#i disagree with judah ha-levi but it isn't his fault that autism was only diagnosed first in 1943 (joking) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shalom-iamcominghome · 5 months ago

Text

SWAYING. Worshippers can often be seen swaying during the standing part of the service, or while reading aloud from the Torah. Judah ha-Levi, a great medieval poet and philosopher, explained this by saying that because of a shortage of books, scholars had to keep moving around to look over their colleagues' shoulders. Vigorous swaying during prayer may be seen especially in a Hasidic synagogue and is called in Yiddish, shuckling.

-Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, Dr. Ben Isaacson, 1979, p. 156

#jumblr #quotes #this is so. amusing. to me. i love that this was included <3 #i disagree with judah ha-levi but it isn't his fault that autism was only diagnosed first in 1943 (joking)#i usually can't sway because my standing posture is so fucked and it's probably Not Good for my feet in the long-term #i'm of course sharing this because it was funny to me to stumble upon this. my shul is FULL of swayers #offtopic but does anyone who isn't from ~1965-1985 just really like books from that period?#i don't know there's something really nice about this book that's older than my dad (not by much but that's funny)

100 notes · View notes