Ruth Langer offers an in-depth study of the birkat haminim, a Jewish prayer for the removal of those categories of human being who prevent the messianic redemption and the society envisioned for it. In its earliest form, the prayer cursed Christians, apostates to Christianity, sectarians, and enemies of Israel. Drawing on the shifting liturgical texts, polemics, and apologetics concerning the prayer, Langer traces the transformation of the birkat haminim from what functioned without question in the medieval world as a Jewish curse of Christians, through its early modern censorship by Christians, to its modern transformation within the Jewish world into a general petition that God remove evil from the world. Christian censorship played a crucial role in this transformation of the prayer; however, Langer argues that the truest transformation in meaning resulted from Jewish integration into Western culture. Eventually, the prayer shed its references to any specific category of human being and lost its function as a curse. Reconciliation between Jews and Christians today requires both communities to confront a long history of prejudice. Ruth Langer shows through the birkat haminim how the history of one liturgical text chronicled Jewish thinking about Christians over hundreds of years.

About the Author
Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Associate Director, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Boston College

Reviews
a monumental bibliographical study of a component of Jewish liturgy that reveals both internal and external tensions over the span of two millennia. * Marc Saperstein, Journal of Jewish Studies *
This impressive study brings together almost all we know about the Jewish prayer, which was made famous by being infamous - the Birkat Haminim or 'Blessing' (though it is a curse) 'on the Minim'. ... This work deserves to become a standard starting point for any future studies of this difficult prayer. * David Instone-Brewer, The Expository Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199783175
Author Ruth Langer
Format Hardback
Page Count 396
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 734g
Dimensions(mm) 163mm * 239mm * 38mm