Passover Seder: An Anthropological Perspective on Jewish Culture

By Ruth Fredman Cernea

Book Overview

Each spring Jewish people throughout the world celebrate Passover with the ritual of the Seder. Through a detailed anthropological and symbolic analysis, Cernea shows why the Seder continues to be a fundamental part of the process by which Jewich society creates and defines itself. In an age in which ritual observance among Jews is on the decline, this ancient ritual is still vital. In this cohesive volume, Cernea uses anthropological theories, history, folklore, religious writings, and personal observation to explain how the Seder permits participants to see their current experience through the prism of society's history. The Seder plate, with its ordinary foods presented in an extraordinary manner, gives voice to other concepts vital to Jewish culture long after the Seder is over. Originally published in 1981 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0819199265
• ISBN13: 9780819199263
• Release Date: July 1995
• Publisher: University Press of America
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

a 80 page book stretched into twice that long

The end of this book has some interesting observations about the Seder, such as her discussion of the Seder plate. She suggests that the Seder plate emphasizes the transformation of nature (e.g. wheat) into culture (e.g. matzoh), just as relevation turned Jews from ordinary homo sapiens into a holy people. But there was far too little discussion of the Seder and too much discussion of Judaism generally. Also, the author's discussion of Seder customs (and indeed of Judaism generally) focuses on the most traditional Jews, and thus fails to adequately describe the Seder as performed by the overwhelming majority of American Jews.