“He Who Enters the Bath-House Utters Two Blessings”: On the Evolvement and Decline of an Ancient Jewish Prayer

One of the improvements introduced by the Romans was the public bath-house. This article discusses the formation of Jewish prayers, which were composed during the early rabbinic period, following the dangers of the public baths. Sages from late antiquity published two prayers: Before entering to the...

ver descrição completa

Na minha lista:  
Detalhes bibliográficos
Publicado no:Religions
Autor principal: Shemesh, Avraham Ofir 1966- (Author)
Tipo de documento: Recurso Electrónico Artigo
Idioma:Inglês
Verificar disponibilidade: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Carregar...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publicado em: MDPI [2017]
Em: Religions
Ano: 2017, Volume: 8, Número: 10, Páginas: 1-15
Outras palavras-chave:B caldarium
B dangers of bath-house
B Jewish halakha
B ancient prayer
B bath-house
B Kala Rabati
B Tractate Derech Eretz
B Yehuda Hanassi
B hypocaust
B Talmudic literature
Acesso em linha: Presumably Free Access
Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Descrição
Resumo:One of the improvements introduced by the Romans was the public bath-house. This article discusses the formation of Jewish prayers, which were composed during the early rabbinic period, following the dangers of the public baths. Sages from late antiquity published two prayers: Before entering to the bathhouse, the bather has to pray for his safety, and after leaving the bath-house he has to thank Gd for not having suffered harm. The dangers of the bathhouse were deemed to include: Weakness, fainting or dehydration due to the heat of the bathhouse; Legs injury of the bathers due to the heat of the warm floor; Dental damage; Sliding on the wet floor; Fear of death due to collapse of the hypocaust. Due to changes in the bath-house in the modern era; these prayers lost their relevance up to a point; or at any rate; they were no longer prescribed or recorded in practice. Bathhouse heaters were no longer located in the hypocaust; and were rather only located close to the wall of the upper room. Hence; falling into the hot lower space was irrelevant. Following the introduction of domestic baths; these prayers have completely vanished.
ISSN:2077-1444
Obras secundárias:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel8100225