In the late twelfth century, northern European Jewish mystics engaged in a sustained, unprecedented effort to explore the theological meaning of werewolves. This article seeks to anchor this surprising preoccupation in contemporary European religious culture, arguing that medieval Jews and Christians found werewolves "good to think with" in exploring the spiritual status of the (mutable, unstable) human body. Discourses of monstrosity were used as polemical ammunition in Jewish-Christian debates, but monstrous creatures were simultaneously held to be theologically resonant by both communities-a fact that sheds light upon the broader intellectual and cultural setting in which they were joint participants.
This article traces the origins and rapid spread of the Mourner's Kaddish, a liturgical custom first attested in late twelfth- early thirteenth-century Ashkenazic halakhic texts. While scholars have traditionally linked it to the martyrological needs of post-1096 Ashkenazic communities, this article suggests that the rise of the Mourner's Kaddish was one manifestation of a broader shift in medieval Jewish conceptions of the afterlife. An analysis of the exemplum that provided the new custom with a “myth of origins” reveals carefully inserted allusions and symbolism, which together propound a coherent theology of eschatology, divine recompense, and intercessory prayer. This theology closely mirrors doctrinal developments underway in Christian Europe—specifically the “birth of purgatory” and its accompanying commemorative and intercessory practices. The exemplum, moreover, couches its message in subtly polemical terms, criticizing and ridiculing those very elements of Christian belief and practice that were being covertly incorporated into the Jewish liturgical realm.
crypto-Jewish women, who traditionally relayed beliefs, were almost nonexistent. The minimalist rites of isolated men in Peru thus contrast with the religious life of crypto-Jewish groups in Mexico, where the engagement of some women (whom the inquisitors called "dogmatists") ensured the smooth running of Yom Kippur, Passover, fasts, the festival calendar and the initiations of children.The men arrested in Peru lacked a crypto-Jewish family basis. Among them, ambiguity reigned and the spirit seemed reluctant. This is the case of one of the men condemned to be burned, Manuel Bautista Pérez, a successful merchant and the leader of the group of New Christian traders in Lima. Despite being tortured, Pérez never confessed any heretical practices, always asserting his good Catholic behavior. The charges against him are not conclusive. Concerning his heart of hearts, the mystery remains. Some historians even ask whether he was a Jewish or Christian martyr. Maybe both, if we admit a duality of beliefs (see Nathan Wachtel, La foi du souvenir [Paris: Seuil, 2001]).
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