Ritual Objects in Ritual Contexts

In this volume of the Erfurter Schriften zur
jüdischen Geschichte, the ensemble of medieval
material evidence in Erfurt, with its unique
representation of Jewish culture in Central Europe,
is placed in the local and contemporary historical
context of ritual objects and ritual events
- for the first time accompanied by insights into
the hitherto rather undiscovered Rudolstadt
Judaica collection.
This is an exciting and sensually fascinating
process that opens up something new. It gains
in multidimensionality through an explicitly interdisciplinary
perspective. It is the attempt to see
anew, beginning with the ritual object rather than
the ritual itself. Taking up the concept of a »new
materialism« in the social and historical sciences,
the particular ritual object is perceived, not
beginning with the idea of it, but as reality. The
ritual objects discussed here address the sensually
concrete existence of things in the context of their
pragmatic use: the Erfurt wedding ring, Hebrew
gravestones, Torah scrolls, a tuning key, belts,
candleholders, a prayer tablet, a mizrach. They
all have a high symbolic value and at the same
time a unique aesthetic appeal.
Nevertheless, the coexistence of objects is linked
to their embedding in writing, tradition, and
contextualization. By emphasizing in particular the
Jewish ritual object in its use, the present volume
celebrates the cultural richness and identity of the
Jewish communities past and present.