Is Judaism Boring? The role of symbols in “imagistic” Jewish movements in the nineteenth century

1. Is Judaism Boring?The role of symbols in “imagistic”Jewish movements in the nineteenth century Tamás Biró ACLC, University of Amsterdam Groningen Centre for Religion & Cognition

2. Overview • The McCauley-Lawson model, tedium and Judaism • Jewish movements in the 18th and 19th century • Why were these movements successful?A frustrated mental activation model. • The role of “symbols” in this model

3. Tedium – McCauley & Lawson • McCauley-Lawson model: • Action representation scheme: agent, patient, instrument (etc.?) • Ritual if and only if at least one slot is filled by counterintuitive agent (CIA) • “Special agent rituals” vs. others • Balanced ritual systems need both • Tedium if no special agent rituals

4. Judaism is boring… • Mitzvoth (commandments): religious acts and non-acts • (Almost?) no rituals according to the definition of McCauley & Lawson • Hence, no special agent rituals, either • So, McCauley & Lawson predict: tedium • “Solutions”: mystical movements (Kabbalah), popular magic, messianic movements (e.g., Shabbatai Tsvi),…

5. 18-19th century: 2x2 “movements” (NB: the analysis below is meant to complement, and not to replace traditional historical, economic, sociological, etc. explanations.) • Reaction to traditional rabbinical elitism + counter-reaction:Chassidism vs. Yeshiva movement • Reaction to modernity + counter-reaction:Reform Judaism vs. Orthodoxy • Additionally: each is also reaction to tedium!Four strategies are used (at least).

6. Strategy 1: Introducing special agents • Chassidism: rebbe = charismatic leaderHigh-arousal special agent rituals, such as tish • Non-orthodox Judaism: the rabbi as a “priest” with special blessing capacities • 20th century ultra-orthodoxy: even non-chassidic leaders often turn into “rebbes”

7. Strategy 2:Intellectual emphasis on existing religious acts • Existing mitzvoth (religious acts and non-acts) performed more consciously • Equivalent to “arousal”? • Yeshiva movement (et al.): emphasis on study (to increase consciousness) • Musar movement: emphasis on ethics as part of the system of religious acts and non-acts (i.e., halakha; e.g. lashon ha-ra ‘evil tongue, gossips’) Cf.: L. Naccache: Quatre Exercices de pensée juive pour cerveaux réfléchis : Le Judaïsme à la lumière des neurosciences, 2003.

8. Strategy 3: Religious dimension to high-arousal phenomena Arts: • Chassidism: music: chassidic niggunim (tunes) • Western-Europe and non-orthodox movements: • Music: cantorial art à la Romanticism • Synagogual architecture • Artistic sermons, rabbis’ cloths, etc. • Orthodoxy in Eastern Europe: strong opposition!

9. Strategy 4:New acts and new non-acts • Each Chassidic group + followers of the Vilna gaon, etc.: introducing their ownminhagim (customs). • Reform: introducing their own practices • Strict orthodoxy (esp. Hungary): strict prohibitions to avoid any similarity with reform and with Christianity (no choir, no rabbinic dress, no towers on the synagogues,…)

10. WHY THESE STRATEGIES SOLVE TEDIUM??? Introducing special agents Intellectual emphasis on existing religious acts and non-acts. Religious dimension to high-arousal acts. New acts and new non-acts

11. Symbols in a network of concepts What fires together, what fires in the opposite condition? (Cf. psycho-logical and linguistic experiments.) NB: this is not a neural network! dove dove + white white + white flag white flag + - black black harmless harmless + - + peace peace death death war war - +

12. Network of religious acts and concepts + kosher eating music + + + liturgy shabbat + CIA + - architecture + + lighting fire synagogue

13. NB: Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888, founder of German neo-orthodoxy): commandments are symbols, for instance: • Shabbat, phylacteries, circumcision = covenant • Pesach and much more: remembrance • Aim of all mitzvoth: to increase the ethical level of those observing them Our interpretation: performing mitzvoth also activate other nodes, such as CIA, history, ethics.

14. Network of concepts vs. solutions to tedium Hypothesis: Tedium = node CIA not activated. • Introducing special agents: the agent of the special agent ritual directly activates node CIA. • Emphasis on religious acts / non-acts: a.) stronger activation of nodes w positive connection to CIA; b.) strengthening connections between nodes. • Religious dimension to high-arousal acts: indirect, though strong activation of node CIA. • New acts / non-acts: more paths to activate CIA.

15. Mental network reflecting social network - - Person 3 Person 3 Person 1 Person 1 Person 2 Person 2 Person 4 Person 4 + - + + ? + Reform Judaism Reform Judaism + Orthodoxy Orthodoxy ? Christianity Christianity - Judaism Judaism ? + + ? MYSELF MYSELF

16. Frustrated networks:Network inhibits adding religious dimension to arts + ? synagogue + Tower onprayer place CIA ? + + + + Reform Judaism + Orthodoxy - Christianity - + Judaism + + MYSELF

17. Frustrated networks Optimisation under contradicting constraints: • Spin-glasses (statistical physics) • Simulated Annealing (e.g., artificial intelligence) • Linguistics: Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, aka 2004), etc. (especially: Smolensky and Legendre 2006; Bíró 2006)

18. Summary • Application of McCauley & Lawson’s model to Judaism (more: cf. SBL) • New ways to overcome tedium • A mental network-theory to explain these ways: • Connected to social networks • Frustrations: related to other cognitive models

19. Thank you for your attention! Tamás Biró http://www.birot.hu Download this presentation from the Archive for Religion & Cognition: http://www.csr-arc.com