinate: Constituency Definition and Contemporary Orthodoxy,” Modern Judaism 25, no. 3 (2005): 237–63. doi:10.1093/mj/kji017; Rachel Ellis, “Outreach and Exclusion: Jewish Denominational Marketing in the Early 20th Century,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54, no. 1 (2015): 38–56. doi:10.1111/jssr.12167
44. Raphael, The Synagogue in America.
45. Wertheimer, “The American Synagogue,” 10–16.
46. Hasia R. Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 292.
47. Ibid.
48. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Torat Menachem 29, Part I, Talk from Tuesday of Parashat Lekh Lekha, 4 Marḥeshvan 5721 – October 25, 1960.
49. According to a Pew Research Center survey, most U.S. Jews connect with Judaism through food. See: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-practices-and-customs/.
50. Howard Zack, ‘How to bring people back to shuls? AMAZING FOOD,’ Jewish Journal, November 9, 2021. Retrieved January 17, 2022 from https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/342229/how-to-bring-people-back-to-shuls-amazing-food/?fbclid=IwAR0Rts-yPUFUDVhFYuUk6xU-rEnB_KaM0EGYxAWn1rXiKz7Abek-f38koA0.
51. Yitzhak Gilat, P’raqim Be-Hishtalsh’lut Ha-Halakha (Chapters in the Development of Halakha) [Hebrew] (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 5752–1991/2), 332–334. Kiddush on Shabbat night is commended in the Torah and must be performed on wine, whereas kiddush on Shabbat morning may be performed on any elegant beverage.
52. Moshe Halamish, Ha-Qabalah Be-Tfilah, Beminhag Uve-Halakha (Kabbalah in Prayer, Practice, and Halakha) [Hebrew] (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 2002) [First printing: 2000], 416.
53. Uzi Elyada, “From Feminine to Masculine Symbolism: The Case of Popular Public Opinion During the French Revolution,” The European Legacy 1, (1996): 181–87. Analyzed in Altschuler, Carnaval Ve-Hipukho, 27–28.
54. Yaakov (Jacky) Levy, “Notar raq Le-qaneh” (All that is left is to envy) [Hebrew], Sulam Ya’aqov, Kol Ha’ir, November 24, 1995, 27.
55. Regarding seating arrangements as creating hierarchy, see: Bruce Lincoln, Discourse and The Construction of Society Comparative Studies: Myth, Ritual, and Classification (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 (second edition)), 75–84.
56. Zvika Klein, ‘Qigel ve-Tschulent? Out: Hakiru et Qidushei Ha-Concept’ (Kugel and Cholent? Out: Meet the Concept Kiddushim) [Hebrew], Makor Rishon, October 11, 2013. https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/11/ART2/513/044.html; Netael Bandel, “Hakiru et Ha-’Ḥevrah Qidusha’: Ha-Qehila she-lo Mistapeqet Be-Qugel La-Qidush” (Meet the ‘Kiddush Association’: The Community that does not Stop with Kugel for Kiddush,” October 17, 2012. https://www.kipa.co.il/%D7%97%D7%93%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%97%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%93%D7%95%D7%A9%D7%90-%D7%94%D7%A7%D7%94%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%94-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%9E%D7%A1%D7%AA/.
57. Heilman, Synagogue Life, 138.
58. Lebrecht, “My Worst-Case Scenario”.
59. Despite aspirations to ‘decorum’, in practice, the Orthodox prayer hall is not always quiet and respectful. The long prayer (in foreign countries, it is given in a language that is not the native language of the worshipers) and the social gathering provide a challenging experience for many worshipers. Therefore, during the prayer, many worshipers talk to each other, read Shabbat flyers, take their children in and out, or go out for drinks with friends. About the men section in this regard. See: Nissim Leon, “ritual be-omes yeter: omes liturgi ve-zman mufchatbe-chayei beit knesset” (Overly-laden ritual: Liturgic burden and diminished 1040 time in the synagogue) (Hebrew). In: Between times: Ritual and text in a changing society (Hebrew), ed. Hayim Chazan, Rachel Sharabi and Inbal E. Sikoral (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2021), 220–245; Shaul, ‘Kiddush Club.’ About the carnivalesque atmosphere on women’s balconies. See: Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz. Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women (London: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2021), Chapter 3.
60. The integration of children, refreshments, and lifecycle event ceremonies in the synagogue is very old. See: Tali Berner, “Yeladim Be-Veit Ha-Knesset Uve-Tiqsei He-Ḥayim Be-Reishit Ha-‘Et He-Ḥadashah Be-Ashkenaz: Trumato shel Ḥeqer Ha-Yaldut Le-Toldot Yisrael” (Children in the Synagogue and in the Lifecycle Event Ceremonies in the Early Modern Period in Ashkenaz: The Contribution of the Study of Childhood to Jewish History) [Hebrew], Tzion – Riv’on Le-Ḥeqer Toldot Yisrael Year 78 (5773–2012/3), 183–205. Berner asserts that only children ate in the synagogue. Ibid., 203.
61. Sometimes, one can visit kiddushim of different prayer services held in the same complex (such as a building with many small prayer services, called a shteiblakh): an early service, a late service, a young people’s service, an older people’s service, an Ashkenazi service, a Sephardi service, etc.
62. Although this phenomenon is increasingly spoken of, it is not new. For example, in a bitter joke published in a newspaper, it is said that if people don’t come to synagogue in order to say kaddish, at least they show up when there is kiddush. Yitzhak Shahen, ‘Humar fon Amerikaner Idishen Leben’ [Yiddish], Ertswarp, February 17, 1963. For additional discussion of the phenomenon, see: Marc Mandel, “JFK – Just For Kiddush,” Jewish Rhode Island, January 3, 2014. https://www.jewishrhody.com/stories/jfk-just-for-kiddush,2944?; Sally Berkovic, “JFK’s Legacy to the Orthodox World,” The Times of Israel, May 25, 2017, https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jfks-legacy-to-the-orthodox-world/; “In Honor of the JFKs,” Abq Jew, November 16, 2011, https://www.abqjew.net/2011/11/in-honor-of-jfks.html.
63. Marc D. Angel, “The ‘JFK’ Syndrome vs. the Real JFK: Thoughts on Parashat Hayyei Sarah,” November 19, 2011, Ideas: Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. https://www.jewishideas.org/%E2%80%9Cjfk%E2%80%9D-syndrome-vs-real-jfk-thoughts-parashat-hayyei-sarah-november-19–2011.
64. Lenore Skenazy, “Late to Shul, On Time for Kiddush,” Forward, October 30, 2011. https://forward.com/news/144878/late-to-shul-on-time-for-kiddush/ (accessed December 9, 2020).
65. Ibid.
66. John Fiske, Understanding Popular Culture (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 30.
67. See: Faye Levy, “Shul Food,” The Jerusalem Post, February 22, 2006. https://www.jpost.com/arts-and-culture/shul-food (accessed August 29, 2017). In recent years scholars have pointed out the connection between food and nostalgia as part of the postmodern experience. The fashion of nostalgia increases in transitional periods when social and emotional values lose stability. John D. Holtzman, “Food and Memory,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 35 (2006): 361–78; Alexandra Vignolles and Paul E. Pichon, “A Taste of Nostalgia: Links Between Nostalgia and Food Consumption,” Qualitative Market Research 17, no. 3 (2014): 225–38.
In the Jewish context, see: Gross, Beyond the Synagogue; Shlomo Guzmen-Carmeli, ‘Eating the Bubbe: Culinary Encounters Between Secular and Haredi Jews In Bnei Brak,’ Food and Foodways 28, no. 2 (2020): 69–90.
68. Jacky Levy, “Kugel.com” [Hebrew], Israel Hayom, March 27, 2015. https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/269509
69. See: ‘Out of The Mailbag: (Flatbush Kiddush: Tznius & Drinking Out Of Control),’ The Yeshiva World, June 15, 2008, https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/out-of-the-mailbag-flatbush-/kiddush-tznius-038-drinking-out-of-control/page/2.
70. Altschuler, Carnaval Ve-Hipukho, 27.
71. An extraordinary event took place in Melbourne in April 2016, when a person, who was probably psychologically unstable, stabbed his friend as a result of a conflict over herring at kiddush. The Jewish and general media reported on the colorful item at length. See: https://www.timesofisrael.com/man-charged-over-synagogue-herring-stabbing/.
72. Docker, Postmodernism, 36–37.
73. Nissim Leon, “Ritual Be-‘Omes Yeter: ‘Omes Liturgi Ve-Zman Mufḥat Be-Ḥayei Beit Ha-Kneset” (Ritual in Overload: Liturgic Overload and Lessened Time in the Life of the Synagogue) in: Haim Hazan, Rachel Sharabi, and Inbal Esther Sirokel (eds.), Bein Ha-Zmanim – Teqes Ve-Teqst Be-Ḥevrah Mishtanah (Between the Times – Ritual and Text in a Changing Society) [Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Carmel, 2021), 220–45.
74. Regarding the tension between the synagogue’s religious and social functions, see: Alick Isaacs, ‘Meqomo shel Beit Ha-Kneset Be-Ḥevrah Ha-Ashkenazit Veha-Yaḥas Eilav Be-Y’mei Ha-Beinayim: Meḥqar Antropologi Ve-Histori’ (The Place of the Synagogue in Ashkenazi Society and the Relationship towards it in the Middle Ages: An Anthropological and Historical Study) [Hebrew], doctoral dissertation, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 2003 and the many sources cited therein, as well as: Heilman, Synagogue Life, 253–260.
75. Yehudah Brandes, “‘Oneg Shabbat: Hana’ah Gufanit Le-Shem Shamayim,” (Enjoyment of Shabbat: Physical Enjoyment for Heaven’s Sake), in: Yitzhak Alfasi (ed.), Ve-Ḥai Ba-Hem: ‘Al Qidush Hashem (And Live by Them: On the Sanctification of the Name) [Hebrew] (Givatayim: 5763–2002/3), 302–324.
76. Max Gluckman, “The License in Ritual,” in his Custom and Conflict in Africa (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1956), 109–36.
77. Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 128.
78. Harold Fisch (Aharon Harel-Fisch), Be-Seter ‘Elyon: Paradox U-S’tirah Be-Meqorot Ha-Yahadut (Hidden Above: Paradox and Contradiction in the Jewish Source) [Hebrew] (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, 5761–2000/1), 56–62 (primarily).
79. As stated in the Midrash: “’he came to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. He sacrificed burnt offerings, he performed peace offerings, and he made a feast for all his servants’ (I Kings 3:15). Rabbi Elazar said: From here it is derived that one makes a feast upon completion of the Torah.” (Song of Songs Rabbah 1:1:9 trans. The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah, 2022, Sefaria.org; also in Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1:1:1).
80. Shoham has made this point regarding Bar and Bat Mitzvah. See: Hizky Shoham, “A tale of two cultures: an outline for a comparative cultural analysis of Israeli and North American Jewry,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 21, no. 1 (2022): 1–20. doi:10.1080/14725886.2020.1847419.
81. The refreshments are packaged in personal containers. As part of the trend of packaged food that grew doing the Coronavirus period, commercial catering companies created a special kiddush set for Shabbat and events during this period. See: Avital Indig, ‘Le-Qadesh Ba-Bayit, Le-Hargish Be-Veit Ha-Kneset’ (To Make Kiddush at Home, to Feel as if in the Synagogue) [Hebrew], Makor Rishon, Motzash Section, October 27, 2020, https://www.makorrishon.co.il/culture/motsash/277105/; Adiel Shavit, “‘Kiddush Kit’: Hakiru et Ha-Shef She-Yidag Sheha-Kigel Yagi’a ‘ad Eileikhem Ha-Bayta” (‘Kiddush Kit’: Meet the Chef who will Ensure the Kugel Reaches You at Home) [Hebrew], Kipa, October 12, 2020.
82. Talmud Bavli Berakhot 50b.
83. Shoham, “Bar and Bat Mitzvah”.
84. Barat Ellman, “Defining Community: Bar/Bat Mitzvah Ritual in American Reform and Conservative Congregations as an Expression of Community Identity and Values,” Conservative Judaism 56, no. 2 (2004): 32–46.
85. Turner, The Ritual Process.
86. Turner, The Ritual Process, 97.
87. Norman, “Food and Religion’.
88. Carole M. Counihan and Steven L. Kaplan, Food and Gender: Identity and Power (London: Routledge, 2004).
89. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (New York: Routledge, 1976).
90. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of The Judgment of Taste, trans. R. Nice. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983 [1979]), 177–200; Jean-Pascal Daloz, ‘Towards the Cultural Contextualization of Social Distinction,’ Journal of Cultural Economy 1, no. 3 (2008): 305–20.
91. Lamdani, Masa, 295.
92. Ibid, 288.
93. Erving Goffman, Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order (New York: Basic Books, 1971), 330.
94. Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings (New York: The Free Press, 1963).
95. There are halakhic questions regarding whether participation in synagogue kiddush fulfills the obligation to perform the kiddush blessing on Shabbat morning. For example, see: Yaakov Ariel, ‘Qiddusha Raba Be-Veit Ha-Knesset Lifnei S’eudat Shabbat’ (The Great Kiddush at Synagogue Before the Shabbat Meal) [Hebrew], Lema’aseh – Aqtualia Hilkhatit. https://www.toraland.org.il/16303; Moshe Taragin, ‘Kiddush Be-Veit Ha-Knesset’ (Kiddush at Synagogue) [Hebrew], Yeshivat Har Etzion Virtual Beit Midrash. htt ps://ww w.etzion.org.il/he/talmud/studies-gemara/talmudic-methodology/%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%93%D7%95%D7%A9-%D7%91%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%A1%D7%
96. Mariani, “‘Arikhat Iru’im”.
98. The following is an example from Israel, and afterwards an example from the United States, where the costs of kiddush can reach thousands of dollars.
https://www.imamother.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=377162&start=40.
99. Shira Isenberg, ‘A Kiddush Conundrum,’ Jewish Action, Winter 2010.
https://jewishaction.com/health/wellness-report/a_kiddush_conundrum/.
100. Shaul, “Kiddush Club”.
101. ‘Yibush Yadaim Be-Veyt Ha-Knesset’ (Hand Drying in Synagogue) [Hebrew], Igud Batei Haknesset Ha’olami, December 13, 2016. https://www.hagabay.net/2008-12-21-21-59-02/2008-12-23-13-02-26/2915-%D7%99%D7%99%D7%91%D7%95%D7%A9-%D7%99%D7%93%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%A1%D7%AA.html.
102. Raphael Zarum, “Why Plastic Cups Should Not Be Kosher for Kiddush,” The Jewish Chronicle, June 16, 2018. https://www.thejc.com/judaism/features/environmental-responsbility-why-plastic-cups-should-not-be-kosher-for-kiddush-1.467181.
Since the 1970s the Protestant Church has addressed overconsumption, waste, and fundraising for the hungry in Africa. See: Sack, Whitebread Protestants. We have not found a parallel to this in synagogues.
103. Meirav Aharon-Gutman and Moriel Ram, “Objective Possibility as Urban Possibility: Reading Max Weber in The City,” Journal of Urban Design 23 no. 6 (2018): 803–22.
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Michal Shaul
Michal Shaul is the chair and a senior lecturer in the Department of History at Herzog College, Israel. She won the Shazar Prize for research in Jewish History (2016) for her book Holocaust Memory in Ultraorthodox Society in Israel. In recent years, she has been focusing on the social dimensions of the synagogue.