Aesthetics/Ascetics
Visual Piety and Pleasure in a Strictly Kosher Cookbook
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v2i1.5Keywords:
religion, nature, cultureAbstract
This article focuses on the relationship of aesthetics and ascetics with regard to the publication and popular reception of Kosher By Design, a cookbook published by a major American Jewish Orthodox press, ArtScroll Publications. The article analyses the ideological, rhetorical, discursive, and iconographic modes of address embedded within this text, treating them as instances of popular religion, and also as elements of a project in and through which the Orthodox Jewish intellectuals associated with ArtScroll seek to assert new forms of religious authority, in the context of a broader culture of “kosher consumerism,” to which this text is directed. The article ends by highlighting the paradoxical character of this form of “post-scripture,” in which books like Kosher By Design, and by extension other ArtScroll texts—including their popular prayer-books—are caught between competing demands of popularity and authority, art and asceticism, and religious stringency and bourgeois living.
References
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Bland, Kalman. 2001. The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Blau, Esther. 1997. The Spice and Spirit of Kosher Jewish Cooking. New York: Bloch Publishing.
Brown, Peter. 1988. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press.
Brozman, Suzi. 2004. “Note Your Bubbe’s Cooking.” The Jewish Times Internet Edition. 22 February. http://jewish.com/modules.phs?name=News&File=article&sid=1693. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Certeau, Michel de. 1984. In The Practice of Everyday Life. Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press.
Coakley, Sarah, ed. 1997. Religion and the Body. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, Simcha. 1991. Shabbos Kitchen: Hilkhot Shabat Ba-Mitbah: A Comprehensive Guide to the Preparation of Fod and Other Kitchen Activities on Shabbos or Yom Tov. Brooklyn, NY: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
“Customer Reviews of Kosher By Design.” Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1578197074/. Accessed 27 March 2006.
“Customer Reviews of The Complete ArtScroll Siddur.” Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/089906650X/. Accessed 27 March 2006.
“Days of Destiny: The Jewish Year Under a Chassidic Microscope.” http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/days-of-destiny/12.htm. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Durbach, Elaine. 2004. “Dining By Design.” The New Jersey Jewish News. Internet edition. www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/103003/ltdiningbydesign.html. Accessed 27 March 2006.
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Fine, Lawrence. 1992. “Purifying the Body in the Name of the Soul: The Problem of the Body in Sixteenth-Century Kabbalah.” In People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective, ed. Howard Eilberg Schwartz, 117–42. Albany: SUNY Press.
Fishbein, Susie. 2003. Kosher By Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays and Every Day. Brooklyn: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
———. 2004. Kosher By Design Entertains: Fabulous Recipes for Parties and Every Day. Brooklyn: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
Friedman, Menachem. 1987. “Life Tradition and Book Tradition in the Development of Ultraorthodox Judaism.” In Judaism Viewed from Within and from Without: Anthropological Studies, ed. Harvey Goldberg, 235–55. Albany: SUNY Press.
———. 1993. “The Market Model of Religious Radicalism.” In Jewish Fundamentalism in Comparative Perspective: Religion, Ideology and the Crisis of Modernity, ed. Lawrence J. Silberstein, 192–215. New York: SUNY Press.
Furstenberg, Rochelle. 1995. “Spirited Trade.” The Jerusalem Report (2 November): 46–47.
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Gerth, H. H., and C. Wright Mills, eds. 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York and London: Oxford University Press.
Griffith, R. Marie. 2004. Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. 2001. “Ascetics, Aesthetics, and the Management of Desire.” In Religion and Cultural Studies, ed. Susan Mizruchi, 95–109. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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Joselit, Jenna Weissman. 1994. The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950. New York: Hill & Wang.
Kinderlehrer, Jane. 1995. Cooking Kosher the New Way: Fast, Lite, and Natural. New York: Jonathan David Publishers, 1995.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1990. “Kitchen Judaism.” In Getting Comfortable in New York: The American Jewish Home, 1880–1950, ed. Susan L. Braunstein and Jenna Weissman Joselit, 75–105. New York: The Jewish Museum Press.
———. 1999. “Playing to the Senses.” Performance Research 4:1–30.
Latour, Bruno. 1991. “Technology is Society Made Durable.” In A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, ed. John Law, 103–31. London and New York: Routledge.
Levy, Faye. 2000. One Thousand Jewish Recipes. Foster City, CA: IDG Books.
Lipschutz, Yacov. 1988. Kashruth: A Comprehensive Background and Reference Guide to the Principles of Kashruth. Brookyn, NY: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
Marks, Laura. 2002. Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Marty, Martin, and F. Scott Appleby, eds. 1991–95. The Fundamentalism Project, Volumes 1–5. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mason, Ann, and Marion Meyers. 2001. “Living with Martha Stewart Media: Chosen Domesticity in the Experience of Fans.” Journal of Communication 51:801–23.
Mellor, Philip A., and Chris Shilling. 1997. Re-forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity. London: Sage Publications.
Michel, Joan. 2002. The Hadassah Jewish Holiday Cookbook: Traditional Recipes from the Contemporary Kosher Kitchen. New York: Hugh L. Levin Associates.
Miller, Mildred. 1983. The Kosher Gourmet Cookbook. New York: Galahad Books.
Morgan, David. 1998. Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Nash, Helen. 1995. Kosher Cuisine: Gourmet Recipes for the Modern Home. New York: Jason Aronson.
Roseman, Pearl. 1991. California Kosher: Contemporary Traditional Jewish Cuisine. Memphis, TN: Wimmer Cookbooks.
Sanders, Gavriel. 2005. “Kosher Diva Outdoes Herself with Latest Offering.” Jewish World Review. 14 March. Internet edition. http://www. jewishworldreview.com/kosher/fishbein.php3. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Sharot, Stephen. 2001. A Comparative Sociology of World Religions: Virtuosos, Priests and Popular Religions. New York: NYU Press.
Siegel, Jennifer. 2003. “Why Has a New Kosher Cookbook Sold Over 24,000 Copies in a Week?” Jewish World Review, 7 April. Internet edition. www.jewishworldreview.com/kosher/living1.php3. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Soloveitchik, Haym. 1994. “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.” Tradition 28.4:64–130.
Stern, Lise. 2004. How to Keep Kosher: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Jewish Dietary Laws. New York: William Morrow & Co.
Stolow, Jeremy. 2002. “Here (We) Are the Haredim: Intertextuality and the Voice of Authority in the Representation of a Religious Fundamentalist Movement.” In The Invention of Religion: Rethinking Belief and Politics in History, ed. Derek Peterson and Darren Walhof, 59–76. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
———. 2004. “Transnationalism and the New Religio-Politics: Reflections on a Jewish Orthodox Case.” Theory, Culture and Society 21:109–37.
———. 2005. “Communicating Authority, Consuming Tradition: Jewish Orthodox Outreach Literature and its Reading Public.” In Religion, Media and the Public Sphere, ed. Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors, 73–91. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Weinstein, Sara Epstein. 1997. Purity and Fanaticism: Rabbinic Criticism of Religious Stringency. Northval, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Zeidler, Judy. 1999. The Gourmet Jewish Cook. New York: Harper Collins.
Bland, Kalman. 2001. The Artless Jew: Medieval and Modern Affirmations and Denials of the Visual. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Blau, Esther. 1997. The Spice and Spirit of Kosher Jewish Cooking. New York: Bloch Publishing.
Brown, Peter. 1988. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press.
Brozman, Suzi. 2004. “Note Your Bubbe’s Cooking.” The Jewish Times Internet Edition. 22 February. http://jewish.com/modules.phs?name=News&File=article&sid=1693. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Certeau, Michel de. 1984. In The Practice of Everyday Life. Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press.
Coakley, Sarah, ed. 1997. Religion and the Body. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, Simcha. 1991. Shabbos Kitchen: Hilkhot Shabat Ba-Mitbah: A Comprehensive Guide to the Preparation of Fod and Other Kitchen Activities on Shabbos or Yom Tov. Brooklyn, NY: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
“Customer Reviews of Kosher By Design.” Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1578197074/. Accessed 27 March 2006.
“Customer Reviews of The Complete ArtScroll Siddur.” Amazon.com website. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/089906650X/. Accessed 27 March 2006.
“Days of Destiny: The Jewish Year Under a Chassidic Microscope.” http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/days-of-destiny/12.htm. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Durbach, Elaine. 2004. “Dining By Design.” The New Jersey Jewish News. Internet edition. www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/103003/ltdiningbydesign.html. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Ephros, Peter. 2001. “In 25 Years of Publishing, ArtScroll captures Zeitgeist.” Jewish News of Greater Phoenix 53.40 (13 July). Internet edition. http://jewishaz.com/jewishnews/010713/artscroll.shtml. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Fine, Lawrence. 1992. “Purifying the Body in the Name of the Soul: The Problem of the Body in Sixteenth-Century Kabbalah.” In People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an Embodied Perspective, ed. Howard Eilberg Schwartz, 117–42. Albany: SUNY Press.
Fishbein, Susie. 2003. Kosher By Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays and Every Day. Brooklyn: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
———. 2004. Kosher By Design Entertains: Fabulous Recipes for Parties and Every Day. Brooklyn: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
Friedman, Menachem. 1987. “Life Tradition and Book Tradition in the Development of Ultraorthodox Judaism.” In Judaism Viewed from Within and from Without: Anthropological Studies, ed. Harvey Goldberg, 235–55. Albany: SUNY Press.
———. 1993. “The Market Model of Religious Radicalism.” In Jewish Fundamentalism in Comparative Perspective: Religion, Ideology and the Crisis of Modernity, ed. Lawrence J. Silberstein, 192–215. New York: SUNY Press.
Furstenberg, Rochelle. 1995. “Spirited Trade.” The Jerusalem Report (2 November): 46–47.
Garfunkel, Trudy. 2004. Kosher for Everybody: The Complete Guide to Understanding, Shopping, Cooking, and Eating the Kosher Way. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Gerth, H. H., and C. Wright Mills, eds. 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York and London: Oxford University Press.
Griffith, R. Marie. 2004. Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. 2001. “Ascetics, Aesthetics, and the Management of Desire.” In Religion and Cultural Studies, ed. Susan Mizruchi, 95–109. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Heinze, Andrew R. 1990. Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass Consumption, and the Search for American Identity. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hochberg, Rabbi Gedalia. n.d. “Shmot 5759.” Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalaym, http://www.yoy.org.il/article.php?id=125. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Joselit, Jenna Weissman. 1994. The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950. New York: Hill & Wang.
Kinderlehrer, Jane. 1995. Cooking Kosher the New Way: Fast, Lite, and Natural. New York: Jonathan David Publishers, 1995.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1990. “Kitchen Judaism.” In Getting Comfortable in New York: The American Jewish Home, 1880–1950, ed. Susan L. Braunstein and Jenna Weissman Joselit, 75–105. New York: The Jewish Museum Press.
———. 1999. “Playing to the Senses.” Performance Research 4:1–30.
Latour, Bruno. 1991. “Technology is Society Made Durable.” In A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, ed. John Law, 103–31. London and New York: Routledge.
Levy, Faye. 2000. One Thousand Jewish Recipes. Foster City, CA: IDG Books.
Lipschutz, Yacov. 1988. Kashruth: A Comprehensive Background and Reference Guide to the Principles of Kashruth. Brookyn, NY: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications.
Marks, Laura. 2002. Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Marty, Martin, and F. Scott Appleby, eds. 1991–95. The Fundamentalism Project, Volumes 1–5. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mason, Ann, and Marion Meyers. 2001. “Living with Martha Stewart Media: Chosen Domesticity in the Experience of Fans.” Journal of Communication 51:801–23.
Mellor, Philip A., and Chris Shilling. 1997. Re-forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity. London: Sage Publications.
Michel, Joan. 2002. The Hadassah Jewish Holiday Cookbook: Traditional Recipes from the Contemporary Kosher Kitchen. New York: Hugh L. Levin Associates.
Miller, Mildred. 1983. The Kosher Gourmet Cookbook. New York: Galahad Books.
Morgan, David. 1998. Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Nash, Helen. 1995. Kosher Cuisine: Gourmet Recipes for the Modern Home. New York: Jason Aronson.
Roseman, Pearl. 1991. California Kosher: Contemporary Traditional Jewish Cuisine. Memphis, TN: Wimmer Cookbooks.
Sanders, Gavriel. 2005. “Kosher Diva Outdoes Herself with Latest Offering.” Jewish World Review. 14 March. Internet edition. http://www. jewishworldreview.com/kosher/fishbein.php3. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Sharot, Stephen. 2001. A Comparative Sociology of World Religions: Virtuosos, Priests and Popular Religions. New York: NYU Press.
Siegel, Jennifer. 2003. “Why Has a New Kosher Cookbook Sold Over 24,000 Copies in a Week?” Jewish World Review, 7 April. Internet edition. www.jewishworldreview.com/kosher/living1.php3. Accessed 27 March 2006.
Soloveitchik, Haym. 1994. “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.” Tradition 28.4:64–130.
Stern, Lise. 2004. How to Keep Kosher: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Jewish Dietary Laws. New York: William Morrow & Co.
Stolow, Jeremy. 2002. “Here (We) Are the Haredim: Intertextuality and the Voice of Authority in the Representation of a Religious Fundamentalist Movement.” In The Invention of Religion: Rethinking Belief and Politics in History, ed. Derek Peterson and Darren Walhof, 59–76. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
———. 2004. “Transnationalism and the New Religio-Politics: Reflections on a Jewish Orthodox Case.” Theory, Culture and Society 21:109–37.
———. 2005. “Communicating Authority, Consuming Tradition: Jewish Orthodox Outreach Literature and its Reading Public.” In Religion, Media and the Public Sphere, ed. Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors, 73–91. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Weinstein, Sara Epstein. 1997. Purity and Fanaticism: Rabbinic Criticism of Religious Stringency. Northval, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Zeidler, Judy. 1999. The Gourmet Jewish Cook. New York: Harper Collins.
Published
2007-05-20
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Stolow, J. (2007). Aesthetics/Ascetics: Visual Piety and Pleasure in a Strictly Kosher Cookbook. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 2(1), 5-28. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v2i1.5
