God of Small Things. Jewish Women’s Piety in Early Modern Poland.

The Early Modern Period saw a noticeable increase in the publication of Jewish religious literature aimed at women. This was a parallel to a similar wave of publication in the contemporary Christian world. Just like the similar Christian literature, it was published in the vernacular language, in this case Yiddish, and just like contemporary Christian literature for women (Hausmütterbucher, Frauenzimmerliteratur) these books focused on religious practices in everyday life, often in the home: the rituals connected to cooking and housekeeping, the keeping of sexual purity, the raising of children. Because of its focus, but also because it was not written in Hebrew, it has generally not had a place in the study of Judaism, in spite of the fact that it gives important perspectives on Jewish life and practices in Early Modern Europe, but also testify for example to Jewish-Christian relations in these settings.

Lena Roos was recently appointed professor of the Study of Religions at Södertörn University. She has previously held positions at the universities of Uppsala, Lund and Gävle. She has published extensively in Jewish studies, from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as on many other topics in the Study of Religions such as religion and sexuality, religion and food and most recently religion and gardening.